It is a very common teaching that all men enter the world with the image of God imprinted on their souls. Adam received life through the breath of God. But then they began dying through the catastrophic decision of our first mother and an even worse mistake of our first father.

But this first fall of man has made missions very difficult. Here are 25 statements from Scripture regarding the sinfulness of man. And then the main point of this article: Reasons Missions is Hard.

The work of missions is unusually difficult because of the truth of one commonly accepted doctrine.

25 Observations on Total Depravity

1. Gen. 6:5 “…the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
2. Gen. 19:11 Men exhaust themselves looking for chances to sin.
3. Ex. 15:24—After 10 plagues, after the Red Sea opening, they complain!
4. Josh. 24:23—As soon as they enter the land, they must be told, “Put away the false gods…”
5. Judges 2:19—They corrupted themselves more than their fathers.
6. The books of 1 Samuel through 2 Kings—Of 42 separate kings, only 11 have any righteousness. But even these “good kings” failed spectacularly. The best one calls himself a dead dog (1 Sam. 24:14) and a worm (Psa. 22:6), and he is right because he breaks the most serious commands.
7. Pro. 28:26—“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.”
8. Ecc. 9:3—The heart of the sons of men is full of evil and insanity.
9. Isa. 1:4-6—God calls men sinful, children of evildoers whose whole head is sick, whose whole heart is faint, from their feet to the head there is nothing healthy, but spiritually men are full of sores and bruises.
10. Isa. 64:6—“…all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.”
11. Jer. 17:9-10—Our hearts are deceitful and sick so that we cannot even know how bad they are.
12. Matt. 5:3—We are spiritual beggars.
13. Matt. 5:4—We should be weeping because of our spiritual problem.
14. Matt. 15:22-28—Men are dogs who do not deserve grace.
15. John 1:11—Men do not receive Him.
16. John 3:19—Men love darkness.
17. John 7:7—Men hate Jesus.
18. John 8:44—Men are children of Satan.
19. Rom. 3:11—Men do not want God.
20. 1 Cor. 2:14—Men are not even able to understand spiritual matters.
21. Eph. 2:1—Men are dead in sin.
22. Tit. 1:15—Men have filthy minds and consciences.
23. James 4:4—Men are enemies of God.
24. 1 John 3:4—Men are cosmic criminals.
25. 1 John 5:19—“The whole world lies in the powerr of the evil one.”

What would it be like trying to evangelize or plant a church if these kinds of corrupt influences still remained in your heart? It would be a very hard job. Missionaries are still sinners.

4 Reasons missions is hard from the sins of the ones who are sent out as missionaries

1. Refusing to go. It is a sin to refuse to go. Our Lord commanded us to go. Our Lord commanded us to forsake all. Our Lord commanded us to love our neighbors. But many Christians do not go because of the power of sin that still remains even after conversion. Disobeying the Great Commission is a very common sin, but who ever confesses this? Our love of comfort and our fear of loss tempt us to this sin. Our doubting of God’s promises and our lack of love slip us into this sin without even realizing that we have made a choice. How can you avoid this sin?
   1. By asking God to show you if you have done it.
   2. By opening up your soul to any possibility of service with no thought for yourself, your comfort, or your safety.
   3. By pondering the condition of those who are, even now, without any light.
   4. By adding missions as a major part of your budget and prayer time and correspondence and then seeing if you are satisfied.
      
      
2. Laziness and lack of discipline. Without a boss directly watching us, we find it hard to show initiative. This sin shows in a missionary’s life in his time management, sleeping in late, putting few items on the schedule, taking a long time for something that should take a small amount of time, and choosing to give his time to things that are off topic.
   
   
3. Sinfully weak and easily exhausted. Since it is a command to be strong, it is sinful not to be strong in that way (Eph. 6:10; 2 Tim. 2:1). Because we do not trust God’s promises to save, we pray very little. We try to evangelize, but it is hard and shows such small results. We see the real problems and sins of the people, and fail to hope in the power of the gospel and the promise that Christ will build His church. We stop looking for His Coming, and so we grow tepid in religious duties. Many missionaries return to their home country give up before finishing 5 years. They might have very good reasons, but might they not also be tempted to give up? As a missionary, I can tell you, we are often tempted to quit.

4. Rude words
   Have you ever noticed how many times the epistles talk about being kind, gentle, patient, and overlooking?
   1. To nationals, missionaries can be arrogant, unbending, thoughtless, hasty, and harsh.
   2. To their coworkers, missionaries can be inconsiderate, manipulative, and selfish. The kind of person who becomes a missionary commonly has seen and killed some sins, but not stubbornness or pride. How can we hope to be successful as missionaries among people without the light when we speak without grace?

Missionaries need to study the doctrine and practice of humility if they would ever hope for success in their labor. But they are not the only problem. The people themselves are not noble savages. The sinfulness of man applies both to the heathen as well as to the missionaries.

5 Reasons missions is hard from the sins of the nations to whom missionaries go

Every description in Scripture applies to the people whom we are trying to reach. They are far worse than they realize, and usually the people themselves are far worse than the missionaries realize. In Scripture, people without the Bible were so vile that God commanded their absolute annihilation.

1. The conditions necessary for knowledge are not found in false religion.
   Certainty—What could be certain when so many spirits can change from day to day, and it is the decisions of the spirits that influence all the important things? To have certainty, your mind must see an Absolute, Unchanging Mind Sitting Supreme over all others—a sovereign God—the Lord of Hosts revealed in the Bible. Demons invented all false religions so that the blind followers think everything reflects their changing, wild, and unpredictable movements. This means: African Traditional Religion, as just one example of false religion, has no place or possibility for what we take for granted: Knowledge. This one philosophical factor creates a coldness and an apathy toward learning. Their religion has kept great matters from them. For example, there is no ATR view of the purpose of life. So those who grew up breathing this air, generally speaking, do not grapple with ultimate questions. Who is God? What is guilt? What happens after death? What is truth?
   
2. The language itself has significant spiritual limitations.

The Tsonga language has fewer than 10,000 words (perhaps as few as 3,000) spoken by the average person. Many abstract terms (such as abstract and term) are not clearly available (including also neither clear nor available).

Tsonga has 4 adjectives: New (-ntshwa), good (-kahle), intense (-nene), small (-nyana); and one adverb: very (ngopfu). Perhaps I have missed one, but regardless, the number is very small.

Negation usually requires 2 changes in the sentence rather than 1 change in other languages. There are no negative prefixes such as the “a-” in “atheist” or the “un-” in “unbeliever.” Making such negative terms then becomes a lengthier process.

Passive voice verbs are commonly used when active voice verbs would show moral agency. For example, when I asked, “Are you and the other 3 men going to do that job at the church?” The answer was “A ku tirhiwi.” Literally, “There is not being work.”

These aspects of language makes evangelism and disciple-making very difficult. But should we not expect sin and Satan to touch every part of life? Why would we even think that Satan would be disinterested in touching something so powerful as language? He has touched it. And their sin has touched it, and it makes preaching hard.

3. Family structures that are deeply unbiblical
   Many cultures stretch the definition of family past the nuclear family. Gen. 2:24 puts unique responsibility for a man to make some kind of break with all others outside his wife. They together have a unique bond with their children. Other views of family allow the man to avoid his responsibility, and when sinners have another way out, they will take it. Polygamy is also a terrible result of an unbiblical view of family and so too are the murder of twins at birth, and a light view of sexual relations outside marriage.

Views of family etch themselves very deeply in the lives of those to whom we try to bring the gospel. And it can be very hard to evangelize because of in-law problems, multiple wives, and relationships and children outside marriage.

4. Sinful ideas of wealth and poverty
   Satan teaches men that wealth is limited to what they can see. It cannot be created. Many cultures of the world are trapped by this idea and then specially tempted with jealousy, greed, anger, apathy, violence, and instant gratification. When the gospel comes, it changes not only what you say you believe, but it must change the way you find your food.
   
5. Arbitrary morality
   Like all forms of animism, ATR has no unchanging laws. There are no absolutes saving that a general and all conquering fear must be given to the realm of unknowable spirits. It has no text or revelation. The little ones who grow up in it are not the virtue of restraining their urges, speaking the truth, considering others, or planning for the future. ATR has no retribution where guilt must be covered. This is why places that need missionaries have higher rates of poverty, infant mortality, and crime. But that is exactly what we would expect: Where there is no Vision from God, the people perish in their folly and demonic captivity. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, so Christians should know that cultures without Him have lost their way, they do not value truth, and we could describe them as dead.

Conclusion

If we do not realize the very real difficulties in ourselves and the people, we will fail at this most vital task of missions. Probably what I have written will offend some who read. But my concern is to spread a love for the Son of God to the poorest people who are trapped in darkness. My concern is that the Lake of Fire is real, and sinners are rushing there. They can only be saved when the truth is spoken about their sin, and all Christians take up a Biblical approach to sin in their own lives as well as the lives of the poor.

There is no task in the long history of man more difficult than missions because no task so immediately confronts so much sin.