The Missionary’s Bill of Rights By Paris Reidhead*
This weekend as we are together the privilege of representing the multitudes who have never heard the Name of the Lord
Jesus is in one sense mine, but in another sense each of those will be addressing you will be carrying and sharing the same
burden. But as the days go on you are going to be made aware again of the fact that every concern we have, both for this
particular time we are spending together, and for the extended responsibility of our life’s service for the Lord Jesus. That in all
of this the subject for our ministry and our effort is “people”...men and women, and boys and girls.
Now, as you see pictures of Africa; as you hear; as the Word unfolds; and then as you draw upon memories of that which you
have previously seen, you are going to discover that men on the mission field wherever that field may be, for what is true of
Africa is spiritually true of India, South America, and it is equally spiritually true of the unsaved right here in Columbia. But
wherever you find people you discover those without Christ are living under the awful bondage of Satan. You discover that on
the mission field that bondage is open. They bow down to shrines of stones; idols of wood; to altar of sacrifice, and petition
demons and evil spirits by name. And pour out their libations to the prince of spirits to Satan himself. You discover that their
lives are filled with unspeakable cruelty. That from the time they are born until they die a Christless death for the most of them
there is no ending to the suffering of their daily lives of superstition that eats like a cancer at their hearts and minds. As you
probably know or made to realize, that two out of three people living in our little world, shrinking every day, have never heard
the name of Jesus. You will be made to question again, as you have probably questioned in days gone by, why did God ever
make man in the first place if He knew this would be the condition.
Certainly as I have gone into Tribes in Africa, I have had the chief of the village or one of the men say, “You are the first one
with skin like yours to ever come in our village.” And realize that there are at least in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan alone some fifty
unreached Tribes, 380 in Africa, and nearly a thousand around the world, and then a thousand million people and more who
have not heard so much as God so loved the world, or even had a Son. You then begin to question why did He ever make man
if this is the condition in which he was to come. I think it is a fair question...I have had it put to me so frequently that I have had
to face it...had to ask the question, and try to find an answer. And surely if we can find an answer to this question, why God
made man, we may find part of the answer why our lives should be devoted in that particular service which God has called us
in behalf of man.
Now the question is to why God made man brings up something of how long he has been here. Man is of relatively short
residence upon the earth. How old the earth is no one knows. The wildest guess may fall infinitely short of the actual age... that
is the age of the material. We do know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We only have evidence
that man has been here something like 7,000 years that is the artifacts of living found with the bones and skeletons of men.
Man is a relatively short resident here, and apparently God was able to maintain a very proper creation with all of its aspects
without man. So, there must be some reason other than the necessity or other original plans for man. I would suggest that first
of all the reason for God making man might be found in God’s own Character, and Nature, in Who and What God is. One
Scripture that comes to our mind as we ask the question and seek the answer in the Word alone what or who is God comes in I
John where we read: “God is love.” (I John 4:8) Now this is the statement which gives us insight into the very nature of God,
but it also gives us understanding that from eternity past God has always been just as He is. The Lord Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. You have then described in this statement God is love then from beginning of time. Our
wonderful Savior has been the Bridegroom without the bride; the Lover without the beloved. Ultimately there came a time
when the lonely aching Heart of God so yearned for that which alone could meet His need, the purpose and design to provide
that creature which up until then there had been nothing that could take his place. The only creature which God has ever
made of whom it could be said it was made in the image and the likeness of God is man.
God can only love that which is like Himself...just as you could only love that which is like you. The Lord Jesus gave us two
proper directions to love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” “Thou shalt love thy neighbor.” (Matt. 22:37, 39) But we
mistakenly misuse that Word in a multitudes of instances when it’s utterly improper. For instance we say, “I love corn beef
hash...I love pork chops...I love my new hat...I love my new car....I love my new house,” and then we turn around and say, “I
love the Lord Jesus.” Ludicrous, isn’t it? Do we have the same affection for these inanimate objects as we have for our
wonderful Savior? I think and suggest it would be well if we would reserve certain words for sacred use alone, and one
particular which ought to be kept, and used only in the connotation which our Savior seems to have said it, is this word “love”.
I saw a picture some time ago of a woman carrying a little poodle under her arm, scratching the poodle’s head and underneath
it said “Oh, how I love my poodlecum.” I looked at it for a minute. It presented a real problem for me. I said what’s happened?
Has she taken this dog to a veterinarian and had him change that little furry skin into human spirit? Is that dog capable of
understanding the affection that that woman is pouring upon it? Or has she somehow by some process of devilushion acquired
the spirit of a dog? I wouldn’t want to suggest the answer...I would suggest however, that if she had loved the dog, which she
seemed to indicate she did, it’s idolatry. And if you love the new hat or the new car, or whatever else it is, it is idolatry. The
only proper use of love is for people, primarily toward God.
Now, that creature that God could love must be like Him...must have the same capacity; must have the same nature; must be
made in His moral image, and so of man it is said He made man in His image. He is like this, and the question then why did He
make man is answered in this statement...He made man to meet the need of His Own Heart as an object which He could love,
upon whom He could bestow His love...an object which would by its very nature demand that love. Then by automatic
reflection that love was received, returned in such a way as satisfy the yearning, longing and aching Heart of God.
Now, then the question would fall from that is, all right if God did have to make man to have a creature that He could love why
did He have to make man capable of sin? After all, all the troubles come into the world have come by sin. Why couldn’t He
have just made a creature that would have loved Him and let it go at that? Why did He have to put into this person, this being
that He made the capacity to reject and refuse that love? I think that is a fair answer, because certainly the condition in which
the world dwells today has been caused by sin. Now, why did God make man so that he could sin? The answer is this: the
whole essence of sin is self-love. If God had made man incapable of loving others, and He God then man would have been a
mere automaton, and that which would have proceeded from him would have been amoral without any value, God, in order to
have the kind of love for which His Heart yearned had to be willing to take the calculated risk that this creature would turn that
love away from Him. Only thus would He ever be able to have that for which His Heart yearned.
Now, let me illustrate it this way. If God had made man an automaton it wouldn’t have satisfied His Heart. I am away from my
family living in Chattanooga generally oh, 27, or 28 days out of the month. I do try to get with them three or four days, at least,
because I feel it isn’t fair. When I can go home, and set the nose of the car toward Chattanooga to anticipate being back with
the family again, you know something of the longing and yearning that comes to be home. For Daddies are made to be home,
and families are made to have Daddies home, but these days a lot of them don’t, so I’m not complaining, but I’m illustrating.
When I get home, I take my I two boys, Sonny 5 and Jimmy 2 1/2, out some place; do something they want to do; down to the
police station; down to the merry-go-round; or something they would like, spoil them with some candy, and ice cream; spoil
their dinner, but after all I have been away, and entitled to a little bit this. Then after we have had our evening meal, and
played about the fireplace a little while, mother will say, “Now, boys it’s time for your baths,” and then they will come out. I
will be sitting there reading. The first thing you will know I’ll hear the patter of feet and my newspaper is on the floor. Sonny is
up there in my arms with his arms around my neck....a juicy kiss that missed...slid off my glasses, and Sonny will say, “Daddy I
love you....I’m glad you are home.” Then a little while later Jimmy comes crawling up over the hump of my knee; getting up
there. Sometimes I find him with his arms around my neck and kissing my cheek, and his hand pushing his brother away behind
my neck. But that’s all right I understand. That’s what I had been needing and longing for.
But how different it would be if I had to say to my wife. “Now, bring the boys;” snap my fingers and get their attention, and
then hypnotize them. When my mind controlled theirs I would have to say – “now, walk over and stand in front of me.” And
obedient to my command they would do it. Climb up in my lap, and they would do it. Put your arms around my neck...they
would do it. Kiss me...and with those cold unfeeling lips fell on my cheek....do you think they would meet the need of a Daddy’s
heart? It wouldn’t. No more would a man of mere Automation satisfy the yearning, longing Heart of God. I had
rather my
children have the capacity to say “no” and when their love comes to have it given freely than to have it, as the expression of
the mere automatic mechanical necessity. No, man had to be capable to say “no” so that in order when he said “yes” it would
meet the need of God’s Heart.
Then someone said: “Listen, didn’t we read in the Scripture that the Lord Jesus said, ‘I saw Satan fall as lightening from
heaven,’” He apparently fell to earth for he is here the god of this world...the prince of the power of the air. Now when God
wanted to make man why did He come down to earth? All the millions of planets He has and could have made. He could have
picked out one over on the edge of things, and now Satan can go about his business there, and I’ll have my lover over
here...my creature over here. But what would the love have been? Nothing but the love ignorance of alternative. Having
alternative, knowing nothing else. God would always have fear, if that creature Satan could ever get to his own what would he
do? You know the Muhammadan man will take his girl-bride at 12 or 14, bring her to his house; put her behind high mud walls,
and then never let her leave. I have had Muhammadan friends up to three and half years; have gone to their homes
frequently, and have never seen their wives. Simply because they would not permit it....they couldn’t trust them. The whole
society was organized about that basis. No, God wouldn’t do it that way. When he wanted to prepare man He came down to
the very place where Satan has been cast.
Now, let’s bring things up to date. This creature Satan comes into the picture.
thousand more people worship Satan than worship God we ought to find out at least what the Scripture says about him. Well,
responsibility of functioning as a prime minister over the angels over the cherubims and over the seraphims. Satan seemed to
What do we know about him? After all if
we find that he is a created being, probably the most intelligent of all the beings that God made. To that one He gave the
rule over them...under God and for God. He has intelligence, and there is always danger in intelligence. Today our
Penitentiaries are filled with college graduates. This intelligent creature had the capacity to think, and to project out and see
what was not as though it were, and so time came when in contemplation he said it is good to be what I am. Ha, Ha, look at
God...I do what He says. Wouldn’t it be nice to tell Him what to do...I had rather be God. The time came when contemplation
and consideration of alternative. His desire was fixed and Satan said, “I will.” And listen, the moment an intelligent creature
said, “I will” against the will of God that moment sin came into being. I do not believe it actually existed before....I think it
potentially existed, but waited for the moment when a creature should set his will against the will of God. And here was one
rebelling against God saying, “I will overthrow God, and destroy God.” He was intelligent enough to know that if his rebellion
were to succeed he would have to have weapons designed to overthrow God and the place of God’s greatest strength. And the
strength of anyone is in their character. France thought that the strength and defense of their nation was in the Maginot line,
but they had forgotten that there was a moral flaw in the character of the French people. It made the Maginot line a mockery,
and I think we as a nation must likewise recognize that our defense is not in the guns that are trained for protection from the
enemies....rather it is in the hearts that are lifted to Almighty God. But Satan knew and so he saw that God’s strength lies in His
Nature. What does the Bible say about God? “God is Love.” The same Bible says “God is Light.” (I John 1:5) The book of John
tells us in the words of Lord Jesus “I and the Father are One.” then “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light.” (John 14:6) So, we
can correctly say at least there are four, and possibly more. God is love, God is light, God is life, and God is truth, and here is a
creature saying his strength lies in what he is, and he wants to destroy it. He was intelligent enough to know that he couldn’t
out-love God, and enthrone himself primarily, because “love seeketh not its own.” (I Cor. 13:5) And so he said what can I do?
There is power in love, but we can I find that which will over-come it? He also as an intelligent creature knew that every thesis
has its antithesis; every positive has its negative, or more simply every front has to have a back. If there seems to be a front
and there is no back then the very form is an allusion and so if God is love the potentially opposite exists, or could exist. So,
Satan reached out and took as his weapon “hate.” God is light, this is the weapon that can swallow up and destroy
light....darkness. God is life, but here is something that can destroy life....death. God is truth, but I have the weapon that can
and darkness, and lie.
destroy truth....a lie. So, against love, and light, and life, and truth came hate, death,
Now, if God seeing this creature coming to destroy him, and said I hate this rebellion, and in hate had taken to destroy hate, god would have destroyed Himself. Whatever He did with the creature He would have to do with His Own Nature is love. Ultimately Satan conceded defeat. Recognized that God has conquered...stood before Him, and God said to him, “You want to be God....alright see that little spot down there....that little speck of dirt, you go down there and be God.” The Savior said “I
saw him fall as lightening from Heaven.” (Luke 10:18) My own personal opinion is that that is what took place in Genesis 1:2....the earth became without form and void. Genesis 1:1... the earth God created made out of nothing the heaven and the earth, and the second word just indicates the changed condition. The earth became without form and void...when? Personally, I believe when Satan was cast out. When the god of hate came to rule darkness surrounded the globe, and every living thing died. For it says the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. When the time came to make this bride for the bridegroom, He came down and expelled the darkness. He replanted the earth...prepared it, and then in the most beautiful spot that designing love could plan, He made man, and for those few brief days He walked in glorious fellowship feeling the beginning of the satisfaction and the feeling of the aching void in His Heart. But in love He said to Adam and Eve, “The day thou eatest thou shalt die.” (Gen. 2:17)
Why? Because. I have heard some preachers refer to this as though
God said if you eat you will die.” I don’t think that. I think
it was a case of simply stating that the principle was if their love should be turned to themselves that in its very essence
pierced the seed of death, and death would ensue. You see, a few days later, God sent an angel about the garden to keep man
out...He could have sent an angel about the garden to get Satan out, but He didn’t
and listened to this lying enemy beguild...yea as God said “You’ll surely die.” But you are not going
to die...you’ll be like God. You see, He told you not to eat because He knows if you eat you will be like Him, and He doesn’t
want you to be like Him. Though I think one of the most horrible sin; most wicked sin is the impunitive motives. I think that
going from the fact to the motive God had said, “Thou shalt die.”
Lord Jesus stood by I’m sure,
,“
do it. He let the Serpent come in, and the
So many times in Christian service you see people seeing a fact, and they immediate proceed to the motive, and I believe that
motive of your brethren in Christian service. If the thing he did is wrong, tell him it’s wrong, but don’t tell him why he did it. God knows
the heart.
Satan said, “Yea you won’t die...eat, eat and see what happens.” So, Adam and Eve listened in their calculating minds waited, and they said “Yes, it’s good to look at; it’s good to eat; make us wise like God, Oh let’s eat.” And they turned and shook their fist in the Face of God, and said “we are through with You; You robbed us: You cheated us we don’t want anything more to do with You; This slimy serpent will be our god.”
One day in the Tribe in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan I saw a red serpent slither between the huts, and the Mother push her baby’s face in the dirt across its path. This is your god. Our fathers made the decision to enshrine the serpent as god, and their children have carried it through...repeated it, and that moment they die. And Satan said, “ah, ah, look: I couldn’t kill God, but I can kill the thing that God loves most. That would hurt Him more than if I killed Him.” God said “they die.” And God’s truths will be true whether it takes every beloved. And everyone is going to do the same thing these die...Oh, I’ve robbed God at last...I’ll take every one of them down into Hell with me. But Satan had forgotten one thing. He had forgotten the love of God,
is the judgment which incurs the wrath of God...the anger of God. Judge the fact, young people, but don’t judge the
and that day as the garden begin to cool and the sun neared its western rim, the Lord Jesus Christ...listen, the Lord Jesus Christ;
the Lord God, that is none other than Jesus our Savior in pre-incarnation manifestation; the Jehovah of the Old Testament is
always the Jesus of the New Testament. The very Name teaches it, and our Savior, the Bride groom came and the saddest
words of all the Book are here as He walked up and down the paths of the garden...“Adam, where art thou Adam?” (Gen. 3:9)
And over in the grass of the trees are so big and the grass so deep. Adam and Eve covered themselves saying, Shooo, He may
not find us. People say when you go to the heathen that the heathen are seeking God, Beloved the heathen never seek
God...God is always seeking them. That is why Jesus came that night to seek and to save that which was lost, and that is why
He said “As the Father sent Me so send I you.” (John 20:21) You don’t go to men that seeking God, you go to seek men for God,
and tell them of His love, and that day at least love beguiled and moved them out. Adam stood there saying as much...you said
that if I ate I would die....well the woman made me eat. And the woman said, “Well, you said I would die but don’t kill me; kill
the serpent. He made me eat.” And their apron of fig leaves covering them showed them there was no repentance; no desire
for forgiveness; no sense of law; hardness of heart. Sin came full grown into family of men.
There is the most glorious picture...our loving Savior reached over and took a lamb and slew the lamb, and lifting the dripping,
bloody hide from the lamb and turned over and took away the apron of fig leaves, and tied the dripping red lamb skin about
the loins of the pair, and by it He pointed His Finger down across the century ‘til one day One should save him...behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. As the Lamb of God he was lifted up between heaven and earth to bear the
guilt of a race of lost men, and in His high priest prayer could say, “Father, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,
and Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” (John 17:23) Oh, I can conceive how God could love us, but how He could
love us as much as He did His Son my mind cannot grasp, but so He did.
My friends I went to Africa to keep poor lost sinners out of Hell, but I wouldn’t go back for that purpose. African sinners
deserve to go to Hell, but I would go back to lift them into the waiting longing arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. That rocking leper
by the path; that man given life within His Bosom. That specimen too horrible to see is in the eyes of a gracious loving Savior
able to meet the yearning, and longing need of his empty heart. How dare I deny my Savior those whom He died? Dare I rob
Him of those He purchased by His Blood? Dare I waste my life in selfish ambitions when there are those that He died to
redeem and haven’t heard His redeeming grace?
Today while you and I meet here, mothers bring their babes to stand beneath the knife of the Witch Doctor, and into their
faces stare the very brand of Hell, and if you could see what God sees you would see beside that scene of indescribable cruelty,
face of Satan. Lifting up his fist and saying, “Look, you made man in your image, You made him to love; You made him to have
and to hold, but he is mine. Your Son died for him, but look, I can cut him; I can carve him; I can slash him.” Those you told to
come haven’t got here yet, and so those for whom our Savior died perish, but His yearning Heart reaches out for everyone, His
Blood was shed to procure.
Let us pray.
* Reference such as, Delivered at Youth and General Conference, Columbia Bible College Chapel, Columbia, SC, August 1952 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1952
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Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992)
Was a Christian missionary, teacher, writer, and advocate of economic development in impoverished nations. A spiritual crisis during this period—as he described two decades later in what is probably his best-known recorded teaching, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt"--left Reidhead with the conviction that much of evangelicalism had adopted utilitarian and humanistic philosophies contradictory to Biblical teaching. The end of all being, he came to believe, was not the happiness of man, but the glorification of God. This theme would recur throughout his later teaching.Since Mr. Reidhead's death in 1992, Bible Teaching Ministries, Inc. continues under the leadership of his wife, Marjorie, and daughter, Virginia Teitt, a dedicated Board, and the many people who have donated time and talent after being changed by God’s Word through this message. The message of the Gospel is reaching an ever-widening audience all over the world.