When Jesus commanded His followers to "make
disciples of all the nations" in Matthew 28:18-20,
He was not referring to political nations. The word
Jesus used for nations in Greek is
"ethne" from
which we get the English word "ethnic". An
unreached people group is
"a people group within
which there is no indigenous community of believing
Christians able to evangelize this people group". It
means that there is no known active on-site church
planting effort underway and few if any know
believers. It also means there are definitely no missionaries, in
all likelihood no outreach, no church or fellowship
of believers, no Christian materials, and few if any
Bibles in these people groups. It is a great
injustice to think that 2000 years after Jesus gave
the Great Commission that many people groups have no
witness in their midst. While it is certainly
possible the Lord has supernaturally appeared to and
been at work among an unreached group without
outside involvement, this would not be the typical
way He has ordained for the spread of the Gospel. He
commanded the Church to go.
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