In the long run, Mohammed wins out. Christianity spreads primarily by conversion, Islam by conversion and reproduction.
The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by "attraction": just as Christ "draws all to himself" by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfills her mission.
The principal end both of my father and of myself in the conquest of India... has been the propagation of the holy Catholic faith.
Missionarying was a better thing in those days than it is in ours. All you had to do was to cure the head savage´s sick daughter by a miracle- a miracle like the miracle of Lourdes in our day, for instance- and immediately that head savage was your convert, and filled to the eyes with a new convert´s enthusiasm. You could sit down and make yourself easy now. He would take the ax and convert the rest of the nation himself.
We must prepare ourselves to assist the missionaries in finding those of our Heavenly Father's children who will embrace the message of the Restoration.
If the gospel was of a nature to be propagated or maintained by the power of the world, God would not have intrusted it to fishermen. To defend the gospel appertains not to the princes and pontiffs of this world.
To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.
Ireland was, of old, called the Isle of Saints because of the great number of holy ones of both sexes who flourished there in former ages or who, coming thence, propagated the faith amongst other nations.
In our domain we neither allow any Muslim to change his religion nor allow any other religion to propagate its faith.
The task of the church is twofold: to spread Christianity throughout the world and to make sure that the Christianity she spreads is the pure New Testament kind.
In the third century after Christ the faith continued to spread.
What does the Atonement have to do with missionary work? Any time we experience the blessings of the Atonement in our lives, we cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others. ... A great indicator of one's personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others.
The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.
The church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer.
Perhaps the greatest reason for missionary work is to give the world it's chance to hear and accept the gospel. The scriptures are replete with commands and promises and calls and rewards for teach the gospel. I use the word command deliberately for it seems to be an insistent directive from which we, singly and collectively, cannot escape...I wonder if we are doing all we can. Are we complacent in our approach to teaching all the world? We have been proselyting now 144 years. Are we prepared to lengthen our stride? To enlarge our vision?
God called us to take His message of love and faith to the whole world.
The great tasks facing the ecclesial community in the modern world - and among the many I particularly stress evangelization and ecumenism - are centered on the Word of God and, at the same time, draw therefrom their justification and support.
We need missionaries to match our message.
I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization... No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.
If we wait till we run no risk, the gospel will never be introduced into the interior.
A great reformation and revival-it will happen the same way the early Christians conquered Rome. Their program of conquest consisted largely of two elements: gospel preaching and being eaten by lions, a strategy that has not yet captured the imagination of the the contemporary church.
The mission proper to the Church is that of proclaiming the Gospel.
Evangelizing includes the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught.
I come from a culture that embodies the need to convert others to "the truth." The Mormon Church has one of the largest missionary programs in the world. That does not interest me.
Muslims want the whole world to be Muslim. Christians want the whole world to be Christian. Catholics, Protestants, Mormons. They're all the same. Far out, right? Everyone wants the world to be like them.
