Grigg exhorts Christians to take up the cross of Christ and go and live amongst the poor such as in the slums of Asian cities creating new Christian communities and helping the poor at the same time. The overall goal of such a mission is to save souls. Carrying out social work in aid of the poor apparently is just one of the means to that end.
One of the reasons I would be skeptical of Christianity being the Truth, is the argument from evil. God is supposed to be all-powerful and all-good and yet we still have to live with poverty, injustice etc such as multinational companies apparently keeping their Asian workers' wages below subsistence level. Why doesn' t God exert his authority against these exploitative Western corporations or something like that? Why does he basically do nothing? Wait, he did send Pastor Grigg to the slums of Metro-Manila and since then as the world knows this has made a marked difference to poverty in this city. And he's probably sent a few more here and there giving us all hope that poverty will be crushed (not). Why does God wait to establish his promised kingdom in which there is all justice and fair play? What is he waiting for? Come on man, hurry up! Viv Grigg says it is this kingdom that keeps them all going 'in the midst of suffering and sorrow. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.'
From my point of view, there is reason such as the above to doubt in life after death and in the necessity of saving souls. This life is all we got. Thus if some of us seek justice this becomes the primary goal as opposed to a means to serving some more ultimate goal based on imaginary realities. Grigg discusses various models for social change. One of his techniques which I would tend to discount immediately is prayer, despite claims that his prayers on occasions had been answered.
One method which Grigg more or less rejects is revolution. Although God may of course rid the world of evil forces through a violent cataclysm such as revolution (sometimes). Otherwise revolution is too violent an approach and can have negative side effects for years to come. This sounds right to me as far as I can make out. Although in some cases revolution does seem to work such as in some Eastern bloc countries. In other cases it can lead to civil war or further repressive regimes. It seems that whether revolution will be effective or not is something to be decided case by case.
Another method is basically to change the heart and mind of the ruler(s). The way this would be done according to Grigg would be to persuade the ruler to seek Christian repentance. Thereafter, the ruler manages their domain in a just way. This might work. However, it does have its limitations. For example, I can' t see David Cameron repenting of his attack on housing associations thus dwindling affordable housing stock, and exacerbating homelessness, even though he is a Christian. If we were interested in adapting the change the ruler approach, how would one persuade the leaders of Saudi Arabia or ISIS to change their policies on barbaric punishments for dissidents/criminals? Could we get them to repent on an Islamic basis? Is there anything in the Quran that says such barbarisms are forbidden? I could be wrong but I doubt it.
The above of course deals with change right at the top of society, but there are techniques for change on a lower scale also, such as helping people to learn the skills of a trade, develop agricultural skills and using the Word combined with employment help to combat drinking problems. This is all great stuff of course for helping the poor on a relatively small scale, assuming the people do not mind being converted to Christianity. I would point out that a community which was seen as unlikely to convert would not in fact receive help of this kind. This is because the main thrust of the enterprise is to save souls and it would not be strategic to do social work amongst those that are unlikely to become Christians. Still, if missionaries changed their philosophy to allow all people to be helped, they would probably lose their motivation to help anyone at all.
Next book: The Hobbit and Philosophy.
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