The Glory of the Impossible

[This article is based on the notes from the devotional given at the Redeemer Baptist Church AGM on February 6th, 2026]

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:19-20)

There is a lesser known missionary of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries that has become a bit of a hero of mine. Samuel M. Zwemer. Born in 1867, he lived till 1952. He was an American born missionary – educated in the Reformed church. He became a missionary as a young man. He wanted to get on the field in a place of extreme need of the gospel: Arabia. Perhaps not surprisingly, no mission board was willing to send him and his companions to so dangerous and impossible a place. So, they formed their own agency to go. Zwemer said: "If God calls you and no board will send you, bore a hole through the board and go anyway."

He spent most of his missionary career in the heart of Arabia – around the Persian gulf. He buried his brother and his two daughters there. He suffered for the cause of Christ among the Muslims. And yet a lasting work was started. He was also known for his writing – completing many books on theology and missions throughout his life. He was a persuasive speaker and writer, encouraging many young souls to give themselves to the work of missions among the Muslims.

Late in his life he wrote this little article for the Princeton Seminary Bulletin – the seminary where he taught for many years – the article title: The Glory of the Impossible

In it he describes the impossible situation among the Muslims. He sums that up by saying:

It is almost impossible to present the Christian Gospel to a Moslem without giving offense. "It is to offer the proudest man in the world the thing which he hates at the hand of one whom he despises."

But the end of the article is incredibly powerful. Buckle up for a longer quotation – I assure you it is worth your time:

"The word impossible," said Napoleon, "is found only in the dictionaries of fools." But it is used in the Bible. "With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible." "Nothing shall be impossible to you," said our Master (Matt. 17:20).

Look at the actual situation. Think of the thin red line, Christ's vanguard, His lonely sentinels. In Egypt, eighty years of unremitting, sacrificial toil by the noblest of men and women, yet scarcely 300 Moslem converts in all Egypt today!

In Arabia, fifty years of pioneer effort against prejudice, loneliness and a deadly climate – hospitals, schools, evangelism, toil, tears, and blood – but only a handful of Christians (Luke 5:5).

North Africa, which once boasted Augustine, Athanasius, Cyprian, Tertullian, thousands of churches and scores of bishoprics, now counts scarcely a single organized Christian community except the dwindling Coptic Church. One missionary stationed in all of Tripoli keeping lonely vigil; none in all of Western Arabia; three little stations in all Central Asia; a few waiting wistfully on the borders of Afghanistan. Two or three have penetrated and returned. They are fighting and facing fearful odds but remain undiscouraged.

"More than half beaten but fearless, Facing the storm and the night."

Theirs is the glory of the impossible. None of them would exchange places with us because they are confident of the issue. They see the invisible, lay hold of the intangible, hear the inaudible voices.

You cannot tabulate loneliness, nor plot the curve of hope deferred which makes the heart sick. Yet these are the things that make the difference between the shedding of ink and the shedding of blood. The end of Survey is only the beginning of the missionary enterprise. One man with God at a mission station is a majority. All arithmetic fails when you deal with spiritual realities. Yet it is these imponderable forces which will determine victory or defeat and because we believe that the imponderables of the Kingdom of Light are on our side, we believe that opportunity is not the last word in missions. The appeal of the closed door is even greater than of the one which is open. The open door beckons; the closed door may be a challenge to love or to authority. "Love laughs at locksmiths." Authority is the key of an ambassador. It is the strength of these imponderable forces, that is to say, the reality of the invisible which enables the missionary to look upward with confidence and see by faith the future result of his toil in "the great multitude which no man can number"; a world where statistics are inadequate to express realities, where finance and budgets have lost all significance, and gold is used for paving-stones. "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit."

There are a thousand directions to go from here. First, it has me reflecting on the state of world missions in this 21^st Century. The problem of Islam has not lessened. Islam has dug for itself a deep hold all throughout Asia and Africa, and has been increasing at an alarming rate in Europe and North America also. Thankfully, there are more workers today reaching out to Muslims, but in the words of our Lord, "the labourers are few". Zwemer's question lingers in the air – who will take up the charge and the challenge to glorify God in the impossible? Who will go? And who will hold the ropes. Zwemer said elsewhere: "The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." The great commission is still our mission – and as we survey the nations, we face a task yet unfinished.

But my mind goes elsewhere as well. I think of the state of the mission-field right here at home in the West. Our situation is quite serious. The church in the west in the 21^st century is getting a bit of a wakeup call right now. We are seeing how dark things get when you turn away from Christ. Our society was living on the borrowed capital of the Puritans and evangelicals of yester-centuries. But when you turn away from Christ – eventually you get what you've asked for – which is chaos. It is only and always Christ or chaos. It is union with Christ – getting closer and closer to God – or departing further and further away from Him into the void – into hell itself – where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. If we turn away from the Lord of heaven – we can't be surprised when the world starts going to hell.

And it is in this new landscape of secular-humanism, post-modernism, encroaching foreign-religions and a resurgent paganism, that the church exists. And here we are called to bring the gospel of the kingdom to every creature still. We are called to be salt and light still – even though it now looks impossible. Like Zwemer, we need to look impossible in the face, square on, and confess our faith yet again. We believe in God Almighty. We believe in the power of the Cross. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the glory of the impossible.

Let us not be like the spies of Israel who saw the strongholds and quailed. Let us have a double portion of that spirit of Joshua and Caleb who looked at the armies of the enemy and said – "the LORD is with us; do not fear them." (Numbers 14:9) Let us confess with Paul that our weapons "have divine power to destroy strongholds." (2 Corinthians 10:4). Let us glorify our God even in, yes especially in, the impossible.