“Satan has free reign in the hearts and cultures that have rejected or never heard of the hope that can be found in Jesus Christ. He uses godless rulers, government authorities, legal restrictions, and social pressures to maintain his dominion and deprive God of being glorified among the peoples of the world. ‘We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one’ (1 John 5:19). If his strategies prove to be vulnerable, his backup plan is to work among God’s people to create indifference and lethargy. Instead of pressing the battle with conscientious urgency, Satan has readily convinced Christians that missions is optional or is the responsibility of only an elite few who have a special mysterious call to serve as missionaries. Regardless, it appears the strategies of our enemy have been immensely successful as we see the realities of a lost world and the formidable barriers to proclaiming the gospel today.”

Dr. Jerry Rankin, from his book Spiritual Warfare and Missions