Who was sent out as the first missionary?<\/p>\n\t
The answer depends on how tightly you want to define the word “missionary.” It isn’t a word used in the Scriptures, so we can’t apply a Greek or Hebrew definition to the word. Technically, “missionary” means someone sent on a mission and there are numerous examples in the Old Testament of God sending men to do something. If you want to limit it to the New Testament, then John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare the way for Christ (Mark 1:2). Jesus himself was sent by God to teach mankind (John 5:30). Jesus sent the twelve apostles to cities in Galilee to prepare for his coming and teaching (Matthew 10).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Who was sent out as the first missionary? Answer: The answer depends on how tightly you want to define the word “missionary.” It isn’t a word used in the Scriptures, so we can’t apply a Greek or Hebrew definition to the word. Technically, “missionary” means someone sent on a mission and there are numerous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-14171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38923,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-missionary-work-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":0},"title":"Is missionary work scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, What is \"missionary work\" and is that scriptural? Does God call us to a particular occupation, such as God has \"called me\" to this career or that career? Is all this scripturally sound? Thank you. Answer: Missionary work has come to mean going to foreign countries to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-heard-of-the-christian-and-missionary-alliance\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":1},"title":"Have you heard of the Christian and Missionary Alliance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I respect and appreciate your spiritual and professional opinions and thank you all very much for your hard work. Have you ever heard of the C&MA -- Christian and Missionary Alliance? Answer: The Christian and Missionary Alliance started in the late 1800s as two societies dedicated to spreading Christianity.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25131,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-prepare-for-missionary-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":2},"title":"How do you prepare for missionary work?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently I've really been wanting to die to self and my dream desire is to live in a really poor area, hopefully in China -- not the U.S. It's hard to be an evangelizing Christian in the U.S. where it's so wealthy and most people already know Christ. However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88666,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arguments-against-the-missionary-society\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":3},"title":"Arguments Against the Missionary Society","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via\u00a0Unmasking Sophistry, Vol. 5 No. 3, July-September 2025 In a previous article, we discussed the Missionary Society, which was the source of the first major controversy and division among those associated with the Restoration Movement. What began as informal \"association\" meetings evolved into formal organizations to which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/division-in-the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":4},"title":"Division in the Restoration Movement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via Unmasking Sophistry, Vol. 5, No. 1, January-March, 2025 As a reminder, when we talk about the Restoration Movement, we refer to the religious movement that began around the start of the nineteenth century in the United States and endeavored to restore the doctrines and practices of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sponsoring-church-arrangement\/","url_meta":{"origin":14171,"position":5},"title":"The Sponsoring Church Arrangement (Longhenry)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry God wills for all people to be saved in Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9); Christians must go out and proclaim the Word of the Gospel to their fellow human beings (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 10:14-17). The local church, as the Body of Christ manifests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}