This is a paper I wrote for seminary in preparation for our trip to Spain. It covers three topics: 1. The history of the Church in Spain. 2. The History of the Protestant Church in Spain and 3. Current strategies for evangelizing Spain.
We wanted to post this paper so that you could read and see for yourself the urgent need in Spain for relevant and non-oppressive Christianity to be lived out in Spain. If you love history, this posts for you!
Shalom, Gregg
Early Church History:
Long before Paul was imprisoned in Rome he wrote the church there with an urgent need. It was his desire to take the gospel as far west as he possibly could and he would need their help in order to do it. Paul never stayed in one place too long and he was hoping that the Roman church would be a support for him financially as he went to Spain. Unfortunately for us, as 21st century readers of the biblical accounts, we simply do not know if Paul ever made it out of Rome before he experienced martyrdom. However, if he was released for a time it is not a stretch to believe that Paul’s goal of preaching the gospel in Spain was attained. Leon Morris says, “Did Paul ever get to Spain? That depends on whether he was released from his Roman prison and able to implement his plan of evangelism in that land. Toward the end of the first century Clement of Rome speaks of Paul as having reached ‘the limits of the west’ which to a Roman would probably have meant Spain.”[1] If this is the case, the church in Spain was founded around 63 A.D. by Paul himself. Dale Vought, missionary to Spain and historian of the Protestant Church in Spain, suggests that Paul in fact made it there for the following reasons: 1. It was a possibility time wise. 2. The church was large and well-organized at an early date. 3. The plans of Paul included a visit to Spain. 4. Early documents indicate that such a visit was made. 5. Local Spanish traditions speak of a visit by Paul.
Regardless of whether Paul made it to Spain or not there is in fact definitive evidence that there were several churches in Spain by 300 A.D. Many historians believe that it was the ever traveling Jews whom had converted to Christianity who brought the gospel message to Spain. Others believe that Cornelius (Acts 10) was in fact the first Spanish convert. Neither of these ideas can be documented but are held up in some traditional beliefs. However, quotes from Tertullian and Cipriano, Bishop in Carthage, show evidence of well-organized churches in Spain even as early as 254 A.D. It is also most likely that the persecutions under Emperors Valerian (256-260) and Diocletian (303-304) were felt as far as Spain.
Needless to say the church history on the Iberian Peninsula is quite ancient. By 414 A.D. the Visigoths who were consumed by the Arian heresy entered Spain from the north. They intermingled with the orthodox believers in Spain and even though the council of Nicaea had officially condemned Arianism, it was not until 589 A.D. when King Recaredo of Spain and many of his fellow Visigoths made the formal break with Arianism and sided with Rome. Many historians and church history scholars believe that this was the time when the Roman Popes were able to exert authority over the Spanish Church. They hold that with the rejection of Arianism by King Recaredo Spain became a Catholic nation. It is true that from that point on, even to today, the Spanish kings take on the title of “Catholic.” It was not long after this fact that future kings would be selected by the bishops and nobles of the Roman Catholic Church and from this point until 1978 the separation of church and state in Spain was non-existent.
The Moors Conquer Spain:
Less then 200 years later, in 711 A.D. the Moors, invaded Spain and with relative ease conquered the whole peninsula. Interestingly though the Moors did not place strict conversion laws on the Christians and allowed them to worship without being disturbed. Even though publicly they were scorned and seen as second class, still they had their freedom to worship Christ. Historically this was uncommon of the Muslims to be so appeasing. The ancient church of North Africa did not fare as well as the church in Spain. The Arab invasions of North Africa and the forced conversions were the death blow to a seemingly vibrant church. While the church in North Africa disappeared, the Iberian church survived seven hundred years of Moorish occupation. Latourette attributes this, in part, to the Iberian church’s compromise with the pagan moral standards and thus was a church more accepted by, and integrated into the life of the Moors than the North Africans.
Christians Regain Control:
The moral decline of all Spaniards combined with the compromise with Islam left the church with little power and this grew less and less over the 700 year occupation of the Moors. However, all was about to change. The Arabs were having internal problems and struggles over authority while the church was beginning to embrace an extremely militant agenda. Spain began around 1200 A.D. to win a few military victories over the Moors. These victories were hailed as being directly from God and the Spanish took advantage of one victory after another.
Spaniards all over the country fought in honor of “Santiago Matamoros” who had become known as the Patron Saint of Spain, protector and defender against the Muslims. This tradition began back in 630 A.D. when Isidore, Bishop of Seville, wrote a treatise attributing that James the Apostle, author of the epistle of James actually visited Spain. It was claimed that he appeared on a white stallion during the controversial battle during the Moorish occupation of Spain and killed a large number of the enemy and saved the day for the Spanish. This is what earned him the title “Santiago Matamoros” or rather, James the Arab Killer. Many villages in Spain have a church dedicated to St. James usually with an ornate weather vane on its dome depicting James riding his white horse protecting all things Spanish.
It appears that the pure orthodox faith of early Spain had, even at this point, become murky. By the mid thirteenth century the Muslims had been pushed into one small province of Spain called Granada. This was the first time since 711 A.D. that Christian Spain was able to be in control of the country. Spain, because of the occupation of the Moors, had lost much of their tribalistic divisions. They were united in language, religion, and rule. The Waldenses and Albigenses filtered down from Southern France to inhabit parts of Spain. These were non-Catholic peoples and they were welcomed into Spain with persecution and hatred by the newly united “Christian” Spain.
The next four hundred years would be characterized by some of the worst years in Spanish history. With the coming of the Inquisition the Roman Catholic Church had become once again the State Church in Spain yet it did not influence the daily lives of the people of Spain. They were going through a time when the moral compass of the entire nation was basically non-existent. As Vought describes this time, “A description of the times make it incredibly difficult to believe that Spain could consider itself as a Christian country. That is, unless Christianity consists of hating unbelievers and stiffly maintaining a set of external observances, while practicing perfidy and indulging in unbridled lust and barbarous cruelty, there was little Christianity in Spain.”[2]
The Inquisition:
The Inquisition is proof that there was little Christianity going on in Spain. Although originally a movement to purify the lackluster form of Christianity that was going on in Spain it quickly moved from a movement of purification to a movement of “cleansing.” When Isabella inherited the crown of Castile in 1474 it was her greatest desire to reform the church. Long before Luther’s reformation Queen Isabella of Spain together with her husband Ferdinand took it upon themselves to purify the church. After getting permission from the papacy, they were allowed to put into high ecclesiastical offices whomever they saw fit. Ferdinand filled the vacant archbishopric of Saragossa with his illegitimate son, who was only six years old. Isabella truly had purer motives and appointed Francisco Jimenez (who would later be known as the General Inquisitor) the archbishop of Spain.
The purification of the church began by punishing heretics. In fact the first person to burn at the stake for heresy occurred in Spain. But this was not enough for Isabella and Jimenez and so in 1492, there was an official decree that all Jews must either accept baptism or leave the territories under Isabella’s rule. It was not long after this that the Spanish took up the fight against the Moors in the one province they had left in all of Spain, Granada. Much like the decree that went out against the Jews, the Muslims were either to convert to Christianity or to be forced off their land into exile. After many of the Jews and Muslims converted to Christianity, much of the Inquisition was spent in trying to snuff out any continued practice of their old religion.
Justo Gonzalez says, “The scholarly interests of Jimenez and Isabella, however did not lead to tolerance. The saints and sages of the Catholic Reformation, like Isabella, were pure, devout, and intolerant.”[3] Even though the Moors allowed the Spaniards to worship Christ in their own way under the Muslim occupation; the Christians returned no such favor when they had the power.
In the years 1481-1798 according to Dale Vought, 32,000 people were burned at the stake as heretics; another 17,000 were burned in effigy. 296,000 degraded, imprisoned, stripped of their goods, or subjected to horrible torments. At least 345,000 persons in Spain suffered the terrible trials of the Inquisition. However, and possibly the most long lasting damage of the Inquisition is that almost overnight Spain doubled the number of false conversions. A problem still currently in Spain; people categorizing themselves by a faith they do not even comprehend.
One should not think that just because some Jews and Muslims stayed in Spain that they avoided persecution. One of the subjects that is not mentioned much in the history books about Spain is the extent of slavery. Probably the reason for this, as Vought explains, is “do with the fact that it was practiced with the knowledge and consent of the Catholic Church, which has controlled so much of what has been written about Spain for the past five centuries.”[4] As outlandish as it may be the clergy were second only to the nobles as the worst offenders and exploiters of Jews, Muslims and later Protestants.
Vought again says so clearly that, “The nation never recovered culturally or economically from that self-mutilation, but the interesting thing about the Spanish character is that the Spaniard did not care. On the contrary, he joined in the act and felt progressive as well as self-righteous. The country had committed moral suicide and was proud of it. Under the circumstances it is not suprising that the Reformation, which made such an impact on the rest of Europe, would be rejected in Spain.”[5] It is fascinating to ponder the sovereignty of God in wondering why the Inquisition and the Reformation coincided. While Spain was feeling so convicted to the point of killing people that did not adhere to the Catholic faith, the Reformation was setting Catholics free all over Europe. Spain chose the path of darkness they chose a Counter Reformation. The Inquisition was so effective in Spain that all of Protestant history from the time of the Inquisition in the 1400’s to the 1800’s could probably be written in one paragraph. M. Geutierrez, a Spanish author has said, “That we know of, during the 18th century there did not exist in Spain a single group of ‘evangelicos’.”
Two Windows Shut on the Protestant Church:
As mentioned just briefly the Inquisition began as a purity movement against wayward Christians and it ended up being a three century long ethnic cleansing of Jews and Muslims. However, once the Jews and Muslims were either converted or killed the Inquisition began to refocus its evil energy toward Protestants. Through national solidarity, financial wealth, spiritual awakening inside the monastic arm with the likes of St. Teresa of Avilia and St. John of the Cross, the Catholic Church saw itself in Spain as going through a Reformation of its own. However, through all of this “reformation” never did it occur to them that killing, persecuting, and torturing human beings even fellow Christians, was unethical.
The first missionary efforts came to Spain in the forms of English and Scottish men. From 1834 to 1867 there was a small window for Protestants to work in Spain. Finally, in 1834 there was a law that passed that stated the Inquisition as finally over and therefore that it would be illegal to harm Protestants, Jews, or Muslims. But as it is with any law against racism and religious prejudice, what it says on paper in the capital city is a far cry from what is practiced in the villages and in the streets. The rest of Western Europe saw the passing of the law as their window to bring the gospel to Spain. However the window was slammed shut by an unofficial continuation of the Inquisition and dozens of Protestants, both national and foreign were put in prison, and killed. Protestants who were not killed or imprisoned were exiled to Gibraltar and ordered to stay there or receive the death penalty. Vought says of this time, “The atmosphere had been very hostile and the fact that any groups (Protestant) at all were meeting was quiet an accomplishment.”[6]
The next window of opportunity came in 1931-1935 with the formation of a Republic in Spain and the brewing of a Civil War. The years of 1868-1930 however were significant years and the Protestant church actually saw growth while underground. The more the Spanish government tried to imprison and exile them, the more and more tiny churches popped up all over Spain. But during this window of the Republic from 1931-1935 it was the first time in the history of Spain that it was actually legal to be a Protestant in Spain. It was the desire of the Republic to become like the other nations in Europe, to have economic and religious freedom. In the papers in London the headlines read, “Spain is Catholic no more.” During this time there was a massive anticlerical movement in Spain and many nationals burned churches and several accounts of abuse on priests were reported.
The only problem during this time was that the Republic was shaky. They drafted well over a dozen different constitutions and in regards to religion they were so sick of being told what to believe that it really was not a fruitful field for Protestant mission work. And even though the window was open for four years it was slammed shut by the Civil War (1936-1939) and the beginning of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Although the statistics prove that there were no more than eight missionaries in all of Spain during the 1930’s one bright spot was the amount of literature being printed and distributed in the country with regards to salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
Franco in many respects was similar to Isabella and Ferdinand. He was approved by Rome to be their man to keep Spain Catholic. The church actually help fund the Civil War. The death tolls and the gravity of the War, much like the Inquisition was devastating. Over a million Spaniards were dead at the hands of their brothers and to this day the effects of the War are still being felt, not only financially but also with general distrust for anything smelling of authority or religiosity. At the end of the war Franco and the Catholic Church were the rulers of Spain and the doors to progress were again closed.
Underground Work during Franco’s Regime:
One could wonder, “What did the Catholic powers of Spain have to fear by the Protestant movement?” The Protestant church in Spain had never been a large group, only about 6,000 just before Franco took power. They posed no political threat. They had never participated in any of the violent acts against the clergy or the Church burnings (although they had been blamed and punished for many of these). All their schools had been closed and they had zero influence over the youth of the nation. Very few ministers remained, and those that did very likely had a political-criminal record that would keep them from legally exercising their ministry or any other profession again. They had no leadership. Yet they were considered enemies of the State. Why would such a disenfranchised minority be seen as such a threat? The answer for Franco and for Spain and for Rome was the fear of ideas. What would happen if the Spanish people were allowed to think and decide for themselves? All of this oppression on the Protestants was sadly, only a result of oppression on Catholic Spain itself.
The Protestant church actually grew and was well organized as it had to be to survive the regime of Franco. Over fifty churches were allowed to open during this time and the number of Protestants actually swelled to over 50,000. This number is debated but it is important to note that the Protestants of this time were working together to try to achieve religious freedom. They used forms of peaceful protest and letters to Franco himself to plea for their right to worship privately. The church however was oppressed by the state not recognizing its marriages as legal or giving their dead places to be buried. The churches could not have signs out front and every member who was baptized had to be registered with the state. These were more ways in which Catholic Spain would control her people.
Current Protestant Situation in Spain:
Needless to say by the time of Franco’s death in 1975 Spain had seen enough. They had been moving politically more and more liberal and religiously they became more and more disgusted with the church. Three years after the death of Franco in 1978 Spain drafted a new constitution allowing freedom of religion and that constitution is still in place today. It is hard to imagine a Western European country more disenfranchised with church then Spain. As Christopher Matthews highlights the evangelicals of Spain represent .40% of its population. This is the lowest in all the countries in the European Union.
Secularization has swept through Spain and has proven to be much more liberating than a belief in Christ has ever been according to the Spaniards. The World Biblical Database has documentation of 110,000 Evangelicals currently living in Spain. When compared to 40 million Catholics there is no doubt that the church in Spain is not viable and is in dire need of the Spirit of God to be poured out on its churches. Christopher Matthews and Todd Johnson point out that the largest non-Catholic presence in Spain is the Philadelphia (Gypsy) Church which makes up 180,000 believers. Matthews has many good things to say about the way the Gypsy church in Spain is self propagated and self financed however the leadership structure within the church is in need of organization. There are roughly 3,516 Protestant churches in Spain with a national average of 53 members per church. Todd Johnson scores the Spanish population as a 31 in the category of Evangelistic Response. While this may appear low more optimistic missionaries would consider this as a ray of hope.
The spiritual condition in Spain as a whole is dismal. They have moved from one of the most Christian populations in the entire world to one of the most secular and narcissistic. The Catholic Church is dying a slow death with less than 30% of its members in mass on a weekly basis and to this point the Protestant Church has not been able to answer the deepest needs of the Spanish people. So what does the future look like for the evangelization of Spain? Some missionaries, like Christopher Matthews are so optimistic, they are looking past this question and asking deeper, more missiological questions like, “how is God going to use the Spaniards again for missions?” There are many strategic strategies for reaching the Spanish and many of them will be discussed in the next section.
Current Strategies to re-Reach Spain:
Historically in Spain Protestant missions agencies have employed Spanish nationals to reach their own people. Although this worked for a time during some of the most tumultuous seasons of Spanish history there are too many holes in the system to implement this strategy now. Spaniards are naturally skeptical of religion and when they see their brothers being paid to make converts they grow cynical and doubt the authenticity of the national worker. They have, for most of their history, distrusted foreigners and this compounds to the feelings of being manipulated and truly questions the motivations of the national worker.
Similar questions arise in the Spanish mindset when missionaries themselves come to work in Spain. Spaniards wonder why they do not have to work normal jobs and they wonder who is making a profit off of the fact that they become a Protestant? They have difficulty understanding why the missionary has a nice apartment or house a new car, sends his children to special schools, and gets a years vacation every four years, while he (the Spaniard) works as hard, but has much less. It does little good to try to explain what the missionary left to go to Spain he is still misunderstood and subject to criticism.
For these reasons, tent making has been a strategy that has proven beneficial in Spain. By working at least part time by using their skills, the missionaries have not lost credibility and are not seen as lazy or trying to get paid for converts. With the economy being extremely stable in Spain just now as a result of moving to the Euro, there is little reason why missionaries could not use this strategy and find it very fruitful.
Another strategy that has proven worthy over the last 50 years has been the evangelistic campaign. By renting out bull fighting rings or soccer arenas thousands of Spaniards can come to a campaign and hear the gospel proclaimed by competent, authentic evangelicals. John Blake through the organization called DECISION, helped to organize at least 40 church plants using this strategy. They would target an area for at least three weeks and us the first two weeks to distribute literature and answer any questions regarding faith and Christ. Then the last week would be spent with a massive concert like experience in the bull ring or arena or town hall.
What is so wonderful about this method is the focus on church planting. It is horrifying to see the number of missionaries who are currently living and working in Spain that have no connection or goals of church planting. With the statistics as bad as they are one simply has to be connected in planting churches in some way otherwise we are missing the Trinitarian focus of unity and community that followers of Christ are privileged to have.
Organizations like the Campus Crusade, and the Navigators found their way into Spain during the 1970’s and other parachurch methods like them have found moderate success. While it is wonderful to make converts again the difficulty here is having a viable, healthy church to place these people. Church planting again, must coincide with these parachurch efforts for Spain to become re-reached. However what these parachurch organizations bring in the manner of Christians authentically living out their faith is invaluable. The Spanish youth are astute and can sniff out false religion in a second. By building trust and relationship with college age students in Spain, discipleship and leadership development for the future of the church is possible.
Authenticity can not be highlighted enough for future of missions work in Spain. Juan Antonio Monroy, a Spanish Christian, had this to say about the foreign missionaries he encountered during the seventies and eighties, “In general these missionaries lack trustworthy accreditation. They introduce themselves into local congregations and divide the will of its members. They exalt themselves even if they have to destroy the pastor and part of the church. Tremendously superficial, they are incapable of a work that requires any effort. They make the local church their small colony in which to impose the laws and customs of their country of origin. They practice demagoguery as accomplished governors. They are clever, astute, calculating, cunning. Once they are in the churches, they scheme, confuse, entangle, plot, manage and maneuver until they accomplish their ends. They never build. They always undermine and finish destroying.”[7]
While Monroy’s words are strong and even though many other Spanish evangelicals would strongly disagree with him, we do need to be culturally sensitive to the mindset of Spanish views of missionaries. One way to do this is to do missions alongside of the local church. Most missionaries who have written on their experiences in Spain and what has been most beneficial have concluded that the relationship between the missionaries and the nationals has been at its best when the missionaries come in as learners building trust with the Spaniards and guiding them rather than directing them.
Outreach is a method of evangelism that has taken to hold is some areas. By showing practical love to their neighbors with no strings attached many Spaniards have come to see the true conversion of their brothers and sisters. This is something that all churches in Spain can implement simply to show the world around them that they are authentic in loving God and loving people.
Dale Vought concludes that what Spain needs more than anything else are spiritual leaders. Not only from within the boarders of Spain but spiritual leaders who would come to Spain with no pretense but to live out their Christian lives while rubbing shoulders with the Spaniards.
Christopher Matthews has a much more aggressive approach to winning the Spanish and making disciples of all nations. In his doctoral work he argues that the Spanish are adventurous by nature, where else would we get the likes of Christopher Columbus, De Soto, and Cortez? Matthews is working with the Spanish in attempts to regain that adventurous side and to see themselves as missionaries to the unreached world around them.
The way Matthews sees the situation in Spain is that it would be a tragedy to re-reach the Spanish for Christ without properly teaching them their Biblical duty to “go into all the world and make disciples.” One can hardly disagree with this noble task but as Matthews points out the task is daunting. He concludes that there are three areas of difficulties in attempting to mobilize the Spanish for cross-cultural work.
First of all he points out that the pool to draw from is extremely thin. If there are, on average, 53 members in each congregation all over Spain, the odds of each church having members to do cross cultural missions are slim. Secondly, he adds that there is major disorganization in outreach even among their home congregations. Matthews argues that the biblical understanding for a theology of mission and outreach is desperately lacking in the Spanish church. Thirdly, he very bluntly highlights the generations and generations of cultural superiority that is well ingrained in the Spanish mindset. Although this is a huge generalization we do need to take into account that the Spanish have not been the most tolerant and loving of other ideas, cultures, and beliefs. Although this is changing as they become more and more secularized it is a major hurdle for cross-cultural ministry for Spaniards.
Matthews suggests a highly organized short-term mission’s focus for Spaniards to travel to places like Cuba, Mexico, and Morocco to learn on the field and to see the work of God all over the world. One has to pride Matthews for his great work in this area. One can only imagine if Evangelicalism and missions caught fire in Spain. They were at one time the powerhouse of colonialization and if they could humble themselves to go back and to preach with fervor a message of the resurrected Christ and salvation by grace through faith in him, what an impact the Spanish could have on the world. The can be mobalized in North Africa, they can be mobilized in North, Central, and South America. God has truly gifted them with the skills of leadership and communication, the only question left unanswered is will they accept His leadership and revealed communication as found in the Scriptures.
The words of the 19th century Spanish Evangelical, should take us home. Antonio Carrasco was invited to speak at the International meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Amsterdam in 1866, speaking very passionately he asked the congregation gathered, “Is it the foreigner or the Spaniard that ought to work for a religious reformation in Spain?” The obvious answer was; the Spanish. Later he would quote the French historian on Spain Rosseeuv Saint Hilaire saying, “As Italy, Spain aspires to stamp the seal of its nationality on its own religion. Brothers in service as in the faith, it is necessary that the two Peninsulas work out their own Reformation, instead of receiving it from the outside.” It was a great and noble thought, but it was also an impossible dream as Carrasco realized. He would end his presentation by saying, “If you feel encouraged by the example of the Apostle Paul, come, whoever you are, and from whatever nation, Spain awaits you. Labor in the vast field, and with the dew of heaven you will reap an abundant harvest for the Lord; but if the love of the Lord does not consume you, I plead with you dearly, do not come and destroy with your imprudent zeal a work that has not ceased to progress, in spite of our inexperience and our weakness…”[8]
It is my conclusion as the author of this paper after much reading and study on the country of Spain that the needs for evangelical growth are as follows and they need to be in this order. 1. Appropriate answers to secularization and questions about absolute truth. 2. Freedom from oppressive religiosity and a radical encounter with the risen Lord. 3. Leadership development. 4. Mobilization for cross-cultural ministry. This can happen as God raises up as those whom as Carrasco said, “the love of the Lord consumes them” from both inside the country and out.
[1] Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1988), 518.
[2] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 16.
[3] Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity. (New York, Harper Collins Press, 2004), 113.
[4] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 21
[5] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 22.
[6] Ibid, 79.
[7] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 339.
[8] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 351.
We wanted to post this paper so that you could read and see for yourself the urgent need in Spain for relevant and non-oppressive Christianity to be lived out in Spain. If you love history, this posts for you!
Shalom, Gregg
Early Church History:
Long before Paul was imprisoned in Rome he wrote the church there with an urgent need. It was his desire to take the gospel as far west as he possibly could and he would need their help in order to do it. Paul never stayed in one place too long and he was hoping that the Roman church would be a support for him financially as he went to Spain. Unfortunately for us, as 21st century readers of the biblical accounts, we simply do not know if Paul ever made it out of Rome before he experienced martyrdom. However, if he was released for a time it is not a stretch to believe that Paul’s goal of preaching the gospel in Spain was attained. Leon Morris says, “Did Paul ever get to Spain? That depends on whether he was released from his Roman prison and able to implement his plan of evangelism in that land. Toward the end of the first century Clement of Rome speaks of Paul as having reached ‘the limits of the west’ which to a Roman would probably have meant Spain.”[1] If this is the case, the church in Spain was founded around 63 A.D. by Paul himself. Dale Vought, missionary to Spain and historian of the Protestant Church in Spain, suggests that Paul in fact made it there for the following reasons: 1. It was a possibility time wise. 2. The church was large and well-organized at an early date. 3. The plans of Paul included a visit to Spain. 4. Early documents indicate that such a visit was made. 5. Local Spanish traditions speak of a visit by Paul.
Regardless of whether Paul made it to Spain or not there is in fact definitive evidence that there were several churches in Spain by 300 A.D. Many historians believe that it was the ever traveling Jews whom had converted to Christianity who brought the gospel message to Spain. Others believe that Cornelius (Acts 10) was in fact the first Spanish convert. Neither of these ideas can be documented but are held up in some traditional beliefs. However, quotes from Tertullian and Cipriano, Bishop in Carthage, show evidence of well-organized churches in Spain even as early as 254 A.D. It is also most likely that the persecutions under Emperors Valerian (256-260) and Diocletian (303-304) were felt as far as Spain.
Needless to say the church history on the Iberian Peninsula is quite ancient. By 414 A.D. the Visigoths who were consumed by the Arian heresy entered Spain from the north. They intermingled with the orthodox believers in Spain and even though the council of Nicaea had officially condemned Arianism, it was not until 589 A.D. when King Recaredo of Spain and many of his fellow Visigoths made the formal break with Arianism and sided with Rome. Many historians and church history scholars believe that this was the time when the Roman Popes were able to exert authority over the Spanish Church. They hold that with the rejection of Arianism by King Recaredo Spain became a Catholic nation. It is true that from that point on, even to today, the Spanish kings take on the title of “Catholic.” It was not long after this fact that future kings would be selected by the bishops and nobles of the Roman Catholic Church and from this point until 1978 the separation of church and state in Spain was non-existent.
The Moors Conquer Spain:
Less then 200 years later, in 711 A.D. the Moors, invaded Spain and with relative ease conquered the whole peninsula. Interestingly though the Moors did not place strict conversion laws on the Christians and allowed them to worship without being disturbed. Even though publicly they were scorned and seen as second class, still they had their freedom to worship Christ. Historically this was uncommon of the Muslims to be so appeasing. The ancient church of North Africa did not fare as well as the church in Spain. The Arab invasions of North Africa and the forced conversions were the death blow to a seemingly vibrant church. While the church in North Africa disappeared, the Iberian church survived seven hundred years of Moorish occupation. Latourette attributes this, in part, to the Iberian church’s compromise with the pagan moral standards and thus was a church more accepted by, and integrated into the life of the Moors than the North Africans.
Christians Regain Control:
The moral decline of all Spaniards combined with the compromise with Islam left the church with little power and this grew less and less over the 700 year occupation of the Moors. However, all was about to change. The Arabs were having internal problems and struggles over authority while the church was beginning to embrace an extremely militant agenda. Spain began around 1200 A.D. to win a few military victories over the Moors. These victories were hailed as being directly from God and the Spanish took advantage of one victory after another.
Spaniards all over the country fought in honor of “Santiago Matamoros” who had become known as the Patron Saint of Spain, protector and defender against the Muslims. This tradition began back in 630 A.D. when Isidore, Bishop of Seville, wrote a treatise attributing that James the Apostle, author of the epistle of James actually visited Spain. It was claimed that he appeared on a white stallion during the controversial battle during the Moorish occupation of Spain and killed a large number of the enemy and saved the day for the Spanish. This is what earned him the title “Santiago Matamoros” or rather, James the Arab Killer. Many villages in Spain have a church dedicated to St. James usually with an ornate weather vane on its dome depicting James riding his white horse protecting all things Spanish.
It appears that the pure orthodox faith of early Spain had, even at this point, become murky. By the mid thirteenth century the Muslims had been pushed into one small province of Spain called Granada. This was the first time since 711 A.D. that Christian Spain was able to be in control of the country. Spain, because of the occupation of the Moors, had lost much of their tribalistic divisions. They were united in language, religion, and rule. The Waldenses and Albigenses filtered down from Southern France to inhabit parts of Spain. These were non-Catholic peoples and they were welcomed into Spain with persecution and hatred by the newly united “Christian” Spain.
The next four hundred years would be characterized by some of the worst years in Spanish history. With the coming of the Inquisition the Roman Catholic Church had become once again the State Church in Spain yet it did not influence the daily lives of the people of Spain. They were going through a time when the moral compass of the entire nation was basically non-existent. As Vought describes this time, “A description of the times make it incredibly difficult to believe that Spain could consider itself as a Christian country. That is, unless Christianity consists of hating unbelievers and stiffly maintaining a set of external observances, while practicing perfidy and indulging in unbridled lust and barbarous cruelty, there was little Christianity in Spain.”[2]
The Inquisition:
The Inquisition is proof that there was little Christianity going on in Spain. Although originally a movement to purify the lackluster form of Christianity that was going on in Spain it quickly moved from a movement of purification to a movement of “cleansing.” When Isabella inherited the crown of Castile in 1474 it was her greatest desire to reform the church. Long before Luther’s reformation Queen Isabella of Spain together with her husband Ferdinand took it upon themselves to purify the church. After getting permission from the papacy, they were allowed to put into high ecclesiastical offices whomever they saw fit. Ferdinand filled the vacant archbishopric of Saragossa with his illegitimate son, who was only six years old. Isabella truly had purer motives and appointed Francisco Jimenez (who would later be known as the General Inquisitor) the archbishop of Spain.
The purification of the church began by punishing heretics. In fact the first person to burn at the stake for heresy occurred in Spain. But this was not enough for Isabella and Jimenez and so in 1492, there was an official decree that all Jews must either accept baptism or leave the territories under Isabella’s rule. It was not long after this that the Spanish took up the fight against the Moors in the one province they had left in all of Spain, Granada. Much like the decree that went out against the Jews, the Muslims were either to convert to Christianity or to be forced off their land into exile. After many of the Jews and Muslims converted to Christianity, much of the Inquisition was spent in trying to snuff out any continued practice of their old religion.
Justo Gonzalez says, “The scholarly interests of Jimenez and Isabella, however did not lead to tolerance. The saints and sages of the Catholic Reformation, like Isabella, were pure, devout, and intolerant.”[3] Even though the Moors allowed the Spaniards to worship Christ in their own way under the Muslim occupation; the Christians returned no such favor when they had the power.
In the years 1481-1798 according to Dale Vought, 32,000 people were burned at the stake as heretics; another 17,000 were burned in effigy. 296,000 degraded, imprisoned, stripped of their goods, or subjected to horrible torments. At least 345,000 persons in Spain suffered the terrible trials of the Inquisition. However, and possibly the most long lasting damage of the Inquisition is that almost overnight Spain doubled the number of false conversions. A problem still currently in Spain; people categorizing themselves by a faith they do not even comprehend.
One should not think that just because some Jews and Muslims stayed in Spain that they avoided persecution. One of the subjects that is not mentioned much in the history books about Spain is the extent of slavery. Probably the reason for this, as Vought explains, is “do with the fact that it was practiced with the knowledge and consent of the Catholic Church, which has controlled so much of what has been written about Spain for the past five centuries.”[4] As outlandish as it may be the clergy were second only to the nobles as the worst offenders and exploiters of Jews, Muslims and later Protestants.
Vought again says so clearly that, “The nation never recovered culturally or economically from that self-mutilation, but the interesting thing about the Spanish character is that the Spaniard did not care. On the contrary, he joined in the act and felt progressive as well as self-righteous. The country had committed moral suicide and was proud of it. Under the circumstances it is not suprising that the Reformation, which made such an impact on the rest of Europe, would be rejected in Spain.”[5] It is fascinating to ponder the sovereignty of God in wondering why the Inquisition and the Reformation coincided. While Spain was feeling so convicted to the point of killing people that did not adhere to the Catholic faith, the Reformation was setting Catholics free all over Europe. Spain chose the path of darkness they chose a Counter Reformation. The Inquisition was so effective in Spain that all of Protestant history from the time of the Inquisition in the 1400’s to the 1800’s could probably be written in one paragraph. M. Geutierrez, a Spanish author has said, “That we know of, during the 18th century there did not exist in Spain a single group of ‘evangelicos’.”
Two Windows Shut on the Protestant Church:
As mentioned just briefly the Inquisition began as a purity movement against wayward Christians and it ended up being a three century long ethnic cleansing of Jews and Muslims. However, once the Jews and Muslims were either converted or killed the Inquisition began to refocus its evil energy toward Protestants. Through national solidarity, financial wealth, spiritual awakening inside the monastic arm with the likes of St. Teresa of Avilia and St. John of the Cross, the Catholic Church saw itself in Spain as going through a Reformation of its own. However, through all of this “reformation” never did it occur to them that killing, persecuting, and torturing human beings even fellow Christians, was unethical.
The first missionary efforts came to Spain in the forms of English and Scottish men. From 1834 to 1867 there was a small window for Protestants to work in Spain. Finally, in 1834 there was a law that passed that stated the Inquisition as finally over and therefore that it would be illegal to harm Protestants, Jews, or Muslims. But as it is with any law against racism and religious prejudice, what it says on paper in the capital city is a far cry from what is practiced in the villages and in the streets. The rest of Western Europe saw the passing of the law as their window to bring the gospel to Spain. However the window was slammed shut by an unofficial continuation of the Inquisition and dozens of Protestants, both national and foreign were put in prison, and killed. Protestants who were not killed or imprisoned were exiled to Gibraltar and ordered to stay there or receive the death penalty. Vought says of this time, “The atmosphere had been very hostile and the fact that any groups (Protestant) at all were meeting was quiet an accomplishment.”[6]
The next window of opportunity came in 1931-1935 with the formation of a Republic in Spain and the brewing of a Civil War. The years of 1868-1930 however were significant years and the Protestant church actually saw growth while underground. The more the Spanish government tried to imprison and exile them, the more and more tiny churches popped up all over Spain. But during this window of the Republic from 1931-1935 it was the first time in the history of Spain that it was actually legal to be a Protestant in Spain. It was the desire of the Republic to become like the other nations in Europe, to have economic and religious freedom. In the papers in London the headlines read, “Spain is Catholic no more.” During this time there was a massive anticlerical movement in Spain and many nationals burned churches and several accounts of abuse on priests were reported.
The only problem during this time was that the Republic was shaky. They drafted well over a dozen different constitutions and in regards to religion they were so sick of being told what to believe that it really was not a fruitful field for Protestant mission work. And even though the window was open for four years it was slammed shut by the Civil War (1936-1939) and the beginning of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Although the statistics prove that there were no more than eight missionaries in all of Spain during the 1930’s one bright spot was the amount of literature being printed and distributed in the country with regards to salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
Franco in many respects was similar to Isabella and Ferdinand. He was approved by Rome to be their man to keep Spain Catholic. The church actually help fund the Civil War. The death tolls and the gravity of the War, much like the Inquisition was devastating. Over a million Spaniards were dead at the hands of their brothers and to this day the effects of the War are still being felt, not only financially but also with general distrust for anything smelling of authority or religiosity. At the end of the war Franco and the Catholic Church were the rulers of Spain and the doors to progress were again closed.
Underground Work during Franco’s Regime:
One could wonder, “What did the Catholic powers of Spain have to fear by the Protestant movement?” The Protestant church in Spain had never been a large group, only about 6,000 just before Franco took power. They posed no political threat. They had never participated in any of the violent acts against the clergy or the Church burnings (although they had been blamed and punished for many of these). All their schools had been closed and they had zero influence over the youth of the nation. Very few ministers remained, and those that did very likely had a political-criminal record that would keep them from legally exercising their ministry or any other profession again. They had no leadership. Yet they were considered enemies of the State. Why would such a disenfranchised minority be seen as such a threat? The answer for Franco and for Spain and for Rome was the fear of ideas. What would happen if the Spanish people were allowed to think and decide for themselves? All of this oppression on the Protestants was sadly, only a result of oppression on Catholic Spain itself.
The Protestant church actually grew and was well organized as it had to be to survive the regime of Franco. Over fifty churches were allowed to open during this time and the number of Protestants actually swelled to over 50,000. This number is debated but it is important to note that the Protestants of this time were working together to try to achieve religious freedom. They used forms of peaceful protest and letters to Franco himself to plea for their right to worship privately. The church however was oppressed by the state not recognizing its marriages as legal or giving their dead places to be buried. The churches could not have signs out front and every member who was baptized had to be registered with the state. These were more ways in which Catholic Spain would control her people.
Current Protestant Situation in Spain:
Needless to say by the time of Franco’s death in 1975 Spain had seen enough. They had been moving politically more and more liberal and religiously they became more and more disgusted with the church. Three years after the death of Franco in 1978 Spain drafted a new constitution allowing freedom of religion and that constitution is still in place today. It is hard to imagine a Western European country more disenfranchised with church then Spain. As Christopher Matthews highlights the evangelicals of Spain represent .40% of its population. This is the lowest in all the countries in the European Union.
Secularization has swept through Spain and has proven to be much more liberating than a belief in Christ has ever been according to the Spaniards. The World Biblical Database has documentation of 110,000 Evangelicals currently living in Spain. When compared to 40 million Catholics there is no doubt that the church in Spain is not viable and is in dire need of the Spirit of God to be poured out on its churches. Christopher Matthews and Todd Johnson point out that the largest non-Catholic presence in Spain is the Philadelphia (Gypsy) Church which makes up 180,000 believers. Matthews has many good things to say about the way the Gypsy church in Spain is self propagated and self financed however the leadership structure within the church is in need of organization. There are roughly 3,516 Protestant churches in Spain with a national average of 53 members per church. Todd Johnson scores the Spanish population as a 31 in the category of Evangelistic Response. While this may appear low more optimistic missionaries would consider this as a ray of hope.
The spiritual condition in Spain as a whole is dismal. They have moved from one of the most Christian populations in the entire world to one of the most secular and narcissistic. The Catholic Church is dying a slow death with less than 30% of its members in mass on a weekly basis and to this point the Protestant Church has not been able to answer the deepest needs of the Spanish people. So what does the future look like for the evangelization of Spain? Some missionaries, like Christopher Matthews are so optimistic, they are looking past this question and asking deeper, more missiological questions like, “how is God going to use the Spaniards again for missions?” There are many strategic strategies for reaching the Spanish and many of them will be discussed in the next section.
Current Strategies to re-Reach Spain:
Historically in Spain Protestant missions agencies have employed Spanish nationals to reach their own people. Although this worked for a time during some of the most tumultuous seasons of Spanish history there are too many holes in the system to implement this strategy now. Spaniards are naturally skeptical of religion and when they see their brothers being paid to make converts they grow cynical and doubt the authenticity of the national worker. They have, for most of their history, distrusted foreigners and this compounds to the feelings of being manipulated and truly questions the motivations of the national worker.
Similar questions arise in the Spanish mindset when missionaries themselves come to work in Spain. Spaniards wonder why they do not have to work normal jobs and they wonder who is making a profit off of the fact that they become a Protestant? They have difficulty understanding why the missionary has a nice apartment or house a new car, sends his children to special schools, and gets a years vacation every four years, while he (the Spaniard) works as hard, but has much less. It does little good to try to explain what the missionary left to go to Spain he is still misunderstood and subject to criticism.
For these reasons, tent making has been a strategy that has proven beneficial in Spain. By working at least part time by using their skills, the missionaries have not lost credibility and are not seen as lazy or trying to get paid for converts. With the economy being extremely stable in Spain just now as a result of moving to the Euro, there is little reason why missionaries could not use this strategy and find it very fruitful.
Another strategy that has proven worthy over the last 50 years has been the evangelistic campaign. By renting out bull fighting rings or soccer arenas thousands of Spaniards can come to a campaign and hear the gospel proclaimed by competent, authentic evangelicals. John Blake through the organization called DECISION, helped to organize at least 40 church plants using this strategy. They would target an area for at least three weeks and us the first two weeks to distribute literature and answer any questions regarding faith and Christ. Then the last week would be spent with a massive concert like experience in the bull ring or arena or town hall.
What is so wonderful about this method is the focus on church planting. It is horrifying to see the number of missionaries who are currently living and working in Spain that have no connection or goals of church planting. With the statistics as bad as they are one simply has to be connected in planting churches in some way otherwise we are missing the Trinitarian focus of unity and community that followers of Christ are privileged to have.
Organizations like the Campus Crusade, and the Navigators found their way into Spain during the 1970’s and other parachurch methods like them have found moderate success. While it is wonderful to make converts again the difficulty here is having a viable, healthy church to place these people. Church planting again, must coincide with these parachurch efforts for Spain to become re-reached. However what these parachurch organizations bring in the manner of Christians authentically living out their faith is invaluable. The Spanish youth are astute and can sniff out false religion in a second. By building trust and relationship with college age students in Spain, discipleship and leadership development for the future of the church is possible.
Authenticity can not be highlighted enough for future of missions work in Spain. Juan Antonio Monroy, a Spanish Christian, had this to say about the foreign missionaries he encountered during the seventies and eighties, “In general these missionaries lack trustworthy accreditation. They introduce themselves into local congregations and divide the will of its members. They exalt themselves even if they have to destroy the pastor and part of the church. Tremendously superficial, they are incapable of a work that requires any effort. They make the local church their small colony in which to impose the laws and customs of their country of origin. They practice demagoguery as accomplished governors. They are clever, astute, calculating, cunning. Once they are in the churches, they scheme, confuse, entangle, plot, manage and maneuver until they accomplish their ends. They never build. They always undermine and finish destroying.”[7]
While Monroy’s words are strong and even though many other Spanish evangelicals would strongly disagree with him, we do need to be culturally sensitive to the mindset of Spanish views of missionaries. One way to do this is to do missions alongside of the local church. Most missionaries who have written on their experiences in Spain and what has been most beneficial have concluded that the relationship between the missionaries and the nationals has been at its best when the missionaries come in as learners building trust with the Spaniards and guiding them rather than directing them.
Outreach is a method of evangelism that has taken to hold is some areas. By showing practical love to their neighbors with no strings attached many Spaniards have come to see the true conversion of their brothers and sisters. This is something that all churches in Spain can implement simply to show the world around them that they are authentic in loving God and loving people.
Dale Vought concludes that what Spain needs more than anything else are spiritual leaders. Not only from within the boarders of Spain but spiritual leaders who would come to Spain with no pretense but to live out their Christian lives while rubbing shoulders with the Spaniards.
Christopher Matthews has a much more aggressive approach to winning the Spanish and making disciples of all nations. In his doctoral work he argues that the Spanish are adventurous by nature, where else would we get the likes of Christopher Columbus, De Soto, and Cortez? Matthews is working with the Spanish in attempts to regain that adventurous side and to see themselves as missionaries to the unreached world around them.
The way Matthews sees the situation in Spain is that it would be a tragedy to re-reach the Spanish for Christ without properly teaching them their Biblical duty to “go into all the world and make disciples.” One can hardly disagree with this noble task but as Matthews points out the task is daunting. He concludes that there are three areas of difficulties in attempting to mobilize the Spanish for cross-cultural work.
First of all he points out that the pool to draw from is extremely thin. If there are, on average, 53 members in each congregation all over Spain, the odds of each church having members to do cross cultural missions are slim. Secondly, he adds that there is major disorganization in outreach even among their home congregations. Matthews argues that the biblical understanding for a theology of mission and outreach is desperately lacking in the Spanish church. Thirdly, he very bluntly highlights the generations and generations of cultural superiority that is well ingrained in the Spanish mindset. Although this is a huge generalization we do need to take into account that the Spanish have not been the most tolerant and loving of other ideas, cultures, and beliefs. Although this is changing as they become more and more secularized it is a major hurdle for cross-cultural ministry for Spaniards.
Matthews suggests a highly organized short-term mission’s focus for Spaniards to travel to places like Cuba, Mexico, and Morocco to learn on the field and to see the work of God all over the world. One has to pride Matthews for his great work in this area. One can only imagine if Evangelicalism and missions caught fire in Spain. They were at one time the powerhouse of colonialization and if they could humble themselves to go back and to preach with fervor a message of the resurrected Christ and salvation by grace through faith in him, what an impact the Spanish could have on the world. The can be mobalized in North Africa, they can be mobilized in North, Central, and South America. God has truly gifted them with the skills of leadership and communication, the only question left unanswered is will they accept His leadership and revealed communication as found in the Scriptures.
The words of the 19th century Spanish Evangelical, should take us home. Antonio Carrasco was invited to speak at the International meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Amsterdam in 1866, speaking very passionately he asked the congregation gathered, “Is it the foreigner or the Spaniard that ought to work for a religious reformation in Spain?” The obvious answer was; the Spanish. Later he would quote the French historian on Spain Rosseeuv Saint Hilaire saying, “As Italy, Spain aspires to stamp the seal of its nationality on its own religion. Brothers in service as in the faith, it is necessary that the two Peninsulas work out their own Reformation, instead of receiving it from the outside.” It was a great and noble thought, but it was also an impossible dream as Carrasco realized. He would end his presentation by saying, “If you feel encouraged by the example of the Apostle Paul, come, whoever you are, and from whatever nation, Spain awaits you. Labor in the vast field, and with the dew of heaven you will reap an abundant harvest for the Lord; but if the love of the Lord does not consume you, I plead with you dearly, do not come and destroy with your imprudent zeal a work that has not ceased to progress, in spite of our inexperience and our weakness…”[8]
It is my conclusion as the author of this paper after much reading and study on the country of Spain that the needs for evangelical growth are as follows and they need to be in this order. 1. Appropriate answers to secularization and questions about absolute truth. 2. Freedom from oppressive religiosity and a radical encounter with the risen Lord. 3. Leadership development. 4. Mobilization for cross-cultural ministry. This can happen as God raises up as those whom as Carrasco said, “the love of the Lord consumes them” from both inside the country and out.
[1] Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1988), 518.
[2] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 16.
[3] Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity. (New York, Harper Collins Press, 2004), 113.
[4] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 21
[5] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 22.
[6] Ibid, 79.
[7] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 339.
[8] Dale Vought, Like a Flickering Flame. (Seville 2001), 351.
