Since September 11th there has been a new urgency for the church to ask what approach is best for mission in the clash of civilisation. Should the church stay with the 19th century model focused on the Great Commission, with an increased emphasis on people groups; should the church focus more on Ephesians 6 and spiritual warfare; or should the church look to John 1 and incarnation mission for its inspiration?
Note: This article was written in 2001
Teymour Shaheeni
According to Western leaders the war in Afghanistan is against terrorism, but according to many Muslims, it is the clash of civilisations, as foreseen by Samuel Huntington in the early 1990s1. However long before September 11th, 2001, Iran and the West have been in the midst of a clash of civilisation. Indeed Ayatollah Khomeini once stated- 'Iran is effectively at war with America.'2 And despite the gentler face of Iran that President Khatami gives to the world, this quasi-war continues and is being intensified by the present war in Afghanistan. The crucial question for Christians then is this - what sort of mission succeeds when there is a clash of civilisations?
1. THE REALIITY OF THE QUASI WAR
There is no doubt about its reality: the US government classifies Iran as a 'terrorist state', maintains a strict policy of economic sanctions against the country; has frozen all the assets of the Iranian government in the USA; and is planning a missile shield in response to the expectation that Iran and other 'rogue' states will soon have nuclear weapons3. For its part, the Islamic regime in Iran, has always branded the USA, as the 'Shatan Bozorg' (the big Satan) and the slogan 'Death to America' is still chanted at political rallies. In government speeches, the West and Israel are always to blame for the woes of the world. Though Iranians leaders condemned the September 11th attacks, they have also supported the street rumour that the attacks were orchestrated by Israel4.
Iran and the West have fought each other through third parties in Palestine, Somalia, and Bosnia. Iran has not only generously funded the Palestinians, but has also trained their soldiers. Iran also played a crucial role in extending Islamic influence throughout Somalia and the Horn of Africa. The plans for ousting the US led UN force, which happened in March 1994, were made in Tehran, and were executed by mainly Sudanese soldiers trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps5. Iran took the lead in 1992 in denouncing the Christian Serbs for genocide in Bosnia and persuaded the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to create a lobby group at the U.N. That same year 400 Iranian Republican Guards took over the training and arming6 of the Bosnian army. When the Dayton agreement ruled that all foreign combatants had to leave, Bosnia registered the Iranians as aid workers.
It is not just the governments of the West and Iran that are in a state of quasi-war; ordinary people also have a tendency to be mistrustful of the West's political intentions. Hardly any Iranian would actually support Israel and no Iranian would say it is all right for Israel to have the nuclear option (as well as the other nuclear powers) and not Iran. And most Iranians believe the West is imperialist and a threat to the Iranian culture. The last Shah was not only seen as the West's political puppet, but as a conduit for corrupt Western culture. So, Iranians who support the 1979 revolution are anti West, and almost all Iranians who do not support the government are also anti Western. The latter believe the revolution was ordered by Washington and brought about by the BBC7. So Iranians blame the West - whatever their politics. The bombing in Afghanistan will only harden this attitude. The quasi war is a reality - but so is God's mission in Christ to the world.
2. MISSION PARADIGMS FOR QUASI-WAR
Like Christ who ministered in a culture at war with the super power of the day and eventually died supposedly as a pawn in this ongoing clash, Christians today are still called to minister in the midst of this clash of civilisation.
The urgent question of the hour though is - what is Christian mission in the midst of a clash of civilisation? There are four main approaches or paradigms8 to the above question, all of which have great validity, and all of which are having a decisive spiritual impact on mission work. However it is important to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to see what sort of combination is most likely to produce effective Christian mission in the Iran Region.
The Enlightenment Paradigm
This term refers to the way mission has been seen for almost the last two hundred years. Thoroughly Biblical, this paradigm draws on both the conviction it is God's will for Christ's Gospel to be preached to the unreached and the confidence in the individual, science, and progress as espoused by the European 18th century enlightenment9. It is an intensely optimistic paradigm, reflecting the 'can do' attitude of the era. So in 1900 over 200,000 people, attended the New York Missionary Convention where the slogan was: 'The Evangelisation of the World in this generation.10' True to the mood of the age, this optimism was based not so much on an expectation of miracles, but of 'industry and zeal', with 'the principles of reasons and the dictates of common-sense blending happily with the designs of providence.11'
The Enlightenment Paradigm was completely Western. The individuals responding to the call were Westerners; the science they were taking was Western; and the progress they believed in was Western. Indeed at the start of the 20th century there would be no serious clash of civilisations. Western Christian civilisation was manifestly destined12 to dominate.
This paradigm was incredibly successful in areas where the home civilization was weak. But with a civilisation stretching back thousands of years it faltered in Iran. To be fair to many missionaries to Iran, they did all they could to make Christianity Persian, and churches were planted. But there was no major growth, as most Iranians felt that to become Christian meant joining another civilisation13. Also in a country where community is your life, the individualistic approach inherent in the enlightenment approach was difficult for the Iranian to accept. So long before Huntington published his book, the Western missionary endeavour to Iran was a partly a casualty in the clash of civilisations.
The Enlightenment paradigm still exerts a lot of influence today as it was so dominant in the last century, and, in response to the clear Biblical command to help the poor, the West still has a lot of technology to offer. Furthermore, relief and aid programmes are often the only type of Church programmes that some countries will accept. So it would be unwise to completely reject the enlightenment paradigm - but we need to be aware of its limitations, especially in countries like Iran.
The Spiritual Mapping Paradigm
Christian mission has always stressed the importance of spiritual warfare - but in recent years the whole concept has been taken further so people can think of there being a 'spiritual mapping' paradigm, This sees mission primarily as being a matter of winning spiritual battles in the heavenly places by successfully identifying whom the ruling spirits of geographical regions are. This explains the importance of 'spiritual mapping'14. Once the battle in a particular area has been won against a territorial spirit, then the blessing of heaven opens and thousands come to Christ. This type of thinking has been popularised though the novels of Frank Peretti such as 'This Present Darkness', but it also dominates the thinking of respected mission strategists such as Peter Wagner and George Otis Jr.
There is much that is positive in this approach to mission, not least the way it has raised the level of intercession, which has brought about real results15. The fact that hundreds, sometimes thousands, have gathered to pray God's blessing into spiritually hard countries is immensely important and its power should not be underestimated for a moment. However two notes of caution16 should be noted regarding the Iran Region: this paradigm tends to demonise an entire culture, and ultimately prayer can never replace preaching.
Wagner insists that entire cultures and social institutions are demonised - 'Social structures are not in themselves demonic, but they can be and often are demonised by some extremely pernicious and dominating demonic personalities, which I call territorial spirits'17 Some would seriously question whether this is taught in the Bible18, and many would be very cautious as such thinking encourages people to assume that countries like Iran are completely demonised. Most cultures have aspects that are evil, aspects that are neutral, and aspects that are Godly. To focus too exclusively on the demonic cannot only lead to imaginative speculation, but also it is almost bound to alienate and antagonise both Christian and non Christian Iranians. For as Westerners point to parts of Iran's culture they might consider demonic, so too the Iranian can point to parts of the Western culture, such as pornography and the high divorce rate that they consider demonic.
Another note of caution to be aware of in this approach is that while rightly stressing the absolute necessity of prayer for overthrowing evil, the need for preachers, incarnated among the unreached, can be pushed into the background. In other words, this approach should always be considered as a healthy prayer movement, but should not be allowed to become a mission paradigm as such.
The People Group Paradigm
If you type 'unreached people groups' into an internet search engine, you will need at least a day to visit all the sites that come up. It is clearly an emerging mission paradigm. At the heart of the paradigm is the belief that the Great Commission applies not to every nation, but to every ethnic group. According to the International Baptist Mission this means - 'grouping the peoples of the world by the common factor of their ethnicity and language rather than geographic or political boundaries'. Given that researchers claim that Iran has nearly 50 such groups19, this approach is obviously very relevant to our discussion.
The paradigm is a development from the enlightenment one, but such are the changes it deserves to be recognised as a very definite alternative. Like the enlightenment paradigm it is intensely optimistic. All the leaders of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, the most well known advocate of this approach, stated in the mid 1990's that they believed the evangelisation of all the unreached people groups was possible by the year 2000. They have remained faithful to the 19th century. slogan, 'The evangelisation of the world in our generation'20. And like missionaries in the enlightenment age they believe this depends not just on God fulfilling His Word, but on committed Christians applying natural reason to harness the technological advances of science for the missionary cause. However this paradigm is markedly different from the enlightenment one. There is a determined attempt to put the local sending church centre stage21; because of research there is a great awareness of the complexity of the needs of the unreached group22; the whole emphasis is on breaking down denominational barriers; the movement is not Western led23; and in this paradigm mother churches will have no authority over new churches24.
This paradigm is having a very positive effect on mission - but it seems to have one weakness, which would apply to every country, and a major flaw when applied to Iran. The general weakness of the paradigm is that it is not strong on the question of how the gospel is going to penetrate an unreached group. There is an assumption that just by raising up many more missionaries, then somehow the church will grow. But as much of the Muslim World has shown - any number of missionaries can go, but there has been little church growth. So though this paradigm is excellent in analysing need and excellent in emphasizing the importance of starting indigenous people movements, the way this comes about via the arrival of a foreign missionary is not spelt out.
The major flaw for Iran is that by dividing the country into people groups, it militates against the Iranian's sense of history. An identifiable Persian civilization stretches back for 2,500 years - how dare foreign Christians come and cut up it up!25 It offends their passionate love for the Persian language. The fact that some Iranians speak different dialects is irrelevant - they are all united by Persian. And finally such an approach seems imperialistic and aggressive. When foreigners try to court minority groups with an alien religion, this has political overtones in normal times. In the midst of a clash of civilisations it could be fatal.
Again, it is important to stress that as with the enlightenment and spiritual mapping approaches, there is still much to be gained by the people group emphasis. But as with the others, it is important to be aware of its limitations.
Incarnation
Another paradigm that has been emerging since the 1970s26 is the incarnation paradigm. This does not mean extreme contexualisation where there is no clear division between Christian and non-Christian, rather the priority is for both the unique message of Christ and the messenger to be incarnated within the culture being reached. The theologians of this paradigm reject the concept of mission as one group of Christians (usually Westerners), imposing a systematic theology of absolute dogmas, formulated in an alien culture, on people living in another culture. Rather the plea was for 'An experimental theology in which an ongoing dialogue is taking place between text and context.'27
At a practical level this approach became important partly in response to McGavarn's work on church growth. McGavern rejected the concept of a 'resistant' people, insisting there are responsive people in every culture. The key was to present the gospel in ways whereby people did not have to cross cultural barriers28. Incarnation also became important as mission agencies became acutely aware of the limitations of the enlightenment paradigm in the post 2nd World War environment29. This was especially true for mission to the Muslim World, where there was so little to show for years of missionary effort.
Missionaries to the Muslim world who adopted an incarnation approach saw results. In Bangladesh in the 1970s several thousand Muslims became believers in Jesus and worshipped in Jamat (Muslim style churches). After observing this movement, Phil Parshall wrote 'New Paths in Muslim Evangelism'30 which argues very convincingly for the incarnation paradigm31.
In Kazakhstan 15,000 Muslims have come to Christ in the last ten years. They have come because they have not had to cross cultural barriers. Doug Boyle an Australian missionary who has trained over 100 Kazakhi Muslim background pastors is very strict about keeping the Christian message contextualized. Pastors do not wear alien symbols like crosses; Christians are not called Christians, but believers; the Bible is not called the Bible, but the Torah (law) Zabor (Psalms) and Injil (Gospel); and no Westerners attend their conferences as the agenda is how to make the Christian message more relevant to their culture. The incarnation approach has also been highly effective in non-Muslim countries such as Kenya32, China33, and the USA34.
Mission to Iran needs to build on the work of the enlightenment, spiritual mapping, and people group approaches - but needs to focus mainly on the incarnation paradigm, which has four main strengths. Most relevant to this article, an emphasis on incarnation rescues mission to Iran from the clash of civilisation. Unlike the other approaches discussed, this paradigm does not put the focus on delivery from the outside, so exacerbating the clash, but on making sure the Christian message can be born from the inside. Here the emphasis is not on motivating people to go, as with the other paradigms, but on the how of incarnation. Indeed this paradigm, like Gideon of old, would tend to sift people, as ultimately there is little point in going, if the cost of incarnation is not accepted. In this paradigm it is very much a question of quality, not quantity.
Secondly the whole focus of this paradigm is to break down cultural barriers to give Iranians the opportunity to respond to the Gospel. This does not mean that the church has to either compromise her faith or cut off all links with her international family and history, but it means making every effort to remove any symbols that speak more of another civilisation, rather than Christ Himself. Already many Iranians are jumping the vast chasm between their culture and Christianity. It is thrilling to think what would happen if that chasm were narrowed.
The third advantage of incarnation is that it completely bypasses the question of whether mission should be left to just Iranians or whether foreigners have a role. Given the evidence for the clash of civilisation, some conclude there is no role for the foreign missionary, especially the Western ones35. The incarnation paradigm though avoids this national versus foreigner divide and challenges both to become incarnate. The question ultimately is not whether missionaries are Iranian or not, but whether they have sacrificially incarnated themselves into the Iranian culture they want to reach36. Obviously it is much easier for the Iranian to incarnate himself, and that is why Elam focuses on training nationals. However in this paradigm - all are welcome, if they are willing to pay the price, which cannot be anything, less than a life-long commitment to incarnation. As Phil Parshall says - 'Effective Muslim evangelism simply cannot be accomplished within minimal time commitments'.37
The final strength of the Incarnation Paradigm is that it is thoroughly Biblical, taking us to the heart of the God of the Bible in at least two ways. It affirms that God in Christ incarnated himself in the ordinary details of everyday life of 1st century. Palestine, which meant both Christ's character and message, were born out of that context38. Put bluntly: God's mission was incarnation. Secondly it affirms that as self-sacrificial love rules in the heart of the Godhead, it must also be at the heart of mission. So in Paul's hymn regarding God's mission in Christ we read: 'being born in the likeness of men…he became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.'39 And then ultimately self-sacrifice is the foundation of genuine success41 - '…even death on a cross - therefore God has highly exalted him…'.
3. SUMMING UP
Long before September 11th Iran and the Christian West were in a state of quasi war. So - whither mission in the clash of civilisation?
Some mission agencies are tempted to rely on the old certainties of the enlightenment paradigm, of showing the supremacy of the Christian gospel by presenting the wonders of Western civilisation, but this approach was never very successful in Iran even before Khomeini launched his revolution. Others are attracted to the spiritual mapping approach, which is an excellent way of stimulating intercessory prayer, but it should never be allowed to become an alternative mission paradigm. Many are active supporters of the people group paradigm, which places a very healthy emphasis on researching the ethnic group to be reached, but presents a serious problem in the case of Iran, as it undermines the country's unity.
As seen, all these approaches have important strengths, but these need to be combined with a real commitment to the incarnation paradigm, which reflects the way God in Christ conducted His mission. Moreover it is the only approach that has produced any measure of success in the Muslim world. By training nationals in a completely Iranian college, this is the paradigm that Elam seeks to follow. Once back in Iran - they show that it is possible to be a follower of Jesus without betraying a civilisation that stretches back 2,500 years. Shining as Christians, incarnate in their own culture, we believe the church will grow through their witness.
Teymour Shaheeni lectures on Christian Mission.
1
Samuel P. Huntington 'The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of the World Order' Touchstone, 1997. With the collapse of communism the West needed a new paradigm to understand foreign affairs, and Huntington provided it: 'In the post-Cold war world, the most dangerous conflicts will not be between social classes, rich and poor, or other economically defined groups, but between people belonging to different cultural entities.'
2
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Islam and Revolution p 305
3
In 1991 Iran's vice-President, Mir Hussein Mousavi, told an Islamic conference - 'Since Israel continues to possess nuclear weapons, we, the Muslims, must cooperate to produce an atom bomb, regardless of U.N. attempts to prevent proliferation. China has licensed Iran to build nuclear reactors, and has sold missile guidance systems via North Korea.
4
This claim was made at the Friday prayers on 14th September, 2001 by H. Rafsanjani, the former president, and one of the most powerful men in the country. There is of course not a shred of evidence for this, but such claims can be made in a country where there has never been a truly free press and people are used to looking for scapegoats.
5
For a full account of the ousting of the US from Somalia see chapter 3, 'Triumph Over The Paper Tiger' in Yossef Bodansky's biography of Bin Laden (Primapublisher)
6
Shipments of weapons worth $2 billion originated in Iran - see Huntington p. 288.
7
The theory is that Iran under the Shah was starting to pose an economic threat to the West, so the West played the religious card, made an unknown Ayatollah famous, and sent him back to Iran to plunge the country into medieval darkness. The West then employed their usual tactic of divide and rule and encouraged Saddam Hussein to attack Iran. After both sides had been severely weakened, the US sided openly with Iraq by shooting down an Iranian passenger plane in the Gulf, so forcing Khomeini to drink what he called the 'poisonous cup' of peace.
8
The whole issue of mission paradigms is explored in David Bosch's magisterial work: 'Transforming Mission - Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission.' His essential thesis is that both in the Bible and in Church History there have always been paradigm shifts in mission. So for example in the OT mission was a call to Jerusalem; in the NT mission is from Jerusalem. The Enlightenment Paradigm has been dominant for the last two hundred years, but is now weakening. So the church is in the midst of a paradigm shift.
9
So Bosch ' The entire Western missionary movement emerged from the matrix of the Enlightenment.'
10
The slogan was first adopted by the US Student Volunteer Association in 1889.
11
Bosch p.335
12
With enlightenment mission there is a sense of 'manifest national destiny'. It is a very powerful concept as it feeds off both the biblical idea of a chosen people, and modern nationalism, which had filled the emotional vacuum, left by the departure of royalty in most of the West.The Anglo-Saxon Puritans in the USA especially believed they had been divinely mandated to guide history to its end. So in 1800 Nathaniel Emmons mused - 'This (i.e. the Americans) is probably the last peculiar people God means to form before the kingdoms or this world are absorbed into the kingdom of Christ.'. Belief in being a chosen people and the missionary obligation were so mixed that the American Mission Board founded in 1810 declared it wanted to enlist not only Christians - but also patriots.
13
The same point could be made for the entire Muslim world.
14
Dick Bernal, quoted with approval by Wagner states - 'I cannot be too emphatic. In dealing with the princes and rulers of the heavenlies, they must be identified.'
15
Both in a country in North Africa and the Middle East missionaries testify to more people responding to the Gospel as a result of prayer walking.
16
A third note of caution would be that some would argue the spiritual mapping emphasis is not wholly Biblical. See 'A Critical Look At A New Key To Evangelism' by Mike Wakely for an excellent critique of the spiritual mapping paradigm. Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Vol. 31, number 2, April 1995.
17
Wagner: Warfare Prayer, p.96
18
Jesus tell us that demons are looking for individuals to dwell in (Matthew 12:43 - 46) not institutions, and rather than demonise Nero's government, Paul tells us it has been appointed by God, and along with Peter, he tells us to pray for the authorities (Romans 13: 1-7; 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Peter 2:13-17). This way of seeing things also puts Satan and demons centre stage. Indeed in an ironic way it comes closer both to the dualism of ancient Persia's Zoroastrianism and the old heresy of Gnosticism, where the key to success was managing to identify the powers that controlled the heavenlies.
19
Afghan Persian, Afshari, Astiani, Balkan Rom Gypsy, Brahui, Gabri, Ghorbati Gypsy, Gilaki, Gujarati, Gurani, Harzani, Hazara Beberi, Herki Kurd, Iranian Arab, Jamshidi, Jewish, Jewish Tat, Judeo Persian, Karakalpak, Karingani, Khorasani Turk, Khunsari, Larestani, Luri, Mazanderani, Mussulman Tat, Northern Kurd, Persian, Persian Bantu, Punjabi, Qashqai, Semnani, Shikaki Kurd, Southern Baluch, Southern Kurd, Tadzhik, Takistani, Talysh, Teymur, Turkmen, Urdu, Vafsi, Western Baluch, Western Pathan, Zott Gypsy. (This list is from Bethany bible college)
20
So Ralph Winter and and Bruce Kock in 'Finishing the Task': 'We are in the final era of missions. For the first time in history it is possible to see the end of the tunnel….';
21
Hence the continual appeal for churches to 'adopt' a particular unreached people group (a very patronising concept). This means the church should find out all they can regarding the group, pray regularly, and eventually send out a missionary to this group. It is the ratio of churches to unreached groups that gives this paradigm so much optimism. So Ralph Winter and and Bruce Kock in 'Finishing the Task' -'The job (of reaching the unreached) is large, but relatively small for the enormous body of believers around the world. There are approximately 670 churches in the world for every remaining unreached unimax* people group'
22
'We have virtually finished the task of analysing the need. We know the bounds of the task as never before' Patrick Johnson Paper given to Global Connections Conference, 11th November 1999
23
It is led by non-Westerners. Four of the key leaders of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement are: Luis Bush, International Director, from Argentina; Thomas Wang, Chairman, from Mainland China; John Richard, Associate International Director for Special Projects, from India; and Joon-Gon Kim, Chairman of the GCOWE Preparation Committee, from Korea. Given that 60,000 Koreans dedicated their lives to missionary service at Global Consultation on World Evangelization May 17-25, 1995 this claim to be non-Western is not empty rhetoric.
24 'The essential missionary task is to establish a viable indigenous church planting movement that carries the potential to renew whole extended families and transform whole societies.' Winter and Kock.
25 It has also been argued that this approach disturbs the normal Muslim mind, which likes to think of there being a universal Muslim brotherhood.
26
There were of course many missionaries who gave their lives sacrificially to be incarnate in alien cultures before the 1970's. For example in 1606 Robert de Nobili from Portugal won over 50 Brahmans to Christ by becoming, as far as was possible, a Brahman himself. In front of his house he wrote 'I am not a (farangi)foreigner'.
27 L. Rutti, 1972, quoted by Bosch page 427
28 See Donald McGavern, 'Understanding Church Growth, chapter 12 'Without Crossing Cultural Barriers.'
29
After two world wars between two Anglo Saxon Protestant Christian missionary sending countries, which was followed by a complete breakdown in sexual morality, Western mission suffered a severe lack of confidence.
30
The full title is: 'New Paths in Muslim Evangelism - Evangelical Approaches to Contextualisation'. Published by Baker Book House
31
In the first section of the book he abolishes the idea that contextualization is for liberal theology, and clearly shows it can belong in the evangelical camp . The second half of the book is very practical and looks at customs the incarnate missionary should adopt, how there are bridges to salvation in the Islamic culture, and how a Muslim convert church should operate.
32
Vincent Donavan got frustrated with running schools and hospitals (operating in the enlightenment paradigm) and not seeing any converts in Kenya. So he asked his bishop if he could just go and preach. He gives a vivid account of how he contextualised the gospel for the Masai tribe in Kenya with stunning results in his book 'Rediscovering Christianity'. His African creed has such gems as - 'Jesus was always on safari doing good….he lay buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him…' see 'Rediscovering Christianity', page 200 (Student Christian Movement, 1980)
33
Missionary pioneers Hudson Taylor and James Fraser laid the foundation for a totally contextualized church. So when all missionaries were expelled in 1949, this church not only survived, but has grown to be the largest in the world.
34
Contextualisation is now also seen as the key to church growth in the West. Rick Warren has seen his Saddlebrook Community Church in California grow from less than 10 members to over 20,000 in twenty years. In his best-selling book, 'The Purpose Driven Church' he constantly emphasizes the need for the church to be incarnate among the responsive group it is seeking to reach
35
The English and the Americans, seen by the Iranians as the architects of Western supremacy, have formidable prejudice to overcome. But there are many other countries, such as Brazil or Korea, whose missionaries would not face any such prejudice.
36
There is Roman Catholic priest who avoided expulsion from Iran by becoming a national. This self-sacrificial act of incarnation has won him much respect.
37 Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus Road, ed. J. Woodberry. 'Lessons learned in contextualization' p.265.
38
Here is the biblical challenge to avoid set doctrines, which were born in foreign settings, and let doctrine be born in the culture.
39
Philippians 2:6-11
40
A Western foreign evangelist/healer held a rally in Karachi in the 1980's. He arrived from his five star hotel and preached to a small crowd of nominal Christians. Obediently they went forward when told to, and some came for healing prayer in front of the ever-present video camera. After the meeting the evangelist became impatient, waiting for the car to take him back to his hotel. No doubt the video communicated success - whether it was genuine or not we will find out on 'that day'.