History Makers: Miguel Núñez

Stephen Nichols (SN): We are delighted and privileged to have with us a very special guest, a friend of Ligonier Ministries and a friend of Dr. Sproul, Pastor Miguel Núñez. Pastor Núñez, welcome.

Miguel Núñez (MN): Thank you. It's good to be here.

SN: Let me provide a little background on Pastor Núñez. First, I should be calling him Dr. Dr. Núñez because he has two careers. He earned his M.D. and actually was a professor at Mount Sinai in New York and practiced as an internist, and then he felt God's call either to start a Francis Schaeffer-like ministry or to plant a church. And he ended up planting a church. So he planted Iglesia Bautista Internacional in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. And he is also president of a ministry there, which serves not only the DR but also Latin America, called Integrity and Wisdom. I'll let Pastor Núñez give the official name.

MN: It is Integridad y Sabiduría in Spanish.

SN: We'll take your word for it, Dr. Núñez. So you were much like Martyn Lloyd-Jones, aren't you? You had your own medical career.

MN: I think I'm not in that league. But I am a physician and I am a pastor.

SN: What led you to plant a church in Santo Domingo?

MN: When I left Santo Domingo in 1982, I never thought I would go back. And then at some point, years later, after being immersed into the Christian life and reading about church history a little bit and realizing how needed a true, biblical Christianity was in Latin America, I began to think about my own country. For two years, every six months or so, I went to do some medical missions trips. And then the Lord opened my eyes to a sector of the population that is large and not reached with the gospel. And that sector is people who had been educated. Most of the missionary work has been done with people of low education, because of the language barriers, etc. And then I realized, as I looked at church history, that until the educated sector of the population is reached, you have to continue to depend upon the work of people from outside the country, because you need human resources and financial resources from the same country to reach your own people. So, the Lord gave me a passion for that. We went back in May 1997 and then in January 1998 and we began to work with the Dominican people. I continued to pastor a church that was already there for English-speaking people, which I did for about seven years or so.

SN: Should we be encouraged about what is happening in Latin America?

MN: Absolutely. I think we are seeing things today that ten years ago we never dreamed we would see. There's a new generation of people between the age of twenty and thirty-five or forty who are really waking up to what Reformed theology is. I think what we had prior to this time was a version of Christianity that lacked maturity and lacked a biblical focus. In many ways, it was very emotional and it depended a lot upon extrabiblical revelation. But there's a new generation that is now waking up to what biblical Christianity is. And I think the fact that we are so interconnected now, which allows people to listen to all kinds of teachers and preachers from all over the world, has contributed significantly to what is going on in Latin America. So yes, there is a new hunger—I wouldn't call it a revival; I'm calling this an awakening of what biblical Christianity is, and a new interest on the part of a new generation.

SN: Dr. Núñez, thank you. Church history is an ongoing, written book. And we look forward to the chapters that will be written with those folks from the Dominican Republic and from Latin America.

MN: Thank you for the opportunity to share about this new work of God in our region.