HAS AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY IDOLIZED THE GREAT COMMISSION?
In many ways, America was a Christian nation, and still, thankfully, has many
true Christians in it. But the true is mixed in with many more who are false
professors of Christ, even among church members. Overall, the United States
seems to be apostatizing from its Christian Heritage. Some, thankfully, are
being stirred up by God’s Word and Spirit, striving to recover what has long
been forgotten, while others are continuing on faithfully, but with some bad
doctrine that has long been “normalized”.
Satan is the master of deceit, the father of lies. He lives
off of twisting the Truth, not complete or total contradictions necessarily,
just distortions and confusions that turn into a muddled mess. One of his
masterful, cunning tricks that he has been turning for many generations is turning
the “Great Commission” into something that actually hampers our ability to
reach sinners and see them built up in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
There are clear distinctions and priorities that Scripture
places before us, and the light of nature indicates to us. There is such a
thing as common sense, but that good sense can become quite distorted in a
nation that has long abandoned it, due to hard-hearted sinfulness, or bad
theology and/or philosophy, or pagan religion, propaganda politics, etc. The
devil never takes a day off.
At the same time, what God emphasizes and prioritizes cannot be imposed in the
abstract, in a vacuum. You have to see where a given people are in a nation,
and more particularly in a given state, town, and community. Particular families
and individuals must be addressed. Each level, each layer, matters, more than
we often think or realize. And this is not to say that all matter equally. But
all do matter. In fact, they do not matter equally, and when we try to equalize,
or we mis-prioritize, therein lies our problems. The devil is always in the
details, messing up the details, and thereby messing up the whole thing.
It is clear in Scripture, and evident from nature, that of great importance is
family, the Christian family, the Christian home, the covenant household. It is
incredible that some Christians and outlets, such as The Gospel Coalition,
continue to trot out articles urging us not to "make an idol" of the
family. The family in this nation has never been so torn apart, divided, and
confused. It is closer to being torn down and burned as a false idol, than
elevated on a pedestal and worshiped like a god.
We do not know what a man or woman is, children are chopping
their body parts off and taking (or are forced to take by their parents)
hormone/puberty blockers. Drag Queens dance before children, barely disguising
their lust for child flesh, and we open our libraries so these degenerates can
read to our children. But sure, the problem is we’ve idolized the family. Yeah,
right.
In many churches that are supposedly conservative and pass
as "Bible-believing", while they may have a basic understanding about
the distinctions between men and women, they still do not know what men and
women are for, what marriage is for, and frankly, hardly know what children are
for. Even if they do know in general what they are for (families serving and
worshiping God, etc.,) they do not know how to go about pursuing this. That is not
the culture of many of our churches, or even supposedly Christian families. We
have generational breakdown and backsliding, more often than we have
generational faithfulness to God and our offspring.
Even some of the most conservative Evangelical and/or
Reformed Pastors seem to wince or bend over backward to apologize for the Bible’s
teaching that not only women cannot preach or teach, but they must be silent in
the church and learn at home from their husbands, I Cor. 14:34-35. Further, Scripture
(and nature) are clear that women are to be homemakers (Titus 2:4-5),
child-bearers (I Tim. 2:15, which even connects women bearing children to their
salvation!), nurturers of their children (Prov. 22:6, Col. 3:20, etc.), and
helpmeets to their husbands (Gen. 1-3, and basically all the verses above, and many
more could be listed, but again, this should be common sense).
How many misogynistic hate crimes did I just commit,
according even to some conservative churches today? Husbands have tons of duties
and responsibilities to their wives and children, to love and lead them and
provide for them, so that the wives can be freed up to do the very things they
are called to do, etc. But in a feminized nation and church culture, even me
stating this will not “make up” for what I said above. They think I’ve committed blasphemy, when God literally says wayward
women and enabling them in culture and our churches are the ones who are
blaspheming God and His Word, Titus 2:5.
So the bad fruit of all this in our churches leads to things like having jokes
about PK's and MK's, Pastor kids and Missionary kids being notoriously ungodly
or apostate. The culture and expectation (or fear) of many churches is our
children will deny the faith for a time, sow their wild oats, and then the
church must pray and hope they have a "born again experience"
somewhere down the road. Even some staunchly doctrinal, Reformed Presbyterian
denominations have delayed communion for covenant children until they are out
of the house, and I have heard, urged not to take even until they are married
or much older, out of some misguided fear and lack of understanding of the
family and God’s working through it!
Well, what you expect and plan for is usually what you'll
get. If you look at the qualifications for Pastors/Elders in the Church, they
are to rule their own households well, with obedient and faithful/submissive
children. Otherwise, they are ordinarily disqualified from ministry. We cannot
delete that qualification anymore than we can delete the qualification that a
pastor not be a drunkard, unfaithful to their spouse, or unable to teach or be
sound in the faith. Pastors and Elders are not required to be CEO’s, slick and
suave, or massive soul-winners that lead Billy Graham-like Evangelistic
crusades. They are to be faithful to the flock, and caring for the community
around them, praying and desiring the Lord would grow and build His church there
spiritually and numerically, deep and wide. But the priority is on vitality and
spiritual health, not on numbers at the expense of spiritual health/maturity.
Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it was never rescinded. It
is still in effect. It will continue until Christ returns and we receive our
glorified bodies, Luke 20:34-35. The Dominion Mandate is given to all, directly,
for we all come from Adam. Being fruitful and multiplying is a general command
to all mankind. God’s purpose for marriage is to provide a godly seed for
Himself, His Church, and parents, Mal. 2:15.
The Great Commission, however, is NOT given to all mankind,
and is not even given to all in the Church, at least not directly. Further, if
the dominion mandate/being fruitful and multiplying is not followed and obeyed
by humanity in general, there quite obviously will not be nations to disciple,
a Great Commission to be realized. But it will be realized, and so sex and marriage
and babies will continue until Christ returns. The Church will, by God’s grace,
get these priorities right once again, eventually, and God will bless
abundantly. But He will accomplish this through preaching and exhorting on
these matters with all longsuffering and patience, as Paul says to Timothy.
Christ commanded His 12 Apostles, He commissioned them and them alone, to go to
the ends of the Earth with the Gospel of the Kingdom, to make disciples of the
nations, baptizing and teaching, etc. Do all Christians have the authority and
right to baptize and teach/preach? Do all Christians have that calling or duty?
No, though many Evangelical Christians presume that they do, or that this is
the highest and greatest good, the most urgent and important thing, and all must
burden themselves with this, even if they do not go into “full time” Christian
ministry. As if all of your life isn’t Christian ministry, lived for the Lord,
regardless of your particular vocation. There’s a reason they (we?) are called “Evangelical”
Christians. But the rhetorical position of having to argue against the Great
Commission and being Evangelical, as it is understood today among Christians,
is difficult. Satan has done a masterful job. We have normalized saying the
family is idolized precisely when Satan and the godless have come together to
destroy the family and male and female. And we have done so quite often by
elevating “soul-winning” at the expense of everything else, including the
family.
Now to be abundantly clear, a burden for sinful souls,
witnessing to our neighbors and those in our community, praying for their
conversion, is certainly a good and necessary thing. We do this and pursue this
at our church every Sunday in worship, and throughout the week. If there is no
burden in the Church in general and its leadership in particular for the salvation
of sinners in its region, it is a church that is uncaring, cold, and will dry
up. But these concerns are not the only thing to be concerned about, and it is
not even the most important thing for most Christians and most churches, except
in missionary settings and truly pagan lands that are largely unreached or have
long forgotten the Triune God of Scripture and His Son Jesus Christ. Our own
personal holiness, worshiping the Lord, and ministering to our own blood family
and church family should be of utmost importance, including among ministers/elders,
and as we shall see, doing so is also being Evangelistic in its own way, with
proper priorities.
The Apostle Paul had his helpers/evangelists, Timothy and
Titus, appoint elders in cities where his apostolic/missionary work spread out
and God sovereignly saved sinners and brought them into His fold. Churches with
Elders had to form, and what was lacking at that time (Titus 1:5) was not
Evangelistic/missionary fervor, but trained and qualified Elders, pastors and
teachers for the building up of the saints/church (Eph. 4:7-16) with sound
teaching, for the warding off of wolves (Acts 20), etc.
No true Christian intends to idolize the great commission, just as no true
Christian intends to idolize the family. The two harmonize together, for every
Christian, as I'll note below in a moment. But Christianity will be healthy and
great again in this nation when we do not have to explain this harmony -- when
it is once again self-evident, so much so that we do not have to constantly
remind ourselves of this connection (as I still must do and I am sure many of
us must do), but is second nature.
Again, the call to be fruitful and multiply, in general, applies to all, and
the rare gift of celibacy (in order to use extra freed up time and less
familial obligations to serve the Lord and His Church and Kingdom in different
ways, not to be a bum or lazy, etc.) is the main grounds for righteously disregarding
the command to marry. Marrying in this nation and culture today is difficult,
not easy, but should still be pursued by all Christians ordinarily. If you are
pursuing sex and have a sexual appetite, God is calling you to marriage and to
have fruitful sex in the bounds of marital love with your Christian spouse. Porn
is pervasive, women filming themselves and men viewing it, even among
Christians. Very few have this gift of celibacy.
Getting married and having many children, as a general principle, is commanded
by God in Scripture to all mankind, and to all Christians especially, with only
rare exceptional circumstances. In a healthy society, family and procreation,
and strong family bonds, are assumed, not something you have to argue for,
anymore than one has to argue that you should work a job to earn a living (of
course, we have to argue for that today in our nation as well, but I digress...though
this is all interrelated).
So, here is what must be taught and emphasized in our churches and among
Christians, until it is seen from Scripture and the light of nature that has
been so suppressed, believed and loved once again, to the point it becomes
second nature for us once again: Raising our children in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord, teaching them diligently, is where the Dominion Mandate
and Great Commission kiss for all Christians. How so? Well, if you are raising
your children in the Lord and for the Lord, they belong to the Lord and His
kingdom, as Christ Himself said of believer's children, even from their
infancy, Luke 18:15-17. If they belong to the Kingdom, they belong to God's
everlasting covenant, and should receive the covenant sign of inclusion,
baptism, but this isn't my main point and focus at the moment.
The point is our first duty to others for the sake of the
Gospel is to our own children. “Go into all the world” begins by staying and
remaining in your own home, and reaching and building up in the faith those
that are there. This duty is especially for fathers, and mothers alongside the
fathers for the children. Paul was unmarried, but noted that Peter and all the
other Apostles took their believing wives with them on their missionary
journeys, I Cor. 9:5. They did not abandon their duties to family, but kept
them and led by righteous example. Contrast that with the PK and MK mantra
today, and consider supposedly great “missionaries” like Wesley, or even
Whitefield, or even the family dysfunction of men like Jonathan Edwards, and
you’ll see we’ve been backwards on this as a nation for hundreds of years, and we
are undoubtedly now reaping the bad seed that we have sown with whirlwind speed.
So my main point is that we have so emphasized, on faulty
and unbiblical grounds, the priority of the Great Commission for all Christians,
that we have necessarily subordinated and denigrated that which actually should
have that pre-eminence and priority among all Christians as a normative and
general rule for all generations until Christ returns – namely, the Dominion
Mandate, understood not in a bankrupt and secular way, but as God intended it,
to be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it for God’s glory, precisely
so that the Gospel of the Kingdom, God’s promise to Abraham that he would be
the father of many nations, might be fulfilled in Christ and His redeemed bride.
God’s Gospel, God’s covenant, works down through families,
down through the generations, and thereby leavens nations, and the Gospel
promise that Abraham would be the Father of many nations, that Kings of nations
will come to the Lord, etc., is realized in this way. We want to grow deep and
wide, having outreach and in-reach, but the Scriptural priority, and what is
normally recognized naturally by all mankind, believer and unbeliever alike, is
that in-reach takes precedence. I have a duty before God and man to my family
first, my wife and children, my extended family, my local church, and as a
minister, the sheep in the fold, not the lost outside of the fold, first.
The anger and complaints against what I am saying will be
that this will kill Evangelistic fervor, that it is Hyper-Calvinism, unloving,
selfish, etc. It is none of these things. It is thoroughly biblical, natural,
and logical, but we do not live in a land that is still biblical, natural, or
logical. And that’s the challenge. When you live in upside down clown world, and the church has imbibed much
of that, turning things right side up is going to make everyone queasy during
the process, including the true Christians. Believe me, I am going through the process
still myself.
And none of this justifies cowardice or coldness, none of
this justifies failing to be salt and light before unbelievers, or telling them
of Christ, especially when God gives you opportunity and drops it right in your
lap. None of this precludes handing out tracts, telling others of Christ, and
reasoning with them and pleading with them to come to Jesus for salvation, to
repent of sin, etc. The question is one of priority and place, and who has what
responsibilities, and in what pecking order.
Here's something that really can upset God-fearing,
well-intentioned, zealous Christians today, especially younger ones who are
very gung-ho. The Great Commission was fulfilled in the 1st century,
before the Temple was destroyed in AD 70. It was given to the Apostles, and was
fulfilled by the Apostles, even though the Church still, collectively and as a
body in its proper place, continues to build upon that foundation and call
sinners in this world to faith and repentance in Christ.
Paul in Col. 1:6 and 1:23 says the Gospel has come to “all
the world, and is bringing forth fruit” and that we were reconciled to God
through Christ’s bodily death to “present you holy, and blameless, and above
reproach in His sight – if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and
steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard,
which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a
minister.”
Note how Paul both speaks of the Gospel going to the ends of
the earth and being preached to every creature under heaven, and the emphases
and duties of Christians to both continue and grow in the faith, being grounded
and steadfast. He doesn’t urge them all to join him in going to the ends of the
Earth taking the Gospel, but rather to mature in the faith where they are, whether
slave or free, male or female, etc.
(Note, is it any wonder when we absolutize and nearly
idolize the “Great Commission” that women begin to be called Missionaries, and
we revere such in women like Elisabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, etc.? These
ladies were used by the Lord, but should not be called Missionaries. That has
helped paved the way for Beth Moore, Jen Wilkin, and Aimee Byrd types, for
women in the pulpit, etc. Further, it has led to denigrating if not despising
and being embarrassed about the true calling of womanhood, being fertile and
fruitful in the home for the sake of husband and children.)
Elsewhere in Paul’s letters he gives us the household codes,
emphasizing family and home life, nurturing children, loving our spouses, all
picturing Christ and the Church (see Eph. 5-6 for just one place Paul speaks of
these matters). Paul labors for the Church, that Christ would be formed in her,
that they would be pure and holy. Even John Piper, with his heavy missions/missionary
emphasis, is known for saying that “missions exists because worship doesn’t.”
Dispensational Theology and its far-reaching fingers to many
of those who would hate to be labeled and reject Dispensationalism has clouded
our vision and understanding of much of this. Consider Matthew 24:9-14,
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be
hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will
betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and
deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow
cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of
the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end will come.”
That last verse in particular is noteworthy. While
Dispensationalism and some others would take this to refer to Christ’s final
coming at the end of time, at the point when marriage will come to an end, and
glorification begins, this is actually speaking of the Apostles being betrayed,
killed, and hated by all nations/the world. They, the Apostles, will preach the
Gospel of the Kingdom to all the world, and Paul has said he has done so along
with his fellow Apostles, and then “the end will come”. This end is not the end
of history, but the end of the Jewish age, the end of the city of Jerusalem
with its temple worship, prophesied by Christ and fulfilled in AD 70 by the
Roman armies destroying the city of Jerusalem along with its Temple and
inhabitants.
This is why the following verses in Matt. 24:15ff. urge those
in Judea to flee to the mountains, to get out of dodge, quite literally to run
from Jerusalem and not look back, like Lot’s wife, and not linger, as Lot
himself did at Sodom’s looming destruction. Christ in Matthew 24 even says woe
to those who are pregnant and nursing babies in those days. He says to pray
that the escape may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For this Great
Tribulation will be greater than anything ever seen. Christ says in Matt. 24:34
that the present generation would not pass away until “all these things take
place”.
We must recognize, then, that the Great Commission was
fulfilled, or at least had its primary fulfillment, in the 1st
century through the Apostles, to whom it was given. Even if we take the rest of
the chapter, verses 36ff. to refer to the final coming of Christ, the end/culmination
of the new age which has now broken in but is not yet fully realized, we still
have to recognize that the Gospel through the Apostles was preached and
proclaimed in all the Earth, and therefore fulfilled.
So there is a sense, at minimum, in which the Great
Commission was not given directly to any of us living today, and further, that
the Great Commission was fulfilled in the 1st century, in the
Apostle’s day, and was therefore part of the foundation of the New Testament
Church, and not something building upon that foundation. Again, none of this
denies the need for those outside of Christ and the Church to hear the Gospel.
None of this denies that there are remote regions where the Gospel has either
been forgotten or never brought to in any meaningful way, at least since the
days of the Apostles. Many neighbors in our own nation have precious little
understanding of the pure Gospel of Christ, or have been so distorted by false
teachers, that they desperately need teaching and education and refutation,
even as Christ and Peter and Paul reasoned in the synagogues and in the
streets, etc., to the Jews who long had the law and Gospel, Gal. 3:8.
But who can deny that the American Church in general, and
the Evangelicals in particular, have regarded the Great Commission as
sacrosanct, and have essentially said it applies to most all Christians
indiscriminately, and should have pride of place in all Christians’ priorities?
But from Scripture and nature, how can we not see that this is simply
wrongheaded in the extreme, and the implications are serious? So serious, that
as our nation was founded upon a Christianity that was born out of Revival that
quickly descended into Revivalism, Finney-ism, and all the rest of altar calls
and seeker-sensitivity, that we must recognize that we must go back to the Magisterial
Reformers, to Calvin and Knox and the like, and to some of the best early
Puritans to get corrected on all this?
As we do so, we will recover from Scripture and from our
Reformed heritage the primacy of place of the Christian family, the covenant
home, that our children belong to the covenant and are born into it, and must
be nurtured in the Lord and with the eye to it (and confidence in the Lord and
His Gospel promises) that through the Gospel and Covenant Nurture our children
indeed will be born again and pass down the Christian faith through the
generations.
Family is the first Great Commission, if we must insist on
speaking of an abiding obligation of the Great Commission that trickles down to
every Christian living today. We are commanded to marry, to have children, and
to disciple them, raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Psalm
78:1-8 is so clear it can just about establish the point all by itself, though
the totality of Scripture and many particular passages plainly teach this:
Give ear, O my people, to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of
the Lord,
And His strength and His wonderful works that He
has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their
children,
That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments;
And may not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not [c]set its heart aright,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
The Church is to be a city set on a hill, a great light to
the unbelievers around us. But our light has become a great darkness and
hypocrisy, because we claim we have the words of light, but in our own homes there
is so often great darkness, confusion, bitterness, hatred, apostatizing and
covenant breaking. If we cannot, by God’s grace, keep the light of the Gospel
lit in our own homes, what business have we trying to shine it into the lives
and homes of others? We must tend to our own fields, our own homes first. And
then within our churches, the House of God, there is often the same issue. We
prioritize the sinner on the street, when God commands we nurture and
prioritize the Christian in the pew. And no wonder many of its ministers should
have been disqualified for having ungodly families/homes and have failed to
rule in their own homes well.
Someone will object and say we cannot pick between the lost
and the found, the elect in the Church, and the elect not yet brought into the
Church. But this has never been how God has worked. Israel was to be a light to
the nations. Christ is the light of the world, and has made His Church in
particular, His body, to now be that light. The holiness of the Church
determines greatly its effectiveness in witness to those outside the church.
So let us see the Great Commission for what it is, what it
was, and how it has been fulfilled. Let us see how the Church is built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Eph. 2:20, and the need for Pastors
and Teachers, Elders and Shepherds, godly parents and faithful spouses and children,
to see the Gospel of the Kingdom bloom and grow and leaven the nations for the
glory of God and the name above all names, Jesus Christ. May we prioritize what
God commands us to prioritize, and may we trust that His program, His purpose
for building the Church and Kingdom, is wiser than ours, is holier than ours,
is more loving than ours, and may we submit to it with firm confidence that His
will shall be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.
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