So how does all of this tie into the Great Commission itself? One of the major talking points of Dominionism is the success of the Great Commission. Their argument goes that since Christ has triumphed over His enemies and we know that all the promises are fulfilled in Christ, the Great Commission must be successful. The statement itself is absolutely true but the question must be asked – how is success defined? Answering that question is key because success itself is a vague term. Take a simple example of a corporation. Its leadership might determine that success is increasing its revenues by 10% over the year. Now that the leadership has set a clear target, at the end of the year one can gauge their success. If they increased their revenue by 9%, they have failed and if they increased it by 10.5% or 12% or 100% they have succeeded. The point being that the clear metric set by the leadership on what success is, defines it. In the same way when we speak of fulfilment of Biblical prophecies and therefore the success of the Great Commission, we ought to consider them through the lens of Christ and the apostles. We’ve already considered some of their hermeneutics earlier in this work. How does that apply to the Great Commission?
The Commission itself begins with Christ’s declaration of the authority He has received from the Father. This goes back to the Gospel message being a kingdom message about God’s ruling dynasty. Through His perfection, Christ has overcome Satan’s kingdom, even gaining power over the Devil’s greatest weapon, death itself. In doing this Christ has gained for Himself authority and a kingdom through which He will inherit the nations and create a new humanity of priest-kings. The Church is commissioned to go into all nations to teach them. This would have been a shocking statement for a first century Jew who was raised to believe that his people were the special people of God. They always read the Old Testament literalistically and hoped for the day when the Jewish nation would rule over all other nations. Yet, Matthew is developing a Redemptive-Historical theme to teach the reality of the New Covenant to his largely Jewish audience. In the Old Covenant, time and time again, the Jews were told to teach their people, their children and the stranger that lived with them. The covenant was exclusive and restricted to their nation and their land. Matthew is emphasising the glory of the Gospel whereby the tearing of the veil ended the Old Covenant Jewish order. Christ’s kingdom is not bound to a specific piece of land in Palestine, centred around a physical temple. Rather his kingdom will extend to the ends of the earth. Wherever His people are, there will His rule extend as the heavenly kingdom manifests itself on the earth in the Church.
It is these people throughout the world and of all nations who are to be baptised and discipled. All sons of Adam are invited to join the Kingdom of Christ. No longer do they have to look from afar and behold the splendour of Jerusalem or observe the failing piety of the Hebrews. Rather, they can taste and see that the Lord is good. The Church is no longer to be focussed on teaching the law to one specific group but rather to people of all nations. The focus is on people, their hearts, the territory over which Christ rules redemptively in this age.
Therefore the Great Commission is already successful since the Gospel of Christ has gone out to every nation. Remember, that the table of nations given in Genesis consists of seventy nations. Every nation-state or ethnic group that we see today are a derivation of that original set and there is no reason to assume that there is any nation that has absolutely never heard the Gospel. We are not waiting for some magical number to be satisfied before Christ returns or before a millennial kingdom is ushered in. Nor are we to number nations according to the various nation states and tribal groupings that have developed throughout world history – a number that will always keep changing through the process of ethnogenesis. Rather, there are already Christians in every nation, people and tribe. Christ has already inherited the nations and claimed for Himself image bearers from the inheritance of the elohim. Categories like Christianization of national entities or the conversion of people in every single tribal group is not what the Great Commission is about. Rather, it is about the good news that Christ’s spiritual kingdom will extend throughout the world and it already does.
From a historical perspective one could argue that there was a rapid spread of the Gospel during the days of the apostles and every national grouping mentioned in the Genesis table of nations either received the Gospel during the days of the apostles or soon after. A study of Church history shows us that the apostles reached the ends of the known world in their time. Thomas preached in China and later died in India. Through the Ethiopian eunuch, the Gospel was taken to Africa. One could now ask – what about the native Americans or the pacific islanders or other scattered ethnicities? Again, the apostles would have never interpreted the Old Testament promises literalistically – in that they would have never considered every “people, nation and tribe” to mean literally every single ethnic entity that comes into being or goes extinct in world history. Rather, that the spread of the Gospel will be universal and spread outward, no longer being restricted to the Jewish ethnic entity.
In fact the New Testament itself gives us an indication that the apostles thought this way. Paul declares that the gospel was preached to every creature which is under heaven (Col 1:23). This is very similar to Mark’s reading of the Great Commission where Christ commands His people to preach the gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15). Considering Paul uses Jew-Gentile reconciliation language in v21, it is clear that Paul sees the fulfilment of the Great Commission in the reconciliation of the nations in Christ. Similarly, Christ proclaims that the end will come after the Gospel has been preached to all the world as a witness (Matt 24:14, Mk 13:10). This is in the same section that speaks about the state of the last stage of world history. As we have seen earlier, this is a prophecy about the church age as a whole being typologically fulfilled in the events leading up to the destruction of the temple in AD 70, with the destruction itself being typological of God’s final day of judgement. In other words, Christ is primarily speaking about the spread of the Gospel in the Church age, not a literalistic promise of the Gospel being preached in every literal square inch of the world. In fact the entire book of Acts is actually a testimony of the success of the Great Commission. What begins as a little sect in Jerusalem has spread to the entire known world, drawing in people from various nations and is knocking at the emperor’s door by the end of the book. The emperor is unable to do anything to stop its success.
This is especially pertinent to understand given that Dominionists often use the Great Commission’s mandate to teach all nations as referring to the need to transform and disciple national and political entities. The argument is that just like Israel was the nation of God in the Old Testament, the Great Commission calls for each nation today to be discipled and influenced by Christianity. Again, this is a complete misunderstanding of what the commission is about. The mandate to teach all nations is fulfilled when households from the nations are brought into the holy nation of God – His Church. These households then operate within the holy nation according to the teachings of Christ and the apostles. This is how the nations are discipled, not by the transformation of ethno-political entities.
This brings us to consider another metric of success. How do we know that the Great Commission has indeed been successful in a particular nation or as a whole when considering the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. Postmillennials would argue that the success of the Great Commission implies a large scale repentance of a national entity or ethnic group. While not every Dominionist would take it to that extreme, they would still generally argue for a wide spread of Christianity within a nation and increasing Christian influence in the political entity representing that nation. However, is this how the New Testament views this success?
The Bible clearly teaches us that the kingdom of God cannot be observed (Lk 17:20). Christ makes it plain that one must be born again to see the kingdom (John 3:3). This makes it plain that the success of the Great Commission and by extension the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed physically. One needs eyes of faith to perceive the kingdom of God and therefore to observe the success of the Great Commission. If this is the case, it follows that the success of the Great Commission is certainly not in the large-scale repentance of national entities or ethnic groups. Similarly, the success of the Great Commission cannot be seen in the increasing influence of Christianity in the political entity that represents a nation.
The success of the Great Commission instead is viewed through the lens of a seemingly small and insignificant but persevering Church. Christ promises that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church (Matt 16:18). Dominionists have recently twisted this verse by trying to make the Church’s role offensive rather than defensive. Their argument goes that since gates are defensive and we are told that the gates of hell will not prevail, the Church is on the offensive and is seeking to storm the gates of hell. Apart from the fact that this explanation has no credibility in the history of the Church, it simply neglects the Text itself. The gates of hell symbolise the dominion of hell, i.e. Satan’s kingdom – this present world. Christ is promising that the world will not consume His Church. This is why the New Testament places such a premium on enduring till the end (Matt 10:22, Matt 24:13, Mk 13:13, Rom 5:3-4, 2 Tim 2:12, Heb 10:35-39, Heb 11:27, Jam 5:7-11) and not being consumed by this present world (Rom 12:12, Eph 2:2, Col 3:2, Jam 4:4, 1 John 2:15). In enduring and rejecting the present world, the Christian and thus the Church shows that the dominion of hell cannot subsume them.
This is in line with what we have considered given the apostolic interpretation of the Old Testament promises. We saw that the apostles in Jerusalem saw Amos 9:12 as being fulfilled in the Church, i.e the preservation of a remnant of the nations alongside a remnant of the Jews. Therefore, when God preserves a faithful remnant of His people who endure through trials and persecutions and are not assimilated by the world, the Great Commission has indeed succeeded. With certainty we who are in Christ can attest to this as we see that God has indeed preserved faithful congregations all over the world. These congregations might be small, consisting perhaps of only a few households. Yet, in the grace of God they persevere and the gates of hell cannot prevail against them.
The pattern of the kingdom of God that we see in a sinful world throughout the Bible testifies to this. Our place is similar to that of the godly line of Seth. They lived faithfully among the children of Cain. Unlike the Cainites, they did not build cities or great works of civilization. Rather, they lived as pilgrims and strangers among them building altars and called upon the name of the Lord. Similarly, in the days of Abraham a single household lived as pilgrims among the Canaanites, looking forward to the eternal promises in Christ – living in tents and building altars. While Israel typologically demonstrated the eschatological kingdom, it showed that in a cursed world even within the national polity only a remnant remained faithful. Likewise, in exile the covenant nation lived as pilgrims in Babylon. They refused to be assimilated or become Babylonian but awaited the long promised return to the land of promise. It is in this very same context that we ought to reckon the Great Commission and its success in the context of the New Testament. The world would certainly consider the impact and place of the covenant community as insignificant. Yet, the covenant community refuses to be assimilated and remains a distinct group, establishing colonies of the holy nation within the domains of the elohim proclaiming the coming judgement and end of their kingdoms.
One of the clearest New Testament indications of this is in Revelation 22:10-12 –
“10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
John received the Revelation in around 90 AD during the era of emperor Domitian. This was a time of great persecution of the Church throughout the Roman Empire and also the end of the apostolic era – John being the last apostle alive. In this Text, John receives a declaration that the time of the things revealed to him are at hand. As we have seen before this would be indicative of Biblical imminence language which doesn’t necessitate soonness by human standards but an attitude of living as if these things are at the very brink. In light of the realities of the revelation given to John, the reader is exhorted to remember that generally speaking those who are wicked will remain wicked and those who are righteous will remain righteous. This is concluded with a promise that Christ will return soon and reward every man according to their works. In other words, Revelation assumes that the Great Commission is largely fulfilled and in the rest of the Church age till the return of Christ, things will largely remain as they are – i.e. the wicked will remain wicked and the righteous will remain righteous or that very few people will actually turn from darkness to light. This is in line with Christ’s teaching that the way to eternal life is narrow and will be found only by few (Matt 7:13-14).
This Biblical expectation that presupposes very few conversions means reexamining forms of missiology that are popular in Evangelicalism today. Many Christians largely embrace the missiology of men like William Carey who is called the father of world missions. Many are not aware that Carey was a staunch Postmillennial and therefore viewed the success of the Great Commission quite differently from what the New Testament reveals. To him, the success of the Great Commission meant large-scale Christianization of national entities or at least large-scale revivals and conversions leading to social justice and transformation of societies. These expectations contradict both the explicit teachings of the New Testament and the reality that the Great Commission itself has been largely fulfilled in the apostolic age.
This modern missiology leads to an emphasis of doing something great, having an impact and a desire to witness the phenomenon of revivals that so many Christians are consumed by even though the New Testament simply doesn’t give the Christian such an expectation. Some would argue that the New Testament accounts of the apostolic ministry that were accompanied by widespread conversions attest to this expectation for revivals in the New Testament. However, these incidents should be considered in the light of the apostolic age. God attested to the authority of the apostles with signs and wonders which included the large scale conversions of people. Yet in its didactic passages, the New Testament teaches the Christian to expect very few conversions in the Church Age.
As with all things the pursuit of things and emphases that God hasn’t commanded often coincides with a neglect of the things that He has commanded. Therefore, many Christians ignore the ordinary means God has ordained for the expansion of His kingdom. This ordinary means has not changed from Eden to our present days. This is through the basic unit of the household where a man leaves his father and mother becomes one with his wife and they raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. In doing this they are making disciples of the nations by teaching their children to be imagers of the invisible God. This is why Paul calls Christians to make it their ambition to lead a quiet life (1 Thes 4:11-12). This quiet life of keeping to ourselves, working with our hands and being found faithful is antithesis of the spirit of modern missions and yet it was the spirit by which the Sethites, Abraham and the Israelites lived. When ordinary households live faithful lives and gather together with other households, worshipping God and proclaiming the coming end of the age, the Great Commission has already succeeded. When parents faithfully raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, thus enabling them to conform to the image of Christ, the Great Commission has succeeded. These things are the ordinary means to build and expand the kingdom of God.
Sadly, when it comes to missiology, many Christians are de-facto Postmillennial, even when they don’t recognize it. Their expectations with regards to the Great Commission is seldom a Biblical one but appropriates a worldly definition of success. Therefore, they look for a kingdom that can be perceived – either through church growth, rapid church planting, prioritising world missions over household faithfulness or emphasising a spirit of revivalism over a spirit of quietism. This always leads to neglecting the God ordained means of expansion of the kingdom. Instead we ought to look for a spiritual kingdom that can be perceived through spiritual eyes – a faithful enduring church that holds fast to the truth even in the face of apostasy and persecution and Godly households that reject the world. Just as in the case of conversion of the magistrate, we ought to reject the non-sequitur that the faithfulness of households and the church will by extension lead to “conversion” of a nation. Simply put, this is not a Biblical expectation. In fact it is an expectation contrary to the New Testament emphasis for this age as we will soon see.
Deo Vicit Mundum 