Dominion Mandate

In order to properly understand the comprehensive nature of the Great Commission one needs to consider the relationship of the Great Commission to the “cultural” or “dominion mandate” given to Adam.

When God created Adam and Eve in the garden He commanded them to have dominion over the whole earth (cf. Gen. 1:26-30). God’s intended purpose for us before the fall was to develop a world-wide godly culture, a culture that honored and glorified God. All of our activities and pursuits were to be done God’s way and for God. All the accumulated labours of people over time: music, art, science, medicine, architecture, economics, infrastructures and so on would be done obediently and would reflect man’s love of God and mankind.

If Adam had obeyed the covenant of works and his descendants had fulfilled the dominion mandate the result would have been a world-wide, obedient, God-loving civilization. This was God’s original preceptive will for us. But our sin, the eating of the forbidden fruit, necessitated the need for a Saviour. God in His kindness and mercy instituted the covenant of grace. God’s original plan for a godly civilization was not set aside. However, because of sin this plan could only be accomplished through Jesus Christ, the second Adam.

Christ’s resurrection is the new beginning, the foundation of the regeneration of the world. The total victory that Jesus accomplished on the cross is to be progressively brought to bear on all nations. “His ‘all authority’ over ‘all the nations’ demands we preach His crown rights over all people and all their institutions, cultures, societies, and nations. The saving of multitudes of individuals must eventually lead to cultural Christianization under Christ’s rule and to His glory by His providence, in conformity with God’s creational purpose. This world order was designed to have us set over it, to the glory of God. This is why at the very beginning of human history unfallen man was a cultural creature.”