The Will of God

“You might say `I’m not called to plant churches.’ Yes, you are! It’s always the will of God to have a people who worship His Son in the nations. You’ll never have to worry about making God mad if you try to plant a church. It seems crazy to me that people are under the delusion they need a special calling to save souls, to disciple them, and to get them together to love Jesus” ("Apostolic Passion", Floyd McClung. "Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 186c)
 

It is sad to see such a truncated, warped ecclesiology hold back what could be a wave of highly committed, gifted, apostolic leaders.  We should be grieved at the wounds that are inflicted by such a view of the Church that is so biblically, theologically, historically and missiologically deficient.

If what Paul understood to be needed in his outreach to the Greeks had been easily explainable to the Jewish followers of Christ back in Jerusalem, we would not have needed the detailed information in the New Testament. Rarely, down through history, has the exact nature of the need on the field been readily explainable to the people within the sending cultural situation.”  - Missiologist Ralph Winter

Against the backdrop of the 1st century and the common understanding of Jewish proselytizing bands, there was little reason to write about it. Paul and the 40+ people who made up his missionary operation simply lived it out. What they demonstrated by their actions was a ministry dynamic that was a common, well-understood practice of the day.

It’s not the structure that takes new ground nor is it on the cutting edge of the new, particularly when faced with cultural, social, linguistic, or economic barriers. Rather the modality preserves what is and provides a place where all can belong. When healthy, it presses for deeper commitment and vibrant spirituality. It is particularly effective in its own immediate cultural milieu and has a transformation kingdom impact. But when people get really committed, watch out!

When sodalities are healthy, they do two major things for modalities. First, sodalities renew modalities. Secondly, sodalities multiply modalities.   Most of the evidence throughout the history of the Christian movement points to the fact that more modalities have emerged as the result of sodality activity than as a result of the activity of other modalities.


 God will make a way

Relate and Investigate

Relate Christianity to contemporary world views as much as possible without compromising doctrinal integrity. We err when we are either divorced or married to a contemporary world view. When we are divorced from it, our gospel is not heard as being relevant to modern life. When we are married to it, our gospel becomes outdated as soon as the next world view comes along. This is a very difficult balance to maintain, but we must strike that scriptural balance of being in the world without being of the world (John 15:19, 17:15-16). We must be all things to all people that we may win some (1 Cor. 9:22), yet not compromise the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). It means we must relate intelligently to modern scientific paradigms without resorting to materialism. It means we should be concerned with practical results meeting needs in human life without making pragmatism the final judge of truth. It means we must have compassion for those driven to the underculture without affirming their values. It means we must demonstrate the rational evidence for the Christian faith rather than retreating into obscurantistic pietism, yet without making reason the final arbiter of truth. It means we must emphasize the individual's appropriation of truth without denying the objectivity of truth.

Investigate other world views continually as a part of your witness preparation.We might have made the evangelistic harvest much more manageable by arbitrarily cutting out a large part of the harvest. If you are going to make use of the opportunity to witness to someone from another world religion, and how helpful it would be to know the basic concepts of that world view. That was not an essential part of witness training a few decades ago, but it is now.  In fact, because someone has an Asian or Hispanic surname certainly did not guarantee that they were not a Christian. In fact, some of them might be better Christians than we are! But if they indeed weren't Christian, then what is witnessing about? Is it not bringing the good news of salvation to those who need to hear it? We must be prepared to witness to a much more diverse world than in the past.

Fundamentalists, faithful to the clear one-way teaching of Christ, often conclude from this that pagans, Buddhists, et cetera, cannot be saved. Liberals, who emphasize God's mercy, cannot bring themselves to believe that the mass of men are doomed to hell, and they ignore, deny, nuance, or water down Christ's own claims to uniqueness. The Church has found a third way, implied in the New Testament texts. On the one hand, no one can be saved except through Christ. On the other hand, Christ is not only the incarnate Jewish man but also the eternal, preexistent word of God, "which enlightens every man who comes into the world" (Jn 1:9). So Socrates was able to know Christ as word of God, as eternal Truth; and if the fundamental option of his deepest heart was to reach out to him as Truth, in faith and hope and love, however imperfectly known this Christ was to Socrates, Socrates could have been saved by Christ too. We are not saved by knowledge but by faith. Scripture nowhere says how explicit the intellectual content of faith has to be. But it does clearly say who the one Saviour is.

A cursory glance at ancient history shows clearly how in different parts of the world, with their different cultures, there arise at the same time the fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? These are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings of Confucius and Lao-Tze, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer and in the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart. In fact, the answer given to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give to their lives.

The proclamation of the apostles and evangelists rests on their association and encounter with Jesus before and after Easter and on the work of His Spirit who opened their eyes to Him. Our faith rests on their proclamation, to which the Spirit opens our heart. Our faith is based on the encounter in the Spirit with our Lord and Saviour who lives and who lived on earth. In that respect, the question of whether the factuality of all the details of the gospel story can be demonstrated with historical research is of less importance.

When we articulate our faith in Jesus Christ, we listen carefully and reverently to the Bible and as well deal with the questions which present themselves today. We listen with an eye to those questions and try to answer them from Holy Scripture. Fortunately, we have more than Scripture and the questions of our own time. We are part of a community of faith which transcends the boundaries of our own time and place, namely the church of all times and places. We are not the first and only ones who believe and confess. Many have gone down this road before us. We are conjoined with them. We are thankful for what they have transmitted to us. We recognize in their faith and their struggle our faith and our struggle. Their words inspire and hearten us, give direction to our search and serve as a touchstone for the question of whether we are still on the right path. Therefore we listen also to these fellow believers and precursors and are willing to let them have their say. We can and only want to believe in fellowship with the confession of generations who came before us.

Can one believe without subscribing to dogmas? Indeed, our faith is not in dogmas but in the living Lord. Our faith lives from the biblical message, not from parsing dogmatic concepts. For ourselves we can do without dogmas to experience and articulate the faith. However, if we want to share the faith with others, we have to define it and deal with the question of what can be said and what not. That makes rules for discourse indispensable. Therefore we make thankful use of dogmas to ascertain whether the sharing of the faith within and outside of the church is in harmony with the Bible. The church community cannot do without reflection on the faith. If we were to drop independent and critical scrutiny of what the faith is about, it would eventually evaporate into a vague and nondescript emotion. It would mean losing touch with the surrounding culture and intellectual world and we would no longer be able to articulate our faith in understandable language. The discipline of systematic theology is an exercise in talking clearly and intelligibly about the faith, inside and outside the church, without being able to mark precisely the boundary between inside and outside.

"Jesus Christ is Lord" is a foundational biblical, personal faith-confession that corrects the traditional pluralist, inclusivist, and exclusivist positions held by Christians concerning other religions and calls God's missionary people to be mobilized by the Holy Spirit to participate in Christ's mission which is culturally pluralist, ecclesiologically inclusivist, and faith particularist.

 

Related articles

• Should Christians be tolerant?
• Book Review: The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons

All nations

In the Great Commission Jesus instructs the disciples to "make disciples of all nations, ... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). This implies that Jesus' teaching will spread among the nations and will be understood and obeyed. But that means that His teaching has to become available to these nations and they speak thousands of different languages. Therefore, when Jesus gave the Great Commission it implied that His followers eventually would have to translate His teaching into many different languages. Translation of Jesus' teaching (and, by implication, the message of the whole Bible) plays a part in the total process of fulfilling the Great Commission.

The singular use of ethnos in the New Testament always refers to a people group. The plural use of ethnos sometimes must be a people group and sometimes must refer to Gentile individuals, but usually can go either way. The phrase panta ta ethne must refer to Gentile individuals only once, but must refer to people groups nine times. The remaining eight uses may refer to people groups. The combination of these results suggests that the meaning of panta ta ethne leans heavily in the direction of “all the nations (people groups).”

In Genesis12:3 and 28:14 the Hebrew phrase for “all the families” (kol mishpahot) is rendered in the Greek Old Testament by pasai hai phulai. The word phulai means “tribes” in most contexts. But mishpaha can be, and usually is, smaller than a tribe. For example when Achan sinned, Israel is examined in decreasing order of size: first by tribe, then by mishpaha (family), then by household (Josh 7:14). So the blessing of Abraham is intended by God to reach to fairly small groupings of people.

The globe has been circumnavigated by God’s messengers, but there remain untouched areas geographically. The annual discovery of previously unknown languages elongates the noble task of getting the message into all the world’s tongues. And by no means has the gospel reached all the earth’s “peoples,” regardless of how they are defined.

What is the Biblical mandate for missions?

Is the concept of sending forth individuals to preach the good news of Jesus Christ a biblical one (even though the word is not used in the Bible)? What is the biblical mandate or warrant for the work of missions?

Most of us will probably think of what is often called the Lord's Great Commission in response to that question, and well we should. For that Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 is probably the key passage for establishing the mandate or duty of the church to carry the Gospel to those who have never heard.

There were many indications of God's desire and purpose for the world-wide extension of Gospel labours long before the Lord spoke His Great Commission. It did not come out of the blue -- disjointed from all of God's revelation before. It was also true that before our Lord uttered the Great Commission, the possession of the revealed Word of God, and the true worship of God were primarily limited to physical Jews and a few Gentile proselytes. Even during His ministry on earth, Jesus' labours and those of His disciples were mainly limited to Jews.

So let's take a look at the Gospels and the Book of Acts to see how this changed.

Mark 16:15-16 - "And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned."

Luke 24: 46-49 - "And said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Acts 1:8 - "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samar′ia and to the end of the earth.”

Matthew 28:18-20 - "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

John 20:21-23 - "Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

On what basis do we turn to such a command and view it as having application to ourselves?  

Observe two things in our texts which indicate that this command still applies to Christians today:

A. First, the fact that these eleven disciples were told to teach new disciples of Christ to observe all things that He had commanded them certainly appeared to demand that the new disciples obey the same commands given to the original eleven unless clearly indicated otherwise. And of course one of those things commanded the eleven was this very Commission.
But furthermore, there is in this Commission itself a clear indication that it was to remain binding upon the church of Christ throughout its history on earth:
 The Lord promised His presence with those carrying out this commission on earth until the present order came to an end with His return. Clearly He intended that His church on earth with her leaders continue to carry out these marching orders until the present age had ended. The Great Commission was not limited to just the Apostles, but was initially given to them as the highest leaders of the church of Christ which was to be established.
The Great Commission continues to be just as applicable to those of us who are disciples of Christ today and members of His church, as it was to the original eleven Apostles. So we had better pay attention to it. It is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Triune God for us to carry out.

Related articles

• The Mandate of the Gospel: Gleanings from the Great Commission
• "Go And Make Disciples": Why Don't We?

Our Study of Spiritual Warfare

Although we Christians have rightly rejected naturalism as an acceptable view of ultimate reality and hold faithfully to historic theism, naturalism nonetheless deeply influences our view of the daily events of our lives. This influence helps shape our view of the world of spirit beings, both benevolent and evil. Anthropologist Paul G. Hiebert of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School writes of his own struggles in this area as a missionary to India in an article entitled “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle.” John’s disciples asked, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Luke

7:20). Jesus answered not with logical proofs, but by a demonstration of power in the curing of the sick and casting out of evil spirits.

So much is clear. Yet when we read the passage as a missionary in India, and seek to apply it to missions in our day, we might have a sense of uneasiness. As a Westerner, we are used to presenting Christ on a basis of rational arguments, not by evidences of His power in the lives of people who were sick, possessed and destitute. In particular, the confrontation with spirits that appeared so natural a part of Christ’s ministry belonged, in our mind, to a separate world of the miraculous—far from ordinary everyday experience.

 

Biblical psychology makes no attempt at precise definitions and distinctions about human nature as does modern psychology. The Bible is not a textbook on psychology just as it is not a textbook on geology, astronomy, or any of the sciences. Where it touches on any of the areas covered by these disciplines, however, the Bible is without error. But since its purposes lie in another direction, the Scriptures should not be used to attempt to create a full-orbed science.

 

In the New Testament world, sickness was often looked upon as coming from spirits. While the people were aware that illness was caused by organic malfunctions, accidents, and disease, they also knew that many sicknesses involved evil spirits. Therefore, if they could find a healer or exorcist whose familiar spirits had greater power than the afflicting spirits, they could be healed. In the case of demonization, it was the same. One had to find an exorcist with power over the power of the afflicting spirits. It was just that simple.

 

Ephesians 2:2 is unique in the New Testament. The words ton aioμna tou kosmou are literally, “the age of this world.” Paul says “the age of this world is evil” because it obeys “its unseen ruler (who is still operating in those who do not respond to the truth of God)” (PHILLIPS).

 

I want to know all God wants me to know within the natural limitations we possess as earthly human beings (1 Cor. 13:9–13). Let's keep it simple - to four perspectives - 1.  How our world view—understanding of the ultimate nature of reality—affects our view of spiritual warfare. 2. Look at spiritual warfare from a theological perspective by examining the progressive development of the spiritual warfare motif in both Old and New Testaments. 3. Approach the subject from an exegetical perspective, studying key passages of Scripture. While the Scriptures leave us without all the information we often feel we need, they say more about spiritual warfare than most of us realize. 4. Examine spiritual warfare from a practical perspective, seeking to discover the implications of our study for human life in general and the Christian life in particular. 

 

The idea of being united with Christ in His death and in His crucifixion is a familiar teaching of Paul (Rom. 6:1f; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Col. 2:20f; 3:1–4). In Galatians 6:14 the idea is the same, this time with focus on the world. “The world,” Paul is saying, “strives to bring us into bondage to its declared values and philosophies be they secular or religious. We reject both. We are released from the world’s point of view through our identification with Christ in His crucifixion. He died in our behalf unto the world’s ways and we have been united with God in His ways. The world, in turn, no longer has any claims upon us. It is dead to us, crucified unto us.”

Missionaries believed that demons were automatically kept in check by Christ’s defeat of Satan on the Cross and by His resurrection. Evil supernaturalism, while recognized, was seldom openly challenged and defeated through power encounter. In missionary work among animists or spirit worshippers, the first generation of converts was and is often won through power demonstrations on the part of God through His servants. Following conversion, however, no biblically nor culturally relevant theology of the demonic world or power encounter is usually developed for the new converts. Most of the intuitive recognition of and fear of the world of evil spirits, ghosts, and the spirits of the ancestors or of animals held by the host cultures is regarded as “superstition.” It is thus relegated to the unreal and becomes something to be ignored in Christian living and evangelism. National Christians often feel timid in speaking of “the old ways.” They usually do not receive from their spiritual fathers, the missionaries, an adequate biblical and functional theology of the spirit world, power encounter, and spiritual warfare. They are left unprepared for the spiritual warfare into which they are being thrust as Christians.

 

 Identifying Scripture as the written Word of God, the claim is then that God has revealed Himself historically in acts, centrally and supremely in Jesus Christ. It also means that God has revealed Himself personally to persons to redeem them; that God has revealed    Himself "content-fully," i.e., that God’s self-disclosure is not fully given in a bare Act of power (e.g., Exodus) nor in dramatic, but conceptually empty, "will-o’-the-wisp" personal encounters, but "content-fully" in ways effectually expressible in and as human language, even written language.

 

 

Related articles

• Our warfare
• Understanding Spiritual Warfare

Themes in the Old and New Testament

1.  Be fruitful and multiply - In Genesis 1:28 God blesses Adam and Eve and instructs them to be fruitful and multiply.

2.  The Seed - In Genesis 22:18, God promises Abraham that through his seed, all the nations of the world will be blessed and vows to work through his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. 

3.  God's presence with His covenant people - 1. "I will be your God" Gen. 17:7-8
                                                                                2. "You will be My people" Exodus 4:22; 6:7
                                                                                3. "I will dwell among you" Exodus 29:43-46

4.  Nationhood, Land, Heir - God charges Abram in Genesis 12:1 to leave his country and relatives and go to a new land. God promises His land (Lev. 25:23) to the Jewish people 69 different times in the book of Deuteronomy alone. Shortly after the Israelites leave Egypt, God summons Moses to Mount Sinai and there promises him that Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:3-6).

(Ezek. 37:12-14) "Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD God, "Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. {13} "Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. {14} "And I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares the LORD.'"

5.  A blessing to the world - In Genesis 12:3b, God promises Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. In Isaiah 49:5-6, God states that Israel will be a light to the nations and that God's salvation will reach the ends of the earth, not just Israel. Christ charges His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (ethnos) (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:8).

6.  The Law - Jesus summarizes the law: "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 19:19)

7.  The eternal dynasty and the kingdom - In the person of David, it becomes clear who "the seed" will be. He will be a king, a descendant of David, and an heir of the promised eternal throne (II Samuel 7:11-16).

8.  The day of the Lord - Zephaniah and Zechariah indicate that the day of the Lord will involve a sacrifice which will consecrate the people and removal sin (Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 13:1). Peter explains the disciples speaking in tongues as a fulfillment of a prophecy in Joel 2:28-32 regarding the last days.  Jesus and his apostles warn that it will come in the future "like a thief in the night." (Mt. 24; II Peter 3:10) The New Testament gives a rough blueprint of what must occur before Jesus returns and the day of the Lord is finished (Mt. 24, Mk. 13, Lk. 21, I Thess. 2). 

9.  The New Covenant - The covenant that God made with Israel through the law of Moses was unsuccessful, failing to produce a covenant people who would faithfully act as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6) to represent God. In Isaiah 49:8, God promises that he will use his "servant of the LORD" to "make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land." In Isaiah 55, God specifies that this covenant will be his "faithful love promised to David." In Jeremiah 31:31-34 God promises to make a new covenant, not like the old one that could be broken.

http://www.xenos.org/ministries/crossroads/OnlineJournal/issue1/otframes.htm

Related articles

• There Is A New Covenant

Biblical Mandate for Missions

Isaiah is littered with the biblical mandate for missions!

For example in chapter twelve, “LORD we are thankful and we will worship only you. We will tell the nations how glorious you are and what you have done!” One would assume this came right out of the New Testament however it was written 700 years before Christ! This is the answer to what the Bible says about would missions and why we should; because we are thankful and as an act of worship to our creator we will tell the world of what he has done!

This mandate is rooted in the very character of God. God has revealed Himself as a seeking missionary God. He is the God of creation and redemption. He is the God of the universe and the God of salvation for mankind. He has created human beings with the potential to know Him and serve His purposes. He has placed in the life of every human being the distinctive feature known biblically as the “image of God.”

 

John, in one particular chapter shares that there will be a future judgment (5:28-30), but it is already active now (5:22-23), so the believer is beyond the judgment (5:24-27). He is concerned that we understand who Jesus is as well as the eschatological realities present in his ministry. Those who have experienced the reality of the gift of the Father, the supremacy of the Son and the eschatological reality of passing from death to life (cf. 5:24)--have received the good news. Then, near the end of his gospel, John will make the point that those who enter this reality are commissioned themselves to share it (20:21-22).

 

 

Revealed Purpose through a Promise

This is an incredible commentary on this very subject - http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/36/Promises-Abraham.htm
You will note that it starts with Abraham and continues to Christ and then to those who follow Him.  A beautifully written piece explaining how precious the promise of God continues to bless us.

God in His sovereign grace has reached down to mankind and revealed Himself and His eternal purpose for all to know Him. He did this by revealing Himself to the prophets in the Old Testament, and by sending His own son, Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament. There is a progressive self revelation of God as we begin in the book of Genesis a journey to the fulfillment of all the promises in person and work of Jesus Christ. God does not give a full complete revelation of everything about Himself and His purpose for mankind in one quick brief presentation. The will of God was gradually revealed. An infinite God cannot reveal more than finite men can understand. God is patient. He progressively reveals truths about Himself and His purpose for mankind. Here a little, there some more, like bringing all the pieces of a great puzzle together until we see the complete picture. Each revelation of Himself to men in the Old Testament was true and accurate.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

The ultimate good is that which manifests God’s glory. For the Christian, “good” includes the blessing of all those who are the called in Jesus Christ. The promised blessings of the Bible are the good which God has purposed and promised. The Christian life should be lived out in the light of the superiority of God’s promised blessings in comparison to the “blessings” an ungodly world holds out to us (Hebrews 11:24-26).

A part of that plan involves God's desire that all nations recognize the stark difference between these two conflicting ways of life. He wants every person to learn that His ways alone can consistently bring true and lasting blessings to all people.

Strategic Interest

(This map outlines some of the areas of interest for SAT-7 and our strategic interest in the Middle East and not show here as much - North Africa.)

Points of interest from the story of the woman at the well:

• The Samaritans were a mixed race people, who had intermarried with the Assyrians centuries before. They were hated by the Jews because of this cultural mixing, and because they had their own version of the Bible and their own temple on Mount Gerizim.

• The woman at the well came to draw water at the hottest part of the day, instead of the usual morning or evening times, because she was shunned and rejected by the other women of the area for her immorality. Jesus knew her history but still accepted her and ministered to her.

• By reaching out to the Samaritans, Jesus showed that his mission was to the entire earth, not just the Jews. In the book of Acts, after Jesus' ascension into heaven, his apostles carried on his work in Samaria and to the Gentile world.

• Ironically, while the High Priest and Sanhedrin rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the outcast Samaritans recognized him and accepted him for who he truly was: the Savior of the world.

We are on a journey. Our strategy describes how we will reach our destination. It is our road map. Our destination is the answer to the key question - What does God want to accomplish in the world through our church?

Jesus was born of the Jewish people, as were His apostles and a large number of His first disciples. When He revealed Himself as the Messiah and Son (cf. Mt 16:16), the bearer of the new Gospel message, He did so as the fulfillment and perfection of the earlier Revelation. And although His teaching had a profoundly new character, Christ, nevertheless, in many instances, took His stand on the teaching of the Old Testament. The New Testament is profoundly marked by its relation to the Old. As the Second Vatican Council declared: "God, the inspirer and author of the books of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New" (Dei Verbum, 16). Jesus also used teaching methods similar to those employed by the rabbis of His time.

The Great Commission is one of the most significant passages in the Holy Bible. First, it's the last recorded personal instruction given by Jesus to His disciples. Second, it's a special calling from Jesus Christ to all His followers to take specific action while on this earth. The Great Commission is found in the Gospel of Matthew:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

We are sent out in relational power. Relational power takes into consideration the value and perspective of others. It gives, but also receives; acts but also responds; has a vision but is open to change and transformation. Relational power is at the heart of good parenting as well as democratic decision-making. Relational power encourages freedom, creativity, and coloring outside the lines, within the context of overall environmental safety and order. Relational power recognizes that well-being in personal and institutional life is best achieved by welcoming diverse perspectives and balancing order and novelty for the common good.

This means dealing with pluralism. We have seen it from a Catholic perspective that poses challenges by religious pluralism in a democratic setting or more recently demonstrated by, Umar Faruq Abd-Allah who urged Muslim Americans to consciously establish a unique cultural identity that reflects the American tradition of tolerance for diverse races and ethnicity's. There is an essential compatibility, argues Abd-Allah, between American pluralism and the Islamic tradition that respects ethnic and cultural differences.

This also means universalism. The concept of universalism signifies the general, what concerns everything of a special kind, or the totality. The concept is central in different European traditions of thought; in theology it connotes a religious view that asserts the ultimate salvation of all souls (inter alia in opposition to Calvinist predestination).

Related articles

• Before the end comes, the Gospel will be preached to the entire world

  ---

• The Great Commission is Our Commission

  ---

• Baidoo-Essien Highlights How Important and Significant the Saving Gospel is to the Sinner's Transition in his New Book 'Examining The Great Commission, A Call To Study'

  ---

God's purpose for Himself

“In this way, I will make known my holy name among my people of Israel. I will not let anyone bring shame on it. And the nations, too, will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel." (Ezekiel 39:7)

God’s great purpose is to make Himself known. This is the great emphasis of the Bible. God’s program of missions centers upon Himself. God’s great concern is to glorify Himself and to make Himself known to all.

There is little room for God's glory while we fill the earth with violence and oppression and while sin and death remain. A great change is obviously necessary to bring about this wonderful time of blessing, which we read of in many Bible prophecies (Psalm 72; Isaiah 32). However great the change, its realisation is certain! This is the message of the gospel (good news) which is taught throughout the Bible. Few realise that the promise made to Abraham 2,000 years before Christ, is the foundation of the gospel!

In the New Testament, the book of Acts presents the gatherings of the churches that met in homes, rather than at locations built for exclusive religious expression. I Corinthians 14 addresses a great deal about anticipated activities, when the church is gathered for meetings.  There are many listed activities, such as praying, instructing, speaking in tongues, giving thanks and singing hymns. Neither evangelism nor edification of God was the purpose of the gatherings. This passage indicates that the purpose of all these shared activities was to edify one another, the Christians, themselves which brings glory to God. If, however, a non-believer were to be present, although (s)he might not understand what is happening and why, the observations of and testimony of the believers will draw him/her to repent and worship God.

The Lord Jesus taught us to pray to our Father: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to pray for God to be glorified in every place on earth and for people everywhere to serve him with joy.

Related articles

• Teach children the Bible is not about them

  ---