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Who Rules the World?
Who’s winning the struggle for supremacy, Satan or Christ? It depends on how far back you go. If we measure from the time of Christ to now, Christ is far ahead. If we look at the last century or so, particularly in the Western World, Satan is rapidly regaining lost ground. Why? Why after so many centuries of progress is Christianity now in regress? Is it God’s inscrutable decision or is it something His people have done or failed to do? Have we failed to fulfill our responsibilities? What are our responsibilities as Christians? Most Christians seem to think that Satan is the god of this world and that conditions will get worse and worse until Jesus’ physical return. They seem believe that this is what the Bible teaches and that there is nothing anyone can do about it.
The only reference to Satan as the god of this world is 2 Cor. 4:4 which refers to his blinding of unbelievers and their making him, in effect, their god. We read in Matthew 28:18 that all power in heaven and earth was given to Christ. Was this rescinded? Certainly not! Immediately after asserting His authority, Jesus told His disciples (all Christians) to teach the nations to obey all His commandments. Have we done this? Well we did somewhat, up until a century or so ago when most of the evangelical churches basically gave up. The Great Commission was redefined and limited to just the preaching of the gospel and the nations were left to govern themselves without God’s law. They retained the Scriptural teaching of salvation in Christ and the need for living godly lives but virtually dropped the idea that Christians are also responsible for the world at large.
The earlier goal of converting the world to the Christian faith was first ignored and then denied. Authority for the world outside the church was transferred from Christ to Satan. This change was a consequence of two new theologies, Dispensationalism and Amillennialism, both devised in the 19th century. The Scofield Bible and a number of works of fiction that dramatized Christ’s return popularized the former. The latter gained acceptance in the more conservative seminaries and churches but both reflect a strongly pessimistic attitude toward the idea that the Great Commission of our Lord (Matt. 28:18-20) could ever be fulfilled. In effect, Satan was given control over everything in the world outside of the individual, the family and the church. He became, by default, the god of this world.
These ideas gained so much support that today God’s law no longer governs politics, the legal profession, civil government, medical care, entertainment, education, the sciences and more. America, with a high percentage of Christians, can hardly be called a Christian nation. Why? It is because Christians have focused almost exclusively on personal salvation and heaven, and have pretty much neglected the outside world. They may have kept Satan out of their lives but they certainly have given him free-reign everywhere else. The Christian community bemoans each new advance of the humanist agenda and, while Christians may pray for God to do something, they rarely take direct action to halt or reverse the trend. They feel little or no responsibility to do more than possibly provide an evangelical witness to unbelievers.
So America’s Christians stand on the sidelines as Satan forces take over one aspect after another of our once solidly Christian culture. There was a time when the slightest disparagement of Christians or Christian principles would bring a barrage of letters to the editor or to congressmen and other officials. Today, the Supreme Court can legislate in favor of abortion or homosexual marriage or any number of other godless causes without much more than a whimper from Christians. We are losing our once strongly Christian nation to the humanists. They are very alert and active in promoting their godless programs while we sit back and do nothing.
Christian, are you concerned about this situation? Do you see that the struggle for the world amounts to total warfare and cannot be restricted to personal life and evangelism? Do you see that home and family are in jeopardy and cannot be preserved as Satan’s forces approach complete control? Do you see that even before then, Christianity will be outlawed and forced underground? Today’s Christians are doing next to nothing about the spiritual condition of the nation because (a) they don’t see it as their business and (b) they don’t believe anything can be done. But it is their business (Matt. 5:13-16; 6:33; 28:18-20; Luke 19:13) and most definitely something can be done. There are millions of Christians in America. If just a small percentage were to take an interest in public affairs and begin to speak out and send letters to their representatives on these issues, we would see change. Most of these men and women in public office are truly concerned with only one thing, their reelection. As their mail shifts in favor of Christianity, they will be forced to act, even if against their wishes, and will soon begin to sound like sincere believers. This truly is a government of the people, but only of those people that are serious about it and take an interest in it. We need to shake-off our lethargy and start taking action; the situation is growing more and more critical as time passes.
A word to those of you that are pastors: It is especially important that you, you that carry the greater responsibility, begin teaching your congregations that being a Christian isn’t just a free ride to heaven but that Christians have work to do in this world. It may be difficult or even painful to go against the advice of your peers and seminary professors but it is God we must obey and to whom we must answer one day. This generation may fail to obey their God and there may be hard times ahead but we can be confident that God’s word is sure. A faithful generation will arise, the nations will learn to obey all Christ’s commandments, and the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14).
God Does it – We Do it
The Dilemma
A question that has plagued man and the church for all of history is if God controls all things, why is what I do of any significance? (a) Scripture tells us that God controls all things—as of course He must if He is able to answer our prayers. (b) Scripture also tells us that we are responsible for our actions and sinners go to hell. How can both these things be true? Some say that this is impossible and deny one or the other statement. Others accept it as an unfathomable mystery, something we are not able to understand and just need to believe. But neither of these answers is very satisfactory.
The Resolution
A better answer to the dilemma lies in recognizing that God is much greater than we may have thought. He is the infinite God that created the entire universe and is quite capable of controlling every outcome while still leaving man free to make his own choices. God knows His creatures so well that He knows what we will do before we do it, in any and every situation. Man’s decisions can then truly be his own decisions while his actions are still predetermined by God.
Man makes his decisions based on his ideas of right and wrong, his desires and what he wants to accomplish. God judges man’s actions in terms of the law He gave man. The man condemned by that law cannot say he was coerced and didn’t have a choice. It was truly his decision to violate it and he stands guilty before it.
Our actions, though secondary, are still significant. Every action we take, whether godly or sinful, are all factored into God’s predestination of all things. He is the ultimate and we are the secondary causes of events. As such, our actions have significance. We can say that such and such happened because we did so and so, and we can be correct in saying so. We are also correct when we say that it happened because God predestined it. God’s predestination is primary; our actions are secondary but both are significant. There is no conflict between the two. God’s predestination doesn’t interfere with our choices; they are already factored into God’s plan.
The Created and the Uncreated
We see then that there are two levels of action, God’s and man’s. God as Creator is like the potter that shapes the clay into whatever form he wishes (Rom. 9:20,21). Man is a kind of clay that has a will of its own and far more ability than the clay a potter works with; but compared to God, he is still just clay. There are two levels of action because there are two diverse levels of being; the Creator and the creature are distinctly set apart from each other. Man was created in God’s image but he is only an image of God and can never be a god. Man the sinner, deluded by Satan, desires to be equal with God. He knows he cannot rise up to God’s level but tries desperately to bring God down to man’s level. This also is impossible; he is frustrated and at odds with his very nature until God regenerates him and brings him back into contact with reality.
God’s Promises
Many Christians have been led to believe a convoluted idea that says that because God promised to do something, there was no personal responsibility, this even though that responsibility was spelled out. Christians often wonder why some of God’s promises don’t seem to come true. There are at least two reasons for this:
1. God’s promises need to be taken together with His commandments. In Deuteronomy 28 for example, the conditions are explicit; blessings follow obedience and curses disobedience. Elsewhere, the connection may not be so obvious. God promised that one day there would be worldwide Christian faith (Isa. 2:4; 11: 9; Joel 3:10; Mic. 4:3) and Christ commanded Christians to bring this about in His Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). Christians today tend to ignore their responsibility and pray for God’s kingdom to come as if it would be a blessing from above and there is nothing for them to do about it. To pray for something and not work for it to the extent one is able, is hypocrisy. Scripture tells us that this concern for God’s kingdom on earth is to be the top priority for Christians (Matt. 6:33). The idea that if God promises something, it will happen regardless of our disobedience, is false. Scripture clearly tells us to pray for our daily needs and for future blessings but it also tells us we need to work to bring about the things we pray for.
2. Many of God’s promises are directed to nations or societies and don’t apply directly to individuals or even families. Deuteronomy 28 again is an example; here we see a list of blessings that very clearly relate to the people as a whole. Blessings such as good harvests or victory over enemies relate to the entire nation, not individuals or individual families. When Jesus spoke to the people, He saw them as a people. Some of what He said applied to them as individuals but much of what He said just doesn’t fit this model. These kinds of blessings come when the people as a whole obey God’s commandments. This arrangement provides impetus for the godly minded to work to convince the doubters and unbelievers of their foolishness and their need to believe and obey God. God is interested in the well being of nations as well as of individuals and families. He gave His Son because “He so loved the world” (John 3:16,17). His love extends to peoples and nations as well as to persons.
The Binding of Satan
We read in Revelation 20 of the binding and loosing of Satan. This passage tells us that this binding of Satan will lead to a long period of peace on earth, a time when the nations of the world will be real, practicing Christian nations. Following this though, there is to be a time when Satan is loosed; once again he deceives the nations and an anti-Christian movement is formed. God destroys it with fire from heaven, casts the Devil into Hell and we come to the great white throne and the end of the age.
J. Marcellus Kik in his excellent exposition of this chapter associated the binding of Satan with the saving work of Christ on the cross. His death brought salvation to every believer. The true Christian, one born of the Spirit, is free from Satan’s bondage (Col. 1:13). Satan is bound in that he no longer has the free reign he enjoyed previously. There are now millions of Christians that he no longer controls; they interfere with his ability to deceive the nations. As they work to establish God’s law in the nations, the faith spreads, the nations are converted and eventually the millennium becomes a reality.
After the thousand years, though, Satan is loosed and the millennium breaks down. Why? Is it for some reason we are not given or is it also a consequence of the actions, or lack of action, of the Christian population? If Satan was bound by the freedom of the Christian population, could he not be loosed by the lack of, or lack of employment of, that same freedom? Now we know that the freedom Christ gave has not been rescinded. Nowhere in Scripture is there any support for such an assertion. But there is another factor, one that relates to the responsibility Christ gave Christians. They are to be the salt and light of the world. The salt that preserves the good and the light that shines God’s truth into every dark corner. To the degree that God’s people are faithful to these responsibilities, to that degree Satan’s power is restricted and he is bound. To the degree they fail in their responsibilities, to that degree Satan is loosed and is able to deceive the nations. The loosing of Satan then, at the end of the thousand years, may well be due to the failure of the Christians of that day to live up to their responsibilities. After many generations of peace and tranquility, complacency sets in, the churches fail to teach the doctrines of Scripture, the culture becomes less Christian, and finally a generation arises that is in complete rebellion against God. Satan’s binding continues to diminish until finally he breaks out in full strength.
We have seen in the last century or so a resurgence of Satan’s power to deceive the nations of the once solidly Christian West. This renewal of Satan’s power has been closely synchronous with the rise in popularity of new theologies among Christian churches and the Christian population as a whole. The great majority of Christians now believe that Satan is the god of this world and that the world will continue to decline and will get worse and worse until Christ returns. It would seem that Satan is most definitely not as tightly bound as he was previously. There is unquestionably a connection between Satan’s ability to deceive the nations and the vitality and sense of responsibility of Christians.
Has the period of Satan’s loosing we read of in Revelation 20 already come? There is too much Scriptural support for a truly golden age, one we have not yet seen, that precedes his loosing, for that to be the case. But the history of the Christian age has not been one of monotonic growth. There have been many ups and downs in church history and there may be many more yet to come. One thing is certain; Christians and especially the Christian clergy need to come to grips with the significance of the doctrine of Christian responsibility. It is not properly exposited and driven home to the faithful in more than one in ten thousand pulpits today.
God So Loved The World
One of the first verses children learn in Sunday School is John 3:16:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The verse says that God, because of His great love for the world, gave His son so that all that believe in Him would live forever. The emphasis is usually placed on the consequence, the promise of eternal life for believers, rather than the fact of God’s love for the world. The next verse, though, tells us more about God’s purpose:
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Christ came, not to condemn but to save the world. Here we see that it is not just some number of believers but rather the entire world that is to be saved. But just what is it that constitutes the world? It is, of course, the nations of the world. God had chosen the nation of Israel to be His elect nation but with the coming of Christ this was greatly broadened. It is no longer just Israel but now it is all the nations of the world that God expresses His love for and has chosen to be the objects of His salvation.
The salvation that God purposes and effects is not a temporary thing. It is intended to be permanent, to extend to the end of the age and beyond (Eph. 3:21). For this to be the case, each generation must educate its successor in the faith and, at some point, the faith must permeate and dominate the culture. We see that this is not yet the case; the nations of the world have not yet come to the place that we could call salvation. Evidently it is not an immediate fact but is a process of development requiring time and effort. Central to its progress is law.
Law
God didn’t make man to be alone but to live with others of his kind. For this to be possible there was a need for rules of behavior, guidelines that would govern the interactions between man and man, man and woman, man and animals, etc. After the fall, the need for such rules became much more urgent; they became a life or death necessity. The first child born on earth killed his brother and so it has gone throughout history. There is an urgent need for law; without it we cannot live as gregarious creatures. For members of a family to live together, there must be a set of rules that govern their interactions with each other. For families to live in larger groups, another set of rules—that each family agrees to—is needed to govern inter-familial contact. As societies grow into cities and nations, the rules of behavior become formalized and written law, civil government, courts of adjudication and police agencies come into being. These are necessary because man is born in sin and tends to love himself far more than he loves his neighbor. Law in some form is indispensable to society; without it all cooperation is lost and each individual is on his own. Civilization fails and barbarism ensues.
The mere presence of law though, is not enough. What is needed is the right law, a law that enhances the life of society. Laws devised by men without God’s direction are never truly just but are always biased so as to favor a few to the detriment of the many. They typically fall far short of what is needed and the nation as a whole suffers. God knows us far better than we know ourselves and knows the kind of law we need in our present condition. When He freed the Israelites, the people He loved, from bondage in Egypt, one of His first actions was to give them a law to live by. He wrote with His own finger the Ten Commandments, the summary of the law He gave them through Moses, His chosen mediator. His assessment of this law was:
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4: 5-8)
Jesus, two millennia later, told us that this law was not only still in effect but would remain in effect until heaven and earth pass away.
18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
19 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
20 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17-19)
The God that created man does not change (Mal. 3:6). Neither does His law change; He, once and for all time, gave us a law to live by. This law is an expression of His great love for His creatures. To the extent the nations of the world adopt this law and put it into effect, to that extent they are blessed by it. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). The nation is blessed, not just because of faith, but because the people live by God’s Law (Deut. 28).
Saving the Nations
How are the nations to be saved? The model we have is Israel, the nation God chose in antiquity to save and to represent Him. God took Israel out of bondage in Egypt and gave them the land of Canaan for their own. They were given what we would call today gospel and law. Their gospel was in the promise of a future Messiah and a temple in which they could sacrifice in anticipation of His final sacrifice. They were Christians, in a different setting from ours today but Christians nonetheless. Their Messiah was our Christ and their God was our God. We can learn something of what national salvation means by looking at them and God’s dealings with them.
One of the main sources of problems was the failure of the Israelites to heed God’s warnings against social contact with the neighboring nations. He knew that their faith would be corrupted by exposure to these idolatrous people. This was so serious a matter that He placed the death penalty on any that attempted to introduce false religions in Israel (Deut. 13:7-11). God gave Israel both law and gospel because both were needed if the nation was to remain faithful.
The lesson to be learned in this is that Christianity cannot prosper and grow in a godless culture. The youth and new believers have not progressed far enough in their understanding of the faith to be able to defend it against the wiles of the Devil. They are like the seed that is susceptible to wither and die for various reasons and needs the good ground to thrive and grow and develop into a mature faith (Matt. 13:3-9).
For it to have the effect God intends, Christians must work to prepare the ground for the gospel. The efforts of all Christians, not just pastors and missionaries, are needed here. As they live in accordance with God’s Law and work to bring the surrounding culture to that standard, the nation changes. The salvation of the nation as a whole, the entire environment, is a necessity.
The gospel message is the good news of God’s grace to individuals. His Law, operating in the lives of His people, is the cement that builds them into a godly nation. Without God’s Law, the gospel is weak and relatively ineffective; with it, it is a powerful force that conquers both individuals and nations. What was true in Ancient Israel is still true today. Law must accompany gospel. It is only when the law complements the gospel that the faith spreads and grows to cover the earth.
The fact of original sin is faced with every new generation and must be countered successfully if progress in the salvation of the nations is to continue. Each child born is born in sin, in bondage to Satan, and can become a force for good or for evil. The training the child is exposed to in his early years is a vital factor in the determination of which side he joins (Prov. 22:6). A Christian environment is vital to the propagation of the faith, which cannot even be maintained, let alone increased, when its children are brought up in anti-Christian surroundings, such as we see in the Western World today.
Contrary to the opinion of many, the laws a people live under are not a neutral matter. An individual’s salvation is through faith, which in turn is reflected in and demonstrated by his obedience to God’s Law (James 2:18). Likewise, a nation’s faith is visible in the laws its people live by, whether written or unwritten. As an individual’s faith can only be discerned in his obedience, so a nation’s faith is demonstrated in its laws.
While the faith of a people influences the nation’s laws, the nation’s laws also influence the people’s faith. A godly people produce godly laws and godly laws tend to shape a godly people. Faith and law cannot remain in opposition. Either the nation’s laws must conform to the faith of the people or the faith of the people must yield and come into conformity with the law of the nation. The nation’s progress in godliness can be seen in its laws. To what extent do they conform to God’s Law?
If the nations Jesus came to save are to see His salvation, a Christian culture must be established, which means that their laws must come into conformity with God’s Law. Law must accompany gospel if the nations are to be saved. The responsibility for this falls, not just to the clergy, but to all Christians, the Body of Christ on earth.
The Truncated Gospel
The gospel of our Lord is a message of salvation but is it limited to salvation from an eternity in Hell? Is there no aspect of salvation in this life as well as in eternity? Yes, there is the peace of God which passes understanding and keeps the hearts and minds of believers (Phil 4:7) but what about the world at large? Has it been left to the Devil and his angels? Is there no salvation for the rest of the world? Will the Christian faith be limited to a small remnant and the great majority of the world’s population be destined to hell fire?
Back at the beginning of history God separated the world into two populations, believers and unbelievers, the seed of the woman (Christ and all true Christians) and the seed of the serpent (all unbelievers) (Gen. 3:15). He said there that the woman’s seed would crush the serpent’s head. Christians will overcome unbelief in this world. They will crush every form of unbelief, not by physical conquest but by the gospel. The day will come when all unbelievers will either have been converted or have died off; the serpent’s head will have been crushed and the world will be a Christian world.
Jesus confirmed this intent when he gave the Great Commission to His disciples and to all Christians (the seed of the Woman). He told them that He had all authority over heaven and earth and that they were to put that authority into effect by teaching the nations to obey all His commandments. This has been played down to be no more than a call to preach the gospel but Jesus’ words were, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, … to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28: 18-20). Jesus first asserted His authority to dictate and govern the nations of the world (see also Psalm 2:6-12). He then directed His disciples to put His authority into effect and instruct the nations so as to bring them into full obedience to His commands. This is nothing less than a command to make this world a Christian world.
The gospel message is central to this effort but is not the entirety of it. It is much more and goes far beyond the preaching of the gospel. It is a task that requires the efforts of all Christians, not just pastors and missionaries. Obedience to Jesus’ commandments cannot be realized without major cultural changes, changes affecting every aspect of life of all the peoples of the world. This Great Commission needs to be seen as a life mission that Jesus gave to all His followers. It should be the heart felt desire, the overriding priority, in the life of every true believer. It should be seen as more important than even the basic necessities of life (Matt. 6:33).
Sadly, this message has not been propagated through the churches. The Commission has been truncated, reduced from actually converting to just preaching, and generally limited to the work of the clergy. The work of the churches in teaching Christians their responsibilities as individuals and families has been of great benefit but the full exposition of Jesus’ commission is essential to the fulfillment of God’s plan for history. The Serpent’s head will not be crushed and the world will not be converted to Christ until Christians come to understand and then take up their responsibilities in the Great Commission.
Spirit and Flesh at War
The world before and in the time of Christ was heavily under the influence of Greek philosophy. Plato and other pagan philosophers taught that spirit or mind was good and that matter or flesh was evil. The Gnostics that opposed the apostles held to this neoplatonistic view which was never completely eliminated from Christian circles. Its influence is still present today and can be seen in two theological disciplines, antinomianism and amillennialism.
The antinomians (those against law) do not see God’s law as applicable to Christians today. Following Plato, they separate mind from body and thusly divide man into two opposing entities. They see Old Testament Israel as fleshly and New Testament Christianity as spiritual. God’s laws, they say, applied to the former but the latter, as the spiritual, operate on a higher plane and have no need of the law. This radical division of man that disconnects the spiritual from the physical lets them conclude that Christians can disobey God’s laws with impunity and remain in God’s favor. It denies James who says, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).
The amillennialists (those against millennialism) deny the Scriptural prophecies that predict a future age in which the Christian faith is predominant throughout the world. They do so by interpreting all such passages as having a spiritual meaning that overrides the physical sense. A passage that says, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4) is lifted entirely out of this world and taken as a reference to heaven and the final state. This group does not deny the applicability of God’s law today but they demonstrate their neoplatonic thinking in the way they look at Scripture. They say that God’s word to His creature, the physical-spiritual being He formed from the dust of the earth and breathed His spirit into, was to be understood spiritually. Its physical aspects were merely allegorical in nature and not meant to be taken literally. Man, even Jesus the God-man is split in two; the physical is denigrated and temporary while the spiritual is exalted and permanent. This hints quite strongly of Plato and the Gnostics of old and is not faithful biblical interpretation.
God’s word treats man as man, as the physical-spiritual being he is and was created to be. Scripture is not an allegory in which the true meaning is not what it simply says but must be decoded before it can be understood. In places Scripture employs figurative language but only to clarify, not as a means to hide the true meaning. Man is both spirit and flesh and neither aspect should be exalted above the other. Spirit is not necessarily good (Satan is a spiritual being), nor is flesh necessarily evil (Jesus’ body is human flesh). Where Paul speaks of the conflict between the spirit and the flesh (Gal. 5:17), he uses the word flesh as a reference to the old nature that still resides in the redeemed man. It is not the physical body that struggles against the spirit but the old spirit that struggles against the new spirit.
Christ’s Challenge to Christians!
Atheistic humanism, the idea that there is no God and that man is his own god, had very little sway in 19th century America. It was looked upon as an aberration that affected only the fringes of society. Mainstream Americans went to church and believed that God was in His heaven and all was well in the world. Sure there were still problem areas that needed attention but most felt that, in time, these would be attended to and moral and spiritual conditions would continue to improve.
The latter half of 20th century demonstrated the foolishness of these notions. Christianity was asleep but its enemy was not. First the universities and the public schools, then the news and entertainment media and finally the centers of government, federal, state and local, were taken over and steadily stripped of Christian content. Today, while there is still a modicum of lip service given to Christian principles, they have little influence in these centers of power.
The majority of Americans believe in God but the nation is ruled primarily by unprincipled, godless, men and women whose only real concern is for themselves. Those that have any principles at all are humanists that despise God’s law. They teach their atheistic philosophies to captive children in America’s schools and to young adults in her universities. Generation by generation, they are leading Christian America farther and farther away from their God.
Don’t think we’ve just reached a new low where we can expect to see some stability. This is a straw that Christians keep grasping at. The school curricula, media moral standards and the laws of the land drop to a new low at every point of change. How long will it be before we find the Christian faith forced underground? Christians really need to stop deluding themselves, face the reality of the situation and take action!
But what can we do that would make a difference? Is there anything we can do other than pray? To answer these questions, we must recognize that we took a wrong turn somewhere and are not doing what we should be doing. Then we can look back to see where and why we went wrong. Let’s begin by examining with some care exactly what Jesus told us to do.
Jesus’ Instructions
Very near the end of His time on earth Jesus spoke to His disciples. His words are recorded at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt. 28)
The Commission
1. He begins by stating His authority: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” He declares that He is the ultimate ruler over all the nations in the world.
2. He empowers His disciples to exercise His authority over the nations by baptizing them and teaching them to observe all His commandments.
3. He promises to be with them “even unto the end of the world.”
These are truly amazing and earthshaking statements. Let’s consider some of the implications:
1. Every form of human government is subservient to Christ. Kings or governing bodies are not sovereign entities. They are subject to whatever commandments Jesus has prescribed and may not violate His law-word.
2. In this area of teaching the nations, Jesus’ disciples were given specific authority. It surpassed the authority of kings, parliaments or any other form of human authority. They were to proceed with this work regardless of governmental opposition (Acts 5:29).
3. Jesus’ promise to be with them to the end of the world shows us that he wasn’t speaking to just these eleven men. They would not live that long. He was speaking to His entire body, to all the faithful, to all true Christians. So this commission, this responsibility to baptize and teach the nations of the world is given to every individual believer. Some may do more and some less but the task is to be accomplished by the aggregate effect of all the individual contributions.
4. This is truly a “Great” Commission. It is a repeat of the command God gave Adam and Eve; they were told to be fruitful, to multiply and to take dominion over the earth. They were to produce a world full of God-fearing, God-obeying people or, what we would call today, a Christian world. Adam failed but Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) assumed the task. His work is done; the rest, the mopping up operation, He has delegated to His people, the members of His body, each and every Christian.
The Response
The early Christians (AD 100-300) made good progress toward the fulfillment of this commission. Christianity grew from just a handful to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. But the rate of progress declined when the church leadership redefined the boundaries of God’s kingdom to be the church institution itself. Jesus declared that His kingdom was all of heaven and earth but the church excluded everything outside its walls. This, of course, denied Christ’s claim and slowed to a crawl the work of the Great Commission. The excuse given was that the Commission was meant to be just a call to preach the Gospel, not to actually accomplish the conversion of the nations. The goals were redefined so as to be brought into line with the results. This idea took root more than a thousand years ago; even the Reformation that came later did not change it and it is still held to be true in most of today’s churches.
The argument in support of this is that Jesus was speaking, not to all Christians but to His disciples and to their successors, the ordained clergy. This may be sufficient for the limited goal of preaching the Gospel but not the broader goal of actually teaching the nations obedience. But the words do not say preach the Gospel; they say teach the nations to obey. But to teach the nations is to teach the peoples of the nations and just how is that to be done and why does it involve all Christians?
1. Teaching begins at home but it soon moves to the school, which in turn says that the schools of the nations should teach God’s law (Christ’s commandments). America’s schools today teach atheism; God’s law is anathema within their walls. This is not something that could be corrected by the clergy acting alone; nor is it within its charter. It is the concerted effort of all Christians that would be needed to make a change in current practice. Supposedly, Christians are a majority in this country; were they of one mind in this, they could easily make a decided difference.
2. Teaching continues in the acts of the legislatures that form the laws of the nations. Here again the clergy’s ability to influence is limited. It is the votes and the concerted political action of the great body of Christians that are needed to significantly affect the kinds of laws that are instituted.
3. The news and entertainment media reinforces the teaching of the school system. Here is another area that would require the efforts of all Christians; they buy the products of the sponsors and have the influence that can be used to effect control over the programming.
So we see that the full scope of the Commission involves much more than preaching and baptizing and, while beyond the means of the clergy alone, is well within the capability of the full body of Christ. The Lord tells us that Christians should place a very high priority on this task. He says, “seek ye first the kingdom of God” even before food, drink and clothing (Matt. 6:31,33). Likewise, the first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer (Matt. 6:9-13) are for the establishment of His kingdom, only after these do we find personal requests.
Responsibility
We Christians seem to have forgotten that Jesus called us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are not responsible just for our families and ourselves but for the whole world! We are called to be “instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13) and to “reprove the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11). We need to broaden our vision. God has given us real responsibilities that we must not shrink from. He has placed the future of the unbelieving world in our hands. Are we to selfishly ignore His commandment?
Furthermore, it is not only unbelievers that are at risk in this. Many Christian families are heartbroken by wayward youth as a consequence of their exposure to the influences of a surrounding apostate world. God warned of this danger with respect to the godless peoples that bordered Israel (Deut. 7:2-6). Regardless of what we might wish, Christianity cannot continue to live hand in hand with atheistic humanism; it must either dominate the culture or submit to it.
Implementing and maintaining Christ’s kingdom in America would have been a far simpler task had it begun a century or two ago, but it is not out of reach today. What is needed is for the clergy to do the task that God assigned them, to teach the whole counsel of His word. This must include the teaching of the Great Commission to its full extent and meaning.
When America’s Christians come to a true understanding of the responsibilities God gave them and begin to obey the Commission of their Lord, we will see real change begin to take place. This nation and then the entire world can and eventually will be won for Christ. All Christians, as they are able, will play a part in this, some will do more and some less but all need to participate.
This is not an impossible task and it’s what Jesus wants us to do with the life He gave us! He will not do it for us but He promised to be with us to the end of the age. Do we need more encouragement or support than that? All we need to do is believe and obey. When we do so, really do so, God will give us all the support we need.
Debt, Wealth and God’s Law
America is in trouble today. Foreign policy is in shambles, the economy is declining, personal and government debt have grown to astronomical proportions; disaster is at our doorstep and to top it all off, no one in any position of authority seems to know what to do about it. I submit that this is the case because no one is willing to look deeply enough into the roots of the problems. The preference seems to be to come up with a solution that doesn’t require any real change in how we live and think as a people. The feeling is that we are basically OK, the system is fundamentally sound and all we need to do is tweak a little here or there and everything will be just hunky-dory once again. And if that’s not in the cards, let’s at least find a way to transfer the problems to the next generation and let our children work their way out of the mess we leave behind.
Many today (even some Christians) see God’s law as a primitive law for primitive people and totally inapplicable to today’s culture. One hears reasons such as: “it’s too simplistic and cannot begin to address the many issues that arise in today’s complex society.” In response to this, let’s look at just two of God’s laws that relate to debt and wealth accumulation.
Debt
There are many things wrong in our country today but let’s look at two that appear to be fundamental to most of the rest. First is the extent to which our culture has become debt ridden. Debt, historically, has always led to slavery and we as a people have allowed ourselves to slip into what approaches a condition of slavery to civil government, especially Washington. We have allowed government and quasi-government agencies to take control of our money, our education, our retirement, our medical care and many other aspects of our personal lives. To the extent we have done this, to that extent we have become slaves. What is a slave? Is it not someone who is forced to work and then required give all his wages to his master in return for the necessities of life? Are we not slaves to the extent we are forced to transfer our income to the government in return for its providence? Yes, we voted to place ourselves in this position but there’s no way out, no turning back the clock, is there? We are just as ensnared today, as were the domestic slaves of earlier history.
Wealth
The second and even more fundamental problem America faces today is the degeneration of our once proud Republic into first a democracy and then an oligarchy (rule by the few). We go to the polls faithfully, but whichever party wins, nothing really changes. Money rules in Washington and those with the most money call the shots. This should not surprise anyone; we should expect people with great wealth to protect their own interests. The center of governmental authority in this country shifted from the counties to the states to the Federal level. Why? It is because the power of the very rich is strengthened with fewer, or preferably, a single point of control over civil government. The next step, as globalism progresses, will be one-world government. Why is this so? Is there no remedy, no way to avoid the inevitable concentration of such great power into the hands of a few? America is a country that places no limits on the accumulation of wealth, or on the power that it puts in the hands of the extremely rich. Very few sinful men are able to bear the responsibility that comes with extreme power. Heads swell with the intoxicating effect it produces and few are able to resist employing it, albeit often with good intentions, at least to begin with.
It could be argued that the wealthy act to protect themselves from the radical democratic idea that everyone, regardless of wealth or status, should have an equal vote. In this scheme, the many with nothing to lose are then able to outvote the few that have much to lose. Democracy, a proven failure throughout history, survived long in Christian America. The wealthy though, are not fools and did not sit idle while their wealth was increasingly being stripped away. They responded by first influencing and then circumventing the election process. They used their wealth to finance the election campaigns of men that would do what they wanted; they also took control of the news media and employ for their own benefit the power it has over popular opinion.
The basic problem is not that we have extremely evil men ruling over us. They are really not so different from us; were the positions reversed, most middle class people would be doing the same sorts of things. The fundamental problem is that we have a law system that allowed the wealth differential to increase to the enormous differences we see today. We should not expect people with wealth and incomes millions of times greater than the average to sit back and not exercise, to their own advantage, the vast power over others that comes with great wealth.
God’s Law
The question then is what can we do about this situation? Well, first we should appreciate that this degree of wealth disparity did not exist in early America. The Puritans that founded this country started out with the right idea but didn’t hold to their original principles strictly enough. They started with God’s law as the premise for all law but never fully implemented it. Over time, they relaxed their standards and became less and less diligent in following it. What bearing though would God’s law have had on the problems of debt and excessive wealth? Of the many injunctions we find in that law, two stand out as pertinent: First there was the year of release which prevented long term debt and then there was the Jubilee that prevented extreme wealth disparity.
The year of release (Deut. 15:1,2) cleared all debts every seventh year. Loans were made based on their being forgiven in the seventh year. Presumably, repayment schedules were adjusted accordingly. This made every person in the nation, whether he liked it or not, debt free at least once in every seven years. It gave the individual prone to fall into debt a chance to mend his ways; he had a new start every seventh year. Also, with all the debt of the entire nation cleared every seventh year, the kind of private and government indebtedness we see today was strictly curtailed.
The Jubilee (Lev. 25:10-28) restored all land to the original owners every fiftieth year. This prevented the accumulation of land (and the wealth it represented) from being gradually accumulated by a few families. Land could be sold (based on its productivity) but its loan value would diminish as the Jubilee year, when it would be returned to the original family, approached. This didn’t prevent the more industrious from outdoing and becoming more prosperous than their neighbors. But it did prevent them from accumulating so much wealth that they could become their neighbor’s masters and eventually enslave them. This periodic re-balancing of the distribution of the nation’s source of wealth prevented the concentration of power in the hands of a few. This in turn made possible the continuance of a reasonably balanced economy and allowed a representative form of government to function without the kinds of distortions we see today.
Much more could be said about God’s law and its applicability today but we can see from just these two injunctions how much wisdom is to be found therein. God tells us in Jeremiah 10:23, “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” So we see that God’s law is not an option; it is a necessity. Much of today’s troubles can be traced back to our forefathers’ failure to fully implement and adhere to that divinely inspired law-word. Likewise, we today will continue to dabble in one program after another until we realize we need to go back to the basics, the basics of God’s word. The choice is simple, we can adopt God’s law to govern us or we can continue on the path of least resistance, the path that we have been following. The end of that road is failure, poverty, slavery and despair.
Unity in the Church
In another article (Bible Study), the need for doctrinal unity and a method for reaching it within a congregation is described. Ephesians 4:11-13 shows us that God gave the gifts of prophet, pastor and teacher to the church so that doctrinal unity may be realized. 1 Corinthians 11:18,19 shows us that all views, even heresies, need to be discussed and examined carefully so that “they which are approved may be made manifest” or, in other words, so that the truth may be clearly seen by all. It is not a presbytery or a group of elders that review each point of doctrine and then decide among themselves what the congregation should be told. It is the entire congregation that hears all sides of every issue and each decides for himself what he will believe. Unity is approached through a gradual process in which differences are continuously being examined and eliminated.
Christianity today is far from the kind of unity Scripture enjoins upon it. If we were to reduce the faith to what all the Christian sects and denominations believe, we would find that much Biblical doctrine would be eliminated. There is much disagreement on the doctrines of the Holy Spirit, the end times, salvation and to a lesser extent on every doctrine in Scripture. There is a degree of unity within denominations but much disunity across their boundaries. I don’t believe this is what the apostle had in view when he said:
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
and
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4)
In today’s structure, each denomination hardens its pastors, teachers and members against what it sees as the errors of the others. There is no force of any kind that works toward biblical unity across these boundaries. Nor does there seem to be any concern or even awareness that the current methodology is deficient in this respect. Each sect seems to believe that unity can only be reached when their particular views become universal. So each digs in, shuts ears and eyes against all that they see as heresy, and charges blindly ahead. Instead of going down, the walls get higher and thicker and the prospect of unity diminishes. Sadly, the walls are often taken as an object of pride: I’m a Baptist says one;I’m a Lutheran says another. It sometimes seems that these distinctions are as important, if not more important, than being a Christian. Instead of pride in distinctions, they should rather be viewed with sadness and all differences made an area of concern.
Some, perhaps in recognition of the problem, have advocated acceptance of the least common denominator as the totality of Christian doctrine by all. This of course is not an answer; it is a retreat from Christianity altogether and capitulation to humanism. Without compromising one’s faith though, there needs to be a change in attitude; there should be a serious effort on the part of Christians to broaden their horizons. They need to go outside their own denominational study material and commentaries and develop a real understanding of the teachings of other denominations.
Because of the firm divisions that are currently in place, it doesn’t seem likely that any real steps toward biblical unity will be taken without a major change in the current denominational dynamic. Christians need to see that, to have an effective message, the body of Christ must present a unified front to the unbelieving word. The lack of unity diminishes credibility and seriously weakens the Gospel message. Change though, will need to come from the bottom, not the top. The seminary graduates are too hardened; they know too much and have too many arguments or proofs (often derived from a faulty systematic) to give alternate viewpoints any true consideration.
A totally new attitude toward Christian institutions is needed, a change not likely to arise out of the clergy. It can only come from ordinary Christians that get serious about their faith and the work God has given them. Too many Christians today don’t see the church as their responsibility at all; they see themselves as observers and to some extent financial supporters of the pastors and missionaries. But this is insufficient, the body of Christ cannot and does not make progress when the great majority of its members leave all the work to the few that are in so called “full time Christian service.” This attitude is not Scriptural; Christ tells us that we must take His kingdom seriously; it must be “first,” top priority in every Christian’s life, even before concerns about food, clothing or shelter (Matt. 6:33). Until this lack of concern for the furtherance of God’s kingdom on the part of Christians is corrected, we cannot expect to see unity in the church at large.
Lay Christians, and hopefully some pastors and seminary graduates as well, that become aware of the need for unity should work to spread this message. They represent a force for change, a force that may be small to begin with but one that, because it is based on God’s truth and God’s will, will grow. If it is to be the force that will conquer evil in this world, the body of Christ cannot remain divided. It must eventually find unity in the truth and, with a consistent message, it can then begin to function as God purposed.