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THE GREAT COMMISSION Other Books by Rev THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION Other books by Rev. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. The Christian Case Against Abortion, 1982, rev. 1989 The Christian and Alcoholic Beverages, 1986 The Charismatic Gift ofProphecy, 1986, rev. 1989 The Beast ofRevelation, 1989 Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book ofRevelation, 1989 House Divided: The Break-Up ofDispensational Theology (with Greg L. Bahnsen), 1989 THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION The Christian Enterprise in a Fallen World Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. Institute for Christian Economics Tyler, Texas Copyright, Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., 1990 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gentry, Kenneth L. The greatness ofthe Great Commission : the Christian enterprise in a fallen world / Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-930464-48-6 : $25.00 (alk. paper). -- ISBN 0-930464-50-8 (pbk.) : $8.95 (alk. paper) 1. Great Commission (Bible). 2. Evangelistic work -- Philosophy. 3. Dominion theology. 4. Fundamentalism -- Controversial literature. 5. Dispensationalism -- Controversial literature. 6. Millennialism. 7. Sociology, Christian. I. Title. BV2074.G45 1990 90-15500 269--dc20 CIP r90 Institute for Christian Economics P. O. Box 8000 Tyler, TX 75711 To my covenant children: Amanda, Paul, and Stephen As "the heritage ofthe Lord," they are "like arrows in the hand" (Psalm 127:3, 4). TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher's Foreword, Gary North ••.•.•.•....•..•.......... ix Introduction 1 PART I: FOUNDATIONS 1. The Creation Mandate and the Great Commission 7 2. The Covenant and the Great Commission 15 PART II: CONFIGURATION 3. The Declaration of Sovereignty 27 4. The Exercise of Sovereignty 41 5. The Terms of Sovereignty 64 6. The Commitment to Sovereignty 79 7. The Continuance of Sovereignty 91 PART III: APPLICATIONS 8. The Family and the Great Commission III 9. The Church and the Great Commission 119 10. The State and the Great Commission 127 PART IV: IMPLICATIONS 11. Millennial Orientation and the Great Commission 135 12. Cultural Pessimism and the Great Commission 146 Conclusion 157 Scripture Index ................................... .. 165 Index 174 PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD Gary North So God created man in his DUm image, in the image ofGod created he him; male andfemale created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish ofthe sea, and over the fowl ofthe air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen. 1:27-28). AndJesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptiz.­ ing them in the name ofthe Father, and ofthe Son, and ofthe Holy Ghost: 'leaching them to obseroe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end ofthe world. Amen (Matt. 28:18-20). There is a tremendous need today for evangelism. By this, I do not mean simply the limited personal evangelism of tract­ passing. In any case, the tract is no longer with us. The newslet­ ter and the satellite TV interview show have replaced tracts. What is needed today is a comprehensive program ofworldwide evangelism that brings the message of salvation to every indi­ vidual on earth, in every walk of life. Having brought people into the kingdom of God through conversion, God then asks them to begin to make a difference in their world. He does not mean that they should spend day and night passing out tracts or the equivalent thereof; He means that they should reform their lives, their families, and their daily walk before Him and men. Evangelism means teach­ ing people to obey God's law, through the empowering ofGod's X THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION Holy Spirit. Evangelism means obedience. This is the message of John, who wrote the Gospel ofJohn: "Ifye love me, keep my commandments" Uohn 14:15). He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him Oohn 14:21). This is not the message ofmodern fundamentalism, however. Fundamentalism's message is "no creed but the Bible, no law but love." Its message is that Christians have nothing specific to say to a dying world except tell individuals to get ready to be pulled out of it, either at the Rapture or at death (preferably the former, ofcourse, since fundamentalists really do expect to get out oflife alive). They intend to leave nothing behind. They plan to disinherit the future. Dave Hunt tells us why the Rapture is so much better than dying: (1) Ifwe are in a right relationship with Christ, we can genuine­ ly look forward to the Rapture. Yet no one (not even Christ in the Garden looks forward to death. The joyful prospect ofthe Rapture will attract our thoughts while the distasteful prospect of death is something we may try to forget about, thus making it less effective in our daily lives. (2) While the Rapture is similar to death in that both serve to end one's earthly life, the Rapture does something else as well: it signals the climax of history and opens the curtain upon its final drama. It thus ends, in a way that death does not, all human stake in continuing earthly developments, such as the lives ofthe children left behind, the growth ofor the dispersion ofthe fortune accumu­ lated, the protection of one's reputation, the success of whatever earthly causes one has espoused, and so forth. 1 This is dispensationalism's program of"scorched-earth evan­ gelism": Preach the imminent Rapture. Tell Christians to leave nothing valuable behind to future generations! But this is not what God tells us our task is. Our task is far greater. 1. Dave Hunt, "Looking for that Blessed Hope," 07Mga Letter (Feb. 1989), p. 14. Publisher's Foreword xi Biblical Evangelism When God says to "evangelize," He means we should tell the good news to the world. Not easy news, or inexpensive news, but good news. The good news is thatJesus Christ has overcome the world. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). What fundamentalists want is a watered-down gospel mes­ sage suitable for children, and only for children. The problem is, children grow up. What do you tell a newly converted adult when he asks the question, "All right, I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Now what do I do?" The modern funda­ mentalist says all he has to do is tell someone else about what just happened to him. Then that person can tell another, and so on, until the Rapture ends the whole process. Modern fundamentalism looks at the gospel as if it were some kind of gigantic chain letter scheme. Nothing is of value in God's sight, they say, except keeping the chain letter alive. But the gospel is not a chain letter. It is the good news that Jesus has overcome this world. It is ourjob to demonstrate this victory in our lives, meaning every aspect of our lives. We are to exercise dominion. We should do this as Church members first, but in all other realms. The Dominion Covenant Had there not been a fall in Eden, every person would self­ consciously define himselfor herselfin terms ofdominion. This was what God told man his task must be: to serve as God's intermediary over the earth. This assignment is called the cul­ tural mandate by Dutch Calvinists in the tradition ofAbraham Kuyper. I call it the dominion covenant.2 The dominion cove­ nant did not cease with Adam's fall; it was reconfirmed at the "new creation" after the Flood: 2. Gary North, The Dominion Covenant: Centsis, 2nd ed. (fyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987). xii THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear ofyou and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they deliv­ ered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand ofman; at the hand ofevery man's brother will I require the life ofman (Gen. 9:1-5). The Great Commission is necessary because man, in his rebellion against God, has forgotten Who it was who gave him his assignment. He has forgotten to Whom he is historically and eternally responsible. Men are in need ofregeneration in order to re-establish the favor of God. Man is still under God's rule, but he refuses to acknowledge this fact. He worships other gods, either made by him or found in nature (Rom. 1:18-21). He may even worship nature itself, personifying it into a feminine form. The fact is, God's two assignments are linked together by their status as covenants. God issued the dominion covenant first because man had not yet rebelled. He issued the Great Commission because He had established thejudicial foundation for aNew Covenant, a universal covenant that binds men ofall races and backgrounds together under God.
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