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THE GREATNESS of the GREAT COMMISSION Other Books by Kenneth L THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION Other books by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. The ChristW.n Case Against Abortion, 1982, rev. 1989 The Charismatic Gift of Prophecy, 1986, rev. 1989 The Christw.n and Alcoholic Beverages, 1986, rev. 1989 The Beast of Revelation, 1989, rev. 1993 House Divided: The Break-Up ofDispensational Theology (with Greg L. Bahnsen), 1989 The Greatness of the Great Commission, 1990, 1993 He Shall Have Dominion: A PostmillennW.l Eschatology, 1992 Lord of the Saved: Getting to the Heart of the Lordship Debate, 1992 God's Law in the Modem World: The Continuing Relevance of Old Testament Law, 1993 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 revised edition, 1993 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gentry, Kenneth L. The greatness of the Great Commission : the Christian enterprise in a fallen world I Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-930464-50-8 (pbk.) : $9.95 (alk. paper) 1. Great Commission (Bible). 2. Evangelistic work - Philosophy. S. 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 of the 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 8. 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 Church and the Great Commission . 111 9. The Family and the Great Commission . 119 10. The State and the Great Commission . • 127 PART IV: IMPLICATIONS 11. Millennial Orientation and the Great Commission 185 12. Pessimism and the Great Commission ......... 146 Conclusion ...........•...•................. 157 Scripture Index ...................•.......... 165 Index ..................................... 174 PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD Gary North So God created man in his oum image, in the image of God created he him; male and female 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 of the sea, and over the fowl of the ait; and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen. 1:27-28). And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptirr ing them in the name of the Fathet; and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 'Hacking 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. 28:18-20). 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 news­ letter and the cable channel TV interview show have replaced tracts. What is needed today is a comprehensive program of worldwide evangelism that brings the message of salvation to every individual 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 of X THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION God's Holy Spirit. Evangelism means obedience. This is the mes­ sage of Jesus: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" Gohn 14:15). He also said: 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 Qohn 14:21). This is not the ethical message of modern fundamentalism. Fundamentalism's ethical message is the opposite: "No creed but the Bible, no law but love!" Fundamentalism's cultural message is that Christians have nothing specifiic to say to a dying world except to tell individuals to get ready to be pulled out of it, either at the Rapture or at death (preferably the for­ mer, of course, since fundamentalists really do expect to get out of life alive). They intend to leave nothing behind. They plan to disinherit the future. Best-selling dispensational author Dave Hunt says the pre-tribulational Rapture is so much. better than dying: (1) If we 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 of the 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 of the chil­ dren left behind, the growth of or the dispersion of the fortune accumulated, the protection of one's reputation, the success of whatever earthly causes one has espoused, and so forth. 1 I call this scorched-earth evangelism. It warns Christians that the Great Tribulation will destroy the Church's legacy after the Rapture. It will disinherit the gospel. But this is not what God teaches. Christians have their assignment: to conquer in His name. 1. Dave Hunt, "Looking for that Blessed Hope,• Omega Letler (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 this: Jesus 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). The Great Commission is a great victory. Most fundamentalists want a watered-down gospel message 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?" Modern fundamen­ talism says mainly all he has to do is tell someone else about what just happened to him. Then that person tells another, and so on, until the Rapture revokes the Great Commission. 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 except keeping this chain letter going. But the gospel is not a chain letter. It is the good news that Jesus has already overcome this world and gives His disciples authority to extend His dominion in history before He returns in judgment. It is our job to demonstrate this victory in our lives, meaning every aspect of our lives. We should 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 himself or herself in terms of dominion under God (Gen. 1 :26-28). This was what God told man his task must be: to serve as God's intermediary over the earth. This assignment is called the cultural mandate by Dutch Calvin­ ists in the tradition of Abraham Kuyper. I call it the dominion covenant.2 The dominion covenant did not cease with Adam's fall; it was reconfirmed at the "new creation" after the Flood: 2. Gary North, The Dominion Covenant: Genesis, 2nd ed. (fyler, Tuxas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987). X1l 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 of you 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 of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man (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.
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