The Great Decommission

Top

Quotations

The logic of an idea, once it has gained a foothold in the human psyche, has a tendency to work itself out with a relentless consistency to its ultimate con-clusions even among men of disparate cultures who have little or no contact with or knowledge of each other, but more especially so where that idea is widely accepted by a community—unless it is effectively challen-ged. And so it has been with sacerdotalism and prelacy, which even the Reformation was not able to expunge entirely from the minds of Christian men, and so the wretched harvest produced by these ideas began to grow once more before the dust thrown up by the ploughing of the Reformation had settled on the ground. And this is all the more remarkable because, as Max Weber pointed out, “every consistent doctrine of predestined grace inevitably implied a radical and ultimate devaluation of all magical, sacramental and institutional distributions of grace, in view of God’s sovereign will.”

— Stephen Perks,
The Christian Passover:
Agape Feast or Ritual Abuse?, p. 46

The Officials of the Roman Empire in time of persecution sought to force the Christians to sacrifice, not to any of the heathen gods, but to the Genius of the Emperor and the Fortune of the city of Rome; and at all times the Christians' refusal was looked upon not as a religious but as a political offence.

— Frances Legge,
Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity,
Vol, I, p. lvi.

The history of Eastern Christianity under the rule of Islam has already been written. The story is a depressing one. The history of Western Christianity under the rule of Islam has yet to be written. Whether it will ever be written may well depend on how seriously the Church in the West takes the Great Commission in the next few decades and on whether the zeal and self-sacrifice of Muslims for their jihad can be matched by the zeal and self-sacrifice of Christians for the Great Commission - indeed, whether Muslims, with their zeal and self-sacrifice, can be converted from jihad to the Great Commission.

— Stephen Perks,
"From Jihad to Great Commission"
in Christianity & Society, Vol. VIX, No. 3

Thursday

Jul282011

ISBN: 978-0-9522058-8-3The dominant contemporary view of the Christian faith as a subjective, private, devotional faith has led to the overturning of the Great Commission, i.e. the de-commissioning of the nations as Christian nations. This modern understanding of the faith is in stark contrast to view of the faith presented in Scripture and accepted as orthodox by previous generations. Until modern times the Church has always proclaimed, and Christians have believed, that the Christian faith is public truth; and public truth is religion. Very many Christians today, however, deny that Christianity is a religion. And it has to be recognised that for these people it is not a religion. It is merely a worship hobby. But in denying that Christianity is a religion Christians have unwittingly denied it the status of public truth, with dire consequences for the life of the nation as a result. The Bible does not see the faith in terms of a personal worship hobby, but rather as a religion that overcomes and transforms the world. The purpose of the Christian faith is not merely to transform the believer’s personal life and make him more holy. It is to glorify God by transforming the world, by bringing the world under the discipline of Jesus Christ and his word. The Christian faith is a political and social faith as well as a personal faith; its mission does not terminate on the individual but on the whole world, which is to be brought into subjection to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are to win the world for Christ we must take the Great Commission seriously as a commission to bring the nations of the earth under the discipline of Jesus Christ not only by preaching the gospel of personal salvation through faith in Christ but also by baptising the nations and teaching the law of God to the nations.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 40 pages | £3.50 plus postage | ISBN: 978-0-9522058-8-3

This book is also available as a free PDF download and as an audio book. Please read and observe our copyright policy.

Download PDF

Listen to Audio Book

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

Post a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

Author:

Author Email (optional):

Author URL (optional):

Post:

↓ | ↑

Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>