Two Stories of Everything by Miller Duane

Author:Miller, Duane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theology
Publisher: Credo House Publishers
Published: 2017-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

84 One reader responded that the separation of religion and politics is in the constitution. Not true. The constitution says that there shall be no established state church—very different.

Seven

The State of the Mission

In this book, we have examined the metanarratives of Islam and Christianity. This is not the same thing, precisely, as giving the histories of Islam and Christianity, as I have tried to clarify. And now we can focus on asking the question: how are these two communities doing at fulfilling their missions today? At the same time, we will ask: how are these two communities fulfilling their missions? As with most other topics this cannot claim to be comprehensive.

The Church: Making disciples of all nations

The mission of the Church is stipulated very clearly (and famously) in 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 behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus starts by stating that, like the Son of Man figure from Daniel, he has now received all authority in heaven and on earth (Daniel 7:13 and following). This is the basis for Jesus giving them this mission. In the resurrection God has publicly demonstrated that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. It is on the basis of this power that he is sending out these disciples of his. The command is to go, and it is only one command. Now, as they are going they are to do three things: make disciples, Baptize new converts, and teach them the fullness of Jesus’ message. These three activities are to characterize the way in which they go into all the world.

Making disciples presumably starts before conversion. Otherwise the order of the three elements loses its coherence. They make disciples, and then if a disciple wishes to pledge his life and eternity to Jesus and this Kingdom, he is baptized into the name of the Trinity. And then, after this initiation of Baptism, they are to be taught the entirety of the content of ­Jesus’ ­message—­ethical, ritual, theological, social, political, and familial. This going into to all nations is central because as soon as the Church stops going and starts simply staying put, its contribution to the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham to bless all the nations of the world ends.

Jesus’ promise to be with his Church is completely connected to its obedience to this command. It is not surprising then to see that the churches that are least involved in evangelism and foreign missions to the unreached are those that are dying, including all the mainline Churches in the USA—the Presbyterian Church of the USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, my own Episcopal Church of the USA, the United Methodist Church, and so on.

So

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