Sunday, April 22, 2012

Page 2 of the DD3 is Posted


We are all slaves to, or filled with guilt over not being slaves to, The Great Commission, but is this truly what Jesus had in mind?



πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος·
Matthew 28:19


Page Two of the third installment of the Deconstructing Doctrines series has finally been completed and posted. The study is called There’s a Great Commission? and, if you’ve already read Page One, you can access Page Two by clicking here. To read the whole thing, just go to the tab at the top of this post labeled DD3: There is a Great Commission?

In this series I’m taking a look at ten doctrinal statements, some composite and some actual, held and taught by most Christians today, that contain what I see to be critical interpretive errors. The poor teaching we hear in the majority of our church services is a direct result of the faulty, unscriptural notions produced by these misinterpretations.

1.           The Not-so-Great Commission

Cast a wide eye over the beliefs of modern Christianity and you will see few doctrines as foundational as the Great Commission. It is the quintessential Christian teaching. Acceptance of it is nearly universal among denominations and it has been the driving force behind English-speaking evangelism for over 250 years.

The end result is today’s composite Great Commission. Here’s a typical formulation:
Every Christian! Go into each country in the world and preach the gospel in order to convert and baptize every creature in that nation in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Teach them to believe everything I’ve said. And, remember, I am with you in spirit forever.
So, in order for everyone to pass on their version and get to work, a great deal of generalization has taken place with regards to the Great Commission's form. But, while the abbreviated versions have broader utility, they are, by definition, less scriptural. There is simply no way for them to remain biblically sound, once they've been bullet-pointed to conform to the theology of every denomination and passed on without question or comparison with the source material.

This is how everyone has got it so terribly wrong.

Read it all...



No comments:

Post a Comment