through them, that this is what he did before Christ came and that this did not change afterwards. This turns on one little but famous phrase. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus tells his disciples to, according to the translations we are all familiar with
“Go and make disciples from all the nations.”
However, a more wooden translation of that phrase would be
“Go and disciple the nations”
The argument runs that this means Jesus wasn’t simply sending his apostles out to go and bring individual people from each nation to faith in him. Rather, it was the nations themselves, represented by their governments and leaders. The nations were meant to be the Lord’s possession and so the Church’s responsibility was to bring them back, ethnic group by ethnic group under his Lordship.
There are two things that link into this. First, there is a post-millenialist eschatology at work. The expectation is that Christ returns to receive his inheritance, made ready for him. He will come, once the nations are under his rule and reign to be acclaimed. The second is that a discipled nation is one that conforms to God’s law as found in the covenant with Moses. This is what is sometimes referred to as “theonomism. It’s the idea that nations today should be governed by the Old Testament Law.
Now, on one level, that might sound appealing. After all, we are being offered here the most straight forward, literal translation. Here though is a good example of why we need a bit of caution before assuming that wooden, literal makes the best sense of the text. What we have to do is look at a text in its context to get a sense of its purpose.
So, here are a couple of clues in terms of the immediate context. Specifically, there are two participles hanging off of the command to disciple. These help us to understand how we are to go about discipling. The first is “baptising.” This pretty obviously doesn’t mean that we are to sprinkle a country with water. That would make Scotland about the most Christian of all countries! Rather, baptising is something you do to people. Discipling was going to happen, one person at a time. Second, “teaching”. The important question then is to do with what it was that these disciples were to learn. The answer is that they were to learn to obey all that Jesus had commanded. Remember that in terms of commanding and teaching, we know two things. First Jesus confirms that love of God and love of neighbour are the two greatest commandments. Secondly,. Jesus famously had emphasised a heart transformation not mere external Torah obedience along the lines that might be achieved by a nation introducing Christian laws. In both cases, those commands begin to look like what individual people do. Add in that the teaching on heart obedience comes in the context of the sermon on the Mount and you realise that this was teaching for those who belonged to his kingdom.
The other big clue is to look at what Jesus’ first followers did. How did they respond to the Great Commission. The answer is that they did not focus on culture wars and politics. Instead, they went out and they told people, every day, ordinary people about Jesus and the good news that he was the true king, that he had died for them and risen, ascending to glory. They baptised people and they saw them receive the Holy Spirit. They were not concerned with earthly states and empires but with God’s kingdom.
Now, if you pick up a Bible translation or look up a commentary, what you will spot is that the idea that whole nations are to be politically discipled as institutions just isn’t something on anyone’s radar. They are engaging different questions and that is telling too. You see, it helps to remind us of what the actual purpose of the statement was. It wasn’t to start a debate about individuals or states. Rather, the emphasis is probably best put on the word “all.” God’s people were not to stay put and focus just on Judea but to go to all nations and make disciples.
Faithroots 