The Great Commission — Did the Messiah Intend the Gospel to Reach Everyone on Earth?

The Great Commission -- Did the Messiah Intend the Gospel to Reach Everyone on Earth?

For centuries missionaries have tried to bring the Gospel and Christianity to India, Africa, Egypt, Arabia, China, Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, and American Indians. However, they have failed miserably in their efforts. It is only by duress or temptations of material necessities that the white man has been able to get even a small percentage of other races to go along with Christianity. The white race, on the other hand, are spiritually driven, or rather drawn by the holy spirit to the Bible and the Messiah.

For universalist Christians, the so-called “Great Commission” is a direct command from the Messiah to literally preach the Gospel to every people in every nation on the face of the Earth. And once that has been accomplished, they believe, the Messiah’s return can proceed.

These universalists, however, never stop to ask themselves why 99% of the Christians obeying this command and taking the Gospels to the most remote, hostile, and savage peoples and lands in the world are of white European descent and, conversely, why virtually none of their non-White “converts” are participating in the Great Commission.

These same universalists also fail to see any significance in the fact that the Gospels had already reached all of their white European ancestors over 1,100 years ago. Within a 1,000 years after the death of the Messiah all of Europe, including remote Iceland, had heard the Gospels and converted to Christianity -- and stayed converted. And all this without the aid of mass communication, modern modes of travel, or even a modern printing press to distribute the Bible.

Yet despite all those modern amenities to help spread the Gospels today, Christian evangelists struggle to find new proselytes in the Third World while Islam is by far the fastest growing “religion” worldwide.

Perhaps there are reasons that Christianity has largely failed in the Third World, for reasons that these Christian evangelists have completely ignored, which are spelled out right in the both the New and Old Testaments.

In a chapter from his book Is Universalism of God?, Charles A. Wiseman addresses the supposed universalism behind the Great Commission and makes the case that the Gospels were not, in fact, intended to reach every upright biped hominoid on the face of the Earth. But rather than every “creature,” they were intended for only one people scattered among the nations:

Perhaps nothing in the New Testament has been used more often to convey the idea of a universal God, or that God has opened the door to all races to be His special people, than the so-called “great commission.” One conservative Christian stated the usual understanding of the matter this way:

To understand this person’s position, we need to understand the verses he is resting his doctrine upon. After the Messiah’s resurrection, he walked and talked with his apostles and disciples. Then, in his departing words, the Messiah gave them one final instruction regarding the spreading of the Gospel:

A similar directive is found in Acts 1:8, where, after being with the disciples for 40 days after his resurrection, the Messiah states,

These last words of the Messiah directing his followers in regards to preaching the Gospel are often referred to as “the great commission.” The statements appear to be rather universal in nature, and thus are used by Universalists and humanists to assume that God has broadened the scope of His chosen people to include every person of every race. Previous to this the Messiah specified to whom his disciples were to preach the word to:

Most Christians think this directive was changed with the great commission. Rather, this verse was the first step or stage in the process of spreading the Gospel message to Israel. The message was first given to the Judeans -- those Israelites who were still God’s people under the Old Covenant (Luke 24:47; Romans 1:16). They had the first opportunity to receive the Messiah and the Gospel, then it was to be given to the “gentiles” or nations since Israelites were scattered in many nations. So if that be the case, then the only change is one of geography -- not race!

Universalists and humanist Christians say that the words of the Messiah are universal without restriction. To them that means that Yeshua intended to have every nation and race of people preached to so they can be converted.

But the great commission was not taken literally by the disciples. First, they did not “teach all nations” the Gospel. They did not go to Greenland and teach the Eskimos, or to Japan and teach the Japanese -- nor did they go to China, central Africa, Australia, or South America. They did not go to “the uttermost part of the earth,” such as the Hawaiian Islands.

Further, the disciples did not “preach the gospel to every creature,” they did not preach to frogs, or horses, or elephants or kangaroos. But are they not “creatures?” If we take this instruction literally and universally, they must have been included, for the Messiah did say every “creature.” Since the disciples did not take these words literally, then neither should we; otherwise we have no right to claim them for our authority in evangelizing because the words were spoken to the disciples -- not to us.

While the Messiah’s words are general or universal in nature, they obviously have a limited purpose and scope. What then was the Messiah’s intent, objective and reason for this directive? This cannot be obtained by only reading these words of the great commission as that would obviously lead to confusion and erroneous conclusions. We must look at the context of the whole Bible. We need to consider all of the words of the Messiah to arrive at the context and what was his objective and intent behind his great commission to his disciples.

As we saw the Messiah wanted his disciples to go only to Israel (Matthew 10:6). He stated that “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). We also read that the New Covenant -- which was instituted by the blood of the Messiah (Hebrews 9:ll-14) -- was made with “the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8). Yeshua was to cause “many of the children of Israel to turn to the LORD their God” (Luke 1:16). It was also prophesied that the “children of Israel shall appoint themselves one head” which is the Messiah (Hosea 1:11). The Messiah said that he was the “door” or the way only for the “sheep” and that as the shepherd he “gives his life for the sheep” or died on the tree for them (John 10:7,11). Only Israel were called “sheep.”

So it is clear that the context of the New Testament tells us that God -- through the Messiah -- is still dealing with Israel. From Genesis up to this point in time, the concern is with this specific race of people. The rules of logic lead us to the conclusion that the Messiah’s great commission was intended to reach Israelites, unless the contrary is clearly indicated. As Yeshua said, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold,” that is, not in Judea, which the Messiah must bring to himself (John 10:16). The Messiah was going to bring these other sheep to himself by having his disciples preach the Word to all the nations of Israel, i.e., by the great commission.

That reaching Israelites was the objective of the Messiah’s “great commission” from God can be further understood by what the Messiah said about this thing we call “Christianity.” In John 6, Yeshua revealed that belief in him is not that much of a free choice as most like to think. The Christians at that time were eager to follow God’s ways, as they asked the Messiah, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (v. 28). The Messiah told them that the work of God was that they believe in the Messiah (v. 29). When they asked for a sign that they might believe, Yeshua told them about the “bread from heaven” which if they eat will give them life (v.33). They thus asked the Messiah to give them this bread so they could eat it, but he told them:

Most Christians today think coming to the Messiah, or being in the Messiah, is some voluntary act that they can undertake on their own. That is what the Messiah’s disciples thought as well. They wanted to eat of the bread of life, but did not understand it was not up to them. The Messiah told them that only those whom God gives to the Messiah will partake of the bread of life or be in the Messiah:

Only those people that God draws or gives to the Messiah would be true believers and followers of the Messiah. Obviously God did not want or intend for all people on the planet to be the Messiah’s sheep.

Even though these people the Messiah spoke to were his disciples who followed him and had seen his miracles, they did not believe him about the process for being a Christian. They continued to question him and said, “this is a hard saying, who can hear it?” Thus the Messiah reiterated the bottom line of Christianity for them:

The eating and drinking of the spiritual flesh and blood of the Messiah does not take place through the medium of faith, as commonly thought. Instead, when God causes people to consume these things, they are led to believe and have faith. Christians erroneously think that if you believe, you get the spirit -- whereas Yeshua said if God gives you the spirit, you get belief.

Faith is the result of having this new spirit; it is not the catalyst that causes God to give this spiritual quickening. Like being born again, it is something God causes (1 Peter 1:3). Thus, you can’t be a believer in the Messiah and have the Messiah in you unless God chooses to give you His spirit. This message was so offensive and ludicrous to the Messiah’s own disciples, that most of them left him on that day:

The Messiah lost all of his followers (except the apostles) when he told them that Christianity was not like all the other religions of the world in which the people choose their own god. Some people will choose Baal or Molech as their god, others will choose Zeus, Mohammed, Buddha or Allah.

But with Christianity, God chooses the people He will have follow Him and be His people. All religions of the world are based upon a chosen god concept, whereas Christianity, like Hebraism, is based upon a chosen people concept. Yet Christians today, just like the first followers of the Messiah, find this chosen people concept to be horrible and offensive. Most Christians today have fallen to the ways of humanism, and the humanistic mind is in sharp conflict with the ways of God.

It is ironic that Christians today don’t realize that they, as white European people, are Israelites racially and physically, and that is why they are Christians and believers. And they can never accept that belief in the Messiah is based upon the chosen people concept and not just a matter of personal choice.

The Messiah said that there will be those who will have chosen him, who call him “Lord,” and make an effort to do good works in his name, but the Messiah will say to them, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). Religions which are based upon a chosen god concept allow for universalism, since whosoever wishes to be involved may do so. But a religion based upon a chosen people concept is exclusive and not adaptable to Universalism.

Scripture makes it plain that the Gospel was not intended for everyone. The Messiah often spoke in parables so certain people could not understand (Matthew 13:11; Mark 4:11,l2; Luke 8:10). In Mark 16:16 Yeshua stated that when the disciples go to other nations, some will believe and some will not. Why? Because some were chosen or led by God to believe and others were not.

We also find that there were certain cities and provinces in Asia which the holy spirit prevented Paul and Silas from going to and preaching the Gospel (Acts 16:6,7). This is another indication that the Gospel was not universal to all people. Paul told the Philippians that “unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ….to believe on him” (Philippians 1:29). Belief was not totally a free choice with them, but rather God gave them the inclination to believe. The Messiah told Peter to “feed My sheep” (John 2l:16,17) -- he did not say to feed the goats or the dogs.

For many centuries Israel migrated and was scattered throughout the nations, and were now part of those nations. Most were not known as Israelites or descendants of Abraham; instead they were known as Romans, Greeks, Carthaginians, Scythians, Galatians, Laodiceans, Macedonians, Corinthians, Gauls, Goths, Parthians, and Hibernians.

The command of the Messiah to preach to "all nations" was not for the purpose of converting all people and races, but so as to convert all Israelites, no matter where they lived or by what name they were called. In other nations, however, the disciples did not know in all cases who were the sheep (Israelites) and who were the goats. They did not need to know. They were to preach the word and the holy spirit would do the rest by selecting and guiding the true Israel people to God and the Bible. And what have been the results of the great commission? The white European people have embraced and adopted Christianity and the Bible while it has been ignored or rejected by all other races.

The New Covenant was instrumental in gathering the sheep to the Messiah and thence to God. With this Covenant God said, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10). By placing His law in their hearts and minds the Israel people would be compelled to follow God, the Bible and Yeshua the Messiah. Only one people has exhibited this drive and motivation to follow the Messiah and the word of God -- the Europeans.

The early European people had been entrenched in pagan ways and had pagan gods just like most people of the world. But when they heard the word of God and the Gospel, they quickly forsook their pagan ways and gods and accepted the Gospel and the Messiah. Although the Gospel has been preached to every nation and race since the first century, the white, European people are the only ones who responded to the great commission. As the Messiah said,

Only the sheep -- Israelites -- would hear and follow the Messiah as he follows God.

For centuries missionaries have tried to bring the Gospel and Christianity to India, Africa, Egypt, Arabia, China, Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, and American Indians. However, they have failed miserably in their efforts. It is only by duress or temptations of material necessities (food, clothing, money, farming equipment, building supplies, etc.) that the white man has been able to get even a small percentage of other races to go along with Christianity. In Mexico, the people follow a corrupted form of Catholicism (which, in itself, is entrenched in superstitions and pagan traditions), some of which were introduced by Spanish Jews. It is not at all Christianity.

In America the white colonists from the very beginning attempted to convert the native Indians to Christianity. Many of the founding documents specifically stated that one of the aims of settlement was for the “conversion of the poor ignorant Indian natives;” or “for the propagation of the Christian faith amongst the barbarous and ignorant Indians.” Missionaries in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries continued to try to teach the Bible and Christianity to every Indian tribe, but after four centuries the concept of a Christian Indian is practically unheard of. It is clear that God did not draw the American Indians to the Messiah.

[See: Declaration of the Lord Proprietor of Carolina, 1663; The Charter of New England, 1620; Charter of Rhode Island, 1663; Charter of Virginia, 1606 & 1611; Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629, et. al.]

Many other races, such as the blacks and many Hispanics, find an emotional fulfillment in following the rudiments of the Bible and Christianity. For them it is essentially a release of emotions, the shouting, dancing, laughter and feeling good. This is what attracts them to Christianity.

The small degree to which the colored races of the world have followed the Bible and Christianity is primarily because they are driven to do so by materialistic desires and needs, superstitions, or emotional stimuli. The white race on the other hand are spiritually driven, or rather drawn by the holy spirit to the Bible and the Messiah. The colored races are following religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam. It is Islam which is the largest and fastest growing religion in the world -- not Christianity.

The Christian missionaries took the great commission literally, and brought the Word of God to every corner of the globe and every person they could find. The Christian missionaries thought the purpose of the great commission was to convert everyone to God’s ways and Christian living which was a big mistake, as attested to by the lessons of history. God had a two-fold purpose behind the implementation of the great commission: 1) It would result in God’s Word reaching all Israelites, and thus converting the great mass of them; and 2) By including every nation that the Israelites had migrated to, it would prove who are God's chosen people and who are not.

This is not to say that the ways of God are not for all races of the earth since the laws of God and biblical principles can benefit any people. It is just that they will never possess and follow God’s ways by evangelizing and preaching to them. This as been tried for nearly 2,000 years and the results are self-evident. However, God’s people can use their material blessings to help guide and direct other people to the ways of God.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preaching YEHOVAH's Truth to the Modern Nations of Israel!

Hope of Israel Ministries
P.O. Box 853
Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A.
www.hope-of-israel.org

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