Both Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:18-20 tell God’s followers to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with generations of faithful covenant-keepers.
The Great Commission to the Church does not end with simply witnessing to the nations. Christ’s command is that we disciple the nations—all the nations. The kingdoms of the world are to become the kingdoms of Christ. They are to be discipled, made obedient to the faith. This means that every aspect of life throughout the world is to be brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ: families, individuals, business, science, agriculture, the arts, law, education, economics, psychology, philosophy, and every other sphere of human activity. Nothing may be left out. Christ “must reign, until He has put all enemies under His feet” (l Cor. 15:25). We have been given the responsibility of converting the entire world.
In his second letter to the church at Corinth, St. Paul outlined a strategy for worldwide dominion:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty in God for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ; and we are ready to punish all disobedience, once your obedience is complete (2 Cor. 10:3-6).
As Paul observes, the army of Christ is invincible: we are not fighting in mere human power, but with weapons that are “mighty in God” (cf. Eph. 6:10-18), divinely powerful, more than adequate to accomplish the job. With these weapons at our disposal, we are able to destroy everything the enemy raises up in opposition to the lordship of Jesus Christ. “We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”: Christ is to be acknowledged as Lord everywhere, in every sphere of human activity. We are to “think God’s thoughts after Him” at every point, following His authoritative Word, the law-book of the Kingdom. This is at the root of any genuine program of Christian reconstruction.
Paradise Restored
When it was first published three and a half decades ago, Paradise Re-stored helped to precipitate a massive paradigm shift in the Evangelical and Reformed world from abject pessimism to unabashed optimism. The reasons are simple enough: this classic work is forthrightly Biblical. It is masterfully written. It is pungently clear. And it is powerfully persuasive.
Buy NowBoth Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:18-20 tell God’s followers to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with generations of faithful covenant-keepers. In this final Paradise Restored episode, Gary discusses how the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).