Centuries before Christ came into the world, the Lord foretold of the universal mission of His Servant, “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). Jehovah’s servant would not only raise and restore the faithful remnant of Israel, but would be a light to all the nations of the earth, bringing salvation to all people. The scope of Jesus’ mission is universal. When He arose from the dead, He explained this universal scope to His disciples: “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45-47).

Isaiah identified Jerusalem as the starting point, and perhaps from the figurative language one could think that all people would travel to Jerusalem, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3). While certainly Jews from all nations were gathered at Pentecost to hear the first proclamation of the Gospel (Acts 2:5), the Lord’s intention was not for His disciples to stay in Jerusalem so the Gentiles could come and get the good news. No, He wanted His followers to go out into every nation and bring the good news to them. Echoing the sentiments of the prophecy in Isaiah 49:6, Jesus told the apostles, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus’ commission to preach to all nations is not only recorded in the aforementioned Luke 24:47, but also in Matthew 28:19 where—after Jesus proclaimed His universal authority—He commanded, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The Gentiles, here translated “nations,” are included in those whom Jesus came to save. Mark’s account includes “all the world” and “every creature” (Mark 16:15).

The Gospel went into all the world in the first century; it was preached to every creature (Colossians 1:6, 23). Today the commission is still required of Christians. The final part of Jesus’ commission regards what must be done with those who have been made disciples through baptism, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:20). A disciple is to follow all things Jesus has commanded. The command to go teach all nations that Jesus had just given in verse 19 is no doubt included in “all things” that disciples are to observe. Are you, as a disciple of Jesus, trying to teach others about him? To teach and baptize to make more disciples is part of what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. Will you help the world to know about the salvation Jesus Christ provides?

-Mark Day

Does God imply certain truths in His word that we are to comprehend by use of our reason? Some advocate that we should only be bound by what God has explicitly commanded us in the Bible. Any use of reason to determine what the Bible implies is “overthinking” it to them.  However, while I would not advocate that each Christian is required to master formal logic to go to heaven, it is impossible to get around the necessity of correctly reasoning and inferring what the Bible implies if we wish to follow God’s will. The sides of a square are all the same length. Given the length of one side of a square, anyone familiar with even the most basic truths of geometry would be able to infer the length of the other sides of the square.  Likewise, we can know a certain truth from what the Bible implies without God having to explicitly state it.

The Bible was written by about forty different men who were writing to various audiences. We must correctly infer whether or not God’s explicit commands apply to us, and if so, how. One does not need to be a master logician to conclude that God’s command in Genesis 6:14, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood,” was to Noah and is not required of people today to be saved. Alternatively, I do not need the Bible to explicitly call my full name and tell me what I should be doing in 2020 to know that I am required to follow certain courses of action. I know that even though Jesus was speaking to a certain lawyer when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” that I too am to love God and others (Matthew 22:35-39). I know that Jesus is quoting Old Testament passages, but I also know that in first-century epistles to Christians that love for the Lord and love for others is a requirement for being saved (1 Cor. 16:22; James 2:8-9). To see these statements as binding on me, I have to infer that what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:1-2) and what James wrote to the dispersed Jews (James 1:1) applies to me as well living 2,000 years later in Flatwoods, KY.

In fact, Jesus expected the Sadducees, who denied the life of the spirit after death and the resurrection (Acts 23:8), to infer from the statement God made to Moses in Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” that these three men were in existence beyond the grave (Mt. 22:31-32; Lk. 20:37-38). While the explicit statement God made was about His identity, there was a truth about the existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who had died hundreds of years before Moses that the Bible reader was to necessarily infer from the statement.

Jesus expected men to infer that He was God from various implications in Scripture, His teaching, and His miraculous works. Jesus showed that David’s statement in Psalm 110:1 where He called Jesus Lord implied that Jesus was more than just the physical descendant of David (Mt. 22:41-45). Men were to infer that Jesus was both the root and the offspring of David—the God who existed before David and came in the flesh after David. The Jews correctly inferred that Jesus was claiming He was God when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), since I AM is God’s name (Ex. 3:14). Jesus expected men to infer that He was the Son of God by the implication of His miraculous works (Jn. 10:38).

We can infer that Christ’s kingdom had come in the first century from passages like Colossians 1:13 and Revelation 1:9 since Christians were in it. We can infer that if we are to love and appreciate those who rule over us, (1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:7) —that is, elders who shepherd the flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-4) —because they watch for our souls (Heb. 13:17), that it is God’s will we be members of a local congregation with faithful overseers who will function as supervisors for our souls. God doesn’t have to explicitly say to me, “Thou shalt place membership at a local congregation,” for me to know this is God’s will. The Lord directs us by the implications of His word.

-Mark Day

When Israel lacked faith in God that He could deliver them safely in to possess the land of Canaan, God punished them by making them wander in the wilderness for forty years—one year for each day they spied out the land—until all the older generation (those twenty years old and up) died in the wilderness (Num. 14:20-35). Later, Moses rehearsed this matter and made this observation, “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it” (Deut. 1:39). These little ones and children are described as having no knowledge of good and evil. Children are born innocent. They receive pure souls from God (Ecc. 12:7; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 12:9). They do not yet have the capacity to make decisions between right and wrong. Paul described this early period in his life before he committed sin, and thus died spiritually, by saying, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Rom. 7:9). Sin is transgressing God’s law (1 John 3:4). Little children have not transgressed God’s law by being born into this world. God is just and allows people to make their own decisions. God did not hold the little children in the wilderness responsible for their parents’ decisions.

While we may be heavily influenced by others, especially our parents, Ezekiel 18 shows that each person will answer to God for the decisions they have made once they have matured to the point they have the capacity to know right from wrong. This chapter shows that a righteous man may have a son who turns from the godly example set before him and walks in iniquity; however, a wicked man may have a son who sees the sins of his father, and—even though we might think he has no chance—chooses to live a righteous life. God deals with people according to the decisions they make, not what their parents or children have done. The most prominent verse in the chapter highlights this by saying, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezek. 18:20).

Revelation 20:12 presents the great final judgment where the dead stand before God to be judged “according to their works,” not the works of others. God will judge individuals for their secret thoughts and purposes (1 Cor 4:5), for every word—even careless words—they have spoken (Mt. 12:36), and for every deed they have done in their body (2 Cor. 5:10). I must answer for my thoughts, words, and deeds just as you must answer for yours. As Romans 14:12 declares, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

You can become pure in the sight of God again by becoming like a little child (Matthew 18:3). By being born again, born of water and the Spirit in water baptism, you can become a child of God (John 3:5; Titus 3:5; Gal. 3:26-27). If you have been born again but have gone back into sin, you can come back to God by repenting of your sins and confessing them to Him (Acts 8:22; 1 John 1:9). The decision is yours.

-Mark Day