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Old 06-20-2008, 07:41 PM
martydavis
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Default The Great Commission

In the bible we have what are called "universal truths" - those words written to ALL the body of Christ - during the time of Jesus and during the time of the Apostles and meant for all of Christ's believers (Jew and Gentile) that followed.

Here is the Great Commission as written from all four Gospels and the book of Acts:

Mathew

18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Mark

15And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
20And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.


Luke

47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

John (no real commission spoken of in John)

22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Acts

4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8But 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.



My questions to the body of Christ -

1)is the great Commission a "universal truth" meant for ALL of us - in its entirety?
2)If no longer in its entirety, do we scrap the entire great commission (90% of Christians don't share their faith any ways),
3)Do we only believe "part of it" (what we want to believe of it - as has been the custom) or
4)do we believe our Lord and "go into all the world with signs following"? (which takes a separate in-filling of the Holy Spirit as evidenced several places in my Bible).

If we only want to believe "part of it" why are we willing to get rid of (by using one scripture that hints of it passing sometime in the future - more than likely when we see Jesus face to face) the most important piece - the infilling of God's Holy Spirit (sorry, but that POWER comes with evidence and signs) - the very Being that draws us closer to The Almighty, gives us a taste of how Jesus lived among us, gives us Divine knowledge (example - Peter and John were unlearned men who had been with Jesus and yet spoke with power to the crowd) and gives us POWER to be witnesses in this satanic, un-Godly world that we have to live in.

Please give the post prayerful consideration before replying. I would like this to be a civil discourse without any kind of denominational or personal attacks.

As a side note - have you ever had a positive experience seeing God's Holy Spirit power in action (such as a divine Healing, tongues and interpretation that edified the body of Christ, Powerful preaching OUTSIDE the walls of the church or a "thus saith the Lord" prophecy (that eventually came true), etc.).

Last edited by martydavis; 06-20-2008 at 07:52 PM.