My picture in the GC is the success of the gospel in which the power of God would convert entire nations with a common boundary, ethnicity, and language from worshipping a false god to worshipping the Triune God of the Bible. This does not mean every person in each nation will be a Christian, but the vast majority will.

Pastor Sexton in his recent article, The Success of the Great Commission: Probing a Postmillennial Presupposition, on The Aquila Report limits the postmillennial hope to the evangelism of the nations as popularized by Dr. Richard Gaffin (one of my professors while a student at Westminster Seminary in 1969-1972).  I have all the respect for Dr. Gaffin and profited much from his teaching. However, to limit the postmillennial hope to a church revival full of some Jews and a multitude of Gentiles falls short of the traditional postmillennial views of such men as B.B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, Archibald Alexander Hodge, and R.C. Sproul, to name just a few.  Yes, presuppositions are really the name of the game as Mr. Sexton alludes.  Let me point out a few of those presuppositions necessary to understanding an historic and legitimate postmillennialism.

First, the crucial element in coming to a full-orbed postmillennial view is the definition of a nation. As a former amillennialist, I misunderstood the definition of a nation for many years.  A nation is not simply defined by a group of people with different ethnicities and religions living within the same geographical boundaries (under a democratic government). Neither can the success of the kingdom of God be limited to a church full of various people with both common and different ethnicities who believe in Christ.  This is a popular error of modern Reformed thought.  This view transforms the success of the gospel and the kingdom of God into a spiritual realm detached from the reality of the world in which we live (and the reality of nations).  In this errant view, different people from different backgrounds together in a visible church with a common hope in Christ become the ultimate goal of the preaching of the gospel and the realization of the kingdom of God.

However, after years of taking this erroneous presuppositional view of a nation to the Bible, I arose from my dogmatic slumber and found a different view of a nation in the Bible.  This view was very common in the Old Testament, but I had to find it in the New Testament also.  In the Old Testament various nations were defined as a people with the same ethnicity (and thus common cultural traditions) who lived within the same geographical borders and who had a common language and a common religion. From Egypt to Assyria, to the Amorites, to the Jebusites, and to the Israelites, these attributes were common to all nations.

My next task was to find these common attributes as a presupposition in the New Testament.  That affirmation was found when Paul preached on Mars Hill (Acts 17:26-27) where he speaks of God having made “from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation…”  Notice the importance of earthly, geographical boundaries (which do change from time to time—appointed times).

In Acts 2, Luke tells us that there were “devout men from every nation under heaven…who were hearing them speak in his own language.”  So, add language to the definition of a nation in the New Testament.  A common religion is an assumption since every nation has its own god who is the source of its laws and justice system. The purpose of evangelism is to change the gods of the nations.

Thus, when Jesus gives the Great Commission (GC), the picture created in my mind is not a simple church in every place where people of all ethnicities have a common relationship with Christ, the few elect gathered in one place to worship. This may occur, but it is not how I see it.  My picture in the GC is the success of the gospel in which the power of God would convert entire nations with a common boundary, ethnicity, and language from worshipping a false god to worshipping the Triune God of the Bible. This does not mean every person in each nation will be a Christian, but the vast majority will.

Also, as a result, this change in people will impact every institution of that nation from civil government to education, etc.  Christians carry their faith into the workplace. Historically, western culture and her constituent nations have been Christian.  From the Church of England to the Christian constitutions of most American states, the evidence of this is obvious. In North Carolina in 1776 the State Constitution said “that no person who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the authority of either the Old or New Testament, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust in the civil department within this State.”

Jesus told his disciples to pray that God’s kingdom would come to earth and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). This was not a plea for some future age following the second coming of Christ, but a present request, no less than our prayer for our daily bread and the forgiveness of our sins is a present prayer request. It was a prayer that all the nations on earth with their common boundaries, common language, and common ancestry, be converted to worship Christ who sits on the throne of God.

In the Book of Revelation John tells us that the nations and their kings will be there in the eternal realm with their distinctive attributes.  Nations will remain nations and kings will remain kings.  “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it (Rev. 21:24).

Every eschatological view has its problem passages in the Bible (as do a number of other theological views).  Thank God, that with time I was able to deal with each one of them, even some that Mr. Sexton mentions.  For example, men from all the nations hearing the gospel on the day of Pentecost is not the same thing as the gospel changing the nations (with boundaries, language, ethnicity, and a common god).

The first book of Peter was written to converted Jewish aliens from Jerusalem. Those particular Jewish Christians, Peter called “a holy nation” as Peter quotes from the Book of Hosea. The Church of any ethnicity like the Jewish Christians can be called a holy nation (as well as some with mixed ethnicities), but this does not nullify the existence of Christian nations with a common boundary, a common language, and a common ethnicity.  On and on, I had to deal with the problem passages. So, I did and so did others like me.

In my opinion, most American and western theologians today go to Scripture with what I call an American hermeneutic. It holds to the sacredness of a secular pluralistic (polytheistic) nation.  It holds to the sacredness of a 51% rule democratic nation.  It holds to the sacredness of a multi-cultural (multitude of ethnicities) nation.  All of these, of course, existing within the same geographical boundaries. This is the great experiment of America after 1865, but it cuts against the grain of how the Bible defines a nation.  It is a recipe for trouble that our posterity will have to deal with.  This is partly why there is so much controversy over the idea of “Christian Nationalism.” From a biblical perspective, and from an historical American perspective, this would not be a problem, but from the modern theological concept of a nation, it is a major problem, sad to say.

Presuppositions (as Dr. Van Til taught me) are very important.  Yes, we all do need to reexamine our presuppositions constantly as we go to the Bible, especially in regard to our eschatological views.

Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.