Were Jesus parting words to his disciples, known as the Great Commission, meant to be a legalistic command?

Find out in the Issues et cetera Book of the Month for June, clarifying the Great Commission.

This new resource is published by Concordia Publishing House.

Their phone number, 1-800-3253040, or learn more about clarifying the Great Commission at Issuesetc.org.

The issues it said are a book of the month, clarifying the great commission.

A lot of mischief has been perpetrated in the church under the banner of the Great Commission.

It kind of became the organizing principle for the church growth movement and very quickly kind of outshined the gospel and clear long gospel preaching for that movement.

The Great Commission became the sum and substance of the Bible's teaching.

And in some cases, it displaced even Jesus himself, the man who gave us the Great Commission.

Is it a term worth keeping?

And if we look at it carefully verse by verse, what do we discover

about the real nature of the so-called Great Commission?

Welcome back to Issues, etc.

I'm Todd Wilkin, joining us to discuss the Great Commission, Pastor Dan Voth, senior pastor

of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota, author of the issues, etc., book of the

month for June clarifying the Great Commission. Pastor Voth, welcome.

Thank you. It's a joy to be with you, Todd.

Where did this term come from the Great Commission as applied to those verses in the last chapter of Matthew?

Nobody is 100% sure. If you do an internet search, you're going to come up with about

as many different ideas of who first coined the term as you do results. It seems to have come

from Hudson Taylor in about the 1800s, popularizing that term as a missionary term to keep people

motivated to go out and tell the good news of Christ. How has this term in some ways

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