Are present day disciples called to evangelize the world in our “generation?” Many teachers have minimized this centuries long dream of God or have simply chosen to ignore it in their treatises concerning “Christian freedom,” “the role of evangelists and elders,” and “autonomy of individual congregations.” Let us also consider that though “Christian movements” have over centuries “gone around the world,” the evangelization of the world in a lifetime has not been accomplished since the first century. (Colossians 1:6) Therefore, in future articles in this series, Scriptures will be shared that will reveal that world evangelism is not only God’s dream for each generation, but that by faith it is possible!

God’s eternal plan from before the beginning of time was to create a people that would love him forever. In the Old Testament God uses prophecy and foreshadowing to reveal His heart for a lost world. We must remember that the Old Testament was the “Scriptures” of the Christians in the first century. Foreshadowing occurs when our sovereign God orchestrates the physical events of the Old Testament to parallel the spiritual truths He reveals in the New Testament. For example, the Hebrews’ slavery in Egypt parallels our slavery to sin in our old lives. The blood of a lamb smeared over the doorposts saved each Hebrew firstborn from physical death. This parallels the blood of Jesus, the Lamb, saving us from eternal death. (John 1:29) Crossing the Red Sea represents baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2); the wanderings in the desert correspond to our new Christian lives; the crossing of the Jordan represents our physical death. (We sing about this in the song “Jordan River.”) And finally their Promised Land is our heaven! Understanding the Old Testament foreshadowing of New Testament doctrines is essential to deeply appreciating the breadth of God’s love and His plan of salvation.

As we begin to comprehend God’s desire to teach us about His love, let us examine some of the most convincing Old Testament prophecies about world evangelism and God’s eternal Kingdom. In Genesis 12:1-3 God tells Abram, “I will make you into a great nation…and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” The first level of fulfillment of this prophecy is in the building of a physical nation – Israel. Exodus 1:7 reads, “But the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so the land was filled with them.” We learn from this passage that it was in Egypt that God began to form a great nation through human families physically multiplying (being fruitful) in great numbers. (This is a foreshadowing of spiritual fruitfulness by the multiplying of disciples under the new covenant.) However, the second level of fulfillment is the concept of all people – Jews and Gentiles – being blessed through Abraham’s seed – Jesus. This promise is further detailed in Genesis 22:17 when God sees Abraham’s faith when he was willing to “sacrifice his one and only son,” (more Old Testament foreshadowing.) Then the promise is given, “your descendents will be as numerous as… stars in the sky.” In Deuteronomy 1:10, Moses preached this promise was fulfilled in the Jews by the time he led the Jews out of Egypt. However, we by faith understand it also means all Christians of all time because Genesis 22:18 adds all nations on earth will be blessed, both Jew and Gentile! You and I as disciples are part of the fulfillment of this prophecy! God has always desired to be loved and glorified by all nations!

Isaiah 2:1-4 is another powerful prophecy of the New Testament Kingdom and world evangelism. God tells a hurting and backsliding Israel there will be a day, when the mountain (Old Testament symbolism for kingdom/nation) of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains and all nations will stream into it. (This initially begins to be fulfilled in Acts 2, see verse five!) Then God adds in verse four, “Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” This is because we will have brothers in all nations and we would not want to kill our brother! Also, in Isaiah 11:1-9, the prophecy of a kingdom built from the stump of Jesse (the remnant Jews) will someday be a unique fellowship where previous adversaries “will neither harm nor destroy” as referenced by “the wolf will walk with the lamb.” Then in verse 9, the great proclamation of this grand vision is concluded by “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the earth.” Only through world evangelism could this be fulfilled.

Finally for this article we will study the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel retells the dream in Daniel 2:31-35 and then interprets it in verses 36-45. In this dream there is a huge statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Daniel says these metals represent certain kingdoms. Borrowing from our high school history courses, we know that gold represents the Babylonian Kingdom, silver the Medo-Persian Empire, bronze symbolizes Alexander the Great’s Kingdom and the iron the Roman Empire. According to the dream, during the days of the Roman Empire “a rock was cut out, but not by human hands… it struck the statue on its feet of iron… and smashed it… the wind swept away without leaving a trace…However, the rock struck the statue and became a huge mountain and FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH.”

Obviously, if something is “not made by human hands,” it is of God! The rock is Christ! The mountain is the Kingdom – the church – and those of faith in heaven, for this kingdom will never be destroyed! (Daniel 2:44) However, let’s focus on Daniel 2:35. In the dream, the rock becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth! This is what God desires for His Kingdom, to “fill the whole earth!” God through prophecy lays the foundation for Jesus and His Great Commission to the apostles, “Go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19) This is how God plans to bless all people on earth! Simply stated, this is the mandate of God for world evangelism.