In this video, Jon Nelms, founder of Final Frontiers Foundation, explains why the Great Commission is about reaching nations, not countries, and what the Greek word ethnos teaches us. Video length: 6 minutes 43 seconds.
Reaching Nations Not Countries
You can change your country, and you can successfully assimilate into a different culture—that’s what immigration is all about.
When I was a young boy, we would hear stories about the Cherokee and Apache Nations. I thought the words nation and country were always synonymous, but I was wrong.
A country is “a geographical, political area with a government, a monetary system, a flag, unique laws, etc.” It is a unified territory with established borders.
A nation is “a unique ‘people group,’ with both a common DNA and culture,” which though similar, stand out as distinct from every other people group on the planet.
Shortly after World War II, theologians rushed to announce the Great Commission had finally been fulfilled. They reasoned that Christian soldiers had visited every unreached nation in the world by the war’s end, proclaiming the gospel as they went. Then some began to realize that our understanding of the verse was incorrect. The Great Commission does not compel us to evangelize geo/political regions but rather ethnic groups. The job was not completed then or now, as at least 6,000 unreached ethnic groups are still known to exist worldwide.
The Greek word used in the Great Commission for “nation” is ethnos, the word from which our modern term, ethnic groups is derived. The Scots, for example, are an ethnic group. Still, the wording used to describe heaven’s choir in Revelation 7:9 would emphasize evangelizing not only Scotland as a country or the Scots as a race, but also each separate clan (or family) of the Scots. We are, therefore, to reach even the MacAllisters, the MacDonalds and the MacLeods.
The Cherokee ethnos (“people, nation”) long inhabiting the Eastern United States were forcibly moved to Oklahoma, but they didn’t cease to be Cherokees. The Apaches were moved to Mexico, Oklahoma, and Florida, but they were still Apaches. You can change your country, and you can successfully assimilate into a different culture—that’s what immigration is all about. You cannot change your DNA, and that is what the Great Commission is all about.
Points to Ponder
- Do you know which ethnos make up your family?
- Has your ethnos, as a whole, been exposed to the gospel?
- Do other members of your ethnos live nearby?
- How can you influence them for Christ?
Support this work
Your gift through The Great Commission Fund helps national preachers share the Gospel and plant churches around the world.
