Our Great Commission

The commission which our Lord gave to the eleven (later twelve) has so long been called “the great commission” that multitudes of sincere believers have a hazy notion that the Bible designates it thus. The fact is however, that this designation merely reflects traditional views and, as in our Lord’s day, “the traditions of men” all too often “make void the Word of God.” Granted, our Lord’s commission to the eleven was indeed a great commission, but it should never be called “the great commission,” for the ascended Lord later committed a greater, a far greater, message and ministry to the Apostle Paul. Unless we recognize a change in dispensation with the raising up of Paul, that other apostle, the commission to the eleven must stand as an irreconcilable contradiction to the great doctrines of the Pauline epistles—and vice versa. Author C.R. Stam