The Biblical and Christian Worldview
for the 21st Century

Apart from those eschatologists who are fully convinced of their own position, the remainder of us sees difficulties with precise interpretations of eschatological passages in Daniel, Matthew, Revelation, and elsewhere. If the hermeneutics of these passages are so clear, why do these major differences arise?

However, I come from a different perspective. I strongly lean towards postmillennialism because of God’s assignment of responsibilities to Christians. While all true evangelicals agree that The Great Commission calls us to evangelize all peoples on earth, they do not agree on eschatological positions. I would like to posit that God’s instructions alone offer a strong argument for postmillennialism.

1. What are Christians to do, once they have professed Christ and understood basic doctrine? The world missionary enterprise is about to be completed. Estimates are that within five years, all people groups on the earth will have been reached with the "gospel." In the United States, it has been estimated that a person will have opportunities to hear the "gospel" more than 200 times in his or her lifetime. In fact, other nations are sending missionaries to the United States.

I have watched Christians sit in church, Sunday School, and Bible studies for five decades. They have learned the "basics" long ago. (Most do not seem to have learned them sufficiently to articulate them.) Many have read through their Bibles more than once. They rarely "witness." They belong to "Bible-preaching" churches. Then, they die and go to heaven. Surely, God has a greater task than just sitting in church and going to one "learning" session after another!

I believe that task is The Creation Mandate which follows here.

2. God has instructed man to fulfill the Cultural Mandate, the Creation Mandate, and The Dominion Mandate. From Genesis 1:26-31, John Murray has posited that God "mandated" these instructions to the human race: (1) "the procreation of offspring, (2) the replenishing of the earth, (3) subduing the same, (4) dominion of the creatures, (5) labor, (6) the weekly Sabbath, and (7) marriage"　 (John Murray, Principles of Conduct, page 27).　

By any reasonable considerations these mandates have not been fulfilled. (1) While there have been Malthusian alarmists, man’s ingenuity in farming and distribution are able to feed several times the numbers of people currently on the earth. So, mankind has not "multiplied and filled the earth." (2) With irresponsible farming methods, strip mining, overbuilding, and other ravages of nature, man has a monumental challenge to correct his own rape of nature, not to mention his reconstruction of "nature’s" ravages by hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and other disasters. (3) Man continues in his efforts to mine and farm the earth for the abundance that God has supplied upon and within the earth. (4) Man has made great progress in domesticating the animals, but still greater development is possible here. (5) Productive and satisfying labor is an ongoing challenge for man, especially against the curse of Adam’s Fall. (6) Few places on earth now honor the Sabbath. Even God’s people, modern Christians, fail to honor the Sabbath either in rest or worship. (7) Marriage is facing a serious challenge today.

Many evangelicals have objected to these instructions being called a "dominion mandate." They say that in these passages, "dominion" is only given to man over the animals, plants, and the earth. Christians are not to have dominion over other men. There are two serious fallacies to this argument. (A) The Great Commission is directed that "all nations" are to be made "disciples." As peoples of earth become righteous, they will dominate the earth with Biblical standards. No one who believes in The Great Commission is going to say that we should stop short of evangelizing everyone on earth! (B) But, in order to have righteous (Biblical) dominion over animals, plants, and the earth, Christians inescapably will have to have dominion in governments. Taking marriage as one example, state laws will have to establish Biblical marriage and eliminate all other forms of "cohabitation," heterosexual and homosexual. Such laws are exercising "dominion" over other men and women.

Reader, do not miss this final, important point. Conversion following regeneration precedes the ultimate fulfillment of The Creation Mandate. So, the laws to implement "dominion" are from the "bottom-up," not from a totalitarian "Christian" top-down state. It is a silly argument that Christians could ever implement a theocratic state against the vox populi. But when the "voice of the people" becomes sufficiently Biblical and widespread, God’s moral will and a full implementation on The Creation Mandate will be fulfilled on earth.