“This is the gospel that you heard and that
has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have
become a servant.”
Colossians
1:23b
Beep! Beep!
Beep! Back it up Paul!
“Has been proclaimed to every creature
under heaven”?
Really? First century Christianity was able to do
what we, in the 21st century, have yet to accomplish? According to the Joshua Project, there are,
right now, over 6500 unique people groups in the world that are considered
unreached. With
all the advances in technology via the World Wide Web and increased
accessibility through various different modes of transportation, according to
Paul, believers in the first century were able to proclaim the gospel to every
creature under heaven yet we haven’t.
Really?
Let me make
something crystal clear before I go a word further. I adore Paul.
I find him extraordinarily loveable and commendable. I breathe in every word that he has written
and my soul can’t help but be refreshed and restored. I love how he stands firmly for truth yet is
filled with compassion for the lost. He
speaks boldly yet prays fervently. He
takes great risks yet still encourages those that are weak. He has suffered much yet never detoured from
his calling. He is extravagant with his
words yet firmly grounded in his faith. He
is an enigma and person who I look forward to meeting the other side of heaven.
I adore Paul. This verse is one of the reasons why.
Of course
commentators have varying interpretations of what Paul is intimating here. What do you think? Before you read on take a moment to really
ponder this verse. What do you think it
means?
“Has been proclaimed to every creature
under heaven”?
There are three
perspectives and I will briefly give you all three. Then I will tell you where I stand and
why. No ambiguity like with Tulip Gazing. I have a clear stand on this one and I am glad
about it.
Hyperbole – Two of my commentaries stressed that
Paul didn’t mean this literally. That he
was most likely exaggerating.
Now and
Then – This is my wording
not anyone’s in particular. This means
that God has sent the proclamation one time in principle to every creature
under heaven and as individuals accept Christ as the conduit of that good news,
they will be saved. Norman T. Wright in
his commentary on Colossians puts it this way “From whales to waterfalls, the
whole created order has in principle been reconciled to God. Like a sovereign making a proclamation and
sending off his heralds to bear it to the distant corners of his empire, God
has in Jesus Christ proclaimed once and for all that the world which he made
has been reconciled to him. His heralds,
scurrying off to the ends of the earth with the news, are simply agents,
messengers, of this one antecedent authoritative proclamation.”[i]
Prophetic – This is similar to “now and then” yet
different. Expositor’s Bible Commentary
puts it like this “historical future as a theological past”.[ii]
Or the history of our future was based in a theological past. We usually describe it more succinctly as
prophecy. Paul had every confidence of
what would be and wrote a word of prophecy of what was to come. In his mind, it was a reality and
finished.
My stand. I can’t go with the first choice of
hyperbole. We just got through a whole
passage where Paul used the word “all” at least 7 times. He made some exceedingly exaggerated
claims. Either I take Paul at his word
for all of it or none of it. I like to
be consistent. If I don’t go with Paul
regarding the proclamation verse, then I can’t go with him when he says that
Jesus is sovereign over all things and holds all things together. Um I don’t think so.
My scholarly mind
likes the “now and then” take. I like
the idea of a King making a proclamation and sending out his heralds to declare
it to all who will listen. It fits well
with the great commission and it keeps things tidy.
Yet my love for
Paul and his extraordinary perspective of faith lends me to the prophetic. Why? I
think a commenter from the last post said it best, “it is all about the
sovereignty of God”. I have been asking
myself “How sovereign is my God?” I
realized there is a direct relation between my view of God’s sovereignty and
His bigness and the level of spiritual strength I embrace. The more I magnify God’s power, the more
hope I have. If I lean toward Him being
in control rather than myself, my hope swells.
If I think it is up to me, or man in general than (Lord help us) I lose
all hope. I like what God ordains He
fulfills. I love his bigness. There is great comfort in that.
I think Paul meant
what he said. No hyperbole just our
“historical future as a theological past”. ;-)
That is why I love Paul. He
understood the sovereignty of God and allowed that understanding to influence
his perspective. He thought big. I want
to think big too.
What do you think
Paul meant?
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