For the past two hundred-plus years, the Western Church has been in the grips of a dualism that pits the material world against the non-material world (which they unadvisedly call “spiritual”). This is nothing new in the church. We have been fighting this for almost two millennia in one form or another. Material things are intrinsically evil and must be shed. The great salvation will come when I die and shed this mortal coil to live in a disembodied bliss in heaven. When Jesus comes again, he will destroy this mortal world, putting an end to its evil.
This dualistic view of reality affects the way we understand Jesus’ commission in Matthew 28:19-20. Whatever Jesus tells us, he is not telling us our mission has anything to do with this material world. Fighting culture wars with the gospel is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic … or entering into a theological debate on social media: a waste of time. Jesus’ Commission is all about snatching souls out of the world so that they can leave this world behind along with us.
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