God gave Moses and His people a Great Commission in the Old Testament – to physically conquer all the nations of Canaan (Joshua 1:1-9). God (Jesus) gave His people a Great Commission in the New Testament – to spiritually conquer all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). Both Great Commissions were humanly impossible unless God had not said with both Commissions: “I will be with you!” The ultimate goal for both Great Commissions was virtually the same: * The ultimate goal of the Great Commission in the Old Testament was for God to be King (1 Sam. 8:7). * The ultimate goal for the Great Commission in the New Testament was for God to be King – King Jesus (1 Tim. 1:17). In the Old Testament God’s people made progress in their Great Commission but they did not fulfill conquering all Canaan. There were parts of Canaan that they never conquered. With Jesus’s Great Commission, since the time of Christ, there have been some city-states and nations that have been true Christian nations. This was especially true in the first couple centuries of America’s history and some nations in Europe about that time, and some other nations in even earlier centuries. Even though most cities or nations today may not be Christian, that does not mean that cannot happen today. What if Martin Luther had thought that in Germany? Or John Calvin in Geneva? Or Huldrych Zwingli in Zurich? Or John Knox in Scotland? Or John Carver in Plymouth Colony? Or John Winthrop in Boston? Or countless others before or after these Christian leaders – they all established Christian city-states or nation-states. All these Christian leaders had one thing in common - they followed all of God’s 7 biblical strategies for their successful civil conquests, including this last strategy - God’s “city strategy.” We see this city strategy in both the Old and New Testament. We’ll look at it first in the New Testament. New Testament – City Strategy The New Testament Apostolic strategy was NOT to focus on rural areas but reading through Acts and the Epistles you see they only focused on cities. Building God’s spiritual army in a city, the Word inevitably spread to all the rural areas. In Jesus’s Great Commission of Acts 1:8, Jesus made it clear that His disciples were to initially focus on a single city, Jerusalem, before they targeted other cities in their nation or world (Acts 5:28): “They filled all Jerusalem with their teaching!” The Apostle Paul clearly had a strategic city strategy. On his first missionary journey he never spent any time in rural areas but targeted four cities: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. In these towns he established committed congregations and appointed their leaders. In time they impacted their nation Galatia, which Paul later wrote to all of them in the Book of Galatians. All of Paul’s letters were written to major strategic cities: Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossi, and Thessalonica. We see biblically and historically that all the Apostles and New Testament Christians focused on cities, one city at a time, eventually “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). In centuries past, as we saw in early America and with the European Christian Reformers, many cities were formed or reformed to be Christian cities ruled by Christian rulers under King Jesus and God’s Law. They changed nations by focusing on and changing one city at a time. This is the only way to fulfill Jesus’s Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). They conquered cities with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). The Apostle Paul said (2 Cor. 10:2-6): “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient.” When Christians gain civil authority - they then are mandated to use the physical “sword” to maintain God’s righteous civil Law (Rom. 13:4): “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servant, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” In most every century since the time of Christ we can find Christians that took over one city at a time becoming city-states or nation-states ruled by Christians under King Jesus and God’s Law. This was especially prevalent in the western world in Europe and America from the beginning of the 16th century up through the 18th century. This can and would be done in any city today … whenever a critical mass of Christians in any city would mobilize to take over their city for King Jesus and His Law-Word. Old Testament – City Strategy God’s Great Commission for His people in the Old Testament was for them to physically conquer the nation of Canaan. When they stepped out in faith to obey God, He always gave them victory. But there is only verse in the Old Testament where God explained His strategy for His people to be able to take over the whole nation - capture the nation “little by little” - one city at a time (Ex. 23:29-30): “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.” Joshua had an enormous army for that time in history - a 600,000-man army. The average population of Canaanite towns at that time was under 10,000, including women and children. Joshua could have thought, I’ll spread my army out along the western front and easily conquer many towns all at the same time. But that was not God’s strategy. Joshua followed God’s strategy - “little by little” – attacking only one town until he had fully conquered it. The first town Joshua attacked was Jericho. It only had a population of about 3,000 people! After Joshua had conquered Jericho, he then went to the next adjacent town of Ai, a town under 10,000 population. After conquering Ai, Joshua continued following God’s “little by little,” one city at a time strategy. Joshua conquered each town, one at a time: Makkedah, then Libnah, then Lachish, then Eglon, then Hebron, then Debir, then the city of Hazor. Joshua never advanced until he had fully completed the mission for each town - God’s one city strategy. Joshua used the physical sword to conquer, and Paul used the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” to conquer. But they both focused on completing their mission in one city at a time to conquer a nation. Christian Towns Taken Over By Non-Christians Originally in America, it was primarily individual church congregations that established Christian towns with only Christians being allowed to be their civil rulers. Their civil pledges varied in wording, but all were based on Christianity – “I believe the Old and New Testament … the gospel … to advance Christianity and the Kingdom of God,” etc. But in 1788 the Federal Constitution was ratified eliminating the Christian religious test requirement for the federal civil rulers. Previously non-Christians could live and be blessed living under God’s Law in the Christian towns and colonies, but they were not allowed to vote or be civil rulers, as God’s Law required (Deut. 17:15): “Be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.” “Israelites” were the people of God, “foreigners” were not unless they converted to believe in the Lord God of the Israelites as Ruth did in the Book of Ruth (Ruth 1:16). The New Testament reaffirms this law (2 Cor. 6:14-15): “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?” But throughout the 19th, century States began to ignore and then finally remove the Christian religious test from their State Constitutions, thereby allowing non-Christians to vote and be civil their leaders. However, for years this did not make much difference in our cities or nation - because the vast majority of the population already embraced Christianity and our society had been overwhelmingly Christian in culture. But in the 19th century with the secularization of the Federal Constitution and then the secularizing of the State Constitutions, non-Christians and unrighteous men and women began to slowly fill the ranks of our civil leadership. In addition, by the end of the 19th century and for the first time in history - Christians began abdicating their Christian civil mandate and mass media mandate, thus losing media dominance. In the 20th century non-Christians increased their unrighteous influence through their mass media dominance. Originally Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and 99 of the first 100 universities were all dedicated in and for Christianity. For example, the original motto for Harvard University was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, which translated from Latin to “Truth for Christ and the Church”. But by the 20th century, virtually all universities had long been in moral freefall. And before the end of the 20th century, universities were and are the bastion of open anti-Christian indoctrination and centers for anti-Christian movements. With the universities and mass media’s 24/7 influence, they are indoctrinating Christians and non-Christians alike on every area of life, far more than churches can in a 30-minute puff sermon once a week. Secularists have finally even brainwashed pastors and Christians to think - it is only “right” to give non-
