“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The first step in discipling any nation is to recognize its authority, and I do no mean it’s president or prime minister.  The One over all the nations is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the One who is to be recognized as the one true Sovereign, the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords.  Acknowledge Him and so much of all else falls into its rightful place.  

Next comes what the late Jim Russell referred to as the greatest transfer of authority in all time and eternity: the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself now heading into heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand, deputizes eleven imperfect men and, by extension, all those who would follow them in the months, days, and years to come.  

There are those to whom God delegates His authority.  There are civil authorities,  charged with the responsibility of government and keeping the peace; we read about this in the thirteenth chapter of Romans.  Greater still though are those whose responsibility it is to bring the nations under the Rule of Christ   This is what I write about.  

The first word is to go; that is to say, do not stay; we are to go into all the world, not hole up in our little homes and churches and safe places, but to go into every nook and cranny of the culture.  It is to the nations, yes; but it is also to your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker; it is to your business, your school’s PTA, your congressman’s town-hall meeting.  For anyone or any place to be lit up, the light must be lit up there; for anything to be salted the salt must get out of the shaker.  So it is that Christians must go, and go where soever the Lord would send them, be it far or near.  

Of course there is the Gospel message, apart from which no one is saved and comes to know the truth; it has to be preached, it has to be communicated; it is the only means by which a person or nation comes under the blessing and authority of Christ.  Baptism is the signal by which a person tells his friends and his family–the world and the heavens above, that he has made this choice.  

At this point in the effort a man, a nation, has been enrolled as a student under the tutelage of the Lord Jesus and His delegates. This is the meaning of “making disciples”: to “enroll as students”.  What then remains?  “Teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”  This is the essence of disciple-making: teaching obedience to the commands of Christ.  This is both the micro and the macro work to be done, one-on-one, and the delegates to the nations.   

I feel as though it is presumptuous for me to speaking this way; it is as if I am stating the obvious.  Indeed, inasmuch as I know these things, I feel as though I have done precious little.  But that is not the point; the point is how do you disciple a nation?  How do you disciple this nation–the United States of America.  

We make contributions and send willing souls to distant places to learn the language and culture, all with a view to be evangelizing the lost.  And we must.  It was, after all, pretty much the reason our forefathers came to America to begin with; not only to flee persecution, but to carry the good news of the kingdom of God to this continent.  

Let me get to the point:  to disciple a nation, any nation, you must permeate it with the word of God–ie., the commands of Jesus Christ.  We, the church, are deemed by the Lord the salt of the earth and the light of the world–neither of which have any effect unless they are employed to penetrate the culture and shed light upon its people.  

Look at what impact the early church had on the world around them; it wasn’t but a couple hundred years before the known world at the time was Christianized.   

And the United States–for nearly three hundred years it could well be said that it was a Christian nation, a discipled nation.  

Now, however, so much of that is history–recent history; it is this that we want back; we want the U.S. to be a discipled nation once again.  

I think the devil has copied our strategy, and done a very good job at it.  I say it was our strategy; it was, but we left off of it.  What the church leaves off of, be it a person or a nation, the evil one gladly picks up.  If you look at how he has done it, it tells how it is we were supposed to do it. 

First of all, there is the voice.  Whose voice is the loudest?  Which is being heard by the masses?  In our day it is not that of the church.  Instead, it is that of a very small percentage of persons, bent on evil and promoting godlessness, and we have stood by silent.  Whereas the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth, you wouldn’t know it.  In so many ways the voice of truth and reason is drowned out by that of evil.  For our nation to be discipled, any nation, the truth of God and His word must be the predominant voice.  If the voice of the opposition is like a fast-growing cancer, the voice of truth is not only its antidote, but the means of healing and wholeness.  

And then there is what Elton Trueblood refers to as “the strategy of penetration.”  This is inferred by Jesus calling us the salt of the earth.  This is where Satan has been hugely successful (not to give this horrid creature any credit, but only to point out what it is that he has robbed from us that would make us successfull, and has in the past).  That is, Christians, instead of disengaging the culture, must engage it at every level.  For the church to have it preserving effect, and believers to disciple the masses, we have to be present in every culture-shaping venue, in the arts and sciences, in the media, in education and business, in the government.   And here, in these, we are to be as it were, the voice of God.  

And here–and this is the next point, we have to let our light shine.  That is to say, live such exemplary lives that they illuminate the darkness in others and bring to light all the lies, the distortions, the half-truths, and the downright evil that is so prevalent in our society.  The presence of God has its effect on the presence of evil–and we carry the presence of God.  

So it is, to disciple a nation we must, under the authority of the Christ, be His voice, penetrate the world around us and those in it, and live holy lives.  This, I think, is the simple, effective, and successful means of fulfilling The Great Commission.  

P.S.:  I can’t help but think of Jim Russell, whose work through The Amy Foundation was aimed specifically at the first part of this strategy.  It was to promote biblical truth in the secular media.   It was to get the word of God to the masses and, by so doing, disciple them–teach them to obey.  

And then I think of Bob Briner, who through his book, “Roaring Lambs,” called upon Christians to re-engage the culture, which they had largely pulled out of.  

I do not know where we are at with these; there seems to be a growing body of persons in the movie-making business who are putting out faith-based films.  Beyond this I am not aware of efforts to permeate all the 7 Mountains of Influence.  And as far as truth goes, I am not sure to what degree it is being promulgated in mainstream America, nor how it could be.   

What remains however are the holy lives of Christians.  I thank God we have at least two devoted believers in the federal government:  Vice President Mike Pence, and HUD’ s secretary Dr. Ben Carson.   But what is needed are the obvious godly lives of people in every neighborhood, town, and city. People whose lives and work tell of the goodness of God and the rightness of His cause.  

Let us employ all three however we can.  Grant us O God, to be You voice, to be the salt and light You have said we are, and to live the kind of lives that not only will people notice, but they will inquire of us as to the hope that is in us.  Let this be so, O God, let it be so.