Can a nation be saved? What Jesus sent us to ‘disciple’
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ..." (Matthew 28:19).
The Great Commission, as recorded in Matthew, is often proof-texted to claim that entire nations, such as America, can be Christianized, and that’s what Jesus sent us to do.
A video on our YouTube channel examines this passage, along with other Scriptures often believed to refer to America.
See Mike Winger’s answer to a question about this passage here.
Related: From Babel to heaven, the nations through the Bible
To determine whether that’s what the Lord meant — and whether that’s what the apostles heard — let’s break down its key words:
Disciples
A disciple is simply a student, someone who follows and learns from someone else.
The Greek word matheteuo (to make disciples) is derived from the root word mathetes, defined as a learner, one who follows teachings.
Here’s the pertinent fact: That word appears 269 times in the New Testament (KJV). Every single time, it refers to people. Every single time, a disciple is an individual person. It never refers to what we call a nation today (we’ll look at that word further down).
Almost every time, it refers to a follower of Christ.
How can a nation be a disciple? How can a nation follow Christ in a way that fulfills the Great Commission? When does it cross that threshhold?
Through its population? What percentage of the population?
Through its leaders? Through its laws? Values? Principles? Which ones? To what extent? Are we talking legislation, or actual obedience? If obedience, by whom?
We have to come up with our own answers, because the Bible never describes even the possibility of converting an entire country. Those who heard Christ’s command did not take it to mean that; they did not try to Christianize the Roman Empire, and left no such instructions for future generations. They just preached the gospel and led individuals to Christ.
The only Biblical nation that could be considered is Israel, which literally had the law of God as the law of the land. Was Israel a disciple of Christ? Its history would say no. Israel apostasized and received the wrath of God. Therefore, a nation has never been a disciple of Christ.
Can “disciple” refer to someone other than a regenerate person? Possibly; there are people called disciples who abandoned Christ (John 6:66). But the call to become a disciple certainly implies regeneration. Look at Jesus' teaching about discipleship in Luke 14: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ... So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (26-27, 33).
How can a nation do those things? Cliches aside, a nation does not have a heart, or a soul, or any kind of collective consciousness. A nation cannot believe.
Disciples can only be individual people.
Of
The word “of” actually doesn’t appear in the Greek text; it’s a constructed English translation. A literal translation would read, “disciple all the nations.” The word therefore cannot be authoritatively applied to anything.
Those who apply it to nations use it in the sense of turning something into something else (“I made apple pie of these apples”).
But in English, it could just as validly mean “from” (I am Keith, of New York). Given that disciples only refer to individuals, the commission is to disciple individuals from all nations.
Nations
The word “nations” is the Greek word ethne, the plural of ethnos. It refers to a people group; it could also be translated peoples. Like the word disciple, it refers to people.
In the Greek text, it’s preceded by a definite article (panta ta ethne), meaning the object of the commission is all nations collectively; it’s not something that would be fulfilled one nation at a time.
In Scripture, “the nations” refers collectively to Gentiles, as opposed to Jews. The commission is to make disciples of not just Jews, but Gentile peoples. That’s how the apostles would have heard it.
Three chapters earlier in Matthew, Jesus used the exact same phrase — panta ta ethne — to describe the gathering of the sheep and the goats at Christ’s judgment seat. Would anyone who politicizes the Great Commission also claim that the sheep and the goats are entire nation-states? Can a geopolitical entity visit the sick and imprisoned?
Other versions of the Great Commission also make clear that it targets individuals in all nations. In Mark, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” In Acts, He said, “you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Jesus is defining the scope of the Great Commission — everywhere. He isn’t telling them to focus their efforts on governments, and they didn’t.
Baptizing
Baptism, of course, is also a practice that can only apply to individuals. How would a country be baptized? That makes even less sense than discipling a nation.
Also, the pronoun “them” is masculine in the Greek, while the noun “nations” is neuter, so they are not synonymous, as this excellent article points out. It’s not entire nations themselves that are being baptized; it’s people in all nations.
So not only does Matthew 28:19 not teach that an entire nation can become a baptized disciple, but it confirms that only individuals can.
The Great Commission is to preach forgiveness of sins through Jesus to all peoples, calling them to repent (Luke 24:47). If enough people repent and believe, could a nation be transformed? Sure, at least for a time. But it will only happen through the people.
If we focus on the people, we may win the nation. But if we target the nation, we’ll get neither.
