Ezra Chong—Bercham, Malaysia

The redemption of all nations was part of God’s salvation plan from the beginning of the ages (Eph 3:5–9). From of old, God had revealed to Abraham that he would become father of many nations, and all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him (Gen 12:2; 17:4–6; 18:18). Indeed, it was through Abraham’s Seed—Jesus Christ—that salvation was given to all nations (Gen 22:18; Acts 3:25b; Gal 3:8, 14, 16).

After accomplishing the work of salvation, through His death and resurrection, Jesus commissioned His apostles with an important task:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them…” (Mt 28:19a)

As the revived apostolic church in the end times, the True Jesus Church has inherited this commission, and will see it fully realized:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Mt 24:14)

In the Old Testament, “all nations” denotes peoples of different lands, languages, families and nations beyond God’s chosen people (see Gen 10:5, 20, 31–32). However, the redeemed multitude in Revelation encompasses people “of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (Rev 7:9; also Rev 5:9; 14:6–7). This reflects how Jesus, through the church, shall call “a nation [we] do not know, and nations who do not know [us] shall run to [us]” (Isa 55:4–5; Zech 8:22–23). All nations shall flow to us because we have the truth (Isa 2:2–3).

To become the church of all nations, we need to work on overcoming prejudices towards those from different cultural and religious backgrounds, especially in relation to legalism, customs and cultural practices. We must also ensure that our chosen status does not feed into a sense of superiority, leading to narrow-mindedness towards and disassociation from those we are sent to save (Acts 10:28a; 11:2–3; Gal 2:11–13).

The True Jesus Church makes disciples of all nations through pioneering missionary trips to countries we have yet to reach. But just as important is the preaching in our own backyard. When we preach to migrants in our own country, the gospel can spread, through them, to their family and friends in their native lands. Once the seed is planted, our workers can organize a missionary trip to these places to carry on the work.

Today, spreading the gospel is not just a face-to-face endeavor. As the internet’s reach and influence expand, so does the scope of the church’s online evangelism, increasing the rate at which the gospel is preached (Rev 14:6–7; 2 Thess 3:1). With this in mind, we must utilize more community outreach volunteers in the internet ministry.

In fact, volunteers are the lifeblood of the church’s evangelism work. The Department of World Missions, in both western and eastern hemispheres, must continue to recruit and train more volunteers to serve on volunteer mission committees, as medical personnel on medical missions, and as part of small, mobile evangelistic teams in pioneering areas (Lk 8:1–3; 10:1–2).

The true church is adopting many ways and means to reach out and make disciples of all nations; as members of the church, we should play our part to fulfill this commission. By God’s grace, we must, and will, expand and “inherit the nations” (Isa 43:1–3).