Ongoing Imperative for World Mission

D. A. Carson delivers the final paper at the John Woodbridge Missions Conference, underscoring the ongoing nature of the Great Commission. He begins by listing some of the roads he could have travelled in this address but decided against: (1) an array of “Great Commission” texts (Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 1:8; Jn. 20:19-23), (2) the biblical theology of “Great Commission” texts, (3) the still larger biblical storyline, (4-6) responses to objections, (7) fundamental skepticism about God, Christ, and the Bible, (8) nuanced judgments as to what “world mission” includes, (9) strategies to fulfill the ongoing imperative, (10) statistics, (11) pragmatic tips, and finally (12) the training needed to sustain and nurture world mission. Carson then turns to three fundamental biblical truths as they relate to the ongoing mandate for Christian missions: (1) the sheer desperate lostness of human beings, (2) the sheer glory of God, and (3) the sheer power of the gospel of Christ crucified.

Biography

D. A. Carson, a member of the faculty since 1978, is Research Professor of the New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He holds degrees from McGill University (B.S.), Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto (M.Div.), and the University of Cambridge (Ph.D.). Dr. Carson in addition to Trinity has taught at Northwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, Richmond College, and Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto. Dr. Carson has written or edited more than fifty books, and he occasionally writes and edits with faculty colleague John Woodbridge. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Additionally, he is the president of The Gospel Coalition.