While we’re on the missions theme, I want to highlight an interesting book that traces the foundational principles of world missions back to their Old Testament roots. Salvation to the Ends of the Earth by Andreas J. Kostenberger and Peter T. O’Brien was written to show that God’s saving purposes for the entire world originated not at the Great Commission but at the very beginning of God’s creation. From what I know of these authors, I imagine this book represents a helpful addition to mission literature. Zioneer writes:
“From the original intent of creation, the significance of Abraham’s call, the purpose of Israel as a nation of priests, the monumental covenant made with David, the grand and sweeping eschatological visions of the writing prophets; to the predominantly Jewish ministry of Christ on earth, his forecast of universal expansion following his death, and the actual outworking of that forecast in Christian history, as his disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, began to turn the world upside down for the sake of the Name – in short, from beginning to end of divine revelation, a thrilling picture of worldwide, salvific import begins to emerge, with a unity and complexity that is as staggering as it is beautiful.”