by George Sidney Hurd
 
“This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Col 1:23 NIV)
 
In the Great Commission Jesus commanded His disciples saying: “Go into all the world (κόσμος, kosmos) and preach the gospel to every creature, making disciples of all the nations (Mark 16:15; Matt 28:19). He also said: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) as a witness to all the nations (ἔθνος, ethnos), and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). He told them that they would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (γῆ)” (Acts 1:8).
 
The Church has historically understood Christ’s commission in its most obvious sense as encompassing the entire planet and that our mission will not be completed until the gospel has reached the whole world. However, based upon Paul’s declaration in Colossians 1:23, as well as other verses we will be considering, Preterists argue that the Great Commission was fulfilled prior to 70AD, at which time the end of the age came and Christ returned. In this article we will be taking a closer look at the verses presented by Preterists as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled in the first century.
 
1) Colossians 1:23
“This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου…τοῦ κηρυχθέντος lit. “the gospel proclaimed”) to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Col 1:23 NIV)
 
Many translations have erroneously rendered the articular aorist participle τοῦ κηρυχθέντος (tou kēryssentos) as though it were a perfect passive verb (“has been proclaimed”). This rendering makes Paul out to say that the gospel had already been proclaimed “to every creature under heaven” at the time he wrote the epistle to the Colossians around 60 AD – something that not even Preterists would affirm. The aorist participle’s primary role is to describe the action’s nature, not its temporal sequence. Therefore, context and logic must determine whether the proclamation was something already accomplished or something still being carried out.
 
Paul’s obvious intent was not to say that the gospel had already been preached to every creature under heaven but rather that the gospel which they had heard and received is the gospel “proclaimed” to all under heaven. Many Translations correctly reflect Paul’s obvious intent. The literal translation (LITV) reads, “proclaimed”; the CLV, “being heralded”; the Douay-Rheims, “which is preached”; the WEB, “which is being proclaimed.”  In this verse Paul was simply saying that the same gospel they had heard from him was being proclaimed throughout the whole world to every creature, just as Christ had commissioned us to do.
 
2) Colossians 1:5-6
“because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world (τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ὑμᾶς, καθὼς καὶ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, lit. “coming to you, as also in all the world”) and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.”
 
This verse is also used as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled prior to 70 AD. However, there are at least two reasons why this passage does not support their claim. In the first place, Paul uses the present tense. It literally says: “the truth of the gospel coming to you as also in all the world.” This passage when properly translated further confirms that Paul didn’t mean to say that the gospel had already been proclaimed to every creature under heaven later in verse twenty-three.
 
In the second place, just as the expression, “every creature under heaven,” is planetary in scope and not restricted to the confines of the Roman Empire, so also is the expression “all the world (παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, panti tō kosmō).” In order to substantiate their argument for a pre-70 AD fulfillment of the Great Commission, Preterists try to restrict the term “world” κόσμος (kosmos) so as to only include the Roman Empire. However, in 1John 2:2 it says that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the “whole world” (kosmos). To be consistent they would also have to limit the atonement to the Roman Empire. Did not Jesus die for all? Is it possible that He didn’t have Asia and the American Indians in mind when He told them that they would be His witnesses unto the end of the earth? Also then, just as now, the term world was at times used in the hyperbolic sense, such as, “now the whole world will know.” (c.f., John 12:19; Romans 1:8). However, kosmos is never used in reference to the Roman Empire.
 
Certainly, when Jesus gave the Great Commission, He meant for it to be proclaimed to all under heaven and not just those who lived within the boundaries of the 1st century Roman Empire! In fact, there is no indication that regions within the Roman Empire such as Gaul (which encompassed France, parts of Belgium, some areas of Switzerland, Germany, and northern Italy) were reached with the gospel prior to 70 AD. It wasn’t until late in the 2nd century that Church Fathers like Irenaeus and Tertullian describe efforts to reach parts of Gaul with the gospel.
 
Therefore, rightly understood, just as with Colossians 1:23, verses 5 and 6 speak of the expansion of the gospel which was underway in the 1st century, rather than it being regarded as a mission already completed.
 
3) Romans 1:8
 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world (kosmos).”
 
As already indicated, this is an obvious example of hyperbole. Even if one could limit the term kosmos so as to only include the Roman Empire, Paul couldn’t have meant it in a literal sense because there were still parts of the Roman Empire which had not yet heard the gospel, not to mention the whole world literally speaking about the faith of the believers in the church of Rome.
 
Spain was within the Roman Empire. Yet in Romans 15:20-28 Paul explained to the Christians at Rome that the reason why he hadn’t come to visit them sooner was because he didn’t want to preach the gospel where Christ had already been named, but that he would visit them on the way to Spain. The obvious motive for his trip to Spain was to preach the gospel where Christ was not yet known.
 
4) Romans 10:18
“But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: Their sound has gone out to all the earth (γῆ, gē), and their words to the ends of the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē, “inhabited earth”).”
 
This verse is often cited as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled by the mid-1st century. They argue that the terms “earth” (γῆ, gē), and “world” (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) only refer to the Roman Empire. However, apart from the fact that the entirety of the Roman Empire had not yet been reached with the gospel in the first century, the Psalm that David is quoting is Psalm 19:1-4 where we see that the “they” being referred to are the heavens and the firmament declaring the glory of God to the inhabitants of the entire planet, and not merely to the Roman Empire which did not even exist when the psalm was written.
 
The word used for “earth” (γῆ, gē), has a range of meaning identical to our word “earth.” It can mean the earth, referring to soil, or to a region or land, but most commonly it is simply the proper name for our planet Earth. Here it is clearly used to refer to our entire planet, just as in Psalm 19:4 which he quotes.  The term οἰκουμένη (oikoumenē) normally refers to the entire inhabited world. In one instance it is limited to the Roman Empire. In Luke 2:1 Caesar Augustus issued a decree that “all the world” (oikoumenē) should be registered. It is often used in the hyperbolic sense, much as we would say of a singer: “The whole world came to see her.” 
 
However, clearly “the ends of the world” in Psalm 19:4 which Paul cites must be understood in the normal sense of the entirety of our inhabited planet. When Jesus said that the gospel was to be “preached in all the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) as a witness to all the nations” in Matthew 24:14, He obviously meant the whole world of humanity that He died for, and not just those within the Roman Empire. When Paul said in Acts 17:31 that God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world (oikoumenē) in righteousness, He was clearly referring to all of humanity and not just Roman citizens. That Paul didn’t consider the whole world as already having heard the gospel is evident since in verse 8 he said that they were still proclaiming it (Rom 10:8).
 
So how are we to understand Paul in his quote of Psalm 19:4? To me, considering that the gospel had not yet reached the entirety of the Roman Empire, not to mention the whole world, and considering that Christ’s atoning sacrifice was for the sins of the whole world (1Jn 2:2) and not just the Romans, it is obvious that it should be understood in the poetic and hyperbolic sense. In this same epistle Paul said that he had yet to travel to Spain in order to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been proclaimed (Rom 15:20-28), so he clearly did not mean to say that the gospel had already gone out to all the earth.
 
5) 1Timothy 3:16
“God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles (ἔθνος, ethnos), believed on in the world (κόσμος, kosmos) received up in glory.”
 
This verse is sometimes presented as evidence that the Great Commission had been fulfilled prior to 70 AD. However, all that Paul is saying here is that the gospel had been proclaimed among the Gentiles, not that it had been proclaimed to all the Gentiles or ethnic groups, as Jesus commissioned us to do. Some 3 years later in the second epistle to Timothy we still see Paul proclaiming the gospel, enduring all things in order that the elect might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus (2Tim 1:8; 2:8-10; 4:17). He told Timothy to preach the word and do the work of an evangelist (2Tim 4:2-5). Likewise, while Christ was believed on in the world (kosmos), the kosmos cannot be reasonably argued to be the Roman Empire. Except for instances when it is used in a hyperbolic sense, kosmos refers to the entire planet and it often refers to the entire created universe. Additionally, Paul here doesn’t say that He was believed on in the whole world. In fact, in the same epistle Paul said that he lived an exemplary life as a pattern to those who were yet going to believe on Him (1Tim 1:16).
 
Therefore, the verses that Preterists present to substantiate their claim that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled prior to 70 AD actually indicate the contrary when they are considered grammatically and in context. Neither did any of the Early Fathers consider the Great Commission to have been fulfilled. What we see is the description of their continued efforts to reach the unreached with the gospel within the Roman Empire and beyond.

 
 
by George Sidney Hurd
 
In this final article on the subject of Original Sin, I will be responding to some of the objections presented by those who deny that Adam’s original sin brought physical and spiritual death or alienation from God upon all his prodigy, arguing instead that we were born a “clean slate” (tabula rasa), only to afterwards become corrupted due to external influences.
 
As I explained in the previous articles, What about Original Sin? and Are Babies Vipers in Diapers?, I do not believe that we inherited Adam’s guilt for his original sin, but rather the consequences of Adam’s sin which was physical and spiritual death. This was the understanding of the Early Church Fathers prior to Augustine in the 5th century and continues to be the majority position in the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day. From the beginning it was believed that Adam’s original sin resulted in spiritual death or estrangement from God, which in turn constituted us all sinners from the womb. As Irenaeus said: ‘The alienated are sinners from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born.’” [i]
 
However, in the 5th century Augustine argued that we not only suffer the consequences of Adam’s sin, but we actually bear his guilt. This was in reaction to Pelagius, a British monk, who insisted that Adam’s sin did not result in us being born with an inner propensity to sin – that the only consequence of Adam’s original sin was to set a bad example. He taught that we could live free from sin by exercising our own free will without the need for divine grace. He taught that Christ’s life and death provided a moral example for us to follow, much like the Moral Example Theory of the atonement held by many Liberals and Progressives today.
 
Augustine added the element of inherited guilt in order to emphasize our need for Christ’s atoning sacrifice and divine grace. However, as I pointed out in the previous articles, while we suffer the consequences of Adam’s sin, we are only held accountable for our own personal sins. Christ’s atoning sacrifice was necessary in order to be justified from our own sins, not from Adam’s sin. The unrepentant will be judged for their own sins, not for Adam’s sin.
 
As I understand it, the doctrine of Original Sin as taught in Scripture is that when Adam, our federal head, sinned, his death became our death. Since he died spiritually in the day that he ate from the tree, we are spiritually stillborn or estranged from God from our mother’s womb. This spiritual death or estrangement from God is what constitutes us sinners and by nature children of wrath (Rom 5:19; Eph 2:1-3). In the remainder of this article I will be considering some objections presented against this position.
 
Scriptures presented against Original Sin
The following is a consideration of the passages presented as evidence that we are born as a “clean slate” without any inner propensity towards sin.
 
1) Ecclesiastes 7:29: “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
 
This verse is at times presented as evidence that we are all born morally upright without any bent towards sin. However, most scholars agree that this has reference to man’s original creation in the image and likeness of God rather than how we are subsequently formed through procreation in the womb after the fall. While, as I explained in the previous article, babies and little children are born “innocent” (Psa 106:38), they will inevitably acquire guilt, since we are born with a bent towards sin. Our sinful inclination is the result of our estrangement from God from the womb.
 
Just a few verses earlier in verse 20, Solomon said of man: “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”  The simple fact that everyone without exception sins should serve to demonstrate that we are not born morally neutral. Solomon elsewhere indicated that this sinfulness is not merely the result of external influences but rather is an inner inclination to sin. He said:
 
“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.” (Prov 22:15)
 
The word rendered “child” (נַ֫עַר) is used to refer to children ranging from infancy to youth. It is the same word that is used to refer to the “baby” Moses (Ex 2:6). Folly or foolishness is said to be a condition of the heart.  Folly in Scripture is not merely silliness or irrationality but refers to sinful destructive behavior (Ps 38:5; 69:5; Pr 24:9). Jesus likewise said that the source of evil is not external but that proceeds from the heart of man (Matt 15:19).
 
David, acutely aware of his inner depravity after his sin with Bethsheba, said:
 
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps 51:5).
 
Some have suggested that David here is shifting the blame to his mother, saying he was born as the result of his mother having committed adultery, as if to say that he was just following her bad example. However, throughout the psalm he is not passing the blame, but acknowledging his own sin and depravity before God. He is not confessing his mother’s sins but his own. In the previous verse he said: “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.” In verse 7 he said: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Here he sees iniquity as something within him that needed to be purged from him.
 
Those who teach that we are born a clean slate say that if we simply leave a child to himself in a healthy environment he will develop into a morally upright adult. However, the Scriptures say the opposite. In Proverbs 29:15 Solomon says: “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” A child left to himself does not become righteous but wicked. As David says:
 
“The wicked (LXX ἁμαρτωλός, “sinners”) are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Ps 58:3).
 
While David here singles out a subgroup of humanity that were left to themselves without a proper upbringing, all are estranged from God from the womb and begin to sin as soon as they are capable of doing so. As Solomon says, “there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl 7:20). The only difference between the wicked and the righteous is that the righteous have come into a relationship with God and deny the sinful desires of their fallen flesh. Left to themselves, they would have likewise acted wickedly, since all are estranged from God from the womb.
 
Those who say that we are born morally neutral often seek to discredit what David says here, pointing out that a baby cannot yet speak when they are born so as to speak lies. However, when someone uses hyperbole, as David does here, it is to emphasize a truth, not to negate it. As I understand it, he is saying that our natural inclination is to go astray as soon as we are born because we are estranged from God from the womb.
 
Therefore, although everything God created was “very good” and He originally made Adam and Eve upright, upon sinning they died, and spiritual death passed upon all his progeny. We all sin, not merely because the world is evil, but because we were all estranged from the womb. The world is only evil because of the evil in men’s hearts.
 
2) Psalm 139:13-14: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
 
This passage is often presented as evidence that God’s creation of each person is inherently good, implying no innate sinfulness at birth. However, our propensity towards sin is not due to a defect in our essential nature but rather to our estrangement from God from the womb, the loss of the beatific vision of God that Adam and Eve enjoyed before they fell. As to our essential nature, we bear the image of God. The Son of God was fully human in His incarnation but was never alienated from God and therefore did not have a sinful nature.
 
3) Psalm 22:9-10: “But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God.”
 
This psalm, taken in isolation from its context, would seem to indicate that David trusted in God from the womb – something that would not be possible for a normal infant since their mental faculties are not yet sufficiently developed in order to actually trust in God from the womb.
 
The key to understanding this passage is to see it in its context. You may have noticed that the pronouns “Me” and “My” in the NKJV translation which I cite here are capitalized. Psalm 22 in its entirety is messianic. Throughout the psalm, David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said things which were prophetic of Christ and not literally applicable to David himself. This psalm continues describing in detail Christ’s crucifixion long before the Romans ever used that form of capitol punishment. Verses 14 through 17 read as follows:
 
“I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.”
 
While it could be said of Christ hanging on the cross that His hands and feet were pierced and that all His bones were out of joint, the same could not be said of David when he was writing this psalm. The same is true of verses 9 and 10. Christ’s body was directly “prepared” by God from the womb (Heb 10:5). He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and brought forth by God. Only of the incarnate Christ can it be said that He trusted in God from the womb. David, just as with all the rest of mankind, was estranged from the womb.
 
4) Ezekiel 18:20: “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
 
This passage is commonly presented as evidence that we do not inherit spiritual death with its resultant propensity to sin from Adam and therefore babies are born morally neutral. However, in the context, God is not speaking of spiritual death at all. Neither is he referring to natural death which is something common to all. All without exception die in Adam (1Cor 15:22). Even babies often die without ever having sinned. What God was referring to in this passage is a premature death as a result of God’s judgment. It is along the same lines as Deuteronomy 24:16 where God said:
 
“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.”
 
This civil law prohibited killing an entire family for the offense of one individual. In Ezekiel 18 God is addressing the inhabitants of Jerusalem against whom He had pronounced judgment for their persistent sins and idolatries, saying that all except for a remnant of them would be slain by the Babylonian invaders (Ezek 14 21-22). Instead of repenting, they accused God of injustice by putting them to death for the sins of their fathers, repeating a colloquial proverb which said: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?”  (Ezek 18:2).
 
This proverb was a misapplication of what God meant when He said that He would visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation (Ex 34:7). As Jesus indicated in Matthew 23:29-32, this was only true if one followed in the footsteps of their fathers.
 
It is in this context that God said in verse 20, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.” He is not referring to a natural death nor a spiritual death, but rather being killed prematurely at the hands of their enemies in judgment for their own persistence in unrepentant sin.
 
5) Romans 2:14: “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves.”
 
This verse is sometimes presented as evidence that we are not born with a corrupted nature but morally neutral and capable of keeping the law. However, Paul here is setting up a hypothetical situation in order to make a point. He also said in verse 7 that those who continue in doing good will receive eternal life. In the previous verse he said that the doers of the law will be justified.
 
Did he actually mean to say that there are some who keep the law by nature and therefore will obtain eternal life by their own good works? Certainly not! In the first three chapters of Romans, he is presenting his case much as would a prosecuting attorney, first showing what the law required, in order to afterwards drive home his indictment against all mankind. In 3:9 he says:
 
“What then? Are we (Jews) better than they (Gentiles)? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin” (Rom 3:9).
 
Far from the Gentiles fulfilling the law by nature, Paul says in Ephesians 2:3 that, apart from justification and regeneration, all are “by nature children of wrath.”  In the following verses, before presenting free justification through faith in Christ, Paul cites numerous Old Testament passages to make his point. This is in part what he concludes:
 
“There is none righteous, no, not one… There is none who seeks after God… There is none who does good, no, not one.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Rom 3:10-20)
 
Therefore, it is clear that when Paul spoke of Gentiles doing “by nature” the things in the law, he was speaking hypothetically, since he concludes his arguments by saying that there has never been a single Gentile nor a Jew who does by nature the things in the law. And why is that the case? Paul later explains that it is due to “the law of sin in our members” (Rom 7:23).
 
6) Romans 7:9: “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived (ἀναζάω, “to become alive again”) and I died.”
 
Some have cited this passage as evidence that we are born spiritually alive and morally neutral, only to afterwards sin and die spiritually. Others cite this as evidence that, although we are born with a sinful nature, we are innocent until we reach the age of accountability when we are able to comprehend God’s commandments.
 
However, in the first place, this interpretation of the passage requires that they deny that we are spiritually dead or estranged from God from the womb and therefore by nature prone to sin even before we actually commit our first sin (Ps 58:3; Ps 51:5; Eph 2:3). In the second place, Paul does not simply say that he sinned when the commandment came but rather that sin “came back to life.” This means that he was under sin’s power prior to the moment he refers to as “when the commandment came.”
 
What does Paul mean when he says that he was once alive without the law? In what sense did sin come back to life when the commandment came? In order to understand what is being referred to, it is necessary to see it in context. In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul is primarily focused on justification through faith in Christ. In chapters six through eight he focuses on the sanctification of those who have been justified.
 
In Romans 7:1-6 Paul says that we died to the law that we might be united to Christ, walking in newness of life in union with Him, having been delivered from the law that we might serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
 
Throughout the rest of the chapter, he shows from his own experience the futility of trying to serve God in the oldness of the letter after having been freed from the old husband, the law, and united to Christ, being made alive in Him.
 
It is in this context that Paul says that when the commandment came after having been made alive, sin came alive again in him and he died. He was experiencing his new life in Christ until he took his eyes off of Christ, his new husband, and put them on the commandment: “You shall not covet” (v. 7). When he took his eyes off of Jesus, the source of his new life, and put them on the commandment, “You shall not covet,”  it produced in him all sorts of evil desires (v. 8). The rest of the chapter describes his struggle trying to keep the law in his flesh.
 
That Paul is describing his struggle as a born again believer is evident throughout the entire chapter. In chapter three he said of the unregenerate that there is none who is good, no not one. There is none who seeks after God (Rom 3:10-18). Yet, in chapter 7:21-23 Paul describes himself as one who delights in the law of God in his inner man and wills to do good but isn’t able to because of the law of sin in his members. This struggle is not descriptive of someone who hasn’t been given a new heart through regeneration.
 
Therefore, understood in context, Romans 7:6 is descriptive of the defeat a believer experiences when they take their eyes off of Jesus, seeking to fulfill the demands of their old husband, the law, in the power of their flesh. Paul closes the chapter putting his eyes once again on Jesus. Properly understood, it says nothing whatsoever concerning our spiritual state at birth.
 
Having considered the primary passages presented against Original Sin by those who argue that we are born morally neutral, we see that they do not support the clean slate doctrine when seen in context. They often affirm the opposite – that we come into this world estranged from the womb and by nature children of wrath.
 

[i] Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3:5:1