The Proof in the Pudding

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to ^[h]follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you ^[i]always, to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20  NASB

Follow – Jacques Ellul’s damning insights make the interpretation of this command all the more crucial.

If Christians are not conformed in their lives to their truth, there is no truth.  This is why the accusers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were right to infer the falsity of revelation itself from the practice of the church.  This makes us see that in not being what Christ demands we render all revelation false, illusory, ideological, imaginary, and nonsalvific.  We are thus forced to be Christians or to recognize the falsity of what we believe.  This is undeniable proof of the need for correct practice.[1]

But what has been the result [of the subversion of the real message of Scripture by political, economic, and cultural forces]?  A Christianity that is itself a religion.  The best, it might be said, the peak of religious history. . . . A religion marked by all the traits of religion:  myths, legends, rites, holy things, beliefs, clergy, etc.  A Christianity that has fashioned a morality – and what a morality! – the most severe, the most moralistic, the most debilitating, the one that most reduces adherents to infants and renders them irresponsible, or, if I were to be malicious, I should say the one that makes of them happy imbeciles, a morality that consists of chastity, absolute obedience (which in unheard-of fashions ends up as the supreme value of Christianity), sacrifice, etc.  A Christianity that has become totally conservative in every domain – political, economic, social, etc. – which nothing can budge or change.  Political power, that is good.  Whatever challenges or criticizes, that is evil.[2]

We’ve often reviewed the verbs in these verses.  We know that it isn’t a command to become a missionary.  We know that discipleship comes before baptism.  We know that the phrase “Father and Son and the Holy Spirit” is probably a later addition.  But what we haven’t paid attention to so far is the verb tēréō, usually translated “observe” (here “follow”).  This is Ellul’s point.  If the community doesn’t observe the teaching given, then it’s useless, pointless, and false.  This is an entirely Jewish idea.  Doing trumps knowing.  Knowing requires doing.  Being “in the Messiah” means doing what he teaches.  Anything else is just another religion.

Without meaning to, Ellul just destroyed the edifice of Christianity.  Why?  Because the Christian religion does not do what the Messiah taught.  If it did, it would be Jewish.  And since it doesn’t, what exactly is it?  It’s not Messianic.  It’s not Hebraic.  It’s an invention of men intended to replace the voice of God with the voice of the Church.  It’s a power play—with disastrous implications.

Topical Index: Jacques Ellul, Christianity, religion, observe, tēréō, Matthew 28:19-20

[1] Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, p. 6.

[2] Ibid., p. 17.