TL;DR:
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals God’s global mission — to bless and redeem all nations. Genesis 12:3’s covenant with Abraham (“all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”) establishes the foundation for world evangelization, ultimately fulfilled in Revelation 7:9’s vision of a multiethnic multitude before God’s throne. The page includes a list of representative world missions passages from both Testaments as well as a 14-minute embedded video by Howard Culbertson.
"God wants His name to be glorified all over the world. This was His desire from the beginning of the world." -- Holly Johnson, Nazarene Bible College student
If you asked most Christians for a list of Bible passages related to missions, how many verses would they give you?
Not many. No doubt the first missionary passage to be mentioned would be the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 or the similar wording in Mark 16:15. Acts 1:8 would be mentioned and maybe Paul's "Macedonian call." Someone might think of Matthew 24:14 ("This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world … and then the end will come"). At that point, however, most believers would bog down and start looking puzzled, trying to think of more missionary Bible verses.
The chapters in the Bible books are divided into more than 31,000 verses. When people can
think of only a half dozen missions Bible verses, does that give them the impression that God doesn't prioritize missions?
Actually, the very first verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) is related to God's call for world missions. It proclaims Yahweh to be the God of the whole world. With that grand opening begins a story whose plot quickly takes a far-reaching turn (human sin). Immediately comes God's first -- though veiled -- promise to send a Redeemer (Gen. 3:15).
Genesis 1-11 introduces the story and sets the stage for what follows. Then, in Genesis 12, God takes a giant step forward in the story by choosing Abraham. God says to Abraham: "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:3). That covenant is later repeated to Abraham, and then it is repeated to Isaac and finally to Jacob (Genesis 18:18; 22:17-18; 26:24 and 28:12-14).
The promise of blessing to all peoples through Abraham's family is a promise that the Apostle John would later see fulfilled. John describes that fulfillment in Revelation 7:9: "I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb."
Between that promise in Genesis 12 and the vision of its fulfillment in Revelation 7, the Bible is replete with indicators of God's passion that all peoples would know and serve Him.
At Mt. Sinai, the Lord told Moses to say to the people: "Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:5-6). That means the whole nation of Israel was chosen to be agents of reconciliation between God and sinful humanity. Several decades ago, liberal scholar Norman Gottwald titled his Old Testament introduction A Light to the Nations.1 That title was a recognition of how much those words from Isaiah 49:6 should define what God expected of His chosen people.
After the crossing of the Jordan River, Joshua told the Israelites that God "did this so that all peoples of the earth might know" (Joshua 4:24). As Solomon prayed the dedicatory prayer for the Temple he had just constructed in Jerusalem, he said that the Temple had been constructed "so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name" (I Kings 8:43).
If you leaf through the book of Psalms, you will see repeated use of phrases like "ends of the earth," "all nations," "the whole earth," "the peoples," and "all the earth."
The prophets repeat the affirmation that God's focus is on the world and not just on Israel. A prime example is Isaiah 45:22: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth."
Remember Jonah's story? Contrary to popular thought, the little short book is not a lesson in obedience. [ blog on Jonah ] Jonah's story is the missionary book of the Old Testament. It portrays God's call for us to get our hearts in line with His love for all nations. [ more on Jonah ]
Throughout the Old Testament, God seems to be working to involve His
people in world evangelism by using two different forces. The first one is centripetal, in which
people from other nations were drawn toward Israel and the Temple (being pulled toward the center, as the graphic shows). The second was centrifugal, in which the Jews were scattered among other nations (being pushed away from the center, as the graphic shows).
Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave what has come to be known as the Great Commission. The wording of Matthew 28:19-20, together with parallel Great Commission passages, implicitly calls His followers to seven actions:
However, this oft-quoted Great Commission is not all that Jesus said about world evangelism. There's more, much more.
Not long after Jesus began His ministry, He preached what we call "The Sermon on the Mount." In that sermon, Jesus gave His followers a model prayer (The Lord's Prayer). One of the first petitions in that prayer is a missionary one: "Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
The prayer looks forward to the day when "every knee" will bow before Him. So, a prayer for His will to be done on earth is a missionary prayer, isn't it? Each time we pray that model prayer, we are praying a world missions prayer.
While dying on the cross, Jesus cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Believers have long speculated about what Jesus meant by that question He asked in His dying moments. The conclusion that many people make does not fit well with our understanding of God as triune. How could God forsake God?
By quoting the opening words of Psalm 22, Jesus may also have directed His listeners' thoughts to the entire psalm, including its closing vision: "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him."
The point of all this is to say that world missions is not merely contained in the Bible. The world missions enterprise does not merely find a basis in the Bible. From beginning to end, the Bible is an intensely missionary book. It not only calls for world evangelism. It demands it.
Theologically, we Wesleyan-Arminians ought to be the most missionary-minded of all believers. After all, if salvation is a gift offered freely to all, shouldn't we be out shouting it around the globe?
Shouldn't our understanding that Yahweh is a seeking and sending God mean that we, as His people, should also be seeking and sending hosts of believers to announce the good news of the gospel to the lost?
Shouldn't the "perfect love" to which we are called compel us to be broken-hearted about those peoples who have yet to hear the gospel once (while many of our neighbors have heard it over and over again)?
Shouldn't our belief in the "prevenient" manifestation of divine grace tell us that God is right now at work in various parts of the world, preparing people for the gospel message that He expects us to carry to them?
A key figure in encouraging Nazarene missions outreach is Susan Fitkin. Mrs. Fitkin [ biography ] was the first president of what has become Nazarene Missions International [ resources page ]. She was a fiery promoter of world evangelism. She published a little booklet titled "Holiness and Missions" [ read booklet ] in which she works her way through the context of numerous traditional holiness passages in the Bible to prove that you can't be a good holiness preacher/teacher without also being on fire for world evangelism. By the way, speaking of Mrs. Fitkin, I've got a student-written biography of her on this website [ read article ].
Genesis 12:1-3; 28:13-15
Exodus 9:14-16; 19:6
Joshua 4:23-24
I Kings 8:41-43, 59-60
Psalm 2:8-12; 7:7-8; 8; 9; 18:49; 22:26-28; 24; 33; 44:14; 46; 47; 48:10; 50; 57; 65:2; 66; 67;
72:18-20; 82; 86:8-13; 87; 93; 96:1-13; 106:8; 108:3; 117; 126; 135
Isaiah 40:5; 42:4; 45:22; 49:1-6; 56:6-7
Ezekiel 36:22-23
Daniel 2:27; 4:1-2; 6:25
Matthew 3:3; 4:8-11; 6:9-10; 8:5-10; 24:14; 28:18-20
Mark 11:17; 13:10; 16:15
Luke 4:25-43; 10:27; 24:45-47
John 3:16; 4; 20:21
Acts 1:8; 2:5-12; 10:9-23, 34-35; 13:47
II Peter 3:9
Revelation 7:9
[ Longer list of Bible passages on missions ]
1Gottwald, Norman K. A Light to the Nations, New York: Harper & Row, 1959.
"Missions work is not simply a good thing that is optional for us. It is a fundamental element of our faith." -- Nora Williams, Nazarene Bible College student
-- Howard Culbertson, emeritus professor of world missions, Southern Nazarene University, hculbert@snu.edu
“Take missions out of the Bible. Nothing left but the covers.”
The biblical foundations for world evangelization are summed up in the Great Commission. That all-important directive was given by Jesus Christ to His disciples just before His ascension into heaven. The words in Matthew 28:19-20 command Jesus' followers to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." This charge reiterates something repeatedly said throughout the Bible.
Jesus' words in Acts 1:8 reinforce this mandate as He urges His followers to proclaim the good news of salvation globally, across all cultural, linguistic, and geographical barriers. The later chapters of Acts describe early Christians fulfilling this commission by spreading the gospel geographically. Their outreach laid the groundwork for the expansion of Christianity into a global faith.
In a nutshell, the biblical foundation for world evangelization is the repeated call throughout the Bible to share the transformative message of God's love and redemption with people of every nation, ethnicity, and background.
M -- Moving hearts with love and grace,
I -- Igniting faith in every corner of the world.
S -- Sharing truth, the gospel's light with the as-yet-unreached,
S -- Serving others, day and night.
I -- Inviting all worldwide to know His name,
O -- Open hearts, our goal the same.
N -- Nations hearing the Savior's call,
S -- Spreading hope to one and all around the globe.
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