Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The great commission has universally been interpreted to mean it is incumbent on all believers to make disciples. It was only after the professional class saw their influence dwindling as the masses equipped with the word of God became bold in their witness, that they took to heart the words of that great saint, Le Petomane, “We’ve gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen, we must do something about this immediately!” and reinterpreted the Great Commission as speaking only to them.
BD: Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The great commission has universally been interpreted to mean it is incumbent on all believers to make disciples
That's not what the NT says anywhere. I have already pointed out that the Great Commission was given to the 11 (remaining) Apostles, not all of whom believed.
The book of Acts to which you reference tells us
In fact, the entire Act 1:1-8 is a dialogue between Christ and his Apostles only, and that, of course, includes verse 1:8 which you present as evidence to the contrary!
Where Christ is quoted as saying "You shall be witness..." it refers to the Apostles and no one else because no one else was there! This is perfectly consistent with 1 Cor 12:28-29
All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
and Eph 4:11
So, the only thing that is phoney-baloney is the "universal" interpretation that He commissioned all the believers. Rather, He gave the authority to choose others, consecrate and bless (to bind and losen) only to them His 11 remaining disciples.
Yes, very well said.
Kosta, you have said before that you believe that Paul helped to save Christianity because he developed a broader marketing strategy to include the Gentiles (my paraphrase). If you believe that, and if you believe that Christ was only talking to the Apostles (in meaning) at the great commission, then isn't that an indictment of God's own marketing strategy? If the Apostles understood that they and only they could minister the gospel of Christ to others, then you would have to think that Paul corrected God's error. IOW, you would be saying that God Himself restricted distribution of the faith, since us laymen are unfit to tell the Good News. Then, the faith waned. Finally, Paul stepped in and increased distribution.
It has always fascinated me that on the one hand Apostolics believe that only the clergy are authorized to spread the word, thus highly reducing the spread of Christianity, yet OTOH, you also believe that God loves all people and wants all to come to Him. God would appear to be working against interest in the accomplishment of His own goal. :)