Merciless Evangelism: An Exploration of Deuteronomy 7

I’m reading through Deuteronomy at the moment and I’ve been thinking about the injunction on Israel to devote to destruction the pagan nations and their idols in Deuteronomy 7 and the application to Christians today, because Christ came to fulfil not to abolish the law.

As Christian believers, we are recipients of the salvation that God has worked in his covenant mercy (Deuteronomy 7.8-9 and, e.g., Luke 1.71-72). The body of Christian believers is God’s elect, treasured possession, holy to the LORD, saved by grace alone (Deuteronomy 7.6-7 and e.g. 1 Peter 2.9).

The ultimate fulfilment of this will of course be when Christ returns: “To the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” - Revelation 2.26-27.

And what about the present age? The nations and their idols are to be devoted to complete destruction, i.e. set apart at as offering to the LORD. Were not the people of Israel symbolically offered to the LORD, also, as the representative sacrifical animals were burned at the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple? Can we not apply the exhortation of Deuteronomy 7 to our evangelism? Christian believers are soldiers (Ephesians 6.10-17). When people are baptized, they “die” (Romans 6.3-11). Paul described his gospel ministry to the Gentiles as, “the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable.” (Romans 15.16.

There must be no mercy: unbelievers cannot be spared. They must not be allowed to continue in their rebellion against God, worshipping idols, the work of their own hands. Everyone must become a sacrifical offering to the LORD (cf. Romans 12.1). Nothing or no one must remain over which Christ is not Lord and which is not devoted to his service. Under God, the conquest of his people must be total. And the sobering message of the Bible is that it will. One day the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. And those who do not “die” in this life and become an offering to the Lord in sacrifical living for him “will be tornmented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” - Revelation 14.10