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This Gospel Must Be Preached in All the World, Then Shall the End Come
Most people reading the bible do not know how to interpret prophetic language. Instead of using the bible to interpret the bible, they use the newspaper or the most simplistic method. Here’s an example from Matthew 24. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.
Have you ever really thought through that one? Let’s look at it from the typical “the end is near and it’s hopefully getting nearer” perspective.
First, does that mean every person has to hear the gospel accurately and fully preached? What if they read it on the internet? What if they hear a street preacher but leave before the final clear message is stated? At what point do you know that every last individual has heard the preaching of the good news so that you will know the end is at hand, or more at hand? That’s why He told us, right? So we’d know when the end is to occur – the one we’re also not supposed to know when it will occur. Compare Matthew 24:3 and Acts 1:6-7.
Second, Jesus said in Matthew 28, just before His ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, the most powerful throne in the universe, that the disciples were to preach the gospel of the kingdom, teaching them to obey all that He had commanded. What’s the point of obeying all that He had commanded if the end of the world happens just as the last person hears the gospel preached? How does God’s original plan for planet earth get fulfilled, if it’s destroyed upon that last successful preaching of the gospel, contrary to Genesis 9:11 and 15 by the way? Why would God destroy His earth now that the gospel has been proclaimed fully? What about the leaven of the kingdom that acts over time? What about the seed that Jesus said becomes the greatest tree in the garden?
Third, did Jesus mean the entire earth, or did He mean the known world of His time? “A few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, Paul wrote to Christians in Colossae of ‘the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing’ (Col. 1:5-6), and exhorted them not to depart ‘from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven’ (Col. 1:23). To the church at Rome, Paul announced that ‘your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world’ (Rom. 1:8), for the voice of gospel preachers ‘has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’ (Rom. 10:18). According to the infallible Word of God, the gospel was indeed preached to the whole world, well before Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70. This crucial sign of the end was fulfilled, as Jesus had said.” Chilton, “Paradise Restored,” p. 91, published by Dominion Press, Tyler, TX, in 1985 and reprinted in 1985, 1987, and 1994.
Fourth,if, as Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ prophesy has already been fulfilled, then what was He referring to? I’m pretending for the moment that Jesus did not tell us at the beginning of Matthew 24 exactly what event He was talking about – the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. I can’t say it any better than David Chilton said it in “Paradise Restored.”
Why do the end-timers contend that we take literally the words in Matthew 24 and Revelation but do not take literally the words of Paul, an inspired writer of God? Perhaps, it wouldn’t fit into their preconceived theology of the end, their eschatology? Who then is twisting God’s word? Those who interpret literally what is intended to be interpreted in the bible’s illustrative language and in context. Or those who Christ to return in their own generation. Is the latter faithful to what Christ was telling us? Is it faithful to the bible?
I say it is unfaithful to the text and intent of what Christ wanted. He wanted us to build – “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.” Matthew 6:33. No matter how bad it gets, we do not yearn for Christ’s coming, except as it relates to His delivering us from evil and assisting in establishing His kingdom, honoring His Father, and keeping faithful with the original intent of the Genesis plan, which will frustrate the plan of the serpent. Do you want the world to end with Satan’s choice of king of kings and lord of lords in charge? Really? Is that God’s plan for planet earth? That the defeated one be alive and well when Christ returns? Is that what Christ died for, rose again for, and ascended to the most powerful position in the universe for? I don’t think so.