Jesus gave us another strong indication of the timing of His return In His Olivet discourse as recorded in Matthew. This again will support the conclusion that Matthew 24:36 (no one knows the day or hour) is usually quoted out of context. Jesus told us this: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14). In other words, if we can determine when this verse is fulfilled, we can then know that the end of the age and Jesus’ second coming is at hand. Notice He does not say that the gospel must be preached to every individual, but as a witness to all nations. Nations here means “ethnicities” or non-Jewish people groups. Of course, this began with Jesus’ disciples going to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth as He commanded them. The gospel continued to spread through local churches, missionaries, evangelists, and individual Christian witness. As time went on these were aided by literary sources, radio & TV, and now the internet.
So, the question we now must ask is, has the gospel of the kingdom been preached to all people groups? While there are probably small groups scattered across the globe that may not have yet heard the gospel, the speed of information dissemination is unprecedented in our day. We are likely near but not quite there yet. We do know that this will be wrapped up by the angelic proclamation of the gospel from heaven (sky) to the whole world guaranteeing the fulfillment of Jesus’s prophecy. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth-to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” (Revelation 14:6). I can’t help but think of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in orbit above the earth. Might this be what the angel uses to preach the gospel to all the earth? Just saying.
At any rate, Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew gives us a timing clue to watch for so that we are ready for what’s soon to come. More proof that Matthew 24:14 needs to be read and interpreted in context. I’ll give more proofs on following posts.
Maranatha, Jim
An argument you may have heard has said there are many languages remaining without a translation of the Bible in the native tongue thus preventing the return of Jesus. In a message a couple of years ago I quoted from an authoritative article that actually gave some statistics on the subject. For the most part, they were dying languages and the people groups already spoke another language for which there were Bible translations available.