End-of-the-world views (eschatological views) that reduce the idea of Christ's Return to a non-historical subjective event, or truth, generally seem to regard evangelism as a commission to save society (such as, by espousing socialism as a way to bring God's kingdom on earth) rather than as a commission to confront at a personal level, with eternal absolutes of human existence, concerning the individual's ultimate destination.

It sees the period the Christian Church's history as ending some seven years before Christ's Return. After this ending of the Church's role in human history, it sees a spiritually renewed Israel (of 144,000) during this seven year interval which will evangelise the world and so complete Christ's mandate to His disciples (Matt.28:18-20).

This way of thinking usually makes a distinction between a gospel of grace (as the message of the Church) and the gospel of the kingdom (as the message of a renewed Israel). This distinction is directly contradicted by the apostle Paul's description of his gospel as "preaching the kingdom" (Acts 20:25).

A zealous promoter of the modern missionary movement, Dr Oswald J Smith, regarded this Dispensational view as "a dangerous heresy", saying of world-evangelism according to this view –

Christ, while answering as to when the end of this age and His Coming would be, said –

Matthew's report of Christ's statement is in parallel with Paul's words concerning the consummation of God's purpose with the physical nation of Israel:

If the extent of this age is determined by the Church's completion of its mandate to disciple all nations (Matt. 28:19), what zeal should characterize our living, our giving, and our going for Him? The responsibility resting on the Christian Church is the pivot upon which the meaning of world events turns.

To no other agency has the mandate for world evangelisation been given than the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It bears a responsibility unparalleled! – not simply in its institutional or organized form but more directly as God's people because we are God's people.

All the Church's ability, skills, gifts, qualities, experience, etc., is part of the achieving of this historical purpose. It is the Church, as the work of God the Spirit, that brings the age to come. Not only is this directly true at the individual level of personal spiritual experience now ("tasted ...the powers of the age to come", Heb.6:5) but it is also historically true in precipitating the end of this present evil age.

Thus, to the Church – the Second Coming of Jesus Christ her Lord is the great, yes, awesome motivation to complete the task and bring the tortured course of human history and a groaning creation to a proper end. This is not an event to be passively waited for, as some would treat it. It is the climactic conclusion of the Church's pilgrimage of service. It is to be striven for – to bleed and die for – until He crowns our labour with His all-glorious coming.

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The expectation of Christ's Second Coming is a biblical incentive to live life free from the ungodly entanglements and even well-meaning pre-occupations of this age. Paul called upon the Christians of empire's capital city –

"salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed;
the night is far gone, the day is at hand.
Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light;
let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in revelling ..."

 "the appointed time has grown very short; from now on,

let those who have wives live as though they had none,
and those who mourn as though they were not mourning,
and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, ...

For the form of this world is passing away." 

The radical effect on a Christian's normal social intercourse when living in the light of Christ's Return is spelled out in these quotations. This same sense of urgency and goal-directedness is present in Paul's exhortation to Timothy –

The influence of the prospect of Christ's Second Coming is to be seen, not only on the life style of one who believes, but also corporately in the action of the Church in the world. The Wheaton Declaration of the congress on the Church's world-wide mission in April, 1966, representing evangelical missionary societies of some 71 nations, reads –

"we have often failed to stress sufficiently the blessed hope of our Lord's
return as an incentive to personal holiness and missionary passion".

A conference of German theologians in 1970 issued the Frankfurt Declaration in similar spirit. It reads –

Because of this an emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ to bring an end to this evil age is seriously needed as the necessary corrective medicine to prevent the mission of the Church from being swallowed up in political programs and social renewal to change this world's systems (as the political socialism apparent in much Anglican effort today).

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In the spiritual warfare of preaching the gospel and living the Faith in a condemned world in order to save some the anticipation of our Lord's Return fortifies the soul and strengthens one's resolve to obey Him and carry out the great commission. The word of Christ which points to world-wide evangelisation as a prerequisite for the ending of this age is preceded by the Lord's warning that –

Clearly, the cost of world evangelisation is not hidden in the Scriptures and should not be hidden to our thinking. Christ said, the servant is not greater than his master and so as Christ suffered in fulfilling the commission of His Father we also are called upon to suffer in fulfilling Christ's commission (John 15:20).

The blessed hope of the Church, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, is our joy, our consolation, and our exceeding great reward. This understanding strengthens our determination to carry out His commands to the ends of the earth to the glory of God the Father.

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let him who hears say, 'Come.'
And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.