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It has been said that Christ's mission-precondition to His return has long been fulfilled, for all regions of this planet have at some stage received the gospel.
put it thus:
"...this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations,
and THEN the end will come." |
statement of the Lord was in answer to the question (1.) 'when', and what would be (2.) the 'sign of His coming (i.e. how will we know?), which Christ then described as the violation of Jerusalem's temple-sanctuary by an object of worship (cf. Mat.24:15; Dan.9:27; Mk.13:14).
The Bible is its own best interpreter.
God's ways in history may sometimes seem confusing, the Apostle Paul explains to Christians in Rome:
"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, [Gentile] brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited:
a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so [after that] all [national] Israel shall be saved...[in Christ's return]" |
here makes it clear that it is people: people's experience of the call of God that is in view, and not simply localities where peoples were found or who had lived there in the past.
the geographic spread of the gospel is not the sign to be completed but the reaching of everyone who, given an opportunity, will "come in".
the Spirit of God knows the fulfillment of this time-factor, but it is given to us to motivate and direct our obedience. And when this goal is achieved then. and only then. will this 'sign' in the Jerusalem's Jewish-sanctuary occur, which lets us know that the final time has begun. So we obviously have some way to go!
For this reason, the Apostle Peter describes our obedience as:
| "hastening the coming of the day of God" |
Let us therefore 'hasten', person by person, soul by soul, until all who are called have heard this gospel in the character and power in which it was given!
