The Gospel of the Kingdom Will Be Preached in the Whole World

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Finally, in this paragraph, Jesus makes one final statement, one final event that must occur before "the end" comes (Tweet that!):

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).

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I remember in the 1980s or perhaps the 1990s hearing Christian mission organizations talking about the "1040 window" (the "ten forty window"). That's the geographical area within those latitude and longitude designations. This is an area of the world where many Christian mission organizations were sending Christian missionaries to tell the people the gospel of Jesus.

I also remember hearing them quote numbers on the "people groups" in the world who had not yet heard the Gospel. Then they described their plans to reach all these people with the good new of Jesus.

The plan: to complete, or nearly complete, this task by the year 2000.

Did they make it? Well I never hear of any claims that they have. I only continue to hear of people groups who need to hear about Jesus but have yet to. And that's okay. The right thing to do is to keep working whole-heartedly until He comes again. (Tweet that!)

Last week I heard a man talk about this very prophecy. He suggested it might be possible that if a "people group" has been given the gospel in decades or centuries past, that might fulfill what is needed here. Whether that people group "received" it, held onto the information about Jesus, and handed it down to each generation, or whether they refused to believe may not matter -- only that they had been reached with the Gospel at some point in history.

This makes sense to me. I don't believe that, to fulfill this prophecy, we need to reach a point where every person living in the world needs to have heard the gospel…and then the end will come. But, oops! Wait. Someone else was just born so we have to wait until they've heard the gospel. No, I don't think that's how it works.

The Gospel of Jesus must be preached everywhere, to all nations, as a testimony to all nations. (Tweet that!)

This testimony gives every nation, and every individual within each nation, an opportunity to follow Jesus. (Tweet that!) If they refuse, this will be the testimony against them that convicts them of the worst sin ever, the only unforgivable sin: unbelief in Jesus. (Tweet that!)

Frankly, I think we're probably already there. At the very least, if this prophecy of the end times has not already been fulfilled, then I believe we are very, very close. (Tweet that!)

Do you find that exciting? Or frightening?