Does your streaming news feed frustrate you? It frustrates me. Every day, day after day, I learn about a new war, the threat of war, a heartbreaking catastrophe, and the climate becoming more and more unstable; the list seems to go on and on. Is there any hope for improvement? Or, more than improvement, is there any hope for a radical new world? Will things ever get better? Or will they get worse?
Jesus told us He would come again, and the Bible teaches us His return is our hope, our blessed hope. Jesus’ return will bring justice to the oppressed and a renewal of the earth, war will be no more, and the nations will come to worship the Lamb.
But, as we consider everything happening day after day, news cycle after news cycle, we might think, “well, someday it will happen; I do hope everything wrong will end and at long last things will be good, but is this something to concern me now?” And for sure, human history goes on and on, it just keeps going, and there seems to be no stopping it, no end in sight.
Why is that? Is not the world’s wickedness great enough for God to intervene with judgment? Must people endure injustice century after century? Is not the suffering of people sufficient for God to break into history and deliver? Additionally, how out of control must climate change be before the groaning of nature turns into the promised freedom? The Apostle Peter speaks of those who say, mockingly, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). As we think of all the trouble and sadness of our world, we might find ourselves asking the same question, not as mockers or unbelievers, but as people who are perplexed, uncertain, and wondering why history goes and on.
This question is not only asked by Christians but also by the leading thinkers of our time. Marxist thinkers answer that history goes on and on because we are still moving toward a society of economic equality where everyone shares wealth and all people are equal. History will be fulfilled when we arrive at such a point; its constant flux will cease. Others take the opposite view, believing history is moving toward a great catastrophe in war or climate collapse. Such a collapse is not like the Marxist vision of the fulfillment of history; instead, it is the end of civilization as we know it, or perhaps even the end of human life. Yet others think the question is without meaning, for history has no meaning and will end someday with either a bang or a whimper, “end” meaning the extinction of the universe or at least of our sun. These fatalists do not seem to care; in fact, this fatalism appears to justify them to live only for today and its pleasures.
How Does the Bible Present the Fulfillment of History?
The Bible presents two answers, which are true together and must be understood with wisdom. The first answer is that Christ will return at a time known only to God the Father, and this might happen at any moment like a thief in the night, and even more, this appearing is near; it is imminent.
The other answer is that certain events must occur before the end of history, before the coming of the Lord.
The first answer is worthy of significant thought and reverent exposition, but this essay, brief as it is, can only touch on it lightly, for it is a holy mystery. Instead, we will concentrate on the question: what things or what single thing must happen before Jesus returns? We will focus on this question because it contains, and I believe, answers the question, “why does history go on and on?”
Firstly, we should briefly review how the disciples viewed history. After the resurrection, the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). The disciples asked this question because they understood the climax of history as the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel by the Messiah. God’s enemies would all be defeated, and God’s people would be at peace. And, to be honest, the disciples had some reason to think in this manner. Isaiah 41:11, 12 says:
“All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all."
Perhaps it is a bit of an oversimplification to say this was seen strictly as a political solution, one bound to this planet, for there are also many prophecies of the spread of the knowledge of God among the nations. It seems from the Book of Acts that when they asked the question, and even after the Ascension, the disciples did not fully grasp the spiritual dimension of the coming Kingdom as the key to understanding the fulfillment of the prophecies, the actual end of history. They were full of hope, hope for peace in Israel, and hope for Israel to bow before Jesus the Messiah. And they were prepared to do what was necessary to bring hope into reality. If Jesus was ready, they were ready. “Will you at this time …?”
But the Father had another plan.
The disciples, though, did not understand the Father’s plan. He planned to redeem the people of the world from slavery to sin, from the fear of death, the kingdom of darkness, from all these into the kingdom of light, and even more, to spread the fame of God the Redeemer throughout the world so all the ethnic and language groups and families would give Him great and everlasting praise. No, sadly, the meaning of the following saying of Jesus sank gradually into their understanding and hearts.
“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).
As He so often did when He spoke, Jesus here did several things at once; all of those things help us understand the ongoing history of the world and the world’s future.
First, Matthew 24:14 is a prophecy. In some ways, it may be the key New Testament prophecy, for many of the other prophecies in the New Testament are further explanations of it. On the other hand, Matthew 24:14, in turn, explains those other prophecies and puts them into a framework, namely, the purpose of the Church and the Coming of the Lord. To fail to understand this is to fall into the trap of trying to understand prophecy as a group of stand-alone predictions but never arriving at either its core meaning or motivation.
For example, there have been multiple attempts to definitively interpret current events in light of various prophecies in the Book of Revelation or to seek to identify the Antichrist. These have all failed, for they are treated like previews of a forthcoming movie. We should not be so self-assured as to say what has happened in the past year is a fulfillment of this or that paragraph in The Revelation or how the actions of such and such a human figure show they are the Antichrist. To do so is not to understand the key to the prophecy found in the verse we are studying, Matthew 24:14.
Instead, the spread of the Gospel tells us what those prophecies in Revelation and elsewhere are actually about. As the preaching of the Gospel continues its ordained march through the ethnic groups of the world, the Gospel has and will continue to meet fierce opposition, which can only be described adequately by the fearsome images of the Book of Revelation. Thus, the Church warned that the prophecy of the inevitable spread of the Good News, though determined by God, will not be either simple or straightforward but will be a work and experience of protracted spiritual warfare—a work and experience of suffering. And for sure, this warfare will have a climax when the Church encounters the Man of Sin, so the question “who is the Antichrist” is not an idle one. But, “who he is” is not the point. The point is that all prophecies are a call to be aware, alert, and to act for Christ in faith and with courage.
This call emerges powerfully from Jesus’ words, “…shall be preached,” and connects like a hook and eye to Romans 10:14, “… how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” The Lord calls for people to go and announce the Good News of the Kingdom. Hearing this call, throughout history, there have been those who stood up from their comfortable chair and moved out of the security of their own ethnic and/or linguistic group to preach to people in a new place and often in a new language.
But not always. There have been periods in the history of the world and of the Church where not much action took place. The Church became culturally complacent and geographically centred; once Europe was “Christianised,” it seemed the Kingdom was present, and Europe was a “Holy Roman Empire.”
Still, some heard and understood how Jesus’ stirring words applied to them, so they went to new places. Some, like the Nestorians, were borderline in their orthodoxy; many were Catholics, yet, wherever they went, they found people eager to hear and ready to turn their hearts to Christ. But sadly, these efforts were small compared to the enormity of the world that had not yet heard. History continued to go on and on while the Lord prepared for a great movement of the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom.
And so it was, true to His word, the Lord again called forth proclaimers to leave their homelands and go, for Jesus’ prophecy contains a promise, “…will be preached … and then…” God will fulfill His promise.
Perhaps it is this promise the Church has most overlooked in the prophecy. Maybe, because we have not entirely believed Jesus’ words, the Church slowed down or even stopped its forward push.
In the history of missions, some groups quickly and eagerly responded in faith on hearing the Good News. Others not only resisted the message but fought back. And, to be honest, the Church did not always, like Paul outside of Antioch and Iconium, pick itself up from the roadway after being stoned and go back into the city (Acts 14). Sometimes we let the opposition and even violence of the world’s prominent religions discourage us, even deflect us. Now millions, even billions, are still without Christ; reaching them becomes more and more difficult because these countries, where so many without Christ live, actively suppress the Gospel.
Nevertheless, while the nations rage, the prophecy remains, for God will not yield even to the extreme opposition of unbelief; His Word is sure. Thus, our action in mission must be based on this promise: God will see the Good News of the Kingdom preached to everyone; believers from every family, language, and ethnic group will arise, and churches will be formed.
Like many prophecies in the Bible, the prophecy contains a tiny picture of the future, a view of the end of history. We must ponder this picture, for to misunderstand it is to go off track, to derail and scatter our efforts in multiple directions. The word I am referring to in Matthew 24:14 is “kingdom.”
What Is the Impact on How We Preach?
The founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, A.B. Simpson, saw the impact of these various interpretations in the missionary efforts of his day, and he was not at all happy. When he went on his tour around the world, chronicled in Larger Outlooks on Missionary Lands, he observed missionary methods he believed were well-intentioned but failing because they did not correctly reflect the meaning of the word “kingdom.” Among these were efforts at proclaiming by establishing various social outreaches such as education and hospitals, to name only two. As he toured the world and saw many missions using this method, Simpson concluded these endeavours resulted from a misinterpretation of the Kingdom. This misinterpretation believed the whole world would be converted, and this converted world would be the Kingdom.
Simpson says:
We regard education missions as the natural and logical sequence of a belief in the final conversion of all the world, through the church and the establishment of a spiritual millennium by means of the Gospel.
But we do not believe that this is the Scriptural standpoint of missions; and if we are to do effective work, we surely must understand and work in harmony with the plan of our great Leader. 1
Perhaps echoing Simpson’s view, a young person on a missions trip to a place dominated by one of the world’s large religions emailed me this comment:
Half of our preaching is done merely in showing this love. But I do not think it is enough to only preach the gospel with our actions, although that is vital. There are so many Christian charities and organizations here. Schools, hospitals, etc. But how many disciples are these charities making? Very few. We must preach the gospel first with our actions so that we have moral authority, but then we must also preach it with our words. This is the only way that the fullness of the gospel can be declared. And so we are trying to do this, but again, the work is very slow.
Perhaps this short paragraph from a young leader captures what Simpson had in mind and what he saw as the correct interface between the hope for the Kingdom and the preaching of the Good News. An entrance must be made and relation-ships formed.
I would add, it is true, that the Kingdom must be modelled. This is what Jesus and what missionaries do in Jesus’ name when they perform signs and wonders. But, when signs and wonders occur, there must also be some slow work of building schools and hospitals and helping people start businesses that will lift them from poverty. This is part of what the Kingdom will look like: a Kingdom of peace, justice, and health. People must see the Gospel on some level. They need a concrete example of what love and peace and justice look like, “…but then we must also preach it with our words.” Only as people understand the Gospel and are willing to “kiss the Son” will they become true Christians and thus fulfill the promise of the Kingdom as a reign of Christ.
How should we react to Jesus’ prophecy recorded in Matthew 24:14? So often, our reaction has devolved into a denominational cliché, half-believed and publicly acknowledged, but in reality, cold and lifeless. Results from development and relief efforts are more visible and easier to report on and raise money for. And yes, the efforts of Christian missions to impact disease, poverty, and education deficits are truly remarkable. But yet, today, as in Simpson’s day, billions remain outside the Kingdom. It should tear our hearts.
Let us again turn to the prophecy that the Lord has provided. This prophecy is a roadmap of God’s plan for history and explains why history unfolds as it does, going on and on. This incredible view is like standing on a tall mountain. It enables us to see and understand all the peaks and valleys of time, the rise and fall of civilizations, the continued presence of evil and injustice, and the pain and suffering present in every life. Still, it also gives us the long view, far ahead, of beauty and peace we can barely imagine. The prophecy enables us to see the Kingdom as something certain and coming. Because of this certainty, the prophecy spurs us on; it propels us, not as a cliché, but as the final answer to the meaning of our lives and history. Truly our work is a work to bring back the King.
This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 5. Download your free copy today.
- Larger Outlooks on Missionary Lands, p. 578.