Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 81
You’ve probably heard it said that the Gospel going out into all the world is a sign that Jesus’ second coming is near.
Many who read Matthew 24:14 conclude that there is no way the gospel could have been preached in the whole world before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Our first commitment is to what the Bible says by letting its words explain what Jesus really meant. Remember Matthew 24:34: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” One of the “all these things” is the gospel being “preached in the whole world … to all the nations.”
The word translated “world” in Matthew 24:14 is the Greek word oikoumenē rather than the more common word for “world” kosmos. This is the only time Matthew uses oikoumenē. It is best translated as “inhabited earth,” “known world,” or “political boundary” (my preferred rendering) and is sometimes translated as “Roman Empire” (e.g., Acts 11:28; 17:6), which is more of an interpretation than a translation. The same Greek word is used in Luke 2:1: “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth” [oikoumenē]. Rome could only take a census of its subjects, those who lived within the political boundaries of the empire. This more accurate translation helps us understand that Jesus was saying the gospel of the kingdom (Acts 28:23, 31) would be preached throughout the Roman Empire (the known world) before judgment would be poured out on Jerusalem.
Wars and Rumors of Wars
A first-century interpretation of the Olivet Discourse was once common in commentaries and narrative-style books that describe the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. There is also a history of skeptics who turn to Bible prophecy and claim Jesus was wrong about the timing of His coming at “the end of the age” and the signs associated with it. A mountain of scholarship shows that the prophecy given by Jesus was fulfilled in exacting detail when He said it would: before the generation of those to whom He was speaking passed away.
Buy NowYou’ve probably heard it said that the Gospel going out into all the world is a sign that Jesus’ second coming is near. The spreading of the Gospel is a good and necessary thing, in fact, Jesus commands it. However, it is not a sign of the coming end times, because the prophesied event from Matthew 24 has already happened.
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