Gospel Preached To All Nations Past Fulfillment

Gospel preached to all nations....

By Thracia Gharst

Please ignore any spelling and punctuation errors. My hands were paralyzed and I rely on of voice recognition software that is not very reliable.Okay, when was the gospel preached to all the nations, assuming that you are referring to Matthew 24:14? Well we know it was before 70AD for one very simple reason. Jesus said it would happen with that generation. Now that may be convincing to those of us who just simply accept the Bible but to others, not as convincing, and to those indoctrinated in futurism, not too convincing… so what does the rest of the NT have to say about this??

Colossians 1:5-6 – because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

Colossians 1:23 – if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul says that the Gospel was even preached to every creature under heaven at the time he wrote to the Church at Colosse and was even bearing fruit in the whole world.

Paul told the Romans that their faith was being proclaimed to all the nations and throughout the whole world.

Romans 1:5-6 - Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ

Romans 16:25-26 - Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations , according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith

When the Gospel was preached at Pentecost… who was there to hear it??

Acts 2:5 – And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.

Representatives of every nation heard the Gospel then… and as Pentecost was a feast to which people traveled far and wide, they carried the Gospel back their homelands…. “every nation under heaven.”

You may ask how this could possibly be… well even if I could not explain it, it would still be true because that is how the Bible defines “the Gospel being preached to all the nations” and the Bible must be allowed to interpret the Bible. The word for “world” in Matthew 24:14 is “oikoumene” which means the “inhabited earth” which very often in the NT simply means the Roman Empire. We forget that Rome was the “world” of that time, made up of many, many nations. This same word is used in Luke 2:1 about the census that was ordered that caused Joseph and Mary to have to go to Bethlehem. No one teaches that even the Indians on the American continent were ordered to be censused as well….but that is the same word used in Matthew 24:14 – oikoumene.

Also we must remember that the Jews were, and still are, a very colorful and passionate people. Their idioms and means of communication often employed hyperbole and exaggeration for effect. It was part and parcel of that culture. We are being horribly anachronistic when we try to hyper-literalize such things. The Bible must tell us how to interpret the Bible even if it means we must topple the idol of “literalism” that we have erected today. Biblically literal means that we interpret things literally in the sense that they were intended to be understood.

If you were to say that “it is raining cats and dogs outside,” you would literally mean that it is raining very hard. I would not be taking you literal in a proper way if I insisted that you meant that canines and felines were whalloping down on our heads.

I am a preterist because I take the timing passages seriously. If it were not for the plentiful and clear timing passages in the New Testament I would not be a preterist. Today it seems like most people just dive into the what of prophecy and decide what that must mean and then briefly look at the when. I believe that this is improper. If the prophet clearly limits himself to a certain time frame for fulfillment, we must take that seriously, and if the things do not come to pass when he says that they will, he is a false prophet, with the possible exception of repentance causing the retraction of prophesy of judgment.

Jesus clearly said that the then living generation would not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. We must take that seriously. We cannot simply say because those things have not taken place, then He must not have meant that unless we have another warrant for interpreting the words a different way. Jesus leaves us no other options here if the text is brutally honestly examined in context.

For some other examples...

Cyrus the King of Persia said, “The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.” Ezra 1:2; 2 Chron. 36:23

David writes, “All nations surrounded me.” Psalm 118:10

God “brought the fear of David on all the nations.” 1 Chron. 14:17

It is written of Hezekiah King of Judah “that he was exalted in the sight of all nations…” 2 Chron. 32:23

The Chaldeans are said to “march throughout the earth.” Hab. 1:6

“The people from all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph.” Genesis 41:57

“All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon.” 1 Kings 10:24

“And all the nations shall ser him and his son, and his grandson until the time of his own land comes.” Jer. 27:7

Nebuchadnezzar addresses his decree as “the king to all the people, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth.” Daniel 4:1