Signs of the Times (14)

In our discussion of the signs of Christ’s coming as the Lord describes them in Matthew 24, we are ready to take a look at Matthew 24:14. The text reads, “And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

 

This sign is very important. It is the first sign that Christ gives to His church in the book of Revelation, which book specifically tells us of all the signs of Christ’s coming and mentions first the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is given in the form of the figure of the running of the white horse: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer.”

 

As victorious generals rode home on white horses, so does this white horse represent victory. As a crown was given to him that sat on it, so does the man who sat on it picture the Christ who carries a bow to defeat all His enemies and save His church. And as he on the horse rides conquering and to conquer, so does the gospel conquer over Satan and the wicked throughout all history and bring the elect to salvation.

 

As the very first sign in a book filled with signs, it is the cause of all the other signs that follow it. Through the preaching of the gospel God accomplishes His purpose in history: the glory of His own name through the salvation of an elect church.

 

The gospel is, as Paul defines it: “The power of God unto salvation to all who believe” (Rom. 1:16). But the gospel is also a two-edged sword that not only saves, but also hardens those who reject the gospel. It thus makes distinction between elect and reprobate, bringing the elect to everlasting blessedness and the wicked to everlasting destruction (Is. 55:9-11, II Cor. 2:14-17).

 

The preaching of the gospel is a sign of the coming of Christ because the salvation of the church, accomplished through the preaching, is the purpose of God in the whole of history. Immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, God brought the gospel to them with its promise of the coming of one who would crush the head of the serpent. That gospel has been preached every moment since that time, first in Palestine (during the old dispensation), and then to the ends of the earth.

 

There is a good reason why the preaching of the gospel is such an important sign.  Because the gospel is God’s power to save His church, the end of the world cannot come and Christ cannot return until the whole church is saved.

 

It is part of the foolishness of Arminianism to deny this. To the Arminian, there never can come a time that Christ should return, because there may still be people somewhere in the world who will accept Christ as their personal Savior. How can God know when there are no more people to be saved? According to the Arminian view, He cannot, for He is not sure when all those who will accept Christ are actually given the chance to accept Him.

 

But it is not as if suddenly, at some unpredictable time, God says to himself, “That’s enough now. I have tried to save people, and although there may be others who will accept Christ, I have tried long enough. I am going to send Christ and bring the world to an end.” This would be very arbitrary on God’s part and really make no sense. It would be dreadful of God to end the world when there are still people who will choose to let Christ into their hearts if only they are given a chance.

 

But the truth is that God has chosen a church before the foundations of the world. He knows each one, though that church is a throng of people that no one can number. God gave all these elect to Christ, and Christ knows them all by name (John 12:1 – Christ knew his own and loved his own). This great elect and redeemed church must be saved. The whole creation and all history is God’s work, but  God’s work in the creation has as its purpose the salvation of the elect through Jesus Christ. So when the last elect is born and brought to faith in Christ, no reason exists any more why Christ should not come. And so He comes: His church is all with Him in heaven. No more need to be saved. And so Christ is sent by God to destroy this wicked world and create a new heaven and a new earth.

 

This is the reason why the time for Christ’s coming is determined with absolute precision in God’s counsel. This is why no one can delay His coming, nor can He come sooner than God has determined. This is why the Biblical word for the end is telos, from which we get our English word teleology. Telos does not mean simply “end,” but it means purpose accomplished, goal reached. It is not “end” like 100 may be the end of a string of numbers or like “zed” is the end of the alphabet; it is end like “the end of a war” when the enemy is defeated and the victory won: no more war is possible. It is like the end of a journey when one has reached his destination. It is like the end of painting a picture, for the picture is finished and any more daubing with paints would spoil it.

 

There are two more ideas wrapped up in this sign that I want to mention, but I will wait with that until the next article.

Prof. Herman Hanko