Signs of the Times (15)

I began a discussion of the world-wide preaching of the gospel in the last article.  I hope to finish it in this article.  The passage 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.” (Matt. 24:14).

There are two points I want to remind you of before we go to the next sign.  The first is that Jesus does not say that every person in the whole world has to hear the gospel before Christ comes again. This has never happened in all the history of the world. In the Old Testament there were millions outside of Israel that never heard the gospel; and that is true of the new dispensation as well. Before the 17^th century there were very few missionaries and even after missionaries started their work, most of the world never heard the gospel.

When Jesus speaks of the gospel being preached “in all the world,” He refers to every nation and tribe. Even in the old dispensation, almost every nation that surrounded Israel had heard of Israel, the special things God had done for the nation, the hope of the coming of Christ, and all the religious rituals in which the nation engaged when the Lord was being served.

If you would like proof of this then read what Rahab told the spies, quoted in Joshua 2:8-11. There is more proof in the hatred of these nations for Israel. The nations hated Israel and made war against them because these nations knew that God would send to the nation one who would rule over them. David sings of this in Psalm 2. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” This is what these heathen do: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed.” Their hatred of Israel was a hatred of the Lord and of Christ, His anointed.

Even though everyone in a nation or tribe has not heard the gospel, everyone is responsible for their rejection of the gospel. This truth is always hard for us to understand. I think the reason is that Arminianism has so taken over the church world that this heresy affects our thinking too. Arminians think in terms of the relation of every individual to God. While that person’s personal relation to God is important, God always judges a person in his relation to the nation, tribe and race to which he belongs.

You will recall that we discussed at some length corporate responsibility. This sign of our Lord’s coming is an instance of corporate responsibility

Nations hear the gospel. In each nation God has His elect who belong to a new nation in which Christ is King. But the nation that has heard the gospel is responsible before God for what it does with it. For example, the United States has heard the gospel ever since it was a country in its own right. The church of Christ was to be found here and God gathered His people from this country. But over the almost four hundred years of its existence almost everyone in the country has heard that gospel. It was a national truth. Our coins even had on them “In God we Trust.” The pledge of allegiance to the flag spoke of “one nation under God.”

But what has happened? The nation as a whole has departed from God. The churches have apostatized. The nation as a whole, under the banner of “Freedom of Religion,” has turned its back on Christianity and has become atheistic. While the church of Christ is still here, it is very, very small.

God is turning his back on the United States and in time no people of God will be here anymore. The gospel will have done its work and saved God’s elect. God will not return to the United States. The gospel of the kingdom has been preached here and the whole nation stands before God condemned.

The same thing has happened in Europe. I have been in many of the individual countries in Europe and the rejection of the gospel is greater even in Europe than in the United States. But in both areas of the earth, the fact is not only that the gospel has been rejected, but the nations and continents have become hostile to the truth of the gospel.

But this fact is also according to the purpose of God. And that is the second thing I wanted to say: the gospel is not only the power of God to save, but it is also a power to harden those who believe not. Isaiah 55:8-11 teaches us that God always accomplishes his purpose in the gospel.  Just as with the rain He sends on the earth that causes crops to grow, so does His word which is preached never return to Him void but always accomplishes the purpose for which it was preached.

II Corinthians 2:14-17 teaches that the preaching of the gospel is always pleasing to God whether it saves or hardens. And in Hebrews 6:4-11 God clearly says that those who once knew the gospel and rejected it cannot be saved.

So, in the judgment day when all the purpose of God is accomplished, everyone will be judged on the basis of the question: What did you do with Christ? Did you believe in Him? Or did you reject Him? And so it will be shown to all the world that God’s purpose has been accomplished.

The preaching of the gospel is therefore, a powerful sign of the coming of Christ. It is also clear that Christ’s coming is very near, for this sign is close to being fulfilled.

 

 

Prof. Herman Hanko