http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com/2017/03/gospel-preached-everywhere-before-end.html
Gospel Preached Everywhere Before the End
by David Vaughn Elliott
Jesus
said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew
24:14). Have you heard of the modern-day sects which boast of having
already reached most of the world, adding that when they reach the
remaining areas, the way will be paved for the Lord's return? Is this
what Jesus was talking about?
"The
end will come." The end of what? When a husband and wife have a severe
argument and one says, "This is the end," no one would think for a
moment that they were talking about the end of the world. Maybe the end
of "their" world, but not the end of "the" world. The context of the
statement shows what end is in view.
So
it is with the context of Matthew 24:14. The whole conversation began
with Jesus' shocking statement about the temple: "There shall not be
left here one stone upon another" (24:2). Then, immediately after
mentioning "the end" in verse 14, Jesus quoted Daniel's famous prophecy
of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Then in verse 16 Jesus
advised: "let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Jesus was
not talking about the end of the world. He was still talking about the
end of the temple in Jerusalem, which was in Judea.
Jesus'
prediction of no stone upon another was fulfilled by the Romans in 70
A.D. But was the gospel preached in all the world before that time? The
inspired apostle Paul, about the year 62 A.D., gave the answer to the
Colossian saints: "the gospel, which you have heard, and which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven" (1:23). "Was
preached"--past tense. Jesus' prediction of the gospel being preached in
all the world was already fulfilled 8 years before the end of the
temple in Jerusalem.