The Gospel preached tothe ends of the earth, then the end shall come

[Neil D]

Now, I don't want to make this into a big to do....But I do have this bit of a technical question.....regarding the end of the earth/world........

Someone in the bible/NT says that the Good News will be preached to the ends of the earth, and then the end shall come....

Well, it occurs to me that the Good News has been preached to the ends of the earth...and we are still here....

Could it be that A gospel has been preached tothe ends of the earth, ....but not THE Gospel....

And if that is true, ....what IS the Gospel?

I wanna know, cuz I wanna go home....

[SivartM]

How do you know that everyone on earth has heard any kind of gospel yet? I bet there are some in the jungle somewhere who haven't heard the gospel...

The gospel: the everlasting gospel: the three angels' messages.

[Neil D]

How do you know that everyone on earth has heard any kind of gospel yet? I bet there are some in the jungle somewhere who haven't heard the gospel...

The gospel: the everlasting gospel: the three angels' messages.

Now don't get me wrong here....Are you trying to tell me that the 300 people who are canabalistic out of 250 million are enough to pospone Christ's event of the universe???? That's what's holding Christ back? The dinner engagement of 30 or so missionarys ???

Define "everlasting gospel: the three angels' messages.....please......

[Musicman1228]

Neil D,

The verse you are thinking of is found in Matt. 24:14. Here is what it says:

And this gospel of Jesus Christ will be preached in all the world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

No, wait, that's not quite it. Here it is:

And this gospel according to Paul will be preached in all the world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Hang on, let me think about this for a minute:

And this gospel according to [put name here] will be preached in all the world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Sorry about my poor attempt at humor, but I get so frustrated when we as Christians (especially SDA's) don't know what Jesus said. We can quote EGW ad infinitum, and Paul ad nauseum but we don't have a clue as to what Jesus said. So here is what Jesus really said:

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come".

You are right from this standpoint-that we have been preaching the WRONG gospel to the world for nearly 2000 years. We have been preaching every conceivable gospel except the one that counts, and that is the gospel that says what Jesus told to Nicodemus in John 3.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:5-6.

The gospel of the Kingdom is that you must be IN the Kingdom of Heaven to be saved. To get into the Kingdom you must enter through the door to the sheepfold. Jesus is the door, the sheepfold is the Kingdom.

What we need to figure out is who is the Kingdom, and what must you do to get through the door.

[Neil D]

Sorry about my poor attempt at humor, but I get so frustrated when we as Christians (especially SDA's) don't know what Jesus said. We can quote EGW ad infinitum, and Paul ad nauseum but we don't have a clue as to what Jesus said.

[Woody]

All promises are conditional.

[Musicman1228]

Redwood,

I would never try to hijack your thread, you asked for comments and I gave you mine.

Yes, I KNOW who the Kingdom of Heaven is today, and I gave you enough information to figure it out for yourself should you have the will to try. If you don't then I will be happy to let you know my OPINION as to who it is; never suggesting for a moment that you should not or cannot decide who it is for yourself.

As to comedy; most good comedy deals in one way or another with the pain of someone else. If the pain happens to you then it's not funny. The most sophisticated type of humor is IRONY and the double entendre. When I was doing my set up what you saw was irony. The 'pay off' was anything but funny, which makes it (to me) even more humorous. I believe that it is true that most people who call themselves Christians or SDA's today know less about Jesus than they do about other 'Christian' writers, that is painful. The irony is that it is NOT painful to them but to the observer who sees the situation from the outside. That is why I believe that not only the pay off was funny, but also the set up.

[Woody]

Perhaps you are addressing this to the wrong person or wrong thread? I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Tom Wetmore]

We think it is all about us and what we do, but it is not.

Is it about the proclamation or about the Good News about the kingdom?

What kingdom? What is the good news? Apparently the event will be universal, witnessed by everyone on earth. And apparently it will be a game stopper, everything ends.

Read the text sequence in reverse.

End...all nations...witness...whole world... proclaimed...kingdom...good news.

The end happens. Everything as we know it cease to exist. The old order of things, chaos, passes. Everyone witnesses it, everyone throughout the earth sees it. There is a huge announcement proclaimed. It is the establishment of a whole new kingdom on earth. A new order of things begins. Everything is new again. And it is all amazingly good news! There is no more bad news.

Now read the book of Revelation in one sitting and pay attention to how it ends. Same message from the same mouth.

Revelation can only be understood through the words of Jesus in the Gospels.

For another fresh perspective - David Newman's Sermon "Should I Care About The World Ending?"

[phkrause]

I think Neil we need to determine what the gospel is? I think many do not agree on what the gospel is. To me the gospel is the Good News that Jesus died for each and everyone of us and than rose again. I believe that John 3:16 says it nicely: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Anyway that is my thoughts on the gospel.

pk

[Musicman1228]

Sorry, it was supposed to be to Neil D.

[Woody]

I think Neil we need to determine what the gospel is? I think many do not agree on what the gospel is. To me the gospel is the Good News that Jesus died for each and everyone of us and than rose again. I believe that John 3:16 says it nicely: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Anyway that is my thoughts on the gospel.

pk

Excellent Point. VERY good pk. This is critical to understand what you have outlined.

The Gospel is the Good News as you have said. It is NOT the 28 Fundamentals. Thus .... most all the Christian Churches are accomplishing the task of spreading the Gospel. It is not isolated to our church.

[Tom Wetmore]

The kingdom of which Jesus preached is a Good News Kingdom. It is the Kingdom of Forgiveness.

Isn't forgiveness but a new begining? Imagine a new kingdom where all is forgiven. Nothing of the past matters any more. It is a completely new and fresh start. A complete do over. A new creation.

Read carefully all of Jesus' parables of the Kingdom. They are all about finding/rescuing the lost. To be lost is to be unforgiven. To be saved is to be forgiven.

Now we can see why it was called Good News!

Forgiveness is always good news. And that is the gospel truth!

And that is the Good News of the Kingdom. In the end, the whole world will get it.

[phkrause]

I'm down playing the other things, Redwood, that the church itself thinks are important, but if we are talking about the simple plain "the Gospel" than I think we should focus on what Jesus did for us. Sure doctrines are important, and so are the other things, like prophecy, etc. But to me if we're talking about the Gospel than that is different than that other stuff.

pk

[Neil D]

I think Neil we need to determine what the gospel is? I think many do not agree on what the gospel is. To me the gospel is the Good News that Jesus died for each and everyone of us and than rose again. I believe that John 3:16 says it nicely: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." anyway that is my thoughts on the gospel.

Maybe I'm weird...If someone dies for me, I would feel guilty...Guys from Vietnam who jump on the grenade to protect the platoon, usually, start feeling guilty...especially when there are other guys that died in the platoon...["It should've been me."]

But the concept that "God loves me so much that He died..." does arrest my attention...Why does He love me...? From what was He protecting me from..? I don't want to feel guilty...If someone dies for some fictious ideological idea that I don't share,..well, I would say "so what"?....But the good book says "God loved ..me. while I am yet still rebelling against Him."

Yea, He loves...me...This is what commands my attention..God, in Christ, loving me, dying for me, protecting me from something called Sin...

I am wounded from all my sin...Healed by His forgiveness, protected from my other sins...saved from my dysfunctions, both personal and social....and learned to care and to love....all because He first loved me....

this belief results in a changed concept about me, and I can actually say, I see myself differently....and I behave differently...To me, THAT is the good news...

[phkrause]

I can hardly read the stories about Christ dying for me in the Bible or view movies about that wonderful event without thinking the same thing that you are saying. The tears come to my eyes. I feel very unworthy that's for sure. How can someone actually have done that for us, let alone for me personally.

pk