May We Know When Matt. 24:14 Is Fulfilled? by T. E. BOWEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 6, 1915

May We Know When Matt. 24:14 Is Fulfilled?

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN

A CORRESPONDENT writes: “Will you please tell us, through the REVIEW, how many countries having organized governments have not been entered by the living preacher of the third angel’s message?”

While the main countries have been entered, there are great unentered portions in almost every organized government in which the message has obtained a foothold. There are a few smaller fields in which practically nothing has been done. For example, Tibet has no living representative of the message so far as we know; also the provinces of Siam, east and southeast of Burma. The great island of Madagascar, east of South Africa, is yet unentered; also Greenland, in North America, and the United States of Colombia, in South America. Then there are groups of islands in the South Pacific still waiting. It is also true that in countries which have for a longer or shorter period been counted entered mission fields, like China and Africa and India and Australasia, there are large sections in which practically little or nothing has been done. In Africa, the great Kongo section of Central Africa, the German Southwest, and long stretches on the west coast are without representatives; while in one of the most populous regions of all Africa, — Nigeria — only two families have but recently entered. Populous provinces in China, with millions of souls, are only touched as it were with the tips of our fingers. In northern Brazil great territories, populated by tribes of Indians and by Brazilians, have not been touched, unless a colporteur or two have just recently gone there.

The writer has often pondered upon the text, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come,” and wondered just how it should be interpreted, just what would be its fulfillment.

The apostle Paul was able to write unto the believers at Colossæ, “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth in you also.” Col. 1: 3-6.

Paul had not gone through all Asia, nor had he visited Spain, yet here is this record that the word of truth had been heard, had sounded out, into “all the world.”

The word today may have traveled farther than we are aware. The gospel is not always preached by friendly lips, as this text makes clear: “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one do it of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel; but the other proclaim Christ of faction, not sincerely, thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. What then? only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” Phil. 1: 15-18.

This same experience very likely will be repeated in the finishing of the gospel. Some will endure bonds and imprisonment and other trials for the truth’s sake, while others will resist the special gospel truths due this generation, and the sound thereof will go out into all the world, even as the preaching of the gospel of a risen Christ in Paul’s day caused the sound, the news, of that event to travel from lip to lip, by disciple and by doubting foe, until it was said that it had gone into “all the world.”

By living preachers and by printed page the earth is being lighted up today with the knowledge of the soon return of Jesus. This blessed news is going into all the world for a testimony, a witness, unto the people.

While some in enlightened lands are rejecting the glad news of Jesus’ return, whole tribes are welcoming it in China and India. Whole villages are taking hold of the truth by beginning to keep the Sabbath and studying the light they have, and pleading for further help. It may be that while the people of God see much to be accomplished and are laying plans for further extension of the message, and while great prosperity is attending it in its onward world-wide march, the Father will proclaim it finished in all the world, and the end will come.

One other point. God may use other forces as a part of this world-wide warning included in this text. Think of the great Bible societies that place hundreds of thousands of copies of the Word of God in the homes of the people. Other uplifting agencies are preparing minds for the reception of the last phase of the gospel message that is to complete the preparation of hearts to receive the coming King. Elijah at one time thought he was the only loyal representative of

Jehovah left in apostate Israel. But God revealed to him that there were yet seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

Whether we shall ever be able from our human viewpoint to know when Matt. 24:14 is fulfilled is a question. One thing is sure, the exact time for the finishing of the work of God in all the world, the close of earth’s probation, and thus the end of the world, Jesus said the Father had kept in his own power, and that neither the world nor yet the people of God should know the exact time of his appearing. See Acts 1:6-8; Mark 13:30-37.

The last event among nations, as noted in Dan. 11:44, 45, is perhaps the last recorded event to take place by which we are to know that the time is at hand when Matt. 24:14 is fulfilled. Our part is to work while it is day.

The Master has left us this word: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. . . . And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”