| Highlights of DAWN | February 1981 |
“Then Shall the End Come”
“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
THE Bible that is commonly used by Christian people the world over is a volume composed of sixty-six books, written by dozens of different authors, over a period of some seventeen centuries. After a brief but scientifically accurate description of the creation of the planet Earth as man’s abode, the early chapters of the Bible tell of God’s creation of man, his commission to this wonderful new being to fill the earth and have dominion over it, man’s sin of disobedience, and his consequent condemnation to death. It culminates in the final chapters of the Book of Revelation with the establishment of Christ’s righteous kingdom, man’s restitution to perfect, everlasting life on earth, and his return to favor with his Creator, Jehovah God.
In between, faithfully recorded by all God’s holy prophets from century to century, runs the glorious, unbroken thread of God’s never-failing love for his fallen human creation, as evidenced in types and shadows as well as in more explicit promises, proclaiming his intention to provide a way for man to escape from his fallen, dying condition through a Savior, who is revealed in the New Testament as Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer.
Even at the moment of pronouncing the condemnation of death on disobedient man, Jehovah God vaguely hinted that of the woman who was father Adam’s partner in that awful human tragedy in the Garden of Eden, there would come a Seed, who would eventually destroy their evil tempter. (Gen. 3:15) Long centuries went by before the Lord enlarged on that obscure promise in a statement to Abraham, who had just demonstrated his faith by his willingness to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering. “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”—Gen. 22:1-18
Again the centuries rolled on, as man continued to die and go down into the grave, before Jesus came and offered himself on Calvary’s cross as the long-heralded Savior of mankind. The Apostle Paul identifies Jesus as the promised seed of Abraham who would redeem and bless all the families of the earth. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made,” Paul wrote. “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) Here, at long last, was the One who would be the propitiation for man’s iniquity, and bring the promised blessings to all the families of the earth!
Jesus himself had previously announced from whom and through whom these foretold blessings would come to fallen man, of what they would consist, and how they could be obtained. They would come from Almighty God himself, through his beloved Son, Jesus, and would give life to all who would demonstrate their faith in the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”—John 3:16
In writing to his beloved Timothy, the Apostle Paul enlarged on that glorious hope. He wrote to Timothy that “our Savior Jesus Christ … hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” (II Tim. 1:10) But if it is true that Jesus abolished death, and is “the. propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2), why is man still going down into the grave?
During the period of this Gospel Age that began at the first advent of our Lord Jesus, the Lord God of creation has not been dealing with the world of mankind in general. He is dealing only with those who love the Lord their God with all their heart, and all their soul, and all their mind, and their neighbor as themselves, and who, trusting in the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin, have dedicated their lives wholly to God’s service. (Matt. 22:37) Jesus indicated that this involved serving the Lord even unto death. “If any man will come after me,” Jesus said, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24) The Apostle Paul stated the matter no less plainly. He wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”—Rom. 12:1,2
It is to these, and to these alone, during this Gospel Age, that immortality has been brought to light through the Gospel. It is to these, and these alone, during this Gospel Age, that the merit of Christ’s sacrifice is applied. Paul wrote concerning these, the faithful, sacrificing, footstep followers of the Lord, that he has appeared “in the presence of God for us,” the little flock of the Gospel Age. (Heb. 9:24) These are counted, or looked upon in God’s sight, as righteous, or justified, by their faith. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1) Paul said that these “by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.”—Rom. 2:7
The purpose of this long period of time since Jesus gave himself on Calvary’s cross as man’s Redeemer has been to call out from the world those who would prove worthy to live and reign with Christ in his thousand-year kingdom. Not until this phase of God’s plan shall have been accomplished will the rest of the world be called forth from the grave. All who shall prove obedient to the righteous laws of the kingdom then in operation will be given everlasting life on earth, as distinguished from immortal life in the heavenly phase of the kingdom. Then will have been fulfilled Paul’s statement that Jesus Christ brought both life and immortality to light through the Gospel.
This is the glorious message that Jesus commissioned his footstep followers of the Gospel Age to preach in all the world for a witness to all nations. While all who hear the message are given a hope of life, it is primarily an invitation to those few in the world whose hearts would be so touched with love for their Lord and their fellow man that they would dedicate their lives entirely to Jehovah God’s service. These have the hope of sharing with Jesus in restoring the obedient of mankind to everlasting life under the righteous laws of the coming kingdom. When the full number who shall make up that little flock is complete, “then shall the end come”—the end of this Gospel Age, and the end of this present evil world, to be followed by the establishment in the earth of Christ’s kingdom.
This Gospel of the kingdom, and the invitation to whomsoever will to follow in Jesus’ sacrificial steps, has now been sounding forth for more than nineteen hundred years. When Jesus first preached the Gospel, the message probably went but little beyond the sound of his own voice. Early in his ministry he instructed his apostles to go forth, two by two, “preaching the Gospel.” (Mark 6:7) As disciples were added to their numbers, these, too, in the face of much persecution, also announced the glad tidings of the kingdom. The Apostle Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and others of the Early Church traveled wearily and dangerously by foot and by ship to carry the Gospel throughout the Eastern Mediterranean area, establishing churches in various cities and countries. When Paul could not reach the brethren personally, he wrote letters of instruction and encouragement. But in spite of all their zeal and devotion, the preaching of the Gospel was limited.
The present-day Bible doubtless contains the oldest recorded history of man in the world. The first five books of the Bible are believed to have been composed by Moses some sixteen hundred years before Christ. The history of creation and of the human race contained in these books may well have been transmitted from Adam to Moses by word of mouth, through the medium of a mere half dozen of the ancient patriarchs whose lives overlapped. The material comprising these books was probably first inscribed by hand on clay tablets similar to those now being unearthed, literally by the thousands, by archeologists in the Middle East countries. Subsequent portions of the Old Testament were laboriously recorded on papyrus, copy by copy.
By the end of the century that marked the first advent of our Lord Jesus, the writings of God’s servants which presently make up the New Testament were available, and these would be incorporated with the substance of the Old Testament to make up the Bible largely as we have it today. But all these holy works were still the product of tedious hand labor, and therefore they would be few in number, and their availability limited. Indeed, during much of the so-called Christian era that followed, the possession and study of the Holy Scriptures was largely restricted to the clergy, who claimed for themselves the sole privilege of interpreting the teachings of God’s Word of truth. Furthermore, such Bibles as were produced would have been translated into very few different languages; communication between lands and peoples was at a relatively low ebb, and illiteracy was high. As a result, the preaching of the Gospel message in accordance with Jesus’ commission to his followers proceeded but slowly, and additions to the true church were doubtless few in number. This situation would continue until, in the Lord’s due time, and in the Lord’s own way, conditions would be brought to pass that would encourage and promote the spread of the glorious message to every land and nation.
A short step in that direction was made possible when the art of printing by type was developed by the Chinese about the fifth century A.D. Although this represented a small advance in promoting the communication of knowledge, such printing was still laborious. It was not until the middle of the fifteenth century, when the invention of printing from movable type provided the means of promulgating information on a larger scale, that the Gospel message could be somewhat more widely disseminated. How fitting it was that the first major publication to come off Johann Gutenberg’s new press should be the Bible!
But the text was in Latin, a language understood only by the few, and its value in spreading the Gospel was therefore strictly limited. About a century earlier John Wycliffe and his followers had already completed the translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, and now more numerous copies of this first complete Bible in English could be produced and distributed as a result of Gutenberg’s invention.
However, it was not until the 1700’s, when Bible societies came into being, that the translation, production and distribution of the Bible went forward in real earnest. In 1710 the Canstein Bible Society was established at Halle, Germany. In 1780 the Bible Society was formed in England, primarily to distribute Bibles among soldiers and sailors. The British and Foreign Bible Society was founded in London in 1804, and it has since distributed Bibles in hundreds of languages.
About this same time Bible societies began to spring up in the United States. One of the foremost of these, the American Bible Society, was formed in 1816. Since that time it has translated the Bible into many different languages, and sent them to numerous foreign lands. Bible societies now serve more than 150 countries and territories around the world. The American Bible Society estimates that it, alone, has distributed more than two billion Bibles, Testaments, and other portions of the sacred Book since its founding in 1816, and it now distributes more than 191,000,000 Scriptures each year.
But without the use of present-day technology and equipment the task of reaching and preaching the Gospel to every land and nation would be monumental. It is estimated that there are at least 3,000 languages and dialects in the world. However, at least one book of the Bible has been translated into approximately half of these numerous tongues; but these translations, partial though many of them are, represent about 97 percent of the entire population of the world.
According to one recent world almanac, at the end of 1979 there were 170 nations in the world, speaking numerous different languages. However, in 106 of these nations a substantial number of the people speak and understand either English, French, or Spanish. Furthermore, a brief study reveals that a knowledge of only 134 different languages would be sufficient today to make oneself understood to a substantial number of the people in all 170 of these nations of the world, because of the use of the same language by different nations. And the complete Bible, as we know it today, has already been translated by these same zealous workers in the Bible societies into 261 different languages. Present-day high speed, high volume printing presses, the result of the increase of knowledge accompanying our Lord’s second presence (Dan. 12:4) are now producing mountains of literature, including complete Bibles in numerous tongues, which are finding their way into the nations of the world.
Other highly efficient tools for disseminating knowledge that have come into modern-day usage as a result of the brightshining of our Lord’s parousia are radio and television. The Dawn Bible Students Association regularly broadcasts the message of truth in English, now almost a universal language, over more than 100 radio stations in the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia, the British West Indies, Ceylon, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, the Phillipines, South Africa, Tonga, the Virgin Islands, and England. Truth broadcasts also go out from the United States and from Uruguay in the Spanish language.
The newest method of spreading the good news of the Bible provided by the Lord is by satellite. Dawn Bible Students messages of Bible truths transmitted by satellite are now going out by way of 350 cable network stations in the United States, and these are heard and viewed by millions each week. These present-day methods of communication are especially effective in spreading the Gospel of the kingdom, for they bear the message of life to dying millions throughout the world.
But even with all this activity by so many in disseminating the Scriptures, is the world of mankind being converted to Christianity? After nearly two thousand years of preaching the Gospel, only about one-fourth of earth’s four billions even profess to be Christians. Not knowing the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of God’s boundless love for every last one of his human creatures, and believing that all are forever lost who do not accept Christ as their Redeemer during this Gospel Age, it is little wonder that sincere people are frantically endeavoring to Christianize each and every individual in each and every nation of the world by every means at their disposal!
Does this mean that God’s plans and purposes for man have cruelly gone awry? By no means! The witness that Jesus commissioned his followers to tell forth was to be to all nations. It never was God’s purpose that every individual of every nation should become followers of Jesus in this Gospel Age, and gain a heavenly reward. Nor was it Jesus’ expectation that the preaching of the Gospel would make disciples of all the people of the world before his second advent. Concerning this he said, “When the Son of man cometh [at his second advent], shall he find [the] faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8, see Diaglott) Jesus knew full well that not many would choose the toilsome way of sacrifice in order to gain immortal, heavenly life. “Strait [difficult] is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto [immortal] life,” he told his followers, “and few there be that find it.”—Matt. 7:14
The preaching of the Gospel message at this time is to call out of the world only those who shall strive to be worthy to become members of that little flock who shall live and reign with their Lord Jesus in the kingdom, for the purpose of restoring the rest of mankind to life on earth. (Luke 12:32; Rev. 20:6; II Tim. 1:9; I Pet. 2:21) It is and always has been an impartial, universal invitation to the humble few, the one here and the one there, throughout the world, whose hearts would be moved with love for God, for their Lord Jesus, for their fellow men, and for righteousness, to run for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Even if it came about as a result of modern technology and Christian zeal that every inhabitant of the earth were in this present age to receive a Bible in his own tongue or dialect, it would not guarantee that the world would be converted to Christianity. Mere possession of the Scriptures does not make one a Christian. The Lord God of heaven touches the hearts and opens the eyes of understanding only of those whom he is calling to glory, honor, and immortality in the kingdom. To these Jesus said, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” (Matt. 13:16) All the rest of the world of mankind will come to know and worship God during the thousand-year reign of Christ and his faithful followers of this Gospel Age.—Jer. 31:33,34; Rev. 21:1-4
Jesus indicated that when the preaching of the Gospel as a witness to all nations had accomplished its purpose the end would come. How much longer will the invitation to sacrifice go out? How much longer will it be possible to give oneself wholeheartedly, and with understanding, to Jehovah God? We would not presume to say. “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only,” said Jesus. (Matt. 24:36) But we do believe the end cannot be far away. With the message of God’s great love for mankind, and the call to walk in Jesus’ steps now being beamed from the very skies to the far-flung nations of the earth and the remotest isles of the oceans, it would surely seem that erelong the task of selecting Jehovah’s jewels from the far reaches of the world will be complete. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.”—II Pet. 3:14,15