TO ALL THE NATIONS
Mathew 24:14
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the gospel of the Kingdom (Mathew 4:17, 16:27-28) as a testimony to “all the nations” and then the “end” could come. Many modern commentators have wrongly interpreted the word “nations” in Mathew 24:14 to mean every nation that exists on the earth today (2018). This exemplifies the lack of sound contextual exegesis in our days. The Greek word translated as “nations” in Mathew 24:14 is “ethnos”, and depending on the context can mean “a multitude, a tribe, a nation, a group of people”. The following chart demonstrates that the word “ethnos” as used in the New Testament texts below, do not and cannot refer to every nation that exists on the earth today, in 2018.
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Clearly, the Greek word “ethnos” translated as nations/Gentiles in the above texts, does not and cannot refer to all the nations who dwell on the face of the earth in 2018. As should be obvious, “ethnos” in each of these texts refers to the nations of the “Roman world” of the first century. The same is true of the word “ethnos” (the nations) in Mathew 24:14. When we combine this evidence with the fact that Jesus himself placed the fulfillment of the great commission in the lifetime of his first century disciples (Mathew 24:14,34), we have definitive proof that the message of the great commission was limited to the “nations of the Roman world” of the first century. The great commission to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God was fulfilled prior to the end of the Old Covenant age in AD70 (Mathew 24:3,14,34).