Has the entire earth already heard the gospel?

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by 1399

(1) Maybe I am.

(2) Jesus can come for you or me at any moment.

The great "Catching Away" of the Saints that we hope for through scripture will NOT happen until every person alive has had the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel.

God is a God of justice. He will not take away the hope of salvation from anyone who has never even had that hope in the first place.

So you do not not believe in the imminency of His return? That's fine. Just wanting clarification.

I believe He can come at any moment, and that Matt 24:14 was fulfilled in the first century since it is actually talking about the THEN-KNOWN world.

I have those who agree with me, whom I did not know agreed when I first saw this, myself:

Matt 24:14 In all the world, εν ολη τη οικουμενη. Perhaps no more is meant here than the Roman empire; for it is beyond controversy that πασαν την οικουμενην, Luk_2:1, means no more than the whole Roman empire: as a decree for taxation or enrolment from Augustus Caesar could have no influence but in the Roman dominions; but see on Luk_2:1 (note). Tacitus informs us, Annal. l. xv., that, as early as the reign of Nero, the Christians were grown so numerous at Rome as to excite the jealousy of the government; and in other parts they were in proportion. However, we are under no necessity to restrain the phrase to the Roman empire, as, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Gospel was not only preached in the lesser Asia, and Greece, and Italy, the greatest theatres of action then in the world; but was likewise propagated as far north as Scythia; as far south as Ethiopia; as far east as Parthia and India; and as far west as Spain and Britain. On this point, Bishop Newton goes on to say, That there is some probability that the Gospel was preached in the British nations by St. Simon the apostle; that there is much greater probability that it was preached here by St. Paul; and that there is an absolute certainty that it was planted here in the times of the apostles, before the destruction of Jerusalem. See his proofs. Dissert. vol. ii. p. 235, 236. edit. 1758. St. Paul himself speaks, Col_1:6, Col_1:23, of the Gospel’s being come into All The World, and preached To Every Creature under heaven. And in his Epistle to the Romans, Rom_10:18, he very elegantly applies to the lights of the Church, what the psalmist said of the lights of heaven. Their sound went into All The Earth, and their words unto the End of the World. What but the wisdom of God could foretell this? and what but the power of God could accomplish it?