Johnny Skeptic

Matthew 24:14 says "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." The gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all nations, but Jesus has not returned to earth.

Since during the past 2,000 years hundreds of millions of people have died without ever having heard the Gospel message, why did it matter that anyone heard it?

In the Old Testament, why didn't God tell the Jews to spread Judaism to the whole world in order to let people know about his specific existence? Possibly because the Jews appointed themselves as God's chosen people?

CJD

Depends on what you think was meant by "the end."

Incidentally, the Israelite nation was everywhere challenged by its prophets to be a beacon in the world, to draw all the nations unto itself and thus to its god.

CJD

cass256

They had asked him when would come his presence at the end of the age, when he said that not one stone would be left of the temple. He wasn't answering when he would return to the earth. The Temple was destroyed around 70 AD
vs 27-28 explains, in a way, presence of the son of man will be everywhere. "where the corpse is eagles will gather." Many people still have his corpse hanging on the cross. At the end of the age his Corpse was placed in all the roman churches and everyone gathered to the places his corpse still hung on the cross. Many nationalities blended to worship his corpse. The lights in the heavens, like knowledge of truth, were turned out. And whenever you come close to seeing it, the corpse (son of man)will be amidst the cloudyness in the sky that blocks out the light from the sky.
The Angels vs 31. (look up the word, it means messengers) gathered people into that religion from all nations. If he was the "son of man", it means dead corpse after a while. I don't think there in Matthew he claimed to be more, but I may be wrong. He said many would come in his name saying he was "the christ" and decieve many. They did.


What do you mean by "specific existance"? Deuteronomy 32:8 It says when the "Most High" was dividing up the nations inheritance according to the number of the "sons of God", Israel was the portion that the Old Testament god YaHWeH (Lord) got. Initially he wanted just them to be a peculiar people to him. Other nations had other gods. His law was; if you are a stranger who wants to join Israel you had to become circumcised to partake of the Passover, etc. and the laws would then apply to the stranger as they applied to Israel, as followers of YaHWeH. When he was pissed at them he said he would make them jealous by calling other people to him, but those people ate pork and did as poorly as his original people at keeping his laws. Possibly he meant the roman religion. That didn't work too well for him. I think the fortelling is in Isaiah 65 that describes it..They ate pork and did as they pleased on Saturdays, his Sabbath... the day that was the covenant between him and his old people, along with circumcision.

I really think little of what the son of man said was kept anywhere. the writings in the New Testament were gathered by Constantine and his council. he was a worshiper of the Sun Invictus. So he changed a lot, like to SUNday, holidays around Sun holidays, and based things more on Peter's errors and paul the Roman, who threw out YaHWeH's law.

A clue from Matthew 7

7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.


7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?



7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work lawlessness.


the word lawlessness, is seen in translations as iniquity. By definition it means ilegality, not adhering to the law. His followers, those not tainted by Paul, said sin was not keeping the commandments of their god. his message in matthew was teaching to keep the law and not break the least of it. He did not come to end the law.


that's my read anyway.