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place He and the apostles teach us that several important events had to occur before His
physical return at the last day, Matt. 24:5-14,21,22,29-31; II Thess. 2:2-4. Therefore He could
not very well regard and represent His coming as imminent. It is evident also that, when He
spoke of His coming as near, He did not mean to represent it as immediately at hand. In the
parable of the pounds He teaches that the Lord of the servants came to reckon with them
“after a long time,” Matt. 25:19. And the parable of the pounds was spoken for the very
purpose of correcting the notion “that the kingdom of God should immediately appear,” Luke
19:11. In the parable of the ten virgins the bridegroom is represented as “tarrying,” Matt. 25:5.
This is in harmony with what Paul says in II Thess. 2:2. Peter predicted that scoffers would arise
saying, “Where is the day of His coming?” And he teaches his readers to understand the
predictions of the nearness of the second coming from the divine point of view, according to
which one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, II Pet. 3:3-9. To teach
that Jesus regarded the second coming as immediately at hand, would be to represent Him as
in error, since almost two thousand years have already elapsed since that time. Now the
question can be raised, How can we then be urged to watch for the coming? Jesus teaches us in
Matt. 24:32,33 to watch for the coming through the signs: “when ye see all these things, know
ye that He is nigh.” Moreover, we need not interpret the exhortation to watch as an
exhortation to scan the heavens for immediate signs of the Lord’s appearance. We should
rather see in it an admonition to be awake, to be alert, to be prepared, to be active in the work
of the Lord, lest we be overtaken by sudden calamity. The following great events must precede
the coming of the Lord.
1. THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES.
Several passages of the New Testament point to the fact
that the gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to all nations before the return of the Lord,
Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10; Rom. 11:25. Many passages testify to the fact that the Gentiles will
enter the Kingdom in goodly numbers during the new dispensation, Matt. 8:11; 13:31,32; Luke
2:32; Acts 15:14; Rom. 9:24-26; Eph. 2:11-20, and other passages. But those indicated above
clearly refer to the evangelization of all nations as the goal of history. Now it will hardly do to
say that the gospel has already been proclaimed among all peoples, nor that the labors of a
single missionary in each one of the nations of the world would meet all the requirements of
the statement of Jesus. On the other hand it is equally impossible to maintain that the words of
the Saviour call for the preaching of the gospel to every individual of the different nations of
the world. They do require, however, that those nations as nations shall be thoroughly
evangelized, so that the gospel becomes a power in the life of the people, a sign that calls for
decision. It must be preached to them for a testimony, so that it can be said that an opportunity
was given them to choose for or against Christ and His Kingdom. These words clearly imply that
the great commission must be carried out in all the nations of the world, in order to make
disciples of all nations, that is, from among the people of all those nations. They do not justify