THE KING’S BUSINESS
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whole wide world. And so the Gos pel must first be preached to all the nations. And what a powerful missionary motive this becomes. The second quadrennial report of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, in commenting on the watchword of the movement, “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation,”made this statement, “The Volunteers believe this is a duty be cause Christ has demanded it. They believe it is a privilege because it will hasten the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 4. A Jewish sign —the national re vival of Israel and the termination of the long tribulation of the Jewish na tion. In verses 29 and 30 our Lord connects His return immediately with the close of a tribulation which He has been speaking of in the preceding verses. The beginning of this tribu lation is referred to in vs. 21. It was to be a catastrophe without par allel in the history of any nation. This took place at the destruction of Jeru salem and the dissolution of the Jew ish state in the year 70, when over a million Jews were slain and so many captive Jews sold in the Roman slave markets that the price of slaves fell to a mere trifle. But this was not the end of the Jewish tribulation. The Jews have been in tribulation of greater and less severity ever since. They have been literally tossed to and fro among all the nations of the earth. Their tribulation has been unparal leled not only in the terrible severity with which it fell upon the nation at the first, but also in its age-long dur ation. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles,” says the par allel passage in Luke, “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Now our Lord says that “immediately af ter the tribulation of those days,” that is, as soon as it comes to an end, His own return in glory will take place.
shall the end come,” the end of which the Apostles were thinking when they asked their question. What does He mean by the Gospel of the Kingdom? If we turn to Acts 20:24-25, we shall find that Paul uses the term “Gospel of the Grace of God” and “preaching the Kingdom” as synonymous ex pressions. It is therefore clear that in His mind the Gospel of the King dom and the Gospel of the Grace of God are the same. As a matter of fact there is only one Gospel, the good news of redemption, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. It has many relations and many aspects, and so the word is used in the New Testament with dif ferent modifying expressions. It is the Gospel of God because God is its author; it is the Gospel of Christ be cause Christ is its agent; it is the Gospel of the Grace of God because Grace is its origin; it is the Gospel of the Kingdom because the Kingdom is its issue. But it is always the one and the same Gospel, the announce ment of redemption in all its glorious sweep and fullness. Now our Lord declares that this must be made known to the whole world before He comes back again. And this is to be done not that it may result in the conver sion of the nations, but for a testi mony to them. And this is only fair both to the world and to the Lord Himself. It is only fair that before the day of grace ends all the nations of the world should be told that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has been here and has secured by His cross the world’s redemption. And it is only fair to the Lord Him self that His Church should be com posed of representatives from all the nations. The new Head of the race needs the whole human race to repre sent Him fully and to express Him self through, and the Church, the body of Christ, must be gathered from the
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