The Return of the King of Kings Part 8

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
                Matthew 24:14
 
The above words were spoken by Jesus when his disciples asked for a sign of his Second Coming.  This is one of several signs that Jesus gave.  This sign carries no ambiguity whatsoever.  Once the gospel is preached in all nations, the end will come.
 
We have reached the point where the gospel has reached all nations.  It started with the disciples of Jesus spreading the gospel throughout the Roman Empire.  When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the Roman Empire, which had previously persecuted Christians, became a powerful vehicle for spreading the message of Christ.  This led to the Holy Roman Catholic Church which kept Christianity alive even as barbarians tore the Roman Empire apart.
 
The Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther and others corrected the course of Christian doctrine after centuries of corruption had turned the Catholic Church into an oppressive political force.  As the great European Empires rose and started to explore and colonize the world, they took Christianity with them.
               
Innovations in transportation and communications technology facilitated the spread of Christianity.  From steamships to jet planes, from the printing press to the Internet, the ability for Christians to spread the gospel has increased exponentially.  There is no corner of the world beyond the reach of the gospel.  Even closed societies like North Korea and Islamic Republics like Iran have been unable to stop the message of Christ from finding its way into their nations.
 
The Church Age was intended to last as long as it took to fully spread the gospel.  When the Soviet Union fell and Communist China opened its economy to America, there was an opportunity for one final great push of Christian evangelism to an enormous group of people who had been living in restrictive, largely atheist countries.
 
But now we are seeing a contraction in Christianity.  China is cracking down on Christianity.  The rise of Islamic extremism is growing, wiping out Christian communities in the Middle East and threatening those in Africa and Southeast Asia.  Even the great missionary nations in Europe have seen Christianity turn to a fading tradition, replaced by secularism and an influx of Muslim immigrants from the war-ravaged Middle East.  And America, the greatest Christian nation the world has ever seen, is seeing a waning influence of Christianity in its culture.
 
The fact that we have now reached this turning of the tide in Christianity appears to be an indication that the Church Age is drawing to a close.  The gospel has been spread throughout the world and now, as Jesus said, the end will come.  The fact that this is happening even as Israel has been restored as a nation and the end times prophecies related to it are falling into place create a convergence of prophetic fulfillment that goes beyond coincidence.  In my next post I will discuss another sign of which Jesus spoke that further substantiates this convergence.
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