Jesus instructed His disciples to go to all nations and preach the gospel and then the end would come. They did go to all the nations and so the end could come (in their lifetime.)
In Acts 2:5 Peter preached to "devout men from every nation under heaven." Luke lists the nations this included (vv9-11.) As a result 3000 were converted. (And days later in Acts 4:4 another 5000.) So with 8000 people from every nation heading back to all the nations, could all have heard the gospel in the next 40 years? Absolutely at that rate!
We notice that 'all nations' didn't include a lot of places we call nations today. This shows that when Jesus spoke about going to all the world and all nations, he wasn't speaking about those nations. He was speaking about nations where the Children of Jacob lived. Acts 2:5 confirms this.
Several times Paul and others speak about the nations (ethnos) and gospel in terms such as "the whole city heard," and some Jews said, "they have turned the world upside down." This was not the Planet Earth world. This was the world of the Children of Jacob.
Paul defines who the Gentiles/Nations are in Rom 9:24-26. In contrast to the Jewish Israelites, Paul is discussing non-Jewish Israelites and quotes Hosea. Hosea tells us that former Israelites became 'No People of Yahweh Elohim' but that the Messiah would bring them back into the fold of Children of Israel so they would again become His People. The middle wall of partition broken down (Eph 2:14) and the two re-united. Jesus reunited and made a new covenant with the House of Israel (former non-Jewish Israelites) and the House of Judah (Jewish Israelites) Heb 8:8.
These non-Jewish Israelite Nations (from the former House of Israel in northern Israel at the time of the Assyrians) were who Paul went off to evangelise. Paul was confident he could "fully" reach "all the nations" and "all hear" (2 Tim 4:17)
Since Jesus added that he would be back before the apostles "had gone through all the cities of Israel" (Math 10:23) because they were instructed to only "go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel"(Math 10:6). So we can see that all the nations were reached in their lifetime.
And since this was so, there was no further commission to go anywhere else because His disciples had completed what they had been instructed to do. So there is no longer (and hasn't been since the above was completed) a biblical mandate for mission.
In Acts 2:5 Peter preached to "devout men from every nation under heaven." Luke lists the nations this included (vv9-11.) As a result 3000 were converted. (And days later in Acts 4:4 another 5000.) So with 8000 people from every nation heading back to all the nations, could all have heard the gospel in the next 40 years? Absolutely at that rate!
We notice that 'all nations' didn't include a lot of places we call nations today. This shows that when Jesus spoke about going to all the world and all nations, he wasn't speaking about those nations. He was speaking about nations where the Children of Jacob lived. Acts 2:5 confirms this.
Several times Paul and others speak about the nations (ethnos) and gospel in terms such as "the whole city heard," and some Jews said, "they have turned the world upside down." This was not the Planet Earth world. This was the world of the Children of Jacob.
Paul defines who the Gentiles/Nations are in Rom 9:24-26. In contrast to the Jewish Israelites, Paul is discussing non-Jewish Israelites and quotes Hosea. Hosea tells us that former Israelites became 'No People of Yahweh Elohim' but that the Messiah would bring them back into the fold of Children of Israel so they would again become His People. The middle wall of partition broken down (Eph 2:14) and the two re-united. Jesus reunited and made a new covenant with the House of Israel (former non-Jewish Israelites) and the House of Judah (Jewish Israelites) Heb 8:8.
These non-Jewish Israelite Nations (from the former House of Israel in northern Israel at the time of the Assyrians) were who Paul went off to evangelise. Paul was confident he could "fully" reach "all the nations" and "all hear" (2 Tim 4:17)
Since Jesus added that he would be back before the apostles "had gone through all the cities of Israel" (Math 10:23) because they were instructed to only "go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel"(Math 10:6). So we can see that all the nations were reached in their lifetime.
And since this was so, there was no further commission to go anywhere else because His disciples had completed what they had been instructed to do. So there is no longer (and hasn't been since the above was completed) a biblical mandate for mission.
