Certainly not the end of the world… I consider the resurrection of the physical body is the ultimate evidence of God’s commitment to terra firma. [The only Scriptures that can be pulled out to suggest a great burning up are seriously apocalyptic, where ‘end of the world’ language is used to convey ‘end of world as you knew it’. 2 Peter 3 which does – in some translations! – talk about the destruction of the earth, also says that the world was already destroyed through the flood. So a big final burnup doesn’t get my vote… a new – and the word is not new as in not seen before, but new as in ‘re-newed’, regenerated – heavens and new earth, where in some way heaven is on earth, does get my vote.]
Matthew 24:14 says (NRSV):
And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.
This verse has been used to urge a mission-mindedness that the end waits for all the ethnic groups to have heard (all nations: ta ethne)… however. Certainly a great motivation, but is this what Jesus meant? Backing up the prophetic responses of Jesus were provoked by the question the disciples asked when they heard Jesus inform them that a great destruction was coming to the city and the temple:
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3).
I used to think this was probably two questions (R.T. France was an advocate of this): when will these things happen (Temple destroyed), what will be the sign of your parousia (as per Daniel 7, the son of man coming in the clouds, and then what will be the end of the age – that final parousia.
If it was two questions, it still seems contextually that Jesus answered it as one question. He did not say this, but the answer is ‘AD70 guys… not long away’, or to quote Jesus:
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place (Matt. 24:34).
Now to a short interlude…
Paul seems to have thought that in his lifetime Matt. 24:14 (‘to all the nations’) was already fulfilled (and of course Jesus said all these things in a generation). Here are four examples of this perspective:
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world” (Rom. 10:16-18).
At the end of Romans 10 Paul jumps between addressing the Jewish and the Gentile situation; here he is addressing the Gentile situation. The message has (not will eventually) gone throughout the whole earth and to the extremity of the oikoumene. That final word was a very common way the civilised world of Rome was described. The oikoumene was the Roman world, and here he adds the ‘extremities’ of it, suggesting that this was indeed the whole earth.
There is a second text in Romans (16:25-26, though it is not in every manuscript I include it here, for it accords with Paul’s perspective, and even if it was added it represents an early perspective):
Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles.
To ‘all the Gentiles’ (ta ethne: same word as in Matthew 24:14). Indeed rather than refer to ethic groups it was the most common way that those who were not Jews were described. The Gentile world was the ‘ta ethne’ world.
Then there are two in Colossians.
You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God (Col. 1:5-6).
The ‘whole world’, and in a book that is fairly ‘cosmic’ the use of the word kosmos is quite fitting here.
[P]rovided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven (Col. 1:23).
Which has been proclaimed to every creature (literally ‘all creation’); same as in the disputed passage of Mark 16:15 where we read on the lips of Jesus:
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
So Paul uses ‘the whole earth’, ‘the extremities of the oikoumene‘, ‘all the ethne‘, ‘the whole kosmos‘, ‘all creation’. That is a fairly strong perspective and I don’t think we can really push Jesus’ words in a different direction. We might wish to use them as a missiological imperative, but it does not seem to be what Jesus meant in that context.
[An aside: why the delay in the parousia… I think God wants to give us time to produce the blocks that will give us the best possible new creation.]
End of interlude!
Jesus’ single answer is that something huge would end in AD70. The end, not of the world, but of ‘the age’. We live the other side of that, and in the light of the teachings of Jesus the burden to bring the good news of the kingdom (and here we have to think of the ‘good news of the kingdom of Rome’ that was being proclaimed throughout the whole kosmos, when we try to work out what our good news is) to all ethnic groups is totally valid.