Was the Great Commission fulfilled prior to 70 A D?

by George Sidney Hurd
 
“This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Col 1:23 NIV)
 
In the Great Commission Jesus commanded His disciples saying: “Go into all the world (κόσμος, kosmos) and preach the gospel to every creature, making disciples of all the nations (Mark 16:15; Matt 28:19). He also said: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) as a witness to all the nations (ἔθνος, ethnos), and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). He told them that they would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (γῆ)” (Acts 1:8).
 
The Church has historically understood Christ’s commission in its most obvious sense as encompassing the entire planet and that our mission will not be completed until the gospel has reached the whole world. However, based upon Paul’s declaration in Colossians 1:23, as well as other verses we will be considering, Preterists argue that the Great Commission was fulfilled prior to 70AD, at which time the end of the age came and Christ returned. In this article we will be taking a closer look at the verses presented by Preterists as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled in the first century.
 
1) Colossians 1:23
“This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου…τοῦ κηρυχθέντος lit. “the gospel proclaimed”) to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Col 1:23 NIV)
 
Many translations have erroneously rendered the articular aorist participle τοῦ κηρυχθέντος (tou kēryssentos) as though it were a perfect passive verb (“has been proclaimed”). This rendering makes Paul out to say that the gospel had already been proclaimed “to every creature under heaven” at the time he wrote the epistle to the Colossians around 60 AD – something that not even Preterists would affirm. The aorist participle’s primary role is to describe the action’s nature, not its temporal sequence. Therefore, context and logic must determine whether the proclamation was something already accomplished or something still being carried out.
 
Paul’s obvious intent was not to say that the gospel had already been preached to every creature under heaven but rather that the gospel which they had heard and received is the gospel “proclaimed” to all under heaven. Many Translations correctly reflect Paul’s obvious intent. The literal translation (LITV) reads, “proclaimed”; the CLV, “being heralded”; the Douay-Rheims, “which is preached”; the WEB, “which is being proclaimed.”  In this verse Paul was simply saying that the same gospel they had heard from him was being proclaimed throughout the whole world to every creature, just as Christ had commissioned us to do.
 
2) Colossians 1:5-6
“because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world (τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ὑμᾶς, καθὼς καὶ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, lit. “coming to you, as also in all the world”) and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.”
 
This verse is also used as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled prior to 70 AD. However, there are at least two reasons why this passage does not support their claim. In the first place, Paul uses the present tense. It literally says: “the truth of the gospel coming to you as also in all the world.” This passage when properly translated further confirms that Paul didn’t mean to say that the gospel had already been proclaimed to every creature under heaven later in verse twenty-three.
 
In the second place, just as the expression, “every creature under heaven,” is planetary in scope and not restricted to the confines of the Roman Empire, so also is the expression “all the world (παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, panti tō kosmō).” In order to substantiate their argument for a pre-70 AD fulfillment of the Great Commission, Preterists try to restrict the term “world” κόσμος (kosmos) so as to only include the Roman Empire. However, in 1John 2:2 it says that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the “whole world” (kosmos). To be consistent they would also have to limit the atonement to the Roman Empire. Did not Jesus die for all? Is it possible that He didn’t have Asia and the American Indians in mind when He told them that they would be His witnesses unto the end of the earth? Also then, just as now, the term world was at times used in the hyperbolic sense, such as, “now the whole world will know.” (c.f., John 12:19; Romans 1:8). However, kosmos is never used in reference to the Roman Empire.
 
Certainly, when Jesus gave the Great Commission, He meant for it to be proclaimed to all under heaven and not just those who lived within the boundaries of the 1st century Roman Empire! In fact, there is no indication that regions within the Roman Empire such as Gaul (which encompassed France, parts of Belgium, some areas of Switzerland, Germany, and northern Italy) were reached with the gospel prior to 70 AD. It wasn’t until late in the 2nd century that Church Fathers like Irenaeus and Tertullian describe efforts to reach parts of Gaul with the gospel.
 
Therefore, rightly understood, just as with Colossians 1:23, verses 5 and 6 speak of the expansion of the gospel which was underway in the 1st century, rather than it being regarded as a mission already completed.
 
3) Romans 1:8
 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world (kosmos).”
 
As already indicated, this is an obvious example of hyperbole. Even if one could limit the term kosmos so as to only include the Roman Empire, Paul couldn’t have meant it in a literal sense because there were still parts of the Roman Empire which had not yet heard the gospel, not to mention the whole world literally speaking about the faith of the believers in the church of Rome.
 
Spain was within the Roman Empire. Yet in Romans 15:20-28 Paul explained to the Christians at Rome that the reason why he hadn’t come to visit them sooner was because he didn’t want to preach the gospel where Christ had already been named, but that he would visit them on the way to Spain. The obvious motive for his trip to Spain was to preach the gospel where Christ was not yet known.
 
4) Romans 10:18
“But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: Their sound has gone out to all the earth (γῆ, gē), and their words to the ends of the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē, “inhabited earth”).”
 
This verse is often cited as evidence that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled by the mid-1st century. They argue that the terms “earth” (γῆ, gē), and “world” (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) only refer to the Roman Empire. However, apart from the fact that the entirety of the Roman Empire had not yet been reached with the gospel in the first century, the Psalm that David is quoting is Psalm 19:1-4 where we see that the “they” being referred to are the heavens and the firmament declaring the glory of God to the inhabitants of the entire planet, and not merely to the Roman Empire which did not even exist when the psalm was written.
 
The word used for “earth” (γῆ, gē), has a range of meaning identical to our word “earth.” It can mean the earth, referring to soil, or to a region or land, but most commonly it is simply the proper name for our planet Earth. Here it is clearly used to refer to our entire planet, just as in Psalm 19:4 which he quotes.  The term οἰκουμένη (oikoumenē) normally refers to the entire inhabited world. In one instance it is limited to the Roman Empire. In Luke 2:1 Caesar Augustus issued a decree that “all the world” (oikoumenē) should be registered. It is often used in the hyperbolic sense, much as we would say of a singer: “The whole world came to see her.” 
 
However, clearly “the ends of the world” in Psalm 19:4 which Paul cites must be understood in the normal sense of the entirety of our inhabited planet. When Jesus said that the gospel was to be “preached in all the world (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē) as a witness to all the nations” in Matthew 24:14, He obviously meant the whole world of humanity that He died for, and not just those within the Roman Empire. When Paul said in Acts 17:31 that God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world (oikoumenē) in righteousness, He was clearly referring to all of humanity and not just Roman citizens. That Paul didn’t consider the whole world as already having heard the gospel is evident since in verse 8 he said that they were still proclaiming it (Rom 10:8).
 
So how are we to understand Paul in his quote of Psalm 19:4? To me, considering that the gospel had not yet reached the entirety of the Roman Empire, not to mention the whole world, and considering that Christ’s atoning sacrifice was for the sins of the whole world (1Jn 2:2) and not just the Romans, it is obvious that it should be understood in the poetic and hyperbolic sense. In this same epistle Paul said that he had yet to travel to Spain in order to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been proclaimed (Rom 15:20-28), so he clearly did not mean to say that the gospel had already gone out to all the earth.
 
5) 1Timothy 3:16
“God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles (ἔθνος, ethnos), believed on in the world (κόσμος, kosmos) received up in glory.”
 
This verse is sometimes presented as evidence that the Great Commission had been fulfilled prior to 70 AD. However, all that Paul is saying here is that the gospel had been proclaimed among the Gentiles, not that it had been proclaimed to all the Gentiles or ethnic groups, as Jesus commissioned us to do. Some 3 years later in the second epistle to Timothy we still see Paul proclaiming the gospel, enduring all things in order that the elect might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus (2Tim 1:8; 2:8-10; 4:17). He told Timothy to preach the word and do the work of an evangelist (2Tim 4:2-5). Likewise, while Christ was believed on in the world (kosmos), the kosmos cannot be reasonably argued to be the Roman Empire. Except for instances when it is used in a hyperbolic sense, kosmos refers to the entire planet and it often refers to the entire created universe. Additionally, Paul here doesn’t say that He was believed on in the whole world. In fact, in the same epistle Paul said that he lived an exemplary life as a pattern to those who were yet going to believe on Him (1Tim 1:16).
 
Therefore, the verses that Preterists present to substantiate their claim that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled prior to 70 AD actually indicate the contrary when they are considered grammatically and in context. Neither did any of the Early Fathers consider the Great Commission to have been fulfilled. What we see is the description of their continued efforts to reach the unreached with the gospel within the Roman Empire and beyond.

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