Modern-day Christians, like the rest of the world, have experienced division in many areas. But throughout the ages, the church has united in its belief in the Second Coming of Jesus and His rule and reign over eternity.
That day, entrepreneur and author Douglas Cobb says, may come sooner than we think, based on the near-completion of Jesus’ Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). Cobb’s book, And Then the End Will Come, details his research into the Second Coming and why he believes it is imminent.
“The title is derived from Matthew 24:14, a verse that links the return of Jesus to the completion of the Great Commission,” Cobb tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Early in that chapter, Matthew 24, the disciples asked Jesus, ‘When are you coming back?’ That’s my paraphrase, but that’s what they asked.
“And He names a number of things that have to happen, that will happen before He returns,” Cobb adds. “But in verse 14, he says, ‘This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.'”
Not only does this verse tie directly to Cobb’s recent book, but it also connects to his work as managing partner of the Finishing Fund, a partnership of kingdom investors who are giving together to accelerate the completion of the Great Commission.
Cobb says few people know much about the Great Commission. “Barna says maybe 50% don’t even really know what it is, and of the others, many of them can’t really pin it down very well,” he explains, adding that the experts say there are about 12,000 biblical “nations,” or ethnos—”biblical people groups around the world. And now we are down to only a few hundred left that nobody has ever been to with the gospel. So we have maybe 300 left to go before we cross the line, and the name of Jesus will be proclaimed in literally every people group on the face of the earth.”
