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the time for evangelising the nations, and gathering in the church of the first-born is speedily to expire . . . if we be right in believing that scarcely a single prophecy in the whole Bible, relating to events prior to the second advent of Christ, remains unfulfilled. (The Approaching End of the Age xvii) (58:1) (3) The word 'nations', from the Greek 'ethnos', originally meant 'a multitude'. In this context, its plural form could simply mean 'the multitudes', such as those who live outside the Jewish nation. (58:2) (4) The word 'preached' entails the same difficulty of definition. For example, how significant is a small group of English or Spanish missionaries landing on the shores of a newly discovered land and reading the Bible in English, Spanish or another European language to a group of indigenous inhabitants? It seems unlikely that such efforts could be regarded as sufficient to fulfil Jesus' prophecy. If carried to the other extreme, however, it could be argued that all the peoples of every nation must truly hear the message in such a way as to be able to discern its actual character and thus be equipped to make an informed decision of faith. (58:3) The difficulties of defining the language of Jesus' prophecy illustrate that it is probably best to avoid trying to fix its meaning legalistically. Therefore, in the opinion of this writer, it seems fruitless to try to fix a precise time when this prophecy was fulfilled. It can be argued that, from the early Christian point of view, the prophecy had been fulfilled before the time of Muhammad (AD 570-632). After the age of exploration (AD 1420-1620), the world-view was considerably expanded, and in the context of this expanded view, it can be argued that it was fulfilled before or roughly at the time of the early days of the Baha'i Revelation (1844-63).
(58:4)
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