2.0 The purpose of the church in the end times

Through the effectiveness of its actions, the church can in fact either delay or hasten the day of the Lord's coming. (II Pet. 3:11-12)

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ the Savior must be preached to ALL peoples before the end can come. The preaching is not to be only with words, but all the more in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that God can confirm the preaching with accompanying signs and wonders. (In the year 1995, still only half of the world's population had heard the Gospel, and 1200 people groups were considered as unreached. Today, the number is 2000 (see 2.1.2). A very large group among these which has been forgotten for altogether too long is the Muslim world. More on this in sections 5.9 - 5.12)
2. The body of Christ on earth must also take shape and grow, through the gifts of the Spirit coming all the more into function. Otherwise, the body cannot accomplish its important upcoming assignments, which during the last great revival include bringing in the greatest harvest in the history of the world.
3. According to Peter's speech to the Jews in Acts 3:19-21, at least a forerunner group of Jews must be brought to faith in Jesus as their Messiah. Unless this occurs, the last wave of revival (= "times of refreshing"), and the resurrection of the dead along with the rapture of the Bride, cannot occur.
4. The rapture is then not an escape. It does not occur until there is no longer anyone who will repent.

   The rapture is then a natural result of the Bride standing firm in faith during persecutions and sufferings, and having fulfilled her missions and triumphed through her love relationship with Jesus Christ.

5. In this way, the greatness of Christ's victory at the cross is demonstrated for both men and the spiritual world's principalities and powers, by the ultimate strength and unity in the body of Christ. (Eph. 3:10; I Cor. 15:22-25)
6. As a result, worship of God and Christ will rise up already here in this age before all peoples, even to the end of the world. (Isaiah 24:16)

2.1 Two of the partial goals made more concrete

The number of languages on earth: about 7,000 (for example, in Papua New Guinea alone, there are 800 languages)

The number with all or part of the Bible translated: 3,322
The whole Bible alone translated: 383
Ongoing translation of all or part: 1.100

Remaining languages: about 3.000. At the current pace, the translation work will take 150 years.

But by beginning to engage more native translators, Wycliffe Bible Translators hope to be able to shrink the time to 25 years for the remaining translation work. To do this, 2000 new coworkers are sought. Today, Wycliffe has 6000 employees, of which half are translators, and the rest are service personnel.

2.1.2 UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS (as of the year 2000) According to the U.S. Center for World Mission

The population of the world is 6.1 billion people, divided among all of 24,000 people groups.
Of these, 1.5 - 2.009 billion, or 25 - 30%, so-called unreached people groups. Thanks to the increased missions efforts, the percentage of unreached people groups has been reduced from closer to 50% to between 25-30% since the beginning of the 1970's.

An unreached people group is a people group which has the same language, religion, and traditions, and where there are no Christians who can reach their own people with the gospel.
The AD 2000 movement's definition is of unreached people group is: Fewer than 2% are evangelical Christians, or fewer than 5% are active Christians.

The table below shows the division of the earth's population within different religious classifications.

	People(Millions)		Nationalities/People Groups
	Total	Unreached	Total	Unreached	Reached
Muslims	1.100	900	4.100	3.700	400
Hindus	885	536	3.400	2.700	700
Buddhists	340	225	1.300	1.000	300
Atheists	875	75	250	50	200
Others	819	273	4.950	2.550	2.400
nom. Christians	2.100	------	10.000	------	4.000
TOTALS	6.100	2.009	24.000	10.000	8.000

The population of the earth can be divided up in different ways, leading to quite different conclusions. Previously, it was common to consider major groupings such as nations and states. Now, it is peoples, nationalities, and people groups which matter. For example, for a long time, I was unaware that the Soviet Union actually consisted of more than 127 different nationalities/languages, of which many viewed the Russians as oppressors, even if most of them studied Russian in school. Gradually, I learned the hard way, when I deeply offended a Ukrainian pastor by calling him "Russian." The Ukrainians, who are their own nationality, with their own language, finally had their several hundred year-old dream of independence fulfilled at the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Since the "Gospel" does not sound so good in the language of the oppressor, it seems that God intends that all peoples should be able to hear about "freedom in Jesus Christ" in their own language. As a result, the number of "unreached peoples" has also increased drastically, from several hundred to many thousand. Even if God should reckon fewer unreached peoples than we have, and if all of my arguments given above in the text of illustrated series 2 should be incorrect, the following fact remains:

As long as 25-30% of the world's population has not heard of Jesus even once, the rapture will not yet occur - until we finish our part of the Great Commission.