The 10/40 Window - Christian beliefs, and the apocalyspe.

Christian or not, this thread is meant to inform you about the "end" of the world beliefs from a Christian perspective. I'm going to be discussing this on a little bit deeper level than Matthew 24:36

Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

We've got that verse, and we've also got Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

So we know that the gospel must be preached in all of the world for a witness unto all nations, but we don't know when. Only the father knows exactly when. But we are able to speculate, first off through biblical prophesy (which is a completely separate topic), but also through what missionaries commonly refer to as the "ten forty window."

The 10/40 window is a geographical layout of different areas over the earth which haven't been reached by missions or told about the gospel. Once the "window" is full, we can sort of speculate that our time here is going to be cut short from that point on.

It looks a little something like this:

Most of the people still unreached by the gospel live in places stretching across the maps of northern Africa and Asia. The name 10/40 window is easy to remember because it lies across Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator.

Evangelism statistics say that of the 55 least evangelized countries, 97% of their population lives within the Ten-Forty Window. And if I'm remembering correctly 3/4ths of the worlds population reside within the 10/40 window. Only about 10% of the global missionary force is working there, and open evangelism is difficult and even impossible because of governmental restrictions in many 10/40 Window countries.

Matthew 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Once the command is fulfilled, we can then begin to anticipate the end.

What really annoys me about this 10/40 thing is this: A lot of these cultures that missionaries preach their religion to are just that. Cultures. They have already developed their own spiritual and/or religious beliefs. It is not only offensive to try and force your beliefs on others (yes that is what missionaries do) but it is also suppressive to these peoples own beliefs.

Sorry a little off topic I know but it had to be said..

Now.. That verse about faith being taught to all nations.. I'm guessing this refers to a time of one world government also?

Your assuming that Matthew 24:14 means once everyone has been preached too and that clearly is not definitive.

It's a guess at best.

Originally posted by TechUnique
What really annoys me about this 10/40 thing is this: A lot of these cultures that missionaries preach their religion to are just that. Cultures. They have already developed their own spiritual and/or religious beliefs. It is not only offensive to try and force your beliefs on others (yes that is what missionaries do) but it is also suppressive to these peoples own beliefs.

Sorry a little off topic I know but it had to be said..

Now.. That verse about faith being taught to all nations.. I'm guessing this refers to a time of one world government also?

edit on 26/10/2010 by TechUnique because: (no reason given)

Beliefs can't be forced on people. Christians are not in control of these areas. It's called sharing information. If you don't want it you don't have to accept it. No one forces you to buy ipods or mcdonnalds, you have the choice to if you want

Originally posted by kro32
Your assuming that Matthew 24:14 means once everyone has been preached too and that clearly is not definitive.

It's a guess at best.

Better read it over again, because I'm not assuming that at all. I've actually stated that I believe quite the opposite at least two times.

reply to post by RightInTwo


Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

This verse can be broken down to mean any number of different things. It could be related to the known world at the time of the writing or it could be referencing just the leaders of nations, which I think would be the most likely.

It is highly unprobable that every single person will have the word of God preached to them in sufficient fashion for them to have a solid idea of the beliefs behind it.

It's just not enough to make any conclusions about with any certainty.

reply to post by TechUnique


You believe its wrong to force beliefs down some ones throat yet thats what you're doing by stating its offensive. You find it offensive, you believe its offensive so it must be offensive. Not every one finds it as offensive as you and some welcome the Gospel. Those who don't have made a choice and thats cool too. You've made a choice and that cool as well. Everyone gets the choice. Let them decide whats offensive.

So we know that the gospel must be preached in all of the world for a witness unto all nations, but we don't know when.

Here you are saying that this will happen when in actuality we don't know that is what the verse is referring to. We are speculating that's what it means but that speculation could be far off the mark.

The 10/40 window is a geographical layout of different areas over the earth which haven't been reached by missions or told about the gospel.

You're kidding me right ? That green area in Africa is where these godforsaken religions came to existence to begin with...
Aside from that there were hundreds of missionaries in that part of Africa when it was colonized.

Even Portugal is green on that map?!!???? That's one of the few countries left in Europe that I consider to be religious....
I think the missionaries went everywhere and the Vatican has embassies in every country in the world I think.

reply to post by kro32


True, any verse could be taken out of context. But I've discussed this with several bible scholars and people in missions. It means exactly what is written. 27% of the bible is prophecy. Read the entire book of Matthew and it will make better sense.

"And then the end shall come" is another part of the verse which could mean any number of things. Do you think that as soon as the last person is preached too that the hammer will fall and the world will end or will it just signify the start of a process that may take thousands of more years.

It's hard to assign a timescale when your talking about God.

Originally posted by Dezero

Originally posted by TechUnique
What really annoys me about this 10/40 thing is this: A lot of these cultures that missionaries preach their religion to are just that. Cultures. They have already developed their own spiritual and/or religious beliefs. It is not only offensive to try and force your beliefs on others (yes that is what missionaries do) but it is also suppressive to these peoples own beliefs.

Sorry a little off topic I know but it had to be said..

Now.. That verse about faith being taught to all nations.. I'm guessing this refers to a time of one world government also?

edit on 26/10/2010 by TechUnique because: (no reason given)

Beliefs can't be forced on people. Christians are not in control of these areas. It's called sharing information. If you don't want it you don't have to accept it. No one forces you to buy ipods or mcdonnalds, you have the choice to if you want

"Our god is giving you this water if you accept his love. Our god is giving you this medicine, this food yadayadayada"

Originally posted by RightInTwo
reply to post by kro32

 

True, any verse could be taken out of context. But I've discussed this with several bible scholars and people in missions. It means exactly what is written. 27% of the bible is prophecy. Read the entire book of Matthew and it will make better sense.

That's kind of my point. The way it's written can be taken any number of ways and it does not have only 1 meaning. That is not taking anything out of context even when you take in the surrounding text. This verse is a very big grey area.

Originally posted by kro32
"And then the end shall come" is another part of the verse which could mean any number of things. Do you think that as soon as the last person is preached too that the hammer will fall and the world will end or will it just signify the start of a process that may take thousands of more years.

It's hard to assign a timescale when your talking about God.

You've obviously only skimmed through or read certain parts of my thread.

Only the father knows exactly when. But we are able to speculate

we can sort of speculate that our time here is going to be cut short from that point on.

we can then begin to anticipate the end.

reply to post by RightInTwo


No I read your entire thread and thought it was very well done. I'm just debating the fact that what your basing your theory on could have possible other meanings. Specifically the one verse.

I'm also debating the timescale. When you say we can begin to anticipate the end I believe that may be oversimplifying it as your assuming, from that statement, that the end would happen rather quickly.

I was simply saying that "the end" could mean just a start of a very long process. Neither of us have any more proof than the other does so that's about as far as we can go I guess.

I'd love to argue with all of you but I can't really spare my self the stress or annoyance, on a count of it's all been used up today. This thread exists for the purpose of being informative about certain Christian beliefs. I didn't create the 10/40 window, and I never even claimed to agree with it now did I? Argue amongst yourselves.

reply to post by kro32


Alright, I see what you're saying. And no I don't have proof that the verse means what I've said it means, but bible scholars and those who have thoroughly studied the bible and the meanings of it's original translations do.

And by the way, it isn't my theory. It's information which is very well known by many churches all over the globe.

We've got that verse, and we've also got Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

I stumbled across something today which I believe was an answer to my prayer. As I'm new to Christianity I asked Jesus the other night about people who believed in God but not through His name. I specifically asked about tribes and people in countries that didn't have access to Christianity. I frankly wanted to know if they would go to Heaven. Today, whilst researching an entirely different subject, I came across a link. I clicked it and the page contained an excerpt from an old book titled He Walked In The Americas. It encompasses Native American legends concerning The White Prophet....

“He went on to the people of the White Rock. They told Him they had come here after a great war in the south. Their cities had been burnt and they were all that was left of the once great power. They were sad in their hearts and the Prophet told them of another nation that had to flee oppression in days long gone. Then He showed them the beauty of their land and taught them how to garden well.

"As He was leaving the Pueblos, He told them, "In truth I give to you a promise. Keep you my precepts, forsake all warfare and you shall ever have my blessing even beyond White Man's coming.  And woe to the hands that are raised against you...If to my teaching you are faithful, and to show that you have lived each day rightly, leave alight at night burning against the time I will return through the Dawn Light, and lead thee unto My Father's Kingdom." So every night a light is burning in Acoma and other Pueblos among these tribes, which we call heathen. From there He moved on."

Nearly all of the North and South American Indian tribes have these legends, dating from a few thousand years ago.... He is often called the White Profit and described as a fair skinned man with grey-green eyes, robed, beard and long hair. Oh, and he performed miracles. Several names exist for Him amongst the tribe - even Chee-Zoos, God of the Dawn Light.

My guess is that his gospel has already been preached widely if he got around everywhere 2000 years ago.
www.wolflodge.org...

reply to post by RightInTwo

...Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

We've got that verse, and we've also got Matthew 24:14

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

So we know that the gospel must be preached in all of the world for a witness unto all nations, but we don't know when. Only the father knows exactly when. But [...]

one time you say its the 'gospel' thats gets preached to all the world...
another time its the 'gospel of-the-kingdom' that gets preached...

so which is it?


for the Matthew 24 prophecy to make sense... we have to understand that the 'End-Times begins when Satan is Revealed.... which is the exact time when he is thrown out of heaven, cast to Earthj as the Anti-Christ,
and the Great Tribulation begins:
that is the coded meaning of your first Quote Sentence; ""No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." "


the reason the Message gets preached to ALL the World, in those final 1260 daysis because the 'Sealed 144,000" are evangelizing the Planet for those 42 months explaining how the forces of Angels are coming to Earth to set up the Millennial Kingdom that was prophecied in scripture for 2000 years.


the 2 witnesses and the 144,000 prophets will not be trying to preach moral living or righteous behavior... instead they will be preaching the plagues and pestelences that preceed the setting up of this 1,000 year reign of 'The Lord'... As they (Angels) wage war against the Lucifer (ruler of the planet) and the despotic, degenerated, rule of
craven leaders of the Beast Empire...We will enter what is called the Great Tribulation
which begins in the midweek of the final or 70th Week of Daniel...

so, even as we might deduce the events and fufillments that would announce the AntiChrist... only God in Heaven knows the Day & Hour that Satan/Lucifer will be cast to Earth (re: Matthew 24:36)

this interpetation is much clearer than the one you are suggesting... thanks

Thought I would post this here too.

Interesting thread. But I would pose this detail. Matthew 24-14 is already fulfilled. To put it simply here's why.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

No specification on the number of actual people required. Only that the gospel gets to the nations/tribes/ethnic groups of the world. So I would pose the Occam's razor explanation to the verse. Only one person per nation is required to complete the prophecy. The rest are gravy. And here's the proof for the theory.

There is prophesies in the bible that predict the return of a nation of Israel. And a nation of Israel now exists. Since 1948. Therefore that event appears to be a fig leaf of Matthew 24-32. And that would mean the event of 24-14 occurred on or before May 15 1948.

And for the other direction verse 6 states the end would not come during a war. And WW2 officially ended on Aug 2 1945. So I would pose the timeframe of 24-14 was between Aug 2 1945 to May 15 1948. A period of 3 years and 3 months approximately for the start of the lifetime of the generation.

Then that would put the start of the reign of the saints of Revelation 20 no later than the timeframe of 2025 to May of 2028. And the window of time for the 7 year agreement of Daniel 9 at 2018 to 2021. 7 to 10 years to go.

Based on a 80 year generation per Psalms 90-10.