To the Ends of the Earth

The global scope of the Great commission cannot be overemphasised. Its strict obedience must be adhered to. The underlining purpose of God's release of Jesus to pay the price for the redemption of humanity was based on his love for the entire world: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’’ John 3:16. No one is excluded from the God's salvation plan ~ young and old, male and females, literate or illiterate, civilised or primitive, far or near, etc. Anything less than the entire world is short of the price He paid for. This emphasis is contained in many passages of the scripture.

The post-resurrection command is: ''Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation'' (Mark 16:15)

The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in ALL THE WORLD as key condition for the closure of the world deserves proper focussing by the church. '' And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come''. (Matthew 24:14)

When Jesus promised the church empowerment, He stressed that the purpose for it is to serve as His witness in Jerusalem….and to the ENDS of the Earth. Another version captures it as the UTTERMOST part of the EARTH. The New International Version (NIV) puts Acts 1:8 this way: ‘’But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The King James Version: ''But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth''.

God has not revoked the Great Commission. Instead, the urgency for it is waxing stronger and stronger by the day as the world becomes increasingly uncomfortable and yearning for heaven as the last hope of humanity becomes unparallel.
 

Where is the end of the earth?

Defining Where the Earth Ends
In this edition we have outline few questions we will attempt to answer in our bid to bring to light this great mandate and the blueprint of engaging the ends of the earth. They are: Where does the earth really end? How far has the church gone with getting to this end of the earth with the Great Commission? What conscious effort can we put in place to globalize our efforts? What will it cost us to truly get to the ends of the world? What is the implication of our sluggishness to respond according to the laid down blueprint?

Mission researchers tells us that 2.83billion persons out of today’s 7billion persons are yet to be given fair opportunities to accept or reject the gospel. Some of them are accessible. Others are hard and resistant. None can be said to be entirely close especially in today’s world where technology has reduced the entire world to a global hamlet .For some, these ones are the final frontiers and where they live are the ends of the earth.

Mission strategists said the bulk of these persons are found in a location tagged 10/40 Window. The most notorious terrorist countries ~ North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria are located in this area. Many of the countries are steeped in idolatry, sorcery and occultism. The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately between 10 % north and 40 degrees north latitude. The 10/40 Window is often called "The Resistant Belt" and includes the majority of the world's Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

The original 10/40 Window included only countries with at least 50% of their land mass within 10 and 40 % north latitude. The revised 10/40 Window includes several additional countries, such as Indonesia, that are close to 10 or 40 degrees north latitude and have high concentrations of unreached peoples. An estimated 4.49 billion individuals residing in approximately 8,732 distinct people groups are in the revised 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is home to some of the largest unreached people groups in the world such as the Shaikh, Yadava, Turks, Moroccan Arabs, Pushtun, Jat and Burmese.

The 10/40 Window has several important considerations: first, the historical and Biblical significance; second, the least evangelized countries; third, the unreached people groups and cities; fourth, the dominance of three religious blocs; fifth, the preponderance of the poor; sixth, the strongholds of Satan within the 10/40




Of the 16,787 people groups by country, 6,947 are still considered unreached.

9,840 people groups by country are not considered unreached, totalling 3,991,150,000 individuals, or about 58% of the world's population.

Of the 16,787 total people groups, 6,947 are identified as unreached using Joshua Project criteria, totalling 2,833,526,000 individuals. Of these 6,947 groups, 5,885 are in 10/40 Window countries. That means 85% of all unreached people groups are in the 10/40 Window.

1,062 of the unreached groups are NOT in the 10/40 Window, totalling 84,014,000 individuals. These groups are relatively accessible to the Gospel.

Of the 6,947 Unreached people groups, about 3,552 (51%) are small groups under 10,000 in population (or population unknown) and all these groups total less than 8,000,000 individuals. Of the remaining 3,395 unreached groups, about 1,313 are under 50,000 in population. That leaves 2,082 Unreached groups 50,000 and over in population.CHALLENGING MISSION FACTS