70 Nations, Languages and Peoples (People Groups)

I appreciate the effort of Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the United States and his achievement to study and share his well thought out and scripture based Bible studies. I am myself a born again Christian living in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada who has been born again since 1980 and who enjoys studying the Bible. I am currently especially interested in the Bible topic of the Great Commission.

I recently read and am particularly interested in the article: "The Table of Nations, The Tower of Babel, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb: Part 1" by Albert Mohler. In that article I am especially interested in the part where it was discussed that part of the Great Commission involving its scope and how well the Genesis 10 Table of Nations covers all people and all areas on Earth. In this discussion Dr. Mohler compared what all the people and their areas on Earth around the time of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 10 and 11 with different people on Earth now with the statement on the third page: "these names (of the 70 Genesis 10 Table of Nations) alone don't account for all of humanity as we know it today or where all of humanity lives." I agree that these 70 nations (Hebrew goy or Greek Septuagint ethne") in Genesis 10 just after the time of Noah concerning where they lived at about the time of or just after the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 doesn't account for where all of humanity lives today. However, what do you think that all of where humanity or all of the nations and where they live on Earth now can be traced back through migrations from the current day to the time of the Tower of Babel or shortly after that to where all of humanity lived on Earth at the time shortly after the Tower of Babel. Also how much is it kept in mind that the time shortly after the Tower of Babel and the original scattering of humanity is the time referred to for the 70 nations and where they lived originally as referred to in Genesis 10 and 11? In the Dr. Mohler Table of Nations article he states that: "If we follow the way that these lines of descent are explained, these names alone don't account for all of humanity." Why do you say this when the end of Genesis 10 in verse 32 says: "by these nations (that were descended from Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives) were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." In the summary of Genesis 10 in the Bible summary of the nations (Greek ethne or Hebrew goy), families or tribes (Greek phule or Hebrew mishpachah) and languages (Greek glossa or Hebrew lashown) that humanity was divided into after the flood?

In the next paragraph, Dr. Mohler states: "People groups beyond this, of course, multiplied out of the dispersion." While I agree that people and subgroups of these nations and languages multiplied after the flood and that there are many more than 70 subgroups of nations, languages and peoples currently on Earth, don't you think they are all part of these 70 nations and languages mentioned in Genesis 10 if all of us on Earth now are descended from these 70 original nations and languages from Noah? I also found that sometimes, elsewhere in the Old Testament, in the same passage or chapter as in Isaiah 18 where Ethopia or Cush is called both a nation and a people and in Exodus 9:24-27 where Egypt or Mizraim is called both a nation and a people in both the Hebrew Old Testament or the Septuagint Greek Old Testament. Therefore, and for other similiar examples in the Bible Old or New Testaments, I believe quite often peoples or people groups are interchangeable and not much if at all more numerous than nations that I still take today as 70 in total. Dr. Mohler mentioned that: "out of the 70 (nations) we read about in Genesis 10, there have developed 11,489 (people groups)." Although I agree there could now be 11,489 subgroups now derived from the original 70 nations in Genesis 10 close to the time of the Tower of Babel, I don't think these 11,000 or so subgroups or the original 70 nations are all peoples or that there are now about 11,000 nations on Earth in all of humanity but there are still 70 nations (ethne), 70 peoples (laos) and 70 languages (glossa) that incorporate all people on Earth today.

Also what do you think, that there is a reference in Acts 17:26 that God through the Apostle Paul makes, that could be in a Great Commission sense, to reach all nations with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by us and the rest of Jesus' Church or Church Age phase of the Kingdom of God? Also what do you think that the word for nation in Acts 17:26 (ethne) is the same as that used in the well known passages for the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and Luke 24:44-49 of ethne for nations? Also what do you think that the Church should base the nations to reach at first with the Gospel of Jesus Christ those completely unreached nations for which there are not yet any true Christians as part of them or the 70 nations based on the through Acts 17:26 Genesis 10 Table of Nations rather than the 11,000 people groups now widely used for nations in Global Christian Missions? Of course the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ includes the profession that all humans are sinners in God's sight and can't save ourselves, that God's Son Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins and, that He rose from the dead to offer those of us who trust in Him eternal life and to become God's spiritually and eternally restored children with an eternal home with God in heaven? This connection of the nations mentioned in the Great Commission passages such as in Matthew 28, Luke 24, Revelation 5 is carried through the reference to nations in Acts 17:26 in the New Testament where the Greek word ethne is also used for nations that is a quote from Deuteronomy 32:8 with the Hebrew word goy for nations which is the same Hebrew word for nations used in the Genesis 10 Table of Nations including the summary verse 32 of that chapter. Finally, do you have some agreement that the nations for the Church or Church Age phase of the Kingdom of God to reach with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of humanity on Earth now are all derived or in reference to the 70 nations in the Genesis 10 Table of Nations descended from Noah with Great Commission New Testament scriptures like Matthew 28, Luke 24 and Revelation 5 linked to the Genesis 10 nations and the word nations in Acts 17:26 quoting from Deuteronomy 32:8 focusing on the nations of the Earth? Especially if you have some agreement to this last point, what do you think are the particular nations of the 70 nations on the Earth that still don't have any or hardly any people who are saved or born again Christians in their midst and that the Church needs to focus on to reach some of those so far completely unreached nations with salvation? What do you think that existing Christians, or members of the true Church or current Church Age phase of the Kingdom of God, still need to focus on winning at least some of these so far completely unreached nations of the 70 nations or peoples for the true Church to complete at least our part of the Great Commission? Also what do you think that when the true Church has done that it will then have finished obeying the part of God's Great Commission to evangelize the world and that then the complete true Church will then be caught up to heaven as in 1 Thessalonians 4, John 14:1-3, and Revelation 4:1-4, 10 as the completed bride of Christ from every nation (ethne), tongue (glossa) and people (laos) as in Revelation 5?

Also what do you think that this rapture of the completed Church or Church Age phase of the Kingdom of God with some saved people of all 70 nations, peoples and languages on Earth would then make way for God to complete reaching others of each of these 70 nations, peoples or languages (tongues) or all people then on Earth? In relation to this completion of global evangelism it would be accomplished by the witness of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses for Jesus in Revelation 7 and 14 until every person on Earth of each of the 70 Genesis 10 Table of Nations nations, peoples or languages has heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also what do you think that the 144,000 Messianic Jewish believers in Revelation 7 sharing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with all people of all nations by the time of Jesus' Second Coming from heaven to earth at the end of the tribulation is similiar, including in time, to the last phase of the parables of the sower and seeds and wheat and tares in Matthew 13? This completing God's program of world evangelism would then be up to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ coming at His glorious visible Second Coming from heaven to earth at the end of the 7 year tribulation or the end of the Daniel 9 70th week of years of Daniel at the end of the age and the end of the tribulation part of the age with the armies of heaven that come with Jesus being the by then already in heaven completed true Church that comes with Him (Jesus) to Earth at His Second Coming to judge the world and set up His and God the Father's visible Kingdom on and over all the Earth centred in rebuilt Jerusalem including the true Church, the restored to God of His chosen people Israel and the saved of the nations?

Doug Currie Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Saturday, October 16, 2021

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