Christ soon went on to say that the "Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations — and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14. Calvin comments here16 that "Christ does…not fix a particular time, but only affirms that the Gospel…would be spread to the farthest bounds of the world before the day of His last coming…. 'And then will the end come.' This is improperly restricted by some [the preterists] to the destruction of the temple….
"It ought to be understood [historicistically] as referring to the end and renovation of the world…. We ought to explain this latter clause: 'The end of the world will not come before I have tried My Church for a long period, by severe and painful temptation…. Hence too we ought to learn that no particular time is here fixed — as if the last day were to follow in immediate succession those events which were just now foretold."
