Dominion Press

Tyler, Texas.

(PART 13)

As we began to see in the preceding chapter, the period spoken of in the Bible as "the last days" (or "last times" or "last hour") is the period between Christ's birth and the destruction of Jerusalem. The early church was living at the end of the old age and the beginning of the new. This whole period must be considered as the time of Christ's First Advent. In both the Old and New Testament, the promised destruction of Jerusalem is considered to be an aspect of the work of Christ, intimately connected to His work of redemption. His life, death, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Spirit, and judgment on Jerusalem are all parts of His one work of bringing in His Kingdom and creating His new Temple (see, for example, how Daniel 9:24-27 connects the atonement with the destruction of the Temple).

Let's consider how the Bible itself uses these expressions about the end of the age. In 1 Timothy 4:1-3, Paul warned:

Was Paul talking about "latter times" which would happen thousands of years later? Why should he warn Timothy of events which Timothy, and Timothy's great-great-grandchildren, and fifty or more generations of descendants, would never live to see? In fact, Paul tells Timothy, "If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. 4:6). The members of Timothy's congregation needed to know about what would take place in the "latter days," because they would be personally affected by those events. In particular, they needed the assurance that the coming apostasy was part of the overall pattern of events leading up to the end of the old order and the full establishing of Christ's Kingdom. As we can see from passages such as Colossians 2:18-23, the "doctrines of demons" Paul warned of were current during the first century. The "latter times" were already taking place. This is quite clear in Paul's later statement to Timothy:

The very things Paul said would happen in "the last days" were happening as he wrote, and he was simply warning Timothy about what to expect as the age wore on to its climax. Antichrist was beginning to rear its head.

Other New Testament writers shared this perspective with Paul. The letter to the Hebrews begins by saying that God "has in these last days spoken to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:2); the writer goes on to show that "now once at the end of the ages He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26). Peter wrote that Christ "was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for you who through Him are believers in God" (1 Pet. 1:20-21). Apostolic testimony is unmistakably clear: when Christ came, the "last days" arrived with Him. He came to bring in the new age of the Kingdom of God. The old age was winding down, and would be thoroughly abolished when God destroyed the Temple.

On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit had been poured out and the Christian community spoke with other tongues, Peter declared the Biblical interpretation of the event:

We have already seen how the "blood and fire and vapor of smoke" and the signs in the sun and the moon were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem (see pp. 100f.). What is crucial to notice at this point is Peter's precise statement that the last days had arrived. Contrary to some modern expositions of this text, Peter did not say that the miracles of Pentecost were like what Joel prophesied, or that they were some sort of "proto-fulfillments" of Joel's prophecy; he said that this was the fulfillment: "This is that which was spoken of through the prophet Joel." The last days were here: the Spirit had been poured out, God's people were prophesying and speaking in tongues, and Jerusalem would be destroyed with fire. The ancient prophecies were unfolding, and this generation would not pass until "all these things" were fulfilled. Therefore, Peter urged his listeners, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" (Acts 2:40).

In this connection, we should note the eschatological significance of the gift of tongues. St. Paul showed, in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, that the miracle of tongues was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy against rebellious Israel. Because the covenant people were rejecting His clear revelation, God warned that His prophets would speak to them with foreign tongues, for the express purpose of rendering a final witness to unbelieving Israel during the last days preceding her judgment:

The miracle of Pentecost was a shocking message to Israel. They knew what this meant. It was the sign from God that the Chief Cornerstone had come, and that Israel had rejected Him to its own damnation (Matt. 21:42-44; 1 Pet. 2:6-8). It was the sign of judgment and reprobation, the signal that the apostates of Jerusalem were about to "stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive." The Last Days of Israel had come: the old age was at an end, and Jerusalem would be swept away in a new flood, to make way for God's New Creation. As Paul said, tongues was "for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers" (1 Cor. 14:22)—a sign to the unbelieving Jews of their approaching doom.

The early Church looked forward to the coming of the new age. They knew that, with the visible end of the Old Covenant system, the Church would be revealed as the new, true Temple; and the work Christ came to perform would be accomplished. This was an important aspect of redemption, and the first-generation Christians looked forward to this event in their own lifetime. During this period of waiting and severe trial, the Apostle Peter assured them that they were "protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). They were on the very threshold of the new world.

The Apostles and first-generation Christians knew they were living in the last days of the Old Covenant age. They looked forward anxiously to its consummation and the full ushering in of the new era. As the age progressed and the "signs of the end" increased and intensified, the Church could see that the Day of Judgment was fast approaching; a crisis was looming in the near future, when Christ would deliver them "from this present evil age" (Gal. 1:4). The statements of the apostles are full of this expectant attitude, the certain knowledge that this momentous event was upon them. The sword of God's wrath was poised over Jerusalem, ready to strike at any time. But the Christians were not to be afraid, for the coming wrath was not aimed at them, but at the enemies of the Gospel. Paul urged the Thessalonians to "wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10). Echoing Jesus' words in Matthew 23-24, Paul emphasized that the imminent judgment would be poured out upon "the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost" (1 Thess. 2:14-16). The Christians had been forewarned and were therefore prepared, but unbelieving Israel would be caught off-guard:

Paul expanded upon this in his second letter to the same church:

Clearly, Paul is not talking about Christ's final coming at the end of the world, for the coming "tribulation" and "vengeance" were specifically aimed at those who were persecuting the Thessalonian Christians of the first generation. The coming day of judgment was not something thousands of years away. It was near—so near that they could see it coming. Most of the "signs of the end" were in existence already, and the inspired apostles encouraged the Church to expect the End at any moment. Paul urged the Christians in Rome to persevere in godly living, "knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light" (Rom. 13:11-12). As the old age had been characterized by sin, despair, and bondage to Satan, the new age would be increasingly characterized by righteousness and the universal reign of the Kingdom. For the period of the "last days" was also the time when the Kingdom of heaven was inaugurated on earth, when the "Holy Mountain" began its dynamic growth and all nations began to flow into the Christian faith, as the prophets foretold (see Isa. 2:2-4; Mic. 4:1-4). Obviously, there is still a great deal of ungodliness in the world today. But Christianity has been gradually and steadily winning battles since the days of the early church; and as Christians continue to make war on the enemy, the time will come when the saints possess the Kingdom (Dan. 7:22, 27).

This is why Paul could comfort believers by assuring them that "the Lord is at hand" (Phil. 4:5). Indeed, the watchword of the early Church (1 Cor. 16:22) was Maranatha! The Lord comes! Looking forward to the coming destruction of Jerusalem, the writer to the Hebrews warned those tempted to "draw back" to apostate Judaism that apostasy would only bring them "a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries" (Heb. 10:27).

The other New Testament authors wrote in similar terms. After James warned the wealthy unbelievers who oppressed the Christians of the miseries about to descend upon them, charging that they had fraudulently "heaped up treasure in the last days" (James 5:1-6), he encouraged the suffering Christians:

The Apostle Peter, too, warned the Church that "the end of all things is at hand" (1 Pet. 4:7), and encouraged them to live in the daily expectation of the judgment that would come in their generation:

The early Christians had to endure both severe persecution at the hands of apostate Israel, and betrayal by antichrists from their own midst who sought to steer the Church into the Judaistic cult. But this time of fiery tribulation and suffering was working for the Christians' own blessing and sanctification (Rom. 8:28-39); and in the meantime God's wrath against the persecutors was building up. Finally, the End came, and God's anger was unleashed. Those who had brought tribulation upon the Church were cast into the greatest Tribulation of all time. The Church's greatest enemy was destroyed, and would never again pose a threat to her ultimate victory.