The Last Days

Isaiah 2:2

In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
My good friend Ernest James Smith let me borrow a DVD the other day so that I could listen to a couple of lectures on the 70AD theory. I won’t mention who it was because I don’t think the lecturer did really well. He started out with a strong positive voice but ended up mumbling his way through what could have been a really great lesson, had he stuck to his original instructions to his students that it’s important to know who is speaking to whom in the scriptures. This person mentioned the last days. What he said about them is not important. But when he spoke about the last days he said we were in the last days. No explanation was given as to how he arrived at this important conclusion.
So I asked myself “When did the Last Days start and if they ended, when did they end and if they didn’t end how do they affect us today? I also wanted to know. “The last days of what?” In other words if we are or were in the last days they had to be “The last days of something.” Following you will find some scriptures where “The last days” appear.
Isaiah 2:2
In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
1. Hosea 3:5 They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.
Hosea 3:4-5 (in Context) Hosea 3 (Whole Chapter)
2. Micah 4:1
[The Mountain of the LORD ] In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established Micah 4:1-3 (in Context) Micah 4 (Whole Chapter)
3. Acts 2:17
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
4. 2Timothy 3:1
[Godlessness in the Last Days ] But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2 Timothy 3:1-3 (in Context) 2 Timothy 3 (Whole Chapter)
5. James 5:3
Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
James 5:2-4 (in Context) James 5 (Whole Chapter)
6. 2 Peter 3:3
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
2 Peter 3:2-4 (in Context) 2 Peter 3 (Whole Chapter)

The OT passages are quite obviously messianic prophecies and I have already dealt with that in a previous blog where I make the statement that Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets.

So if the OT prophecies were already fulfilled then they were already in “the last days.”
There is something else that I feel is overlooked when reading the scriptures “what is the passage saying?”

Acts 2:17 " In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” What is this scripture saying about the last days? It’s saying “In the last days.” Not at the start of the last days. The last days have already started because God says “in the last days.”
So the people living around the time that Jesus came to fulfill the prophets were living in the last days. But how do we know when they started.
To understand this we need to know "the last days of what?"
It isn’t hard to work it out. If you open your bible to the last book of the OT Malachi and turn to chapter 4

Malachi 4 is the last thing that God, through his prophets, says to the Israelites. For 400 years God is silent.

He doesn’t use the phrase “The Last Days” but God talks to them about the great and terrible day of the Lord.
Verse 1. “The day is coming” and “the day which is coming”
Verse 3. “On the day that I do this.”
Verse 5. “Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord”
Now I’ll grant you this that this doesn't speak of the Last days but it sounds like a countdown to me.

So I believe that the last days started when God stopped communicating with the Israelites

Luke 21:22 “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled…”

Now look at that passage. Doesn’t it say that that these are the DAYS of vengeance?” And doesn’t it also say “all things which are written may be fulfilled?” So if everything which is written was going to be fulfilled. Don't you think that they would be the last days?

More importantly God says that “These are the days of vengeance.” God is coming to make the Israelites pay.
Yes as bad as that sounds, the time is up for the Israelites.
God warned them in Malachi and in Daniel 9:24 "For your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end for sins etc..."
I believe God is telling the people in Malachi that it's time to end their sinful ways. Why? Because he's had enough of their sinful dis respective ways.

The destruction of Jerusalem was the ultimate end.
And I believe that the destruction of Jerusalem was the end of "the last days"

But what about the "Last Days" that our preacher, minister, priest etc.. tell us we are living in?

Well all I am going to say about that is that sometimes I'm right.
Next time
Terry