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

Did Jesus come only to the Jews

Some more on why I think that Jesus came in AD70

Jesus is quite clear when He tells his disciples in Matt 5:17 - 20 that he didn't come to abolish the law and the prophets. No, he says I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

A little explanation for those who don't know. (those who do know can put your feet up for a minute or two.)

The Old Testament was never written for the Gentiles (People who were not Jews. People like you and me) Therefore it was written for the Jews. We were never commanded to follow the Law. The Law was given to Jews by God through Moses. This is the Law that Jesus came to fulfill. The one we know as containing the 10 commandments. It wasn't only the 10 commandments that were contained in th law. There were laws about how sacrifices, laws about how to treat non Jews in your home There were laws on almost everything but none of them were written for us, the gentiles. Now what some people forget is that the New Testament isn't a part of the Old Testament. One person tried to tell me that it was an extension of the Old Testament. Well it isn't an extension of the Old Testament although some of it's writings such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written concerning the time of the OT but they were not written in the time of the OT they were probably written sometime after but before the fall of Jerusalem in AD70.

Confused yet?

I hope I've made it clear that the OT laws were written for the Jews and only for the Jews. Now Jesus mentions the Law and the Prophets.

So what were the prophets that Jesus says he came to fulfill.

I don't have the space here or the time to go into all the prophets but I' try to explain them as well and as unconfusing (if there is such a word) as possible

The Prophets were men and women sent by God to warn the Jews of impending calamities, or Judgments that were coming on them. God also used Prophets to correct peoples behaviours. In other words they were God's messengers to the Jews. Not to the Gentiles (You and I) Daniel was a prophet if you get the chance to read Daniel it's a very interesting book

Jesus said that he had come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

So what is the difference between abolishing the law and the prophets and

fulfilling the law and the prophets?

What would Jesus do to abolish the law and the prophets? Well I really don't know because he didn't abolish them. He could have passed a law stating that the law was now abolished and so too the prophets. You see I don't know how he would do it because he didn't do it. He said I haven't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it so too the prophets.

Now what do you do to fulfill the law and the prophets?

What does fulfill mean? My Funk and Wagnalls says that to fulfill means to bring about the accomplishment of something. With out making you think that I know more than I do the Greek word used in this particular passage means quite simply to "fill up" or to "make full" that's all it means.

So, Jesus was going to bring about the accomplishment of the law and the prophets.

Jesus also says in Matt: 5'18 "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished".

I have heard it said by those who say that the law is still to be abolished that Matt 5:18 proves that Jesus didn't accomplish all that he had planned to do because Matt 5 says that it wouldn't be accomplished until heaven and earth had passed away.

But is that what it's saying?

It sounds to me like he's emphasizing the importance and the completeness of what he has come to do. He is saying also that it will be completely fulfilled or nothing will be done. He 's saying that he would not take the slightest stroke of a pen and not the smallest letter will be taken away until everything is accomplished.

So Jesus is saying quite clearly here that the law would not change in the smallest way until all of it had been fulfilled. Or as Matt 5 puts it until everything is accomplished.

I've labored that point a bit.

But there is one more scripture that I'd like to look at Matt 15:24 Jesus says here "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. (Jews)"

If Jesus had said "I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel" it could have had a different meaning but he say's. "I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel" And that word "Only' makes it exclusive.

It means he wasn't sent to the Gentiles.

I'll leave it there and take it up again next week

Terry