Are we living in the Last Days?

ARE WE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS?

We are living in the last days! But so were the earliest Christians. We know they were because they date the beginning of the end times from Jesus’ death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit. This means that the entire time between the first and second comings of Jesus is the last days.

On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:16-21 Peter asserts that the sound from heaven, the tongues of fire, and the speaking in different languages (Acts 2:1-4) cannot be attributed to drunkenness (Acts 2:15), but is the fulfillment of prophecy. The last days have arrived.  The writer of Hebrews agrees. He calls the time in which God speaks to us by His Son the “last days” (Hebrews 1:2). He also tells us that Jesus has appeared “at the end of the ages” in order to remove sin by sacrificing himself (Hebrews 9:26). Peter adds in 1 Peter 1:20 that Jesus “was revealed at the end of times” for us. Such passages clearly confirm that we are living in the last days.

We find further evidence in Jude and 1 John. Jude says that “in the end time” scoffers will come creating divisions (Jude 18-19).  Since such persons have been around since the first century, this text give further confirmation that the last days covers the entire time between Jesus first and second comings. And John says that because “many antichrists have come” we know it is the last hour (1 John 2:18).

But if the last days began with Jesus’ first coming, how do we explain that two thousand years later we are still waiting for Jesus to return? Can “the last days” really last this long? Peter gives us the answer in 2 Peter 3 in response to scoffers who argued that things were still going on just as they were from the beginning of creation. Peter points out that it’s just not true that everything has always been the same. God once judged the world by a flood (1 Peter 3:6). In the future he will judge it with fire (1 Peter 3:7). Furthermore, time doesn’t mean the same to the Lord because with him, “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (1 Peter 3:8). Third, we must not forget that the delay of the Lord’s return is not because God is slow to keep his promises but because he is patient, “not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (1 Peter 3:9). Nevertheless, “the Day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10; also Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Revelation 3:3; 16:15). This reminds us that his delay must not dull our watchfulness. It also explains why in 1 Peter 3:11 that Peter calls us to “holy conduct and godliness.”

Christ could come back anytime. But because we don’t know when he will, we must remain alert (Matthew 24:42). We don’t remain alert by speculating about when he will return but by faithfully serving him each and every day.