Board index ‹ The End of the World

[Pree]

Have we been in the “last days” for the past 2000 years?

In Acts 2, we see Peter preaching to a crowd of Jews saying that the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was a fulfillment of prophecy. The prophecy is found in Joel 2 and it says,

“In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

It goes on to say that during those times, “the sun would be darkened and the moon would be turned to blood before the Day of the Lord.” Is Peter indicating that he was living in the last days? And if so, does this mean the last days have been going on for the past 2000 years?

[jimwalton]

In a sense, yes. The Church Age (from the resurrection forward) are "the Last Days"—the inauguration of a new era in salvation history. The "Last Days" is the period of time between the first and second advents of Jesus. But it's also true that there are distinct events for the End Times of the Last Days. We can talk about more specifics as you wish. There's obviously a lot of material here.

[Abiding Dude]

What are the distinct events and have any happened?

[jimwalton]

1. Ezekiel 38.11 speaks of "unwalled villages." These have been around for centuries now.

2. Isa. 11.11; Jer. 16.14-15; Ezekiel 38.8-9; Lk. 21.24 mention that Israel will be restored to their land and have a land of their own. After 2000 without one, Israel became a nation state on May 14, 1948.

3. Many Jews will convert to Christianity (Rom. 11.25-26). Though Jews are coming to Christ, I think the verse speaks of more than just what we're seeing now.

4. Matt. 24.14: The Gospel will be preached to the "whole world". May be more proverbial than literal. Modern technology is making this literally possible. So this is mostly happening now. Of the over 7000 languages in the world, the Gospel has reached most of them, though 2000 still need a Bible in their own language.

5. False messiahs and false prophets. (Mt. 24.24-26; Lk. 21.8). This has never stopped, but will increase towards the End. It could be true already. The Internet is FULL of such: people who twist, distort, deprecate, and downright lie about the Bible and Christianity. I have these conversations every day on this forum. It is rampant. So this is happening now.

6. An apostate Church: the church not even believing in the Bible, not teaching the Bible, and instead teaching lies about what the Bible is and what it says. Even pastors and priests denying what the Bible says and distorting it. This is happening now. "There is something rotten in the state of Denmark."

7. An increase of communication around the world. Knowledge increasing (Dan. 12.4), and the world being able to see things all at the same time (Rev. 11.3, 7-10). This is happening now.

8. A temple in Israel on the Temple mount. It's impossible to know whether Ezekiel means this to be literal or metaphorical. But there's at least no physical, literal temple on the Temple Mount right now.

9. Natural disasters. An increase of environmental cataclysms. We see this happening now. These verses may also symbolically refer to political and social upheaval, which we are also seeing now.

10. Wars and rumors of wars. Not happening right now, but the world is on a knife's edge of tension. This could happen literally over night.

11. Global famine, a global pandemic, and economic collapse and disaster. Umm, we could be seeing this now, but maybe not. We'll have to see how all this plays out.

12. The large-scale martyrdom of Christians. This is happening in many countries around the world, but not so much in the West.

13. The appearance of the antichrist. Many candidates, many accusations, no solid evidence yet.