by Don Hooton | March 26, 2020
From recent headlines, some think the COVID-19 pandemic is leading us to the end of time. From staggering numbers of widespread disease to speculative questions about governmental workings, all it would take to push many over the edge that the Lord is coming is a plague of locusts and an earthquake.
Please, be certain. The Lord is coming. From the moment Jesus was present on the Earth, He promised, “I will come again” (John 14:3,18,28). Even the Apostles spoke regularly that the coming of the Lord was “at hand” (James 5:8) and the end of all things was “at hand” (1Peter 4:7). And nearly twenty centuries later, here we are with the same promises and the same warnings that Jesus will come again. And with every generation should we be reminded. As Paul says, He will come unannounced like a “thief in the night” (1Thessalonians 5:2). So, be certainly prepared – because soon can always be today.
Yet, my interest in this article is the rumbling of ideas that come from modern Premillennialism. Premillennialism is, in simple summary, a teaching that says Jesus will return to establish His kingdom on the earth (in Israel) where He will reign for a thousand years. While there are variations of this across denominational lines within this mind set, the premise behind the view is that what Jesus came to do was not accomplished; namely, He was not crowned King of the Kingdom God had promised Him and the Church Age has now come until the Kingdom Age begins. As it relates to the subject at hand and the title of this article, the last days comes into play as we discuss the Premillennial timeline for a period of tribulation before (or mid, or post) the days Jesus returns to establish the Kingdom.
Yet, people who lived after the Apostles seemed to think otherwise about what Jesus did:
- In AD 90, Clement of Rome wrote, “the Books and the Apostles teach that the church is not of the present, but from the beginning. For it was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, and was made manifest at the end of the days in order to save us. (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Ch. XIV).
- In AD 130, Barnabus wrote, “Moreover I will tell you likewise concerning the temple, how these wretched men being led astray set their hope on the building, and not on their God that made them, as being a house of God… So, it cometh to pass; … Again, it was revealed how the city and the temple and the people of Israel should be betrayed. For the scripture saith; and it shall be in the last days, that the Lord shall deliver up the sheep of the pasture and the fold and the tower thereof to destruction. And it so happened as the Lord had spoken” (Epistle of Barnabus, 16:1ff).
- And in AD 160, Clement of Alexandria, commenting on Matthew 24:3,34, wrote: “But our Master did not prophesy after this fashion; but, as I have already said, being a prophet by an inborn and every-flowing Spirit, and knowing all things at all times, He confidently set forth, plainly as I said before, sufferings, places, appointed times, manners, limits. Accordingly, therefore, prophesying concerning the temple, He said: “See ye these buildings? Verily I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another which shall not be taken away [Matt. 24:3]; and this generation shall not pass until the destruction begin” [Matt. 24:34] … And in like manner He spoke in plain words the things that were straightway to happen, which we can now see with our eyes, in order that the accomplishment might be among those to whom the word was spoken” (Clementine Homilia, 3:15. See Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 8:241).
On the Day of Pentecost, in the first sermon of this good news, Peter said (Acts 2):
- “For… this is what was uttered through the
prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will
pour out my Spirit on all flesh… in those days I will pour out my Spirit…’“
Men of Israel, hear these words: …this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men… 25 For David says
concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand
that I may not be shaken… 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his
throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he
was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus
God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted
at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of
the Holy Spirit, he (i.e. Jesus) has poured out this that you yourselves are
seeing and hearing… Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
- Peter said the events surrounding Israel’s rejection and Jesus’ crucifixion by “godless men” was part of the Divine plan for Jesus to receive the Crown as Messiah: “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
- Peter said the events they witnessed was what the prophet saw: “For… this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel that “‘in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh..”
- Peter said David prophesied of these events: “Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.”
- And Peter said, “Therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (i.e. Jesus) has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing… Let all… Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.”
People closest to the Apostles – as well as Peter from the outset of the gospel – were saying clearly that the “last days” of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom was in his generation; that the promises of those last days in Joel were being fulfilled in their hearing; that Jesus was crowned King just as David was promised; and that the promise including His resurrection from the dead (v.23). This fulfilled the promise because Jesus was seated at the right hand of God to receive from the Father every promise the Spirit had made to Messiah in ages past; And the evidence of this is this pouring out (of the Holy Spirit) that they both heard and saw.
The kingdom came indeed (Acts 2:35-36). The kingdom is present (Colossians 1:13). And today, we live with a risen Lord who is King of His Kingdom and Head of His church. Since Jesus was crowned King, the last days of the epic plan and purpose of God – the dispensation of the Messiah’s rule that will usher in God’s final judgment on all and the final glory awaiting them in the Garden of Heaven itself – was fulfilled – and we do have the last days ahead of us – we have had and continue to have the last days about which the prophets spoke.
In other New Testament passaged, this view is sustained. of Hebrews reveals, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things… After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (1:1-4). Notice that “in these last days” there is a change emphasized that God has spoken to us in His Son. God’s message is now exclusively in his Son Jesus the Christ in contrast to the different ways He revealed Himself in ages past. So if we let the word of God mold our concepts and we are told that God now speaks to us through His Son, indeed we are in the last days – the Christian Age, and not just a few days before the end of time.
Peter says to his own generation that Jesus was “foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in these last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God…” (1Peter 1:20-21). According to Scripture, the end of the times is the times when Christ would be manifested to the people. And since He has been revealed in the first century to people who are now believers, these are the last times. Knowing this, Peter warns that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming…” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed… But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2Peter 3:3-4). When Jesus came the first time in the last days, He established His Kingdom but when He returns again, it will not to be to establish Kingdom already established but to bring the world to judgment on “the day of the Lord…, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be burned up” (2Peter 3:10). This message of promise urges us: “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (3:11-14). If Peter’s readers were not living in the last days, why warn them to act in such a way – if those days were millennia away?
Paul warns, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come” (2Tim 3:1). He tells of “men [who] will be lovers of self, lovers of money… holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” If Timothy was not living in the last days, why would Paul give him this strong warning? The need for this admonition today, and the admonition of Peter, is because they both saw the need to make it to their generation – because it as for them – and it is for us – the last days. We need it today because they needed it then.
There is the Apostle John, whose Revelation is the basis for much of the language of premillennial theory. He begins, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near” (1:1-3). Again, he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place” (22:6). And again, he wrote, “And he was saying to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (22:10).
Last, there is Jesus’ words on Mount Olivet. He says, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:34). That generation saw the fulfillment of the things in Matthew 24 about Jerusalem (c.f. Luke 21:20-28) – not us – unless someone would propose that Jesus was wrong. He most certainly was not.
The New Testament contains these facts and warnings connected with the end of the times or the last days. Christians living in the first century understood accurately that they were living in the last days. And by extension – so are we because the last days – as described in Scripture – began when the first good news of Christ was first preached by inspired men. The teaching of premillennialism is in error – and those who purport the “last days are upon us” are being misled and misleading. Trust your teaching – not on theories that men have created – but on the one teaching which was begun so long ago by inspired Apostles. Build your hope on those truths for that will never lead you astray.