"In These Last Days"
Jesse Beeson
Some
preachers love to startle their audiences with such exclamations as, "We
are rapidly approaching the last days!" To the Bible student such a
statement is startling only because the teacher uttering it is merely
indicating how little he knows of the Bible. According to the New
Testament we have been in the last days for almost 2,000 years. Hear the
words of Paul in Hebrews 1:1.2: "God who at sundry times and in divers
manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in
these last days spoken unto us by his son." Note the tense of the verb
has spoken. The writer of the Hebrew letter and those to whom he
was writing were in the last days. Peter says substantially the same in
Acts 3:12.26. It is foolish, then, to make such statements as "We are
rapidly approaching the last days!” when an inspired apostle wrote 2,000
years ago that he was in "these last days."
"These
days" (Peter) and “these last days" (Paul) are terms denoting the
Christian period (some say dispensation) which extends from the cross of
Christ to his return at the end of time. Bible history may be divided into
three periods: the Patriarchal, from Adam to Sinai; the Mosaic, from Sinai
to the crucifixion; and the gospel (these last days) dispensation, which
extends from the cross to the resurrection and judgment, the restitution
of all things (Acts 3:21). Jesus is on His throne (Heb. 8:1) and will
remain there until the resurrection Day of Judgment when he shall deliver
the kingdom (his church) to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). This is the
restitution of all things (Acts 3:21).
The Hebrew
writer and Peter simply state that the time is past when God spoke through
the prophets. He once spoke through the fathers of the Patriarchal Age
(Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.) and through the Prophets of the Mosaic Age
(Moses, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, etc.). Peter, Paul, and the writer of
Hebrews teach that God no longer speaks through the prophets, but He
speaks through his Son in these last days (The Gospel Age). Note also
Matthew 3:17 and Matthew 17:5.
The only
safe way to interpret the Bible or to understand prophecy is to let
inspired men interpret it. Peter and Paul were inspired men. When they.
say, "This is that," then THIS IS THAT. When they say "in these last
days," then you can be assured that the last days have come and are not
"rapidly approaching."
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