The Last Days

                                         The Last Days

I remember a conversation I had with one who himself was a pastor of a small church. I mentioned that we have been living in the Last Days since the coming, sacrifice, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He just looked at me with this puzzled, incredulous look as if he had never heard that before.  That's what happens with many people who study one thing, believe what they have heard and follow it without question. 

For some reason the only time  that matters to most is ours,  here and now,  and they forget that the church has existed for two thousand years.  The early church of James, John, Peter, Paul all spoke about the time they were living in as "the last days." They thought the  "Parousia"...the second coming of Christ was imminent. It could happen at any moment. 

The Apostles and Jesus the Messiah wrote about the second coming being like a thief. You don't except someone to break into your home and rob you. It comes suddenly and without warning.  And they all said to prepare each day as if that is the day it will happen. The day of the Lord, our gathering together with him, His destruction of the present world order and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. 

And do not let Lot's wife be your example as God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gommorah. She looked back, and became a pillar of salt. She didn't want to leave that world, as sinful, perverted and corrupted as it was. Don't long for this world and the things of this world. They are passing away. For we live in a death system. A created order that one day will be wiped clean to make way for a new heavens and new earth as God intended it to be when  "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." (Genesis 19:26) 

The last days could end at any moment. You are living in exciting times. We are closer now than ever before when God the Son returns as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I ask you, "who do you say Jesus Christ is?" The Lord Himself will ask each of us that question. May that answer be like that of Peter the Apostle when Jesus the Messiah asked, "Who do you say I AM?  And Peter replied, "You are the Christ,  the Son of the living God. And Jesus commended him saying “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." 

The last day of the last days is nigh upon us....eternity awaits. Whether you are still here when he returns or you stand before him after death at His judgement seat. What will your answer be? Where will you spend eternity? 

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (Heb 1:1-2)

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (Paul was speaking to believers of his time and our time)  For this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,  always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim 1-7)

 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly (quickly/swiftly) take place. (The Apostle thought Jesus would return in His lifetime..and all believers should live as if His appearance could occur at any moment)  And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,  who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,  and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. (Rev. 1:1-7)

Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. (either at death, or at the last, judgment; for with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day)  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.  You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:7-8)

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,  and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matt. 24:36-44)

The last days began with the work of Jesus Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension. The New Testament Apostles understood themselves to be living in the last days. They encouraged the disciples of our Lord and Savior to live each day with the anticipation that Jesus would return and a new beginning in a new heavens and new earth would commence.  An eternal theocracy, a perfect world where sin has no place, evil has no rule, death has no hold, and that devil of old, that serpent that tempted, the dragon who breathed out lies, satan himself is vanquished to eternal flames and torment with all who believed his lies and followed him.  For the old order of things will pass away. 

And even knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.