The meaning of the Last Days

 

2 Timothy 3:1-5

When the Bible refers to the last Days what does that mean?  Is it the end of the world?  It is a very simple answer found often in Scripture, it is referring to the return of Christ.     That we the church still remain on earth at this time is not important for this paper, what is important is that you are in Christ.  The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed Christ’s coming in about 760 BC, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.” (Isaiah 2:2)  If you are wise and keep reading the following verses you will see that it is Christ that is coming back.  Daniel also writes of the last days in Daniel chapter 12, and if you have family that is not in Christ, please tell them Jesus is coming, and to leave earth without a personal relationship is everlasting contempt.  It is a wise person who has ears to heard what the Spirit is saying in Daniel 12:1b-2, “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.  But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.  And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”  The prophet Micah also gives us the same account as Isaiah, written sometime around 750 BC. 

The apostle Peter also refers to the last days and it is very clear that he is talking about Jesus return to this earth in bodily form.  In 2 Peter 3:2-4, “That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, 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?”  Our Lord tells us in Matthew 24 what is gong to happen, and it reads much like the 6:00 PM news, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise again nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.”  (Matthew 24”6-8)

But if you want to read today news paper turn to 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.  Avoid such people.”  I have no incite into what is left on the clock before Christ’s return, nor does any other person, but it sure looks like we are close to the mid-night hour.  And God does not grade on a curve, He does not take into the process your goodness, the test only hinges on, have you bowed your knee to Christ, have you received by faith the cleansing of your sins by His Blood.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice