For all of church history everyone has thought they lived in the “last days.” However when one actually looks at this phrase in the Text, it really doesn’t mean what we think it means.

The “last days” verse are used over and over without their context to fortify the idea that we are in the “last days” of our time. However if one carefully examines them in their context, they are not speaking to”our times” at all.

‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Acts 2:17

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. 2 Tim. 3:1  

. . . but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Heb. 1:2

Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. James 5:3

First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions 2Pet. 3:3

Peter’s Pentecost Sermon

14   But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.  15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day;  16 but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:  17 ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;  18 yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.  19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;  20 the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day.  21 And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Acts 2:14-21

We covered this at length in the “Blood Moon Hoax”. However just for a refresher, Peter is quoting from Joel 2, and he plainly states that what was being experienced at Pentecost was the fulfillment of Joel,  “16 but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:” The “last days” he is referring to, are last days of his people.

For those who try to make this our “last days.” The only solution is that Peter is wrong and therefore the Bible is wrong. However Peter is right and the interpretation stands on apostolic authority, that the “last days” were in Peter’s time.

A Form of Religion

1   But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress.  2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  3 inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good,  4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  5 holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.  6 For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses,  7 who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.  8 As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith;  9 but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. 2 Tim. 3:1-9

When haven’t there been men like these? Paul even names two from Exodus, Jannes and Jambres, these were the priest’s who opposed Moses in Egypt. This was the event that formed the Children of Israel into a nation. It was their “first days.” It is interesting to note that these kinds of people prey on weak women. Women respond to spiritual leaders very differently then men do. They like men who give them attention, who say they will teach them how to obtain heaven, they are deceived far more easily then most men. Notice that they make their way into the household not into the congregation. They play with the children, then notice every little thing the woman does and praise her extravagantly with mushy flattery, assuring them that God will notice their good works. This is all a ruse to enslave them to their false teachings.

After a generation of these men the “last days” will come with stress.

Messiah was in the Last Days

1 In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets;  2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  3 He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. Heb. 1:1-4

This is where we are finally told what the “last days” were. They were when the Son came and spoke to the people. Now we know that the “last days” are not OUR “last days” but rather the “last days” of Jewish polity.

James condemned those who killed their Messiah

1   Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.  3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.  4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.  5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.  6 You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.  James 5:1-6

He is clearly speaking of those who had the riches of having been there when our Lord walked the earth. Rather than excepting his offer of the spiritual Kingdom they clung to the riches they made from the old ways.

Peter says destruction is coming

1   This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder;  2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.  3 First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.”  5 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water,  6 through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.  7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 2 Pet. 3:1-7

Conclusion

Since we now know that the “last days” they were talking about were the last days of the Messiah and Peter, i.e. the end of Jewish polity, things become clear. In 70 AD the Roman army came and destroyed the entire Jewish polity as well as the religion. He stated that Jerusalem’s fall is as sure as Noah’s Flood. Just as the whole world was deluged with water so shall the ungodly men of Jerusalem, those who rejected their Messiah be destroyed by fire.

The Dispensational teachings that the “last days” are our last days can only be achieved by taking the phrase out of context. This they do by first cutting up the prophecies into different dispensations, or by just assuming that these prophecies are about us and our time, and not the times of Messiah and the Apostles. Most people don’t actually read the Bible for themselves so they never notice these discrepancies.

We are all ego centric from the time we are born. We inherently think everything is about us, our times and our peoples. Most people don’t read history, so they are easy prey for those who stroke their egos. They teach that the prophecies are about the people they are speaking to. When in fact most prophecies are about Israel and the nations that surrounded them or the great imperial nations of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. All those nations that have come and gone in their own last days. There is no prophecy of our last days, only that the King of Kings will set up His Kingdom forever, and rule ALL nations. So the nations shall still exist.

From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. Rev 19:15