Are we in the last days?

Jesus spoke a lot about the end times, as far as things leading up to the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD, but so did the Apostle Paul, who was in His own last days.

In the very last letter he wrote, Paul said, “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” (2nd Tim 3:1-3), and worse yet, they shall be “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” (2nd Tim 3:4-5).

 Of course, you can’t avoid them all because we’d have to leave this world, but Paul means we ought to separate ourselves from those who practices these things because they’re storing up wrath against that Day of judgment. Can’t you see that we are living in dangerous times? There are nuclear threats from North Korea, terrorism, both domestic and abroad, and escalating violence in our land. And I believe it is going to get worse and worse as we approach the day of Jesus’ return.

 

Jesus, in what is called the Olivet Prophecy, said that “as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:37).  What were Noah’s days like?  Genesis tells us about the human state at that time, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5).  So Noah’s days where days when mankind used every imagination in their minds to do evil and do evil all the time!  So Jesus says will be the days leading up to the return of Jesus Christ (Matt 24:37) where “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark” (Matt 24:38) “and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:39).  In other words, no one saw the flood coming and few expect Jesus return today.

Many of the things that Jesus prophesied in Matthew actually took place in or just before 70 AD. Things like the destruction of the temple, where not one stone was left upon another because the Romans sought for gold that they believed was hidden in between the stones. That’s why Jesus said “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matt 24:2b), and that happened. The disciples appear to ask two questions. One about “when will these things be,” meaning the destruction of the Temple (Matt 24:3a), because that’s what they were talking about when they walked out of the Temple (Matt 24:1-2), but they also ask, “and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age” (Matt 24:3b). That sounds like two more questions, but I believe they’re asking about the same thing. It is from this point that Jesus launches into the “last days” prophecy or sometimes called, The Olivet Discourse or Prophecy, however we know from history that some of these things happened in the disciple’s lifetime. There were rumors of war and then war (the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Jews failed attempt to take back the city and Judea). That came in the late 60 AD’s. By then, there were actually false Christ’s, who literally proclaimed that they were the Messiah, however today we might see that as someone who is proclaiming another Christ and not the God of the Bible. For example, some cults and other world religions teach that Jesus is not God, but just a prophet. Another one (a cult) teaches that Jesus became God, and so can we, but that is a totally different Jesus they are teaching about. That is not the Christ, but the thing is, it is as Jesus said; they have led many astray.

We should not get tangled up in timelines or prophecy studies as much as I desire to focus on being a disciple of Christ. That means you should follow Him wherever He went and do whatever He did, and then go wherever He tells you. You must live for Christ and share Christ since no one knows the moment of the return of Christ. I have no secret information. I only know that nothing prevents His coming at any second, and besides, everyone’s “last days” are right now since we’re all only one heartbeat from eternity. Where will you spend it?