the last days have begun
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8/3/2019 The Last Days Have Begun
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When does eschatology begin? Eschatology is a fancy
little theological word that means the doctrine of the last
things. So another way of putting the question to you is:
"When do the last days begin?
On the American theological landscape, there has been a
fascination with the end times. One could trace the rise
in interest back to the influence of the Scoffield Reference
Bible.Butin the past quarter century or more, a lucrativelittle cottage industry has fanned this flame with books
Iike Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth ot TimLaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' LeftBehind series.
In evangelicalism, options for your view of the end times
abound. On the millennium, you can be premillennial,
amillennial or post-millennial. Even within our Bible Fel-
lowship Church doctrinal statement, you have freedom
on the position of the tribulation and the rapture. You
can be pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath rapture,
and maybe some yet undiscovered combination. As one
cartoonist portrayed it, Jesus Himself might well look atthe complex eschatological spectrum with all its charts
and quip, "I'd come back just as soon as I can
figure out when."
and Daniel have been driven by current geopolitical hap-
penings rather than serious attention to the text. Anyone
remember the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev's
"mark of the beast"?
Many popular evangelical eschatologies are sorely lacking
in exegesis. Most egregiously, very few populist ap-
proaches begin eschatology where the Scriptures begin.
So we return to our question: "when do the last daysbegin?" The biblical answer is surprisingly and, given
today's climate, controversially but nonetheless resound-
ingly: the last days began already with the work of Jesus
Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension. If we are
going to follow Scripture, we should not look to the fu-
ture and say, "when do they start", but insteadwe should
be looking to the past and saying "how did they already
start." While you might need to recover from your shock,
let it be stated plainly: the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus
has already inaugurated the last days.
For discussing eschatology, we should start where Jesus'message starts. Jesus begins His preaching with the
proclamation that "the kingdom of God/heaven is at
hand." His driving out of demons shows us the kingdom
of God has come (Matt. 12:28). The kingdom of God/
heaven can be defined as the "reign of God". This reign of
God is the promise of the Old Testament where God
draws His rulership close and manifests it in the Son of
David. This reign is promised to triumph over the whole
world, defeat evil, and be an immanent adminis-
Jle*:.:;
For discussing eschatology, we should start where Jesus' messagestarts. Jesus begins His preaching with the proclamation that "thekingdom of God/heaven is at hand."
Evangelicals have allegedly become experts
on eschatology. Walk into any church and
you will find some study being done on the
book of Revelation or the end times. Often times, the
principles of interpretation are questionable and arise
more from popular fiction and bad Bible study methods
than from a serious grammatical-historical exegesis.
For example, Revelation's genre (type of literature) is
"apocalyptic", which means that John intended to use
symbolism and imagery rather than tell us that locusts
are helicopters and the holocausts must be nuclear war.
In the popular realm, most studies of Revelation, Ezekiel
tration of the eternal sovereign rule that God has always
had. In this respect the "kingdom ofGod" is an eschato-
logical event-a climax of the end time promises of God
where God draws near.
The Old Testament saints believed that history moved in
a straight line. It was not cyclical based on crop cycles,
calendars, or repeated patterns like pagans and Greeks
thought. While the calendar of the Old Testament repeat-
ed feasts and sacrifices were anticipatory of the once-for-
all climax at the end of the age, they expected history to
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The Last Days Have Begun ftontinued)
have an end or goal. Specifically "this present evil age"
would give way to "the age to come." Evil would be
undone and God's kingdom reign would be present. But
Jesus starts His ministry by telling us "the kingdom of
God has come" meaning that the age to come is dawning
in history with His work. History is on the cusp of its
intended climax. His work ushers this in bringing it to
fulfillment.
When later New Testament writers look at what has hap-
pened in Jesus, they show us that the promised last days
have dawned. Peter tells us by quoting Joel 2 that in the
The
events of Pentecost the last daYs
have dawned (Acts 2:17). He-
brews begins by recounting how
the climax of God's revelation
is in the Son: "in these last daYs
he has spoken to us by his Son."
It is the New Covenant whichis the covenant of the last days
(Heb. 8:8,10; 10:15-18). Christ's
sacrifice on the cross comes
now "once at the consummation
of the ages" (Heb.9:26). Paul
records that Jesus was born of a
woman "in the fullness of time,"
language that denotes the escha-
tological climax of God's histori-
When later New Testament writerslook at what has happened in Jesus,
they show us that the Promisedlast days have dawned.
days had began and David's house was rebuilt." What has
been said specifically of Paul's preaching can summarize
the content of all the Apostles' gospel preaching: "The
whole content of this preaching can be summatized as
the proclamation and explication of the eschatological
time of salvation inaugurated with Christ's advent,
death and resurrection."
The end of the age and last days have been inaugurated.They have started but they are not yet finished. The
mystery of the coming of the kingdom is that the pres-
ent evil age still exists (Gal. 1:4). In fact, the two overlap
and operate side by side. But the death of Christ was an
advance in-breaking of the day of the Lord where God
::judged the sins of His peoPle
in His Son. The resurrection of
Jesus was His vindication. He
has walked through the day of
judgment in advance of the final
day. His vindication fits Him to
be exalted in His human king-ship over all things from now
until that final judgement He
will execute (Acts 2:33-36 ; 17 :31
Rom. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 15:20-27;EPh
1":20-22; Heb. 2:6-9). With His
vindication, He begins the "new
creation" expected in Isaiah's las
days (Gal. 6:1'5;2 Cor. 5:17). Thi
is why Christ's resurrection is a
cal program. 1 Cor. 10:11 tells present day believers that
the Old Testament is for "our instruction on whom the
end of the ages has come."
The writers of the New Testament proclaimed that in the
work of Jesus at His death, resurrection and ascension to
the Father's right hand Scripture has been fulfilled. The
death and resurrection of Christ marked an eschatologi-
cal event in advance of the ending of all things. So for the
New Testament, it is not as if the kingdom was offered
only to be postponed. A postponed kingdom or eschatol-
ogy is false according to Scripture. Quite the opposite,
the kingdom has begun. In fact, central to Old Testament
eschatological predictions is the restoration of the throne
ofDavid from which the Messiah would reign. Acts
1-5:L6-17 quotes Amos 9:11-12where God says, "I will
rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its
ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind
may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by
my name." With so many Gentiles seeking the Lord, and
the apostles needing to defend Gentiles turning to God,
the Apostles look at the Old Testament and say in effect,
"this is what we were supposed to expect when God's last
12 grc.onevoice Falt 2011
frrstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20). It is the first part of the harvest
in advance of the rest but guaranteeing the rest. The
resurrection was expected in the last days and with Jesu
resurrection the last days have begun.
Still the issues of premillennial, post-millennial, and
amillennial are important. To say that eschatology has
been inaugurated and that the promised last days have
begun with Jesus' first Advent is never to deny nor min
mize His second Advent. But despite all of that, it is eve
more important that we begin with eschatology where
Scripture begins. The biblical eschatology is that the las
days begins with the death, resurrection, and ascension
of Jesus Christ. If we do not start our study where Scrip
ture starts all subsequent escapades in and explorations
of the topic will ring hollow to the tune the Bible has se
That is sadly the state of far too many popular evangelic
eschatologies. i'l
For a further treatment of the Kingdom of God and lnaugurated
Eschatotogy, see the author's study paper for the Kingdom of God
Study Committee entitted The Presence of the Kingdom of God i
the New Testament. lt can found on the BFC History site' www.
bfchistory. org/201 1 kingdomstudies. htm
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