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The Importance of our Issue

The Importance of our Issue. We hear and read much today from men who claim that we are living in the last days, that the end is near! All of us are aware of the repeated failed prophecies of men who have made these claims, and who said that the coming of the Lord is near.

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The Importance of our Issue

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  1. The Importance of our Issue • We hear and read much today from men who claim that we are living in the last days, that the end is near! • All of us are aware of the repeated failed prophecies of men who have made these claims, and who said that the coming of the Lord is near. • We suggest that the reason these men-sincere though they may be– have been and continue to be wrong, is because they have wrongly identified the “last days.”

  2. The Importance of Our Issue • There is no question that the establishment of the kingdom, the coming of the Lord, judgment and the resurrection are all events that the Bible says would occur in the last days. • If therefore, we truly are in the last days, the end should be near! • Yet, the failed prophecies of all of the modern end times prophets have failed! • We suggest again that the reason their prophecies have failed is because they have wrongly identified the last days– as the Bible idenditifies them. • What are the last days– as defined by the Bible?

  3. THE LAST DAYS: DEFINING THE TERMS • ENTIRETY OF CHRISTIAN AGE– LAST DAYS BEGAN ON PENTECOST– (Amillennial and postmillennial view) • LAST GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN AGE– (Mostly the dispensational view). • LAST DAYS OF OLD COVENANT AGE

  4. LAST DAYS= CHRISTIAN AGE? • CHRIST APPEARED IN THE LAST DAYS (HEBREWS 1:1; 9:26) • BUT JESUS APPEARED BEFORE PENTECOST • THEREFORE, THE LAST DAYS EXISTED BEFORE PENTECOST. (THEY DID NOT BEGIN ON PENTECOST)

  5. DEFINING THE TERM: LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN AGE? • CHURCH IMMOVEABLE (DANIEL 2, 7) • CHRIST’S REIGN AND INCREASE OF HIS KINGDOM HAS NO END (ISAIAH 9:6F) • NO END OF HIS KINGDOM (LUKE 1:32-33) • CHURCH AGE HAS NO END (MATTHEW 24:35 / EPHESIANS 3:20-21 • HOW CAN THE ENDLESS COME TO AN - END?

  6. DEFINING THE TERM: LAST DAYS OF OLD COVENANT AGE • JEWS AND JESUS, BELIEVED IN ONLY TWO AGES • “THIS AGE,” AND “THE AGE TO COME” • THIS AGE= MOSES AND LAW; AGE TO COME AGE OF MESSIAH AND NEW COVENANT. • THIS AGE (MOSAIC AGE) TO END; AGE OF MESSIAH NEVER ENDING.

  7. FACT: • THE NT WRITERS ALL TAUGHT THAT THEY WERE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS FORETOLD BY THE OT PROPHETS • JESUS-- MATTHEW 13:17 • ACTS 2– THIS IS THAT! • ACTS 3– FORETOLD THESE DAYS • 1 COR. 10:11- END (telos-goal) OF THE AGES HAS COME! • THEY ALL AFFIRM THAT THEY WERE ANTICIPATING THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISES TO ISRAEL—NOT THE CHURCH!

  8. THE LAST DAYS: Fact #2 • NOT ONLY DID THE N.T. WRITERS SAY THEY WERE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS FORETOLD BY THE O.T. PROPHETS, THEY ALSO SAID THE END WAS NEAR, 2000 YEARS AGO! • HEBREWS 10:37– IN A VERY, VERY LITTLE WHILE! • JAMES 5:8-9– PAROUSIA HAS DRAWN NEAR! • 1 JOHN 2:8, 18-NIGHT IS PASSING, DAY IS SHINING, IT IS THE LAST HOUR! • REVELATION 1:1,3– THE TIME IS AT HAND, THESE THINGS MUST SHORTLY COME TO PASS! • CONSIDER LUKE 21:8

  9. Luke 21:8 and the Last Days • Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he.’ and, ‘The end has drawn near.’ Do not go after them.” • Jesus warned against believing– or making– premature predictions of the end! • He have them signs whereby they could know the end truly was near (Matthew 24:3, 32-32). • The very men he warned about premature declarations went on to say “the end has drawn near!” (James 5:8; 1 Peter 4:7; Rev. 1:1-3)!! • Were Peter, James and John the false prophets Jesus spoke of?

  10. False Apostles? • Peter James and John heard Jesus warn against believing (or making) premature declarations of the nearness of the end. • They also heard him say that they could know when the end truly would be near. • All three of them later made declarations that they were in the last days and that the end was near! • Unless we wish to accuse Peter, James and John of being the very false prophets Jesus warned them of, we must believe that they were right, and that the last days, and the time of the end was in the first century!!

  11. Developing the Last Days • Genesis 49:1, 10f • “I will tell you what shall befall you in the last days…The Scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be.” • Fact: The Last Days were about what would happen to the descendants of Jacob! • The issue is not about the Church, or the Church age. • It is not about the end of time. • The Last Days are concerned about God’s faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the salvation promises given to them.

  12. Deuteronomy 32 • THE TIME WHEN ISRAEL WOULD BECOME “UTTERLY CORRUPT” (31:29F) • I WILL SEE WHAT THEIR LAST END SHALL BE (V. 20). • “OH THAT SHE WOULD CONSIDER HER LATTER END” (V. 29). • CALLING OF THE GENTILES– PAUL’S MINISTRY (v.21ff) • TURNING ISRAEL TO JEALOUSY– ROM. 11 • HE WILL AVENGE THE BLOOD OF HIS SAINTS (V. 43).

  13. Isaiah 2-4 • In the last days: • The kingdom established (2:2-4). • The Day of the Lord (2:10FF) • Judgment on Israel (3:1-3,13f) • Salvation of the remnant (4:3-4) • Judgment for shedding innocent blood (4:4). • The Tabernacle of God established (4:5F) • THE LAST DAYS OF ISAIAH 2-4 REFER TO ISRAEL’S LAST DAYS!

  14. Isaiah 2-4-The Last Days, and the N. T. • In the last days, and the Day of the Lord, men would run to the hills and call for the mountains to fall on them, and hide them from the Day. • Cleary cannot be an “end of time” event! • Luke 23:28-31-But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. "For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ "Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"’

  15. ISAIAH 2-4– LUKE 23:28F • ISAIAH FORETOLD THE LAST DAYS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD, WHEN ISRAEL WOULD BE JUDGED FOR HER BLOOD GUILT. • JESUS APPEARED IN THE LAST DAYS. • HE FORETOLD THE JUDGMENT OF ISRAEL • THAT JUDGMENT WOULD COME FOR KILLING HIM AND HIS DISCIPLES. • THAT JUDGMENT CAME IN A.D. 70. • JESUS APPLIED ISAIAH 2-4 TO THAT EVENT! • THEREFORE, THE LAST DAYS OF ISAIAH WERE THE LAST DAYS OF ISRAEL, TERMINATING IN THE DAY OF THE LORD IN A.D. 70.

  16. Isaiah—Luke 23– and the Day of the Lord • The Day of the Lord of Isaiah 2-4 would be at the climax of the last days. • Jesus applied the Day of the Lord prophecy of Isaiah 2-4 to his coming in judgment of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Luke 23:28f). • Therefore, the “last days” of Isaiah 2-4 refer to the last days of Israel, consummating in the judgment of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

  17. Isaiah 2-4-The Last Days– and Paul • Isaiah foretold the Day of the Lord at the climax of the last days, when men would run “from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.” • Paul, who preached nothing but the hope of Israel--in predicting the Day of the Lord at the climax of the last days, specifically quotes Isaiah 2: 10, 19 (LXX)! • He quotes from the identical verses that Jesus did, in Jesus’ prediction of A.D. 70! • The Day of the Lord of 2 Thessalonians 1 would be the fulfillment of Isaiah. • But, Isaiah predicted the judgment of Israel in A.D. 70! • Therefore, Paul’s concern was for the last days of Israel, climaxing in the judgment of Israel in A.D. 70.

  18. Isaiah 2-4– The Last Days--Revelation • Jesus applied Isaiah 2 and the Day of the Lord to A.D. 70. • Paul used the identical verses Jesus did! • Notice now, Revelation 6:12f- “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?“ • John uses Isaiah just like Jesus and Paul!!

  19. Isaiah, Jesus, Paul and John • Isaiah clearly predicted judgment of Israel in the last days– not the end of time (3:18f). • Jesus undeniably applied Isaiah to the judgment on Israel in A.D. 70. • One common theme in all four texts– The avenging of the shed blood of Jesus and the martyrs! • Isaiah 4:4- “When the Lord removes the blood guilt of the daughters of Zion, by the spirit of judgment and of fire.”

  20. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER • ISAIAH FORETOLD THE LAST DAYS, CLIMAXING IN THE DAY OF THE LORD, WHEN ISRAEL WOULD BE JUDGED FOR SHEDDING INNOCENT BLOOD. • JESUS APPLIED ISAIAH TO THE JUDGMENT OF JERUSALEM THAT WOULD COME FOR KILLING HIM. • PAUL USED THE IDENTICAL VERSES TO PREDICT COMING JUDGMENT ON THOSE PERSECUTING THE CHURCH– THE JEWS. • JOHN USED THE IDENTICAL VERSES TO PREDICT THE AVENGING OF THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS, AND THE JUDGMENT OF THE CITY, “WHERE THE LORD WAS SLAIN.”

  21. Summary and Conclusion #1 • We have seen that Jesus, his apostles, and the N. T. writers all affirm that the last days foretold by the O. T. prophets were present, and that they were living in the last days, 2000 years ago. • We have seen that Jesus told his disciples not to say the end was near, until it really was near– and that they later said it was near! • We have seen from the O.T. that the last days prophecies dealt with the last days of Israel’s covenant world, her age, not the last days of time, or the last days of the Christian age.

  22. Summary and Conclusion #2 • Since the Spirit inspired apostles and authors said they were living in the predicted last days, and since they said the end was near in the first century, • Then it must be true that we today cannot be living in the last days, and the end is not near today! • This should give us great joy, liberty, and confidence to face the future! • We live in the endless age of Christ, and his New Covenant, where there is life and liberty!

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