The Last Days
The first followers of Jesus believed they were living in the last days...the final generation the Lord would return to. It is easy to find this information in all of their writings:
I John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
James 5:2-3 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
2,000 years later, we are still waiting. How could Peter, Paul, John...these guys who wrote the Bible...be so off?!!
The truth is, they weren't wrong!! They knew exactly what the last days before Jesus' return would be like, and they saw it happening all around them! They were simply saying "this is what Jesus said was going to happen, and it is happening!" So we must ask "what was their experience!"...whatever they were seeing IS what it will be like for the last generation!
John said, in I John, "this is the last hour," and THEN Jesus took Him to heaven and gave him the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't say to John "you are a little early, buddy." No!! He said:
Revelation 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Jesus confirmed that John was EXACTLY right in His understanding of the "last days"...the end of the age. The Book of Revelation, if you take it as it is written and don't make it symbolic, agrees perfectly with John's understanding. So what was John's understanding? Why, at least 2,000 years in advance, did John know exactly what the last seven years of human history leading up to Jesus' return would look like?
John's understanding, as explained to him by Jesus...the one we are all following... was exactly what he was living through, which is why he kept saying "this is it."
Those closest to Jesus all knew the same thing, the last days would be marked by persecution of believers...great tribulation...and the release of signs and wonders that would bring in a great harvest. THAT is what all these men were seeing!!
John was chased from place to place. Peter, building Churches all over the middle east, was imprisoned, beaten, mocked, resisted...yet still victorious! Paul, same story.... James, Jude...These men knew what Jesus taught. They wrote the BIBLE! They knew the formula for the great end time harvest was tribulation mixed with supernatural and signs and wonders. This WAS THE PLAN told to them by the Lord, and they were living it. Of course it was the last days!
Jesus said that His plan is like a baby being born. What was conceived at Pentecost will be delivered in the last week....the 70th week of Daniel....the last 7 years leading up to the day Jesus splits the sky, gathers us to Himself, and leads us into Jerusalem to start taking over His earth with a government built on righteousness and love. Just like the birth of anything as glorious as a baby, the final hours will be marked with great contractions...intensity in waves as the new age is delivered. This is what the first disciples got a taste of in their generation: a united Bride, performing amazing miracles, mass salvation and growth of the Church, and persecuted yet still overcoming...crushed but not destroyed...pressed but not abandoned. People get ready...these guys were not wrong!
John 16:19-22 Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
I John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
James 5:2-3 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
2,000 years later, we are still waiting. How could Peter, Paul, John...these guys who wrote the Bible...be so off?!!
The truth is, they weren't wrong!! They knew exactly what the last days before Jesus' return would be like, and they saw it happening all around them! They were simply saying "this is what Jesus said was going to happen, and it is happening!" So we must ask "what was their experience!"...whatever they were seeing IS what it will be like for the last generation!
John said, in I John, "this is the last hour," and THEN Jesus took Him to heaven and gave him the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't say to John "you are a little early, buddy." No!! He said:
Revelation 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Jesus confirmed that John was EXACTLY right in His understanding of the "last days"...the end of the age. The Book of Revelation, if you take it as it is written and don't make it symbolic, agrees perfectly with John's understanding. So what was John's understanding? Why, at least 2,000 years in advance, did John know exactly what the last seven years of human history leading up to Jesus' return would look like?
John's understanding, as explained to him by Jesus...the one we are all following... was exactly what he was living through, which is why he kept saying "this is it."
Those closest to Jesus all knew the same thing, the last days would be marked by persecution of believers...great tribulation...and the release of signs and wonders that would bring in a great harvest. THAT is what all these men were seeing!!
John was chased from place to place. Peter, building Churches all over the middle east, was imprisoned, beaten, mocked, resisted...yet still victorious! Paul, same story.... James, Jude...These men knew what Jesus taught. They wrote the BIBLE! They knew the formula for the great end time harvest was tribulation mixed with supernatural and signs and wonders. This WAS THE PLAN told to them by the Lord, and they were living it. Of course it was the last days!
Jesus said that His plan is like a baby being born. What was conceived at Pentecost will be delivered in the last week....the 70th week of Daniel....the last 7 years leading up to the day Jesus splits the sky, gathers us to Himself, and leads us into Jerusalem to start taking over His earth with a government built on righteousness and love. Just like the birth of anything as glorious as a baby, the final hours will be marked with great contractions...intensity in waves as the new age is delivered. This is what the first disciples got a taste of in their generation: a united Bride, performing amazing miracles, mass salvation and growth of the Church, and persecuted yet still overcoming...crushed but not destroyed...pressed but not abandoned. People get ready...these guys were not wrong!
John 16:19-22 Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.