p2

Now I�d like to talk about a chapter in Luke, in truth its only part of it that we are interested in Luke 2: 14-21. This should be a familiar passage to most of you, in it the disciples are preaching in tongues, they are accused of being drunk, Peter responds to the accusations of the crowds with this. � No, (responding to the question of being drunk) this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: �In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven and signs in the earth below, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.�� Note the language here, �In the last days� �the great and terrible day of the Lord� Joel is clearly talking about the end times. If you came across this passage in Joel you would be tempted to say �well we should look for these things to happen and if they do it means that Jesus is coming back.� Fortunately we are saved from this assumption by the words of Peter, who says, � this (that is the event that was in the process of happening, the miracle of tongues) is what was spoken by the prophet.�(Who was speaking of the end times.)
    1 Peter 1:3-12 � Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God�s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.� There are two key phrases here �ready to be revealed� which indicates something imminent, soon to come, about to be shown, and of course �in the last time� would seem to mean the last time, the last days, the end times. This was written in Biblical times, something that was soon to happen then has most certainly already happened. It was written addressing a Biblical church, it was not written as a prophecy addressing the future, it was written to a specific church of that time, which is why the statement is in the present, not the future tense.
      1 Peter 4:7a �The end of all things is near.� Generally when something is being referred to as being near it means that it will not be long until that event takes place. This verse literally means that the end of all things or, the end times is near, that is soon. This verse was written a long, long time ago, the time between when this verse was written and now could not by even the most liberal of estimates be called short. Therefore the end of all things as it is referred to in this verse must have already been. Some people will argue that Jesus once said that a thousand years is as a day to God therefore to God soon could mean any length of time. This argument breaks down in several places. First when God is speaking to his people he speaks to them in their language, in other words when he says something except for in the specific instances where he uses symbolic language he speaks to us in terms we will understand and speaks with regard to the things that affect us such as time, weather, physical state. Secondly, God lives outside time, the purpose of the 1,000 years = day statement is to show that time does not affect God, not to show that time references in the Bible mean nothing.
        1 John 2:18. �Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know that it is the last hour.� John is speaking to a church in Biblical times, he does not say, �this is how you will know� he says �this is how we know� indicating that his audience is already aware of the thing of which he is speaking. This necessarily limits its being a prophecy as it restricts the audience to people who already are involved in the events being spoken of. Also he includes himself in this saying we another indicator that he was speaking to people in his own time.
       Revelations 22:10,20 Revelation is a prophetical book; it is the record of the visions of the apostle John while he was banished to the Isle of Patmos, visions of the end times among other things. Revelation 22:10 says, � Then he told me, �Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book because the time is near.�� As we have said near when referring to time means soon. Revelation 22:20 states, � He who testifies to these things says, � Yes, I am coming soon.� Amen. Come Lord Jesus� Soon, not thousands of years later, not millennia in the future. And lest we should be confused as to who was coming soon the last two sentences are, �Amen. Come Lord Jesus.�
     This is the statement of my beliefs concerning end times and biblical prophecy as it relates to the end times. The verses which I chose to use are not the only verses of which I know relating to the end times nor do are the prophecies mentioned the only ones that I know of which refer to the end time. I chose several of the clearest ones to back up my statement so as to avoid confusion. There are many other verses and many other prophesies in the Bible that refer to the end times. I would be more than open to discussing these with anyone who would so wish.
* All verses used in this paper are from the New International Version of the Bible.