Are we living in the last days?

G’day everyone, Dave Deane here, and our question for the week is: Are we living in the last days?

There’s lots we could say in response to this question, but I just want to start with an observation about the very asking of this question, itself. What occasions a question like this? When everything is going great, and ‘life is good,’ would you pause to ask ‘Are we living in the last days?’ My guess is you probably wouldn’t.

You see, the question ‘Are we living in the last days?’ has an already built-in assumption that the last days are difficult days – they’re trialling times to be alive. Where does that assumption come from?

Well, we could say Hollywood and list off our favourite apocalyptic movies, but that just pushes the question back a step: where does Hollywood get its ideas from?

The short answer is 2 Timothy 3:1 “in the last days there will come times of difficulty…” but the longer answer here dives into a big discussion on what is called the doctrine of “Eschatology” or the study of The Last Things before Jesus will return and establish His rule, the new heaven and the new earth and so on. That’s what the original Greek origin of the word eschatology means: eschaton, last things, ology, study of.

So, “Are we living in the last days?” Well, to keep this brief, I just want to say three things.

First, it is the Bible that tells us about the times we’re living in, not the times we’re living in that tell us about the Bible.

What I mean by this is, if we say ‘yes, we’re living in the last days’ – and I believe we are, by the way – then the reason we know that is because the Bible tells us… the Bible… not the news… not the latest political or geopolitical situation… not the latest earthquake or pandemic… the Bible.

Now, I’m not saying these other things aren’t interesting or insignificant as they relate to eschatology, all I’m saying is that, above all else, the Bible is the authority on where history is moving prophetically, not the news headlines or our personal estimation of world events… the sure foundation of the word of God.

And forget eschatology for a moment, this is a general principle for Christian living. In the OT, for example, we see Daniel searching the scriptures, the scrolls of Jeremiah, to get an understanding of the difficult times he was living as an exile in Babylon.

So, applying this principle, Secondly, it is the Bible that us about the ‘last day’ and the ‘last days’.

Regarding the last day, it needs to be said clearly that no human being knows the day or the hour of that day when Jesus will return. Jesus himself said: “that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone…” (Matt 24:36).

But with that said, we are given information regarding the ‘last days’ that anticipate the last day in quite a few different places. For example, Peter tells us that Jesus came to earth in the last days (1 Peter 1:20); Paul tells us that the end of the ages has come, 1 Corinthians 10:11 . Even Jesus himself, in three parallel passages – Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, and Luke 21 – mentions a host of natural, spiritual, social, cultural, and political signs in lead up to the last day when he will return.

And, to return to a previous point, it’s interesting here because Jesus describes these signs like “birth pangs” (Matt 24:8). Now, what is it about birth pangs? Well, they get more and more frequent, and more and more intense right up until the point of delivery when there is relief, and joy and new life.

And idea, you know summed by the Psalmists who says ‘weeping may come in the night, but joy comes in the morning’ it takes us to a third and final point, namely:

That, living in the last days is an encouragement and a motivation for Christians anticipating the return of Christ.

I think this is an important point, because there are a smorgasbord of different views and attitudes when it comes to Christian views of eschatology, or the end times. Some people say it isn’t that important, ‘it will all just pan out in the end’ which is quite a dismissal of what a fair wack of Scripture, not to mention the explicit teachings of Jesus. And there are others who, for whatever reason, get so anxious as they look at the news waiting for Jesus’ return that they need to pause and case their anxiety back onto Him who cares for them. The Bible is neither indifferent nor anxious on the subject… but it is somewhat paradoxical.

On the one hand, the Bible teaches that there will be more difficult times with more and more difficulty… but on the other, it teaches us that the delivery, the relief, the new life are near.

Friends, Christians are not in the dark without a hope concerning the providence of God and the course of the future. We have the end written for us by the one who is the Alpha and the Omega, and that, says the Apostle Paul, is something that we should lead us to encourage one another and build one another up.

“since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thess 5:8).