Are we living in the Last Days?"

The Last Days, the End Times, Signs of the Times ◦ 10 May 2023 ◦ Spring 1 Q: ARE WE IN THE LAST DAYS? A: WHOSE LAST DAYS? 2 Some key passages 1.2 Timothy 3:1-9 1. Who is the audience? 2. Is this limited to only one audience? Compare verse 5. 2.1 John 2:18-19 3 More key passages ◦1 Corinthians 10:11 ◦1 Corinthians 7:31 ◦Revelation 1:3 ◦1 Peter 4:7 ◦Hebrews 9:26 ◦Revelation 3:10–11 ◦James 5:7–9 ◦Hebrews 10:25 ◦Revelation 22:6–7 ◦Matthew 10:23 ◦Hebrews 10:37 ◦Revelation 22:10 ◦Matthew 16:27–28 ◦1 Peter 1:20 ◦Revelation 22:12 ◦Matthew 26:64 ◦Revelation 22:20 ◦1 Peter 5:4 ◦1 Corinthians 7:29 ◦Revelation 1:1 4 Coming of the Lord Matthew 24:3 2 Peter 3:4 Matthew 24:27 2 Peter 3:12 Matthew 24:37 1 John 2:28 Matthew 24:39 1 Corinthians 15:23 Acts 2:17-21 James 5:7 James 5:8 5 Premillennial Dispensationalism 1. Christ offered to the Jews the Davidic kingdom in the first century. They rejected it, and it was postponed until the future. 2. The current church age is a “parenthesis” unknown to the Old Testament prophets. 3. God has separate programs for the church and Israel. 4. The church will ultimately lose influence in the world and become corrupted or apostate toward the end of the church age. 6 Premillennial Dispensationalism 5. Christ will return secretly to rapture his saints before the great tribulation. 6. After the tribulation Christ will return to earth to administer a Jewish political kingdom based in Jerusalem for one thousand years. Satan will be bound, and the temple will be rebuilt and the sacrificial system reinstituted. 7. Near the end of the millennium, Satan will be released and Christ will be attacked at Jerusalem. 8. Christ will call down judgment from heaven and destroy his enemies. The (second) resurrection and the judgment of the wicked will occur, initiating the eternal order. 7 A-millennialism 1. The church age is the kingdom era prophesied in the Old Testament, as the New Testament church becomes the Israel of God. 2. Satan was bound during Jesus’s earthly ministry, restraining him while the gospel is being preached in the world. 3. Insofar as Christ presently rules in the hearts of believers, they will have some influence on culture while living out their faith. 4. Toward the end evil’s growth will accelerate, culminating in the great tribulation and a personal antichrist. 8 A-millennialism 5. “Christ will return to end history, resurrect and judge all men, and establish the eternal order. The eternal destiny of the redeemed may be either in heaven or in a totally renovated new earth.”2 Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion, 57–58. 9 Historic Premillennialism 1. The New Testament era Church is the initial phase of Christ’s kingdom, as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. 2. The New Testament Church may win occasional victories in history, but ultimately she will fail in her mission, p 213 lose influence, and become corrupted as worldwide evil increases toward the end of the Church Age. 3. The Church will pass through a future, worldwide, unprecedented time of travail. This era is known as the Great Tribulation, which will punctuate the end of contemporary history.… 4. Christ will return at the end of the Tribulation to rapture the 10 Historic Premillennialism 5. Christ will then descend to the earth with his glorified saints, fight the battle of Armageddon, bind Satan, and establish a worldwide, political kingdom, which will be personally administered by him for 1,000 years from Jerusalem. 6. At the end of the millennial reign, Satan will be loosed and a massive rebellion against the kingdom and a fierce assault against Christ and his saints will occur. 7. God will intervene with fiery judgment to rescue Christ and the saints. The resurrection and the judgment of the wicked will occur and the eternal order will begin. 11 Postmillennialism 1.The first is that the messianic kingdom was founded on earth during the earthly ministry of Christ in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The New Testament church becomes the transformed Israel, the “Israel of God” of which Paul speaks in Galatians 6:16. 2. The second feature is that the kingdom is essentially redemptive and spiritual rather than political and physical. 12 Postmillennialism 3. The third feature is that the kingdom will exercise a transformational sociocultural influence in history. Gentry quotes Greg L. Bahnsen: “The essential distinctive of postmillennialism is its scripturally derived, sure expectation of gospel prosperity for the church during the present age.”9 4. The fourth feature is that the kingdom of Christ will gradually expand in time and on earth. This will be accomplished not without Christ’s royal power as King but without his physical presence on earth. 13 Postmillennialism 5. The fifth feature is that the Great Commission will succeed. Gentry cites Bahnsen: “The thing that distinguishes the biblical postmillennialist, then, from amillennialists and premillennialists is his belief that the Scripture teaches the success of the great commission in this age of the church.”10 This expectation includes the virtual Christianization of the nations. 14 Postmillennialism 6. At this point in his summary, Gentry makes an important distinction between two types or groups of modern postmillennialists: pietistic postmillennialists and theonomic postmillennialists. The basic difference between the two has to do with the application of biblical law. “Pietistic postmillennialism (as found in Banner of Truth circles),” Gentry says, “denies that the postmillennial advance of the kingdom involves the total transformation of culture through the application of biblical law. Theonomic postmillennialism affirms this.”11 15 Postmillennialism 7. The seventh feature is that an extended period of spiritual prosperity may endure for millennia, after which history will be drawn to a close by the personal, visible, bodily return of Christ. His return will be accompanied by a literal resurrection and a general judgment, ushering in the final and eternal form of the kingdom. 16 Conclusion 1. The Bible uses “last days,” “signs of the times,” “the end,” etc. for different peoples and different events. 2. Context must determine what “last days” are being taught. 3. Not every “end time” prophecy is about our future. 17