What are the Last Days?

Broadly defined, the last days are the time period between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his yet-to-happen 2nd coming. These days are also referred to as the ‘age of grace’ or the ‘church age’. These ‘last days’ have been going on for over 2000 years now, and so what applies to living our lives today as Christians would just have applied to believers in the early church.

People in the church today seem to be rather complacent that the 2000 years of last-days will go on indefinitely. But the Apostle Paul never had that luxury of time or sense of complacency. As evidenced by his life and the letters that he wrote in the New Testament, he fully expected that Christ would return at any moment, and there was a sense of urgency in his life and witness that is lacking in today’s times.

The phrase ‘last days’ suggests that these days are in fact limited, and they have a start point and an end point. It is rather foolish to live as if the current age of grace will go on forever, yet we all struggle with this by the very fact that they have been going on for 2000+ years. It is human nature to think that things will continue as they have been for a long time. One also has to ask why God has allowed these days to go on for so long.

A good answer to that is the verse in the Bible which says that 1000 years are like a day in God’s timing.

Secondly, for every additional day of grace that we have been given, that is one additional day for more souls to come into God’s kingdom and to experience salvation through Jesus Christ. Just in today’s church service alone, a half-dozen hands went up for those who accepted the invitation to make Jesus their personal Lord and Savior, and they were prayed for at the end of the service.

It would seem that in the harvest of souls for God’s kingdom, that God would want to maximize the yield of returns.

This post will quickly look at the Biblical evidence to show the starting point of the ‘last days’ and how we are living in these days right now. Looking at the end point of these days will require a more detailed examination of Biblical evidence, given the various points of view out there to do with pre-millenialism, post-millenialism, and so forth.

If we look at Joel 2:28 in the Old Testament, the prophet writes that, “Afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (God speaking through the prophet)

The Old Testament shows that God’s Spirit worked through specific people in specific times, but there was not yet the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all people. That happened with Jesus’ disciples during Pentecost, after Jesus had risen from the dead, as we read in Acts 2:1-4. Peter himself then quoted the Joel verse above, and used the phrase ‘last days’ explicitly, which you can read in Acts 2:14

The fulfillment of the Joel prophecy was the starting point of the last days, essentially, and we have clear evidence that it happened after Jesus rose from the dead. We can also read John 14:16 where earlier, Jesus promises his disciples that “I will ask the Father, and I will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

This is all a good reminder to follow the example of the apostle Paul and live a Christian life in the expectation that Jesus could return at any moment. Certainly, we can make the argument that 2000 years later on, there should be more urgency, not less, because we are that much closer to the day of the Lord.