35-CHAPTER XXIX "THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION EQUALS THE 'LAST DAYS' IN THE NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY OF R...

CHAPTER XXIX "THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION EQUALS THE ’LAST DAYS’ IN THE NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY OF REDEMPTION"

"The present period, the age of the church, is described in the New Testament as the ‘last time’ (Acts 2:16-17; 1 John 2:18). Therefore, since we are already in the ‘End time,’ there can be no room for a coming intervening kingdom, because after this ‘last’ there can follow only eternity." In the language of Scripture the whole New Testament unfolding of salvation is termed the "last time." The "last days" commenced with the first coming of Christ (Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem at Pentecost was already a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the "last days" (Acts 2:16-17). In the passage mentioned above (1 John 2:18) and therefore as early as the first century, John explains that "it is a last hour," that is, this is the character of the period. But this does not exclude that, since the "last days" have already lasted nearly two thousand years, they may, if God so will, likewise endure a further thousand years, even the thousand years of the Millennium after the close of the church period. In any case, according to Joel 2:1-32, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit "upon all flesh," that is, the inclusion of the whole of mankind in the power of the Spirit, "in those days," belongs to the Messianic perfecting. The term "those days," as it is most often used by the Old Testament prophets, is connected unmistakably with the kingdom of Messiah they expected, and with the associated restoration of Israel (so directly after by Joel 3:1; also Jeremiah 3:16; Zechariah 8:23). In the address of Peter at Pentecost the term "last days)" is used as the equivalent of the term "those days" (Acts 2:17 = Joel 2:28-29). Therefore it follows that the kingdom of Messiah, as expected by the prophets and the apostles, belongs to these "last days." The beginning of the New Testament "end" time was completed only in several different stages. The church age did not, initsfullestsense begin with the birth of Christ, nor at Golgotha, yea, nor even Pentecost, but only with the reception into the church of the first wholly heathen believers in the house of the Roman Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts 10:1-48), and the revelations given to Paul. Similarly the conclusion of this "end" time can be completed in such a sequence of stages. That this will be fact is shown most plainly in Revelation 20:1-15. We point out again that here there is mention of a kingdom of a thousand years that follows the appearing of the Lord in glory and precedes world destruction and transformation (19:11-21; 20:7-21:1), which is thus openly described in the Biblical account as coming between these events and for the duration of which the number "a thousand" is given no less than six times.

Thus according to the testimony of the New Testament the "last days" contain two great halves; the period of the church and that of the visible kingdom of God on earth. Only then comes the "day of God," that is, eternity (2 Peter 3:12; 2 Peter 3:18).