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LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS
David A. Denyer

      A persuasive factor for involvement in foreign missions is a passage in Matthew 24 that has been the driving force for many missionaries and the theme of many missionary conferences.  Verse 14 reads, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (vs. 14).  I believe that.  

      Furthermore, that promise has motivated many evangelical Christians to give money to reach the lost.  People from churches like Bethany have been and are involved in preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  After all, it's a biblical mandate.  We are trying to hasten the coming of our Lord, and we're having success as evident in Papua, New Guinea and elsewhere. 

      BUT this raises several related questions.  What did Jesus mean when he spoke about "the end of the age?  What is involved in preaching "in the whole world?"   Additionally, in light of the numerous times biblical writers refer to "the last days," how are we to interpret that phrase?  I want us to think about that for the next few minutes.
    
      In 1974 a book was published entitled Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis.  I understand that not many copies were sold.  Sixteen years later Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to the "Gulf War," so those who have a penchant for predictions - or a nose for business - had that book revised and re-issued.  It became a hot item - it was read by many people.  The original paperback edition sold for $12.95.  Christians in particular were enthralled with the book because they had been conditioned to believe that what was happening in the Middle East was a prelude to the return of Christ and the end of the world!  This week on E-Bay and found that a new copy can be purchased for $2.08; used copies are available for anywhere from a penny up to 24 cents!
       However, the Gulf War did not usher in Armageddon.  Another conflict in Iraq is going on, and though Saddam Hussein has been ousted, that has not brought the world to an end and Jesus Christ has not returned.  What is and isn't happening in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel and elsewhere seems to have created as much storm in Washington D.C. as in those parts of the world!
 
      One only has to read the paper, Time magazine, or watch television to realize that the turmoil between the Israelis and the Palestinians is never ending.  U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State seem determined to broker peace in that part of the world, but residents in Israel and surrounding countries are unhappy about whatever decision leaders make.  The struggle continues!

      What I'm saying is that having read John Walvoord's book, having listened to the nightly news, having visited Israel a number of times, and being committed to the Christian faith sends me back to the Scripture to see what the Bible says about the end times.

      The words of the Apostle Peter come to mind.  In his First Epistle he wrote, "The end of all things is near" (4:7).  But that was written nearly 1950 years ago, and the so-called "end" of which he spoke hasn't happened yet.  So I want to ask and try to answer two questions, "Are these the last days?" and, if so, "How are we to live in the last days?"

      Other scripture passages speak to this point, and we will look at them.  But first, let me quote from an article Philip Yancey wrote a number of years ago (in 1990) in Christianity Today entitled, "What a Truck Load of Deutsche Marks Cannot Do."  After mentioning many of the changes that had taken place, he concluded by saying, "A year ago, as communist regimes fell almost weekly, some historians were crowing about 'the end of history,' a time when liberal democracies would triumph and a new peaceful world order would emerge." 
      His comments were based on the fact that then, and now, change was and is occurring!  The Berlin Wall has been dismantled.  East and West Germany have been reunited.  The Soviet Union as most of us knew it has been abolished.  9/11 happened.  New leaders have come to power in the U.S., Russia, Germany, China, Iraq, Israel and elsewhere, yet the end hasn't come!  None of those changes has brought lasting peace or brought back the Lord Jesus.  The Gospel continues to be preached because Christ's Kingdom hasn't yet been fully established.  And everywhere we turn we have to admit that from a human vantage point the world looks pretty hopeless. 
 
      According to the U.S. State Department there are currently 51 wars going on in our world.   There has been upheaval in Asia, South America, Africa, and several European countries.  There is tension over claims that North Korea possesses or has the capability to produce nuclear weapons; we in this country are concerned over Iran's boast of having a nuclear program.  During Clinton's administration changes were made in this country's defense systems and peacekeeping forces were sent to Kosovo and many places in the world.  Today the U.S. is at war against terrorism, and we're attempting to aid the Iraqis to establish their own government at a time when its former dictator is on trial.  No wonder people are asking, "What's going on in our world?  Are these the last days?"

      The voices of the secular press and those of Christian ministers are united in saying that something serious is ahead.  Among the SECULAR voices reflecting this growing despair was that of Linus Pauling.  He died in 1994, but this Nobel Prize winner said, "The greatest catastrophe in the world will occur within 25-50 years."  Margaret Mead, the late and noted anthropologist, asked the question, "Are we going to survive?"  She said, "The major struggle of marriage is, who takes out the garbage?  Does it matter who takes it out if we are not going to be here?  Are we going to be here?  It is very doubtful.  The whole world is in terrible danger.  We could go tonight."
      Malcolm Muggeridge, an editor of Punch magazine in Britain, and until his death (1990), a prominent Christian spokesman, detailed several symptoms of a collapsing civilization, in his lifetime, and of the past as well.  He said one of the first signs of the approaching collapse is the breakdown of law and order.  A second symptom is the excessive interest in eroticism, that is, the rise of widespread immorality and the fascination with sexual themes.  A third symptom was and is the excessive need for excitement.  In the days of the collapse of the Roman Empire, this was provided by the gladiatorial games held in the Coliseum.  Today, he said, we get it from TV with its artificially produced excitement, its violence, murder and sexuality.  Muggeridge saw a fourth symptom in the enormously complicated structure of taxation and administration.  A fifth symptom was and is excessive and pervasive boredom, emptiness and meaninglessness.

      What's the CHRISTIAN reaction to all these changes?  Do those doomsayers reflect the conditions the Scripture says will prevail in the world immediately before the return of Jesus Christ?  In other words, and I come back to it again, "Are these the last days?"

      It's easy to answer that question with a hasty, "Yes," by compiling from the Bible a few dramatic descriptive passages that have led many to say, "This is it.  We are facing those very conditions and living in the last days."

      But I'm cautious about this for several reasons.  FIRST, because I know this practice has been done scores if not hundreds of times in the past.  For the last three centuries at least, there have been groups that were absolutely sure that their days were the last days.  Some even set dates for the return of Christ.  Yet we know that all of them were wrong.  It ought to be a caution to us, before we do the same thing and pronounce that Jesus Christ's coming is just around the corner.
      A SECOND reason why I'm hesitant to pronounce these as the last days in the popular sense of the word is because Scripture is very clear that THE LAST DAYS BEGAN WITH THE FIRST COMING OF CHRIST.  There's a very strong sense in the Bible that for twenty centuries we have been living in the last days.

      When biblical writers use the term "the last days" they're not talking only about the time immediately before Christ returns; they are speaking about the whole period of time in which the life of the Church has been going on, some two thousand years!  Let me show you some of the passages that reveal that, and then come back to that passage in First Peter.

      At times Bible teachers aren't fair in their use of Scripture.  They pick passages here and there and on that basis call these "the last days."  At the same time they ignore other passages that speak clearly about what these last days truly are. 

      In the opening words of the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer said,  "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (1:1-2).

      In those two verses is the phrase, "these last days."  The writer says they began when Jesus was on earth, speaking, preaching, and healing.  But the last days are still continuing.  The writer of Hebrews saw them as going on until the ultimate end predicted in the Bible.  To repeat, the whole period is known as "the last days."

      Another well-known passage is found in the Letter to the Romans.  Writing from Corinth, Paul says in 13:11-12, "And do this, understanding the present time.  The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.  So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

      It's clear from that statement that Paul speaks as though the end was almost upon the people of his day.  "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here" when our salvation, which we have been looking for, is upon us.  Yet that was written in the first century.  Two thousand years have elapsed since then. 

      And as I said, in 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 7, the Apostle puts it bluntly, "The end of all things is near."  Again, this was written to those in the first century. 

      Now either we have to believe that the Bible is mistaken about this subject, or we have to understand that the biblical phrase, "the last days," does NOT mean the immediate end before the return of Christ; IT COVERS A LONG PERIOD.  In this sense, therefore, it's perfectly proper to answer the question by saying, "Yes, we definitely are in the last days; but we've been there since our Lord was on the earth - for two thousand years!"

      "But," some respond, "Yes, Scripture speaks of a coming period called 'the last days, and we're living in them.'"  Often 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is quoted.  Let me read it:
     "But mark this:  There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power."

      That sounds very much like the closing words of the first chapter of Romans which speak of a time of incredible inhumanity, when senseless violence will occur, when people seemingly forsake all the normal structures against injury to others and crimes of incredible malice and evil occur.  You and I read reports in the newspaper of those kinds of ugly and awful things that outrage us.  The point I'm trying to make is that many believe we are living in the last days, and that Christ's coming is right around the corner.  So based upon passages like Romans 1 and Second Timothy 3 people say that the Bible predicts that things like this will come before the end; and now, since those things are happening, these MUST be the last days.

      But I urge you to read your Bible with CARE and CAUTION.  If "the last days" means, as we have already seen, the full period of time between the coming of our Lord at Bethlehem and his second coming, then what Paul is referring to IS NOT JUST ONE SINGLE PERIOD when these kinds of conditions will prevail, BUT A REPEATING CYCLE OF PERIODS that will come again and again and again in history.  There will be CYCLES of revolutionary conditions. The Apostle calls them "terrible times," or in some translations, "times of stress."  They will come again and again, and every time these occur it will look like we are approaching the days of the return of Christ.

      Any student of history knows that there have been MANY "times of stress."  Every century seems to have had its outbreak of evil.  Periods of quietness, of relative prosperity and expansion have been followed by times of unrest and a collapse of the institutions that were thought to be stable. 

      The end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century was such a time.  Barbarian throngs swarmed out of the northern countries of Europe down over the southern states; they captured and sacked the city of Rome.  People saw the collapse of everything that appeared to be stable in their day.  Those were "terrible times."
      In the Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth century bands of knights gathered from all over Europe and marched into the Holy Land.  Those were "terrible times" of attack and carnage.  People were afraid for their lives.  The same was true in the thirteenth century when the Mongol hordes swept out of Asia and came battering against the capitals of Europe.  Those were "terrible times."

      In the fifteenth century, the Turks assaulted the citadels of civilization in Europe.  In the sixteenth century during the days of the Reformation, Europe was aflame from one end to the other.  Those were "times of stress."  In both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there were repeated wars or threats of war.  Unbelievable atrocities occurred.  Those were "terrible times."
                         
      So it seems to me that what Paul was saying to Timothy is that throughout history there would be repeated cycles when people would face times of danger and outbreaks of evil.  And every time it would look as though those are the last days before the Lord returned.

      What are you and I facing today?  Undoubtedly, another cycle of these "terrible times," heralding the overthrow of civilizations, BUT NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL DAYS BEFORE THE LORD RETURNS. 

      It could be!  Don't get me wrong!  Every one of these times of stress was a time when Christ could have returned from the perspective of those who were living.  These "times of stress" were then and are today related to what was and is going on in the world.  It reminds me of the fulfillment of our Lord's words that he will "rise and shake the earth" and everything that can be shaken will be shaken (Heb. 12:26-28).  We may be living in apocalyptic times and we are facing the possibility of the end, but keep in mind what I've been saying.
      In regard to the second coming of Christ, some say, "What about signs like the return of the Jews to Israel?  What about the amazing, scientifically documented increase in natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, et cetera?  What about widely circulated stories of demonic manifestations and of angelic appearances to people.  What about these?" 

      Well, let us take a look at some of these.  The return of the Jews to Israel is, in the thinking of some, the most telltale sign of the end of the age.  There are those who believe that the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 was sure evidence that the Lord's coming was about to happen.  And my response is, that was nearly sixty years ago, and things are still going on. 

      As I've said, others pointed to the Persian Gulf crisis as a sign that the powers of earth would be concentrated in a great battle in the Middle East.  But that crisis is presently over in spite of the fact that there is continued fighting in Iraq; yet it (the BATTLE) hasn't happened yet!  All of us would agree that the daily news from that part of the world creates "stress," a cycle of distress, perhaps; but it doesn't necessarily indicate that it's the last time!  No one knows, and there's not a hint in Scripture, as to if this "time of stress" is the one that will precede our Lord's return. 

      Natural disasters are specifically said by Jesus to be "but the beginning of birth pains" (Mt. 24:8) of an approaching end.  Again, there is no word, not a hint in the Bible, of how long these things will last.  In fact, Scripture seems to suggest that these kinds of conditions, these kinds of disasters, will occur in repetitive cycles just like the "times of stress."

      In 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius blew up and buried Pompeii in ashes.  Not nearly as many people died in 1980, but this was somewhat similar to what happened in the State of Washington when Mount Saint Helens blew its top and buried part of that state in ash.
      There have been great earthquakes throughout history, some far more devastating than others.  So to point to natural disasters as sure "signs of the time" is indicative that a person doesn't understand much about prophetic Scripture.  They are themselves nothing but "the beginnings of sorrows," as Jesus pointed out (Mt. 24:8), and by themselves aren't indicative of the near approach of the end.

      The only thing we can safely say about all these factors is that they are manifestations of these cycles of stress that come repeatedly in history, but there's no indication, necessarily, that these are declaring an imminent appearing of Jesus Christ to earth again. 

      I don't doubt that we're closer today to the return of Christ than we've ever been before; but I'm saying that there is no certainty at all that the return of Christ may not be centuries away! There is no sign, nothing that I know of today, in spite of the popularity of the Left Behind series, that indicates that Christ is at the door, that the time is imminent.  All of what's happening now can settle down and go back again into what we call "normal life."  Civilizations may collapse; what we've known as stable economies may be overthrown; violent changes may occur in society, but those in themselves don't herald the return of Jesus Christ.  That's what I'm saying.

      According to the Bible the departure of the Church to be with the Lord has ALWAYS been an imminent possibility.  It's an event Scripture says will occur without warning.  How can we get ready for an event that's going to occur without warning?  You can KEEP ready, but there's nothing particular you have to do to GET ready.  It's very much like our own death.  None of us has a guarantee he or she will be here tomorrow; at any time death could intervene for any of us.  We live in that expectation, and it's a good reminder that we must not live for this world and for this life as though it were everything.  We have no hold upon it, our grip may be loosened at any time; therefore these things must not be allowed to possess us.

      Neither is it something that we can anticipate with such certainty that we fold our hands and wait for it.  We're not to do that any more than we are to decide that since we have arrived at 50, 60, 70, or 80 years of age, whatever, we're going to fold our hands and wait for death.  We don't do that, and we should not do that about the return of the Lord either, because that's an event without warning, invisible to the natural eye when, as Paul describes it,
     "The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

      But, to repeat, that's an event that's launched upon humanity without warning, as Jesus made clear in the Olivet Discourse.  When answering the questions his Disciples asked, our Lord made it clear that the end would come; but he did not stipulate how near the end would be.  If Don Carson is correct, "The tenor of the warning is that the delay would be substantial" (Expositor's Bible Commentary, 8:497).  The question 'when' is not answered except by the 'not yet.'  Even Jesus did not know when the parousia would be (Mt. 24:36).  Until the appearance occurs, CONSTANT READINESS IS WHAT'S CALLED FOR.   

      Therefore, I conclude two things from all this.  FIRST, it's harmful to the cause of Christ to get involved in types of physical preparation for the last days like hiding rifles and food in the hills with the anticipation that you're going to go there when things get worse.  There's no advice in Scripture to do things like that.  Likewise, there's no encouragement to spend time reading only the prophetic passages of the Bible and charting the events of the future, trying to determine what follows this and what follows that.  To focus on when Christ is going to return and set dates for that is an utter waste of time, as it is to go from meeting to meeting to keep your emotions stirred up with the expectation that the Lord is coming back almost any moment.  To do those things is harmful, because SECONDLY, they take our attention from what Scripture tells us we ought to be doing when facing one of these cycles of distress that could, admittedly, culminate in the return of Christ.

      ALL RIGHT, since we're in one of those times, what does the Bible tell us to do?  Let me detail it for you.  Based on Jesus' word in Matthew 24, we're to
1. PREACH THE GOSPEL IN ALL THE WORLD. 
      That's the first thing.  That's what you and I are encouraged and admonished to do by our Lord.  The statement emphasizes the necessity of carrying out the Great Commission! 

      Secondly, and we find this in the passage I read from the fourth chapter of First Peter, where he wrote, "The end of all things is near" (vs. 7).  "Therefore
2. "BE CLEAR MINDED AND SELF-CONTROLLED"
      Don't go running off after some wild-haired group that wants to run away and defend themselves against whatever's coming.  "Be clear-minded and self-controlled," Peter says.

      I'm impressed by the fact that when Jesus talked about the last days he began and ended what he had to say with the word, "Watch" (Mt. 24:4 & 42).  "Watch out" is the idea; because these will be days of delusion, days of confusion, days when people will be emphasizing the wrong things, when false escapes will be offered and false ways of living will be set forth, and delusive ideas will be abroad.  Peter says, "Watch.  Take Heed.  Establish yourself in your faith again.  Go back to the Scripture and find out where you are.  Be careful.  Be clear minded and self-controlled," he says, so that you will not be swept away by all the excited reactions that you will hear about in these last days, in these "difficult times," these "times of stress."

3.  PRAY
      Based upon the tense, the idea from Peter is to "keep praying."  And the reason, of course, is because days of stress always create great opportunities, and prayer is a way of laying hold of those opportunities.  Prayer is a way of calling for all the artillery of heaven and bringing it to bear against the weak point in the devil's armor and breaking through at that point so that God reaps a great harvest despite the terrible conditions that are all around.  Paul tells us in the Letter to the Ephesians that evil days create great possibilities, therefore, "redeem the time," "buy it up," "make the most of every opportunity" (5:19).  One way is to be alert, to be praying about the possibilities that open for us day after day, possibilities with individuals, with circumstances and with groups so that we can enter and break through some of the barriers that have shut us out from these groups in the past.  Thus, Peter says, "keep praying."  

4. "ABOVE ALL, LOVE EACH OTHER DEEPLY, BECAUSE LOVE COVERS OVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS.  OFFER HOSPITALITY ... WITHOUT GRUMBLING."

      Being open to help people who are in need is the idea.  Be deliberately responsive to appeals that are made for help; practice hospitality widely and generously.

      Hospitality seems like a small thing, the activity of those who have nothing else to do, but God's Word speaks to the contrary.  According to Peter, one of the ways I can serve the needy is through hospitality.  Paul put it plainly, "Share with God's people who are in need.  Practice hospitality" (Rom. 12:13).
      One Greek word for loving others is philadelphia (filade<lfia); it means, "loving brothers."  The word for "hospitality" in the New Testament is philoxenia (filoceni<a).  It means, "loving outsiders."  Hospitality is more than entertaining family and friends; it involves reaching out beyond our comfort zone to strangers.  It also entails more than opening our homes.  It means opening our hearts as well.  Beyond housing others, hospitality means being ourselves, making a safe place for strangers - a center of peace, a haven in our mad world where the harried and weary can rest in our presence.  It means providing a sheltering environment for others at home or away.

5. "EACH ONE SHOULD USE WHATEVER GIFT HE HAS RECEIVED TO SERVE OTHERS."

      In other words, get busy, use your gift.  God has given each of us gifts.  For heaven's sake, use them; that's what Peter is saying.  When times of stress, terrible times, come and people are frightened and don't know what's going to happen because the future looks uncertain, that's a good time for you to take knowledge of what gifts God has given you, and begin using them!

      If you have the gift of encouragement, look for people who are discouraged and start helping them and encouraging them and strengthening them.  If you have the gift of administering, offer yourself to do that.  That's not only needed at churches, but there are Christian groups that have tremendous vision to help people, but the leaders are falling all over each other trying to get it done because nobody's doing the right kind of administering.  Offer yourself.  If you have a gift of wisdom, or knowledge, use it.  If you have a gift of helps, put it to work.  Peter says this is the way to act:  "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ."
      There, then is the activity for these "last days."  Here is an inspired answer to the age-old question, "What would I do if I knew that I would die today?"  Peter's answer:  nothing out of the ordinary; just what I should be doing every other day of my life, loving and serving those in need.  By doing those kinds of things we're preparing for our Lord's coming.

      What I'm saying is that these may or may not be the last days; who knows?  But whatever they are, THEY ARE DAYS OF OPPORTUNITY, days of possibility, days when God can be glorified.  And if they culminate at last with the trumpet blast and the return of the Lord, what a satisfying thing it will be to know that we've not gotten all wound up with a lot of extraneous activity that goes nowhere, but have "occupied," as Jesus said, until he comes.  That's what he tells us to do:  "OCCUPY UNTIL I COME BACK" (Lk. 19:13).

      At the height of World War II, the German theologian/pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was imprisoned for taking a stand against Hitler.  Yet he continued to urge fellow believers to resist Nazi tyranny.  A group of Christians, believing that Hitler was the Antichrist, asked Bonhoeffer, "Why do you expose yourself to all this danger?  Jesus will return any day, and all your work and suffering will be for nothing."  Bonhoeffer replied, "If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I'll rest from my labor.  But today I have work to do.  I must continue the struggle until it's finished." Prophecy is not meant for playing.  It's to keep us working, confident that God is in control.
PRAYER:
      Thank you, Lord, for the days in which we live.  What exciting yet frightening days they are.  At times our hearts quiver with fear as we look at the things that are coming to pass on the earth.  But oh! What reassurance is given to us that you are still in charge, that we don't determine our own destiny nor set our own schedule; that you are working out the events of earth according to your own program and nothing will prevent it.  Thank you for letting us live in these days.  Help us to be clear-minded and self-controlled and not wrapped up in all kinds of excitement that is unwarranted and unworthy.  Keep us laboring in the fullness and power of the Spirit to accomplish what you want done in these days.  We pray and thank you in Jesus' name.  AMEN.

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