When Do the End Times Begin?
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| Pietro Lorenzetti fresco detail, Assisi Basilica, 1310-1329. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The End Times Have Begun with Jesus’ Coming: Acts 2:16–21
One important passage in the New Testament teaching that the end times began with Jesus’ coming is found in Peter’s speech given on the day of Pentecost. After clarifying for the Jews who had gathered from around the world that the speaking in unlearned languages by Jesus’ followers is not the result of drunkenness (Acts 2:15), Peter asserts that the audiovisual phenomena of the sound from heaven, the tongues of fire, and the speaking in unlearnt languages (Acts 2:1–4) constitutes the fulfillment of prophecy.
He provides a long quotation from the prophet Joel that begins with the assertion, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28).
The rest of the Joel quotation and Peter’s explanation shows that Peter links the beginning of the last days not merely with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost but with the entire ministry of Jesus, which includes the giving of the Spirit and the proclamation of salvation for all those who call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21, quoting Joel 2:32). The content of Joel 2:30–32, which Peter regards as fulfilled, is used to explain more than just the Pentecost phenomena. It should be noted that the phrase “in the last days” (en tais eschatais hēmerais) in Acts 2:17 is an addition to the text of Joel, who begins this particular prophecy with the phrase “and afterward.” Peter clarifies that what follows in Joel’s prophecy relates to the last days of God’s history of salvation: the end times as the new age that was ushered in by Jesus.
Joel’s prophecy of “wonders and signs” was fulfilled in the miracles that Jesus performed, which were signs of the coming of the kingdom of God and of his role in this kingdom. Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled in the events of Jesus’ death, notably in the darkening of the sun, mentioned in Acts 2:20. The sequence of “wonders” in the sky followed by “signs” on earth corresponds to Luke’s account of the darkening of the sun at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion (Luke 23:45a), a “wonder” in the sky, followed by the rending of the curtain in the temple (v. 45b), a sign that took place on earth.2 The earthquake that Matthew 27:51 reports for the day of Jesus’ crucifixion—a sign on the earth—is not mentioned by Luke in Acts 2, but it would have been remembered by the people living in Jerusalem.
Joel’s prophecy mentioning “blood and fire” and the turning of the “moon to blood” is more difficult to interpret. The description cannot easily be linked with Jesus’ ministry or death. In Luke 22:20, we have a reference to Jesus’ blood that is shed and that inaugurates the new covenant; other references to Jesus’ blood in Acts occur in 5:28 and 20:28. However, none of these references link Jesus’ blood with fire or smoke, or other signs on earth. Still, some scholars suggest that “there may be some typology in Jesus’ death, as Luke 22:20 combined with the descriptions of Jesus’ death might suggest.”3 The suggestion that Acts 2:19 refers to a lunar eclipse during which the moon assumes a dull, red color, which was visible in Jerusalem at Passover in A.D. 33,4 is intriguing; however, it requires a later date for Jesus’ crucifixion, which is more plausibly dated in the year A.D. 30. Joel’s prophecy of “wonders in the sky” can be seen as having been fulfilled in the ascension of Jesus, who ascended in a cloud into heaven (Acts 1:9, 11).
The prophecy of “wonders in the sky” can also be linked with the manifestations on Pentecost that descended “from heaven” (Acts 2:2) and that Peter is in the process of explaining. The reference to “fire” can be linked with the visual phenomenon of the “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (v. 3 NIV). The “cloud of smoke” could refer to the cloud behind which Jesus disappeared when he ascended to the Father (Acts 1:9).5 Or it could refer to the “tongues,” which looked like fire, appearing in the room in which the believers had assembled. Since Luke’s description of the manifestations on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2–4 contains allusions to God’s theophany on Mount Sinai, Joel’s prophecy of a “cloud of smoke” may be taken to describe God’s theophany at Pentecost with language reminiscent of God’s appearance on Mount Sinai. Since the Jews celebrated the giving of the Law on Sinai during the Feast of Pentecost, this interpretation, while not explicitly indicated by the text, is certainly a possibility.
Peter ends his quotation from Joel’s prophecy with the line, “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21, quoting Joel 2:32). Joel’s prophecy of salvation is interpreted by Peter in the sense that “Lord” refers to Jesus (as his following explanations demonstrate) and that “everyone” refers to the Jews living in Jerusalem, the diaspora Jews who have returned to Jerusalem, the Jews who continue to live in the regions whose languages the apostles had spoken, and “all those who are far away” (Acts 2:39), that is, to all human beings, whether they are male or female, young or old, slaves or free (Acts 2:17–18). Joel’s comment “for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape” (Joel 2:32) is omitted by Peter since the salvation that God offers through Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and Lord, moves beyond Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
In sum, Joel’s reference to “wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below” (Acts 2:19 NASB) does not introduce a comment on the last day of judgment (whose arrival is described with similar language in several passages) separate from the present fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. The day of judgment was, for Peter, a future event that was not “fulfilled” in his day. Peter links all of Joel 2:28–32, quoted in Acts 2:17–21, with the assertion in Acts 2:16 that “this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.”
The view that Peter regards Joel 2:28–29 as fulfilled, but not Joel 2:30–32, is hardly convincing: if Peter only wanted to quote a prophecy that he believed was fulfilled by the phenomena that he wants to explain to the crowd, he would not have needed Joel 2:30–32; Luke can quote Scripture with omissions, if necessary. Peter (and Luke) understood the “wonders and signs” performed by Jesus, as well as the events associated with Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension and the events of Pentecost as representing varying degrees of fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy: Joel speaks of the last days that have begun with Jesus and that will culminate in God’s judgment.
The connections of the “wonders” and “signs” of Joel’s prophecy with Jesus’ ministry and death provide the basis for Peter’s subsequent arguments concerning the status and the significance of Jesus. The reference to the “last days” establishes how Peter reads the prophets: God has begun to fulfill his promises; the last days have arrived with Jesus’ ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension, and his bestowal of the Spirit.6
Schnabel, E. J. (2011). 40 Questions about the End Times. (B. L. Merkle, Ed.) (pp. 19–22). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional.
