When do the end times begin? Part 2
The Hour to Wake Up: Romans 13:11–12
In Romans 13:11–12, Paul appeals to the Christians in the city of Rome to understand “the present time” and explains that “the hour has already 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” (NIV). The “night” is the present evil age (see Gal. 1:4); “the day” is the day of the Lord. Paul’s assertion that “the day is almost here” (Rom. 13:12 NIV) means that the day when God will bring to an end human history as we know it is fast approaching. Paul is convinced that Jesus might return within a very short period of time. Paul does not seek to narrow down the time frame within which Jesus will return, nor does he base his exhortation on the assumption that Jesus’ return would take place very soon. But he clearly believes that Jesus’ return is the next event in God’s plan. And this means that he is convinced that he lives in the last days and that the end times have begun.
The End Times and the Last Days
Hebrews 1:1–2; 9:26
The author to the Hebrews begins his homily with the assertion that God’s revelation has taken a major turn in the recent past: while he had spoken to the Israelites and the Jewish people in the past through prophets “at many times and in various ways,” he has now been speaking to his people through his Son (Heb. 1:1 NIV). The author dates God’s speaking through Jesus his Son as having happened “in these last days” (ep’ eschatou tōn hēmerōn, Heb. 1:2). The demonstrative pronoun (toutōn, “these”) indicates that the last days have begun: “in these days which are the last days.”7 The entire period between Jesus’ first coming and the future consummation of God’s purposes constitutes “the last days.” When the author asserts that Jesus Christ, our High Priest, did not have to suffer many times but appeared once for all “to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26 NIV), he relates Jesus’ appearance both to the “foundation the world,” emphasizing the universal scope of Christ’s work, and to “the end of the age” (synteleia tōn aiōnōn; lit. “the end of the ages”), emphasizing that Jesus’ death had inaugurated the last days. The coming of the Messiah, and in particular his salvific death, marks the beginning of the end. The time that extends from Jesus’ coming into the present (of the author) is the end time.
James 5:7–9
James’ prophetic indictment of wealthy landowners (James 5:1–6) includes the charge that they “have hoarded wealth in the last days” (en eschatais hēmerais; v. 3 NIV). The statement is ironic: these wealthy people have piled up wealth as if they would live forever, not realizing that they live in the last days in which there may not be many more opportunities to repent and put their wealth to good use. They are “especially foolish because they ignore the many signs of the rapidly approaching judgment.”8 James exhorts the believers to patiently endure the trials of the present (James 5:7–11) “until the Lord’s coming” (v. 7 NIV), that is, until Jesus’ second coming. He grounds his exhortation in the statement that the Lord’s “coming” (hē parousia) is “near” and that Jesus the Judge is “standing at the door!” (vv. 8–9 NIV). Both the verb “near” (ēggiken) and the image of a person standing at the door about to knock emphasize the nearness of Jesus’ coming. Again, we see that the first Christians were convinced that the last days had arrived.
1 Peter 1:20
Peter asserts that Jesus was “destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake” (1 Peter 1:20). The phrase “at the end of the ages” (ep’ eschatou tōn chronōn) reflects the early Christian conviction that the last period of history has been inaugurated. In Old Testament and Jewish texts about the end, the resurrection of the dead and a time of affliction are mentioned as anticipated events, among other expectations. Peter emphasizes both of these themes in the context of his assertion that the “revelation” of Jesus the Messiah (i.e., his coming) took place at the end of the ages: God raised Jesus from the dead (1 Peter 1:3, 21) and both Jesus and his followers suffer (vv. 2, 7, 11, 17, 19). The end times have begun with Jesus’ suffering and resurrection, and they continue as God’s people are suffering.
2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18
In 2 Peter 3:1–18, Peter insists that the “coming” (parousia) of the Lord Jesus (i.e., his second coming) will indeed happen despite scoffers who doubt that there will be a major, climactic intervention of the Lord in history. He asserts that the arrival of such scoffers was prophesied: “First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). The expression “in the last days” (ep’ eschatōn tōn hēmerōn) describes the time when these false teachers have appeared, which is the present of Peter’s own time. He makes the rather ironic point that the skepticism of the mockers concerning Jesus’ second coming is precisely a sign that the last days have arrived and that the end is imminent.9
In a similar description of false teachers, Jude reminds his readers of a prophecy of the apostles who said, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 18). Again, the phrase “in the last time” (ep’ eschatou tou chronou) characterizes the present time of the Christian author in the first century. The end times are not a period in the (distant) future but a present reality since the (first) coming of Jesus.
1 John 2:18
John connects the enemies of the gospel, troublemakers and heretics who have left the Christian community (1 John 2:19), with the prophecy that the “antichrist [antichristos] is coming,” which probably refers to Jesus’ announcement that “false messiahs [pseudochristoi] and false prophets [pseudoprophētai]” will be coming (Matt. 24:24).10 John asserts that since “it is the last hour” (NIV) many antichrists have come, which is how we know that “it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). In other words, the appearance of antichrists, false teachers who cause trouble for Jesus’ followers, proves that the “last hour” (eschatē hōra) is a present reality. The time of John’s ministry in Asia Minor in the first century is the “end time.”
Schnabel, E. J. (2011). 40 Questions about the End Times. (B. L. Merkle, Ed.) (pp. 22–24). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional.
