Land Destroyer: CONFIRMED: NATO's Plans for False Flag Attack on T...

Land Destroyer: CONFIRMED: NATO's Plans for False Flag Attack on T...: March 28, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - It has been revealed that NATO has been planning a false flag attack against Turkey to justify...

I Can’t Turn the Worldview Thing Off! - Summit Ministries | Summit Announcements - Summit Ministries

I Can’t Turn the Worldview Thing Off! - Summit Ministries | Summit Announcements - Summit Ministries

Global Cooling: Is an Ice Age Coming?

Are We Living in the Last Days? Deconstructing a Disempowering Myth.

(The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, AD70. By David Roberts, 1850).


No doubt you have heard it said "We are living in the last days". Many cult groups have last days teaching as an integral part of their evangelism. No doubt it is used to scare people into joining their group. Even many mainstream Christian groups believe we are living in the last days and will try to match up Bible prophecy with the current news in what has been labelled by critics of modern prophecy pundits as "newspaper exegesis". This phenomena has also been referred to as "last days madness". When Christians get ideas in their head about trying to change the world for the better, Christians who are caught up in last days madness will try to quash such ideas by saying that we are living in the last days and that the world will slide into apostasy and that evil men will wax worse and worse and that there is no point trying to change things. Invariably such people tend to be somewhat fatalistic and pessimistic, holding no hope for the church to have any significant impact on the future. Often I have been frustrated at the lack of understanding of Christians about the things that are going on in the world - false flag terrorism, 9/11 being an inside job and the need for a new investigation, western governments pursuing wars based on lies, the rise of the police state and the rise of a global government or New World Order. Those few Christians that do have some idea about such things are often unfortunately immersed in last days madness and so don't believe they can doing anything about the previously mentioned issues and so don't bother with activism. Thus the idea of the last days disempowers them and relegates them to the sidelines. Therefore, I thought it timely to examine this modern idea of the last days to see whether it really is Biblical or whether it is in fact a disempowering myth.

The New Testament tells us when the last days were. They were a present reality when the apostles were still alive in the first century. For example in Hebrews the author says to his readers "...in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son..." (Hebrews 1:2). The last days were ushered in at the first coming of Jesus and were a present reality when the Epistle to the Hebrews was written. Not only was it the last days in the Apostolic era, but by the time John wrote his first epistle, it was the last hour. In 1 John 2:18 "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour". The last hour was a present reality in John's day, and the presence of many antichrists was the proof they were living in the last hour. Since the last days and the last hour were a present reality in the first century, they cannot refer specifically to the present or the future.

Christians who have a negative view of the future and the prospects of the church will often cite 2 Timothy 3 which talks about last days apostates, especially verse 13 which says "...evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived". They then make the assumption that it applies specifically to our day. However, there are a couple of aspects to this passage that render such an interpretation false. In verse 5, Paul warns Timothy to avoid such people. For that command to make any sense, the last days apostates would have to be on the scene in Timothy's day. They would be people alive in Timothy's lifetime, that he would have to deal with and avoid. Furthermore, we read in verse 9 that they will not get very far. They will not triumph over the church and their plans will come to nought. Therefore this passage cannot be used to say that these apostates will prevail over the church in history, especially since we read in Matthew 16:18 that Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of Hades would not overcome it. That pictures the church on the offensive in human history, growing and making progress. Furthermore, the kingdom of God would be established in the days of the ancient kingdoms referred to in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2, thought to be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. This kingdom symbolised by the rock would then grow and fill the whole earth (v 35). It would be established in the days of the Roman Empire and would continue to grow. Some futurist interpreters try to insert a 2000 year gap into this sequence in Nebuchadnezzar's dream by attaching a future revived Roman Empire. However, the text itself does not suggest any such thing and to confirm that the prophesied kingdom would come in the days of the ancient Roman Empire, Jesus came at his first coming in those days and said that the kingdom was near (Matthew 4:17). Furthermore, Jesus also said that the kingdom would come in power during the lifetime of the original disciples (Matthew 16:27-28). Some interpreters try to apply this passage to the transfiguration. However that was only 6 days later and all the disciples were still alive, whereas the text says that only some would still be alive at this coming in power event. We know from history that John and also some of the Rabbis that were alive at the time lived until the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. The AD70 destruction of Jerusalem seems to be a better fit for the timeframe of Matthew 16:27-28.

If the last days happened in the first century as the above passages suggest, then futurist prophecy pundits who proclaim we are living in the last days and that there is no point in Christians trying to change society are in fact preaching a disempowering myth that has done great damage to the church and to society as a whole. Furthermore, there is no reason to think individual believers and the church can't have a significant positive impact on the world. Even though there are many terrible things happening worldwide, as believers we can take comfort in the fact that we serve a big God who has empowered us by his Holy Spirit and promised that his kingdom will grow.

My next post in this series will look at the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

Land Destroyer: How Egypt is Stopping the Next "Syrian War"

Land Destroyer: How Egypt is Stopping the Next "Syrian War": The West's next proxy war is being stopped before it starts in Egypt.  Photograph : Cairo, Egypt. Tarek Wajeh/Almasry Alyoum/EPA ...

Why Christians Should Fight for Academic Freedom - Aaron Zubia | Summit Announcements - Summit Ministries

Why Christians Should Fight for Academic Freedom - Aaron Zubia | Summit Announcements - Summit Ministries

The "Parousia of Christ.": The Parousia and Deity of Christ.

The "Parousia of Christ.": The Parousia and Deity of Christ.: The Old Testament gives us a very specific definition of the nature of the Parousia, but it has been missed and understood by the religious...

The "Parousia of Christ.": The "Parousia of Christ."

The "Parousia of Christ.": The "Parousia of Christ.": The Jewish rabbis have taunted Christians throughout church history saying Jesus can't be their Messiah, since the Messiah would acco...

Land Destroyer: Syria's Recent Victories Betray Last Year's WMD Li...

Land Destroyer: Syria's Recent Victories Betray Last Year's WMD Li...: Image : Syrian forces have made irreversible gains across the country against  foreign-backed militants. Such gains began long before the...

Hank Hanegraaff: Using the Literal Principle to Understand the Lite...

Hank Hanegraaff: Using the Literal Principle to Understand the Lite...: You are called to interpret the Word of God just as you interpret other forms of communication in the most obvious, the most natural sense...

Land Destroyer: Media War: The Battle for Crimea

Land Destroyer: Media War: The Battle for Crimea: The Western media's myth mill is working overtime to gain ground lost to Russia.  March 17, 2014 ( Tony Cartalucci - NEO ) - The We...