Question: Preacher, I’ve heard a lot of talk about what will happen in the last days.  What do you think will happen?

Answer: The phrase, “the last days,” is used in two senses in the New Testament.  In one sense, it  refers to the final age of the world, sometimes called “the Christian age” (Acts 2:17; Hebrews 1:2; cf. Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1).  In another sense, it refers to the times just before the end of the Christian age (2 Timothy 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3; cf. 1 Timothy 4:1, “later times,” NRSV). Confusion is inevitable if one reads what is said about “the last days” (particularly in the Old Testament) thinking that these prophecies pertain to the times just before the end of the Christian age, rather than to the Christ event and its results and to  the Christian age as a whole.  Aside from human attitudes and behavior in general, little more can be said about the events of the times just before the end of the Christian age except their unexpectedness!  (Please read Matthew 24:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:1ff.; 2 Peter 3:10).  We should live in readiness for “the later times,” whenever they arrive.