Are we living in the last days?
We are definitely living in the last days. Let’s read Hebrews 1:1-3, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in THESE LAST DAYS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
This shows us that the period that is called ‘the last days’ actually began when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and revealed the Father to us. In the very accurate Darby translation, verse 2 says, “At the end of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” God speaking to us in the person of His Son. We get that truth in John 1:1 and 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Since the Lord ascended into glory after His resurrection, His return has been imminent. There is nothing that needs to be accomplished before the Lord returns here to receive His church and take us to glory to be with Him. Even the Apostle Paul anticipated the Lord’s return in his life. Speaking of the rapture of the church, he writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then WE WHICH ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” He fully anticipated the Lord’s return in his own lifetime.
We are living in a time of great change. What was wrong yesterday is deemed appropriate today. Politicians, professors, and preachers are proclaiming different views now than they were just a few years ago. The principle of right and wrong is constantly changing. However, the Lord tells us in Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not…” Right and wrong has not changed. People’s estimation of right and wrong has changed. Isaiah proclaimed in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
As the return of the Lord draws nigh, we do see an increase of ungodliness in the world. We read in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Doesn’t this accurately describe the time we live in today? Don’t we see this all around us?
Does all this mean that we are in the last of the last days and the return of the Lord is near? None of us can say for sure, but we can say for sure that, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW IS OUR SALVATION NEARER THAN WHEN WE BELIEVED.” (Romans 13:11). The return of the Lord is certainly nearer today than it was yesterday. We are instructed to “…wait for his Son from heaven…” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). That means that just as the Apostle Paul did, we are to live in anticipation of the return of the Lord to take us to Heaven. That may happen today! (452.4)