Tuesday 7 June 2016

What Does the Bible Mean By "Last Days?"

Many of the folks I wrote about in my previous posts assume that the Bible's mention of "last days" means our epoch. Thanks to a man named John Nelson Darby, they assume that The Revelation of John the Divine was written for modern people and not to the seven churches in Asia as plainly stated in chapter one.

But what does "last days" or similar phrases mean?  Revelation 1:1 (KJV) gives this answer. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must SHORTLY come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:" Some folks believe that "shortly" means two thousand years after. How can that be so when the letter was written TO those seven churches?

And how could those people living back then know who the beast John wrote about would be if he is yet to come? Revelation 13:18 (KJV) states, "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." The Jews and Greeks had a system of corresponding letters and numbers. Emperor Nero's name fit both systems perfectly. Nobody could have guessed the name of a twenty-first century beast but they certainly knew of Nero.

I could cite many other proofs of this being a book for first-century Christians in what is now Turkey but I won't this time. Remember that the various books of the Bible were written to the people to whom they were delivered, not us. Paul wrote that the scriptures were written FOR our learning (Romans 15:4 KJV). Furthermore, the same applies to all twenty-seven New Testament books.

Thanks to humble Bible scholars, I know how to read the Word of God. I wrote about this in a book called How I Was Razed. Read more about this wondrous testimony of God's providence at Amazon.

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