Question:
Why did Paul and the other apostles in their day say that the end of the world was at hand and that they were living in the last days? How long has it been since the end of the world has been said to be imminent?
Answer:
- Christ’s second coming is life to His people. Even though they may sleep in death, that sleep is but for a moment, so far as consciousness is concerned. To him who falls asleep in Jesus, the next moment of consciousness is seeing Jesus come. Therefore Christians in all ages ought to be prepared for that coming, ready to meet their Lord.
- The apostles wrote for all time. The word was not their word but God-breathed through them. They wrote, therefore, for the last days, their own day, and for all days in view of the last great day. But that they did not believe that the Lord was coming in their day is shown by the apostle Paul in his first and second letters to the Thessalonians. In the first epistle, he repeatedly refers to the coming of the Lord as though it were imminent. (See chapters 1:10; 2:19, 20; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-6). From these repeated references in the first epistle, the Thessalonian brethren had come to believe Christ’s coming was impending. That the apostle corrected in his second epistle as follows: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). It is obvious, therefore, that the apostle Paul did not look for the second coming of Christ or the end of the world in his day.
- The last days would be times of particular peril (see 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Luke 21:34, and many other scriptures); Satan would do all in his power to blind the minds of men to the importance of that great event, to its nature and its time. Therefore we have the solemn warnings handed down to the last generation of men. These things are confirmed by Matthew 24 and Luke 21, which chapters clearly show that God’s children may know when Christ’s coming is near. “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” (Matthew 24:33).
