There are Christians every where saying that in the last days things are getting worse and worse. The situation of the world is going to be darker and darker. The antichrist is coming and there will not be any revival in Christianity. Instead there is coming a great falling away. The Church is going downhill and Christians are back sliding. Things are really bad.
At the same time some other Christians are saying that there will be a great revival in the last days. There will be a great harvest and in-gathering of souls. God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The first outpouring happened at Pentecost and the second outpouring is coming soon and many Christians will receive the double portion. The Church is going to be victorious and God is preparing a glorious Church.
The question is - which group of Christians is right? My answer is both are right. Things are going to get worse in the world, but at the same time things are going to get better in the true Church - the house of the Lord or God's Habitation. But when you allow the world to get into your Church then you are in darkness and things will get worse for you!
Isaiah's prophecies concerning the last days
"Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains. And shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His way, and we shall walk in His paths" (Isaiah 2:2, 3, NKJV, emphasis added).
"Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you" (Isaiah 60:1, 2, emphasis added).
Notice that there are two prophetic streams in the last days - light and darkness. In Old Testament time the glory of the Lord has something to do with the Ark of the Covenant in the tabinacles and Solomon's temple. Right now the Church and His people, the Christains, are the habitation of God. But while God's light and glory is rison upon His people, darkness and gross (deep) darkness covers the world and the people of the world. So darkness and light flow parallel together all the way in the last days.
Questions concerning the last days
Isaiah said something about the last days in Isaiah 2:2, 3. Three questions come to mind as we read these verses - What is meant by the last days? When the last days began? And what is going to happen in the last days?
What the Scripture says about days and year?
Before we can understand what "last days" means we have to understand what "days" and "years" in God's viewpoint.
Let us look at the prophets because all prophets were caught up in God's perspective. In other words, they were caught up in the Spirit and they started to see things from God's viewpoint and God is not limited by time. This is very important because when Adam sinned time began for all mankind. But God is not bound by time - He is the eternal God. He is the past, present and the future and He is always at one eternal present. He works in time but He is not limited by time. When God deals with men He deals in what we referred to as time. Time is a little fragment of eternity in which God is working out His purposes in relation to creation and in relation to redemption.
Moses, the first of God's prophet, wrote a Psalm:
"Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generation. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man to destruction, and say, 'Return, O children of men.' For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night" (Ps. 90:1 - 4, NKJV, emphasis added).
It is very important to note that to man a "day" has only 24 hours. But to the Lord a day is "1000 years" - based on man's 24-hour days. Sometimes we call the Lord's day as 1000 years period of time.
Notice what Peter wrote to believers: "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:4).
Let us pick up the key words "years" and "days" in Psalm 90:
"For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sight" (V. 9).
"The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, ..." (V. 10).
"So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (V. 12).
"Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days" (V. 14)!
"Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil" (V. 15).
The outworking of people's years and days after the Fall
Let us go back to Genesis to see how long it took Adam to die after he sinned.
God said to Adam, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:16, 17, NKJV, emphasis added).
The question is, did Adam die within a 24-hour day or within the day of the Lord which is 1000 years? The answer is, Adam died two deaths when he sinned. He died spiritually in a 24-hour day and he died physically within the day of the Lord - "All the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died (Gen. 5:8).
It is interesting to note that the oldest man ever lived was Methuselah, Enoch's son - 969 years (Gen. 5:27). Therefore no one ever lives the full day of the Lord of 1000 years.
A picture of redemption
One of the most beautiful pictures of redemption is found in Exodus 12:1 - 7. God wanted each family of Israel to take a lamb on the 10th of the month and to keep it until the 14th of the same month. In other words, the lamb should be kept for 4 days before it was killed at twilight.
Why would God want the lamb be kept for 4 days?
Actually, from God's perspective, this is a picture of God's plan of redemption when Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, when time began, God immediately took His Lamb (John 1:29), the Lord Jesus, and kept Him for 4 days. From God's perspective this was 4000 years. The fact is, from Adam through to Jesus we have 4000 years approximately. And when the fullness of the time had come God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4).
Revelation of the last days
The writer of Hebrews said, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ..." (Hebrews 1:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added).
Two time periods are mentioned:
1. Sundry time (KJ), time past, and time before the Cross mean the same thing. During this time period God spoke to His people through His Old Testament prophets.
2. Present time, latter days or time after the Cross is called the "last days". God speaks to us by His Son Jesus Christ through His Spirit. His apostles wrote the New Testament in the last days by the inpiration of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah's prophecy
Let us go back to Isaiah 2 where he gave a prophetic view of the last days. Isaiah was seeing things from God's viewpoint.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it" (Isaiah 2:2, KJV, emphasis added).
Isaiah prophetically talked about the coming of the Lord Jesus in the last days to build His Church, the Lord's house.
Creation of man and redemption of men
There is a parallel truth running concerning the creation of man and the redemption of men. God worked 6 days in creation and on the 7th day He rested after creating a perfect man (male and female). Adam and Eve could have spent an eternal "honeymoon" in the Garden of Eden. But they blew it and messed it up by sin.
Similarly, God is working 6 days (6000 years) in full redemption. God's people had 4000 years before Christ came and He spends 2000 years to prepare His bride and then we have 1000 years of Kingdom rest. He already had a perfect bridegroom (Jesus Christ) and He is preparing His bride, the glorious Church (Eph. 5:25 - 27). Jesus is not going to marry a bride inferior to Himself. In the Bible He laid down certain marriage laws. And God is not going to give us marriage laws that He Himself would not keep. One of the marriage laws is, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbeliever" (2 Cor. 6:14).
Light and darkness in the last days
As mentioned earlier in the last days light and darkness are flowing together. Let us consider some passages (negative and positive) of New Testament Scripture concerning the last days.
Negative (darkness)
1. In 2 Timothy 3:1 - 7 Paul listed 18 moral blemishes in the last days - beginning with self-love and ends with lovers of pleasure. Also God's people will only display external form of godliness. Many will not maintain an intimate relationship with the Lord.
2. In 1 Timothy 4:1 - 3 Paul said in "latter times" some God's people will be deceived by wrong spirits and wrong doctrines.
3. Peter said, "... knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, ..." (2 Peter 3:3 - 8).
Positive (light)
1. In Acts 2 Peter quoted Joel, an Old Testament prophet concerning things happening in the last days. At that time the New Testament has not been written yet and Luke has not written Acts yet.
Peter said, "But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; ..." (Acts 2:16, 17, emphasis added).
2. Isaiah said, "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established ..." (Isaiah 2:2, emphasis added).
Notice that the Lord's house, the present day Church is established by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit prophesied by both Joel and Isaiah. Therefore the purpose of Joel's prophecy is to lead us to Isaiah 2. If you only have Joel without Isaiah you have missed the purpose of Joel. That is where most Charismatic Christians missed it. God is telling us, our Charismatic "honeymoon" is over and He wants us to get back into the house of the Lord. He wants us to build (spiritually) a true New Testament Church - His end-time Church! But many Charismatic Christians take Joel's prophecy concerning the out pouring of the Holy Spirit to mean to build more Churches (physically) and have more Charismatic "honeymoon"!
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