Appendix B
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Paul thought the end
was imminent:
“What I mean,
brothers, is that the time is
short. From now on those who have
wives should live as if they had
none.” (1 Corinthians 7:29)
“And do this,
understanding the present time. The
hour has come for you to wake up
from your slumber, because our
salvation is nearer now than when we
first believed. {12} The night is
nearly over; the day is almost
here. So let us put aside the
deeds of darkness and put on the
armor of light.” (Romans
13:11-12)
“…But now he
(Jesus) has appeared once for all at
the end of the ages to do away
with sin by the sacrifice of
himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)
John thought the end
was imminent:
“Dear children, this
is the last hour, and as you have
heard that the antichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have come.
This is how we know it is the last
hour.”
(1 John 2:18)
“The revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave him
to show his servants what must soon
take place. He made it known by
sending his angel to his servant
John.”
(Revelation 1:1)
Peter thought the end
was imminent:
“For you know
that it was not with perishable
things such as silver or gold that
you were redeemed from the empty way
of life handed down to you from your
forefathers, {19} but with the
precious blood of Christ, a lamb
without blemish or defect. {20} He
was chosen before the creation of the
world, but revealed in these last
times (years) for your
sake.” (1 Peter 1:18-20)
At Pentecost, Peter
said, “These men are not drunk,
as you suppose. It’s only nine
in the morning! {16} No, this is what
was spoken by the prophet Joel: {17} ‘In
the last days, God says, I will
pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will
prophesy, your young men will see
visions, your old men will dream
dreams.’” (Acts 2:15-17)
Isaiah thought the end
was imminent:
“Wail, for the
day of the Lord is near; it will
come like destruction from the
Almighty.”
(Isaiah 13:6
Ezekiel thought the
end was imminent:
“For the day
is near, the day of the Lord is
near - a day of clouds, a time
of doom for the nations.”
(Ezekiel 30:3
Joel thought the end
was imminent:
“Alas for that
day! For the day of the Lord is
near; it will come like
destruction from the Almighty.”
(Joel 1:15)
“Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.”
(Joel 3:14)
Obadiah thought the
end was imminent:
“The day of
the Lord is near for all nations.
as you have done, it will be done to
you; your deeds will return upon your
own head.” (Obadiah 1:15)
Zephaniah thought the
end was imminent:
“Be silent before
the Sovereign Lord, for the day of
the Lord is near. The Lord has
prepared a sacrifice; he has
consecrated those he has
invited.” (Zephaniah 1:7)
“The great of
the Lord is near – near and
coming quickly. Listen! The cry
on the day of the Lord will be
bitter, the shouting of the warrior
there.” (Zephaniah 1:14)
A day is as a thousand
years!
To defend the idea
that everything written by the
prophets is inerrant, some scholars
argue that God represents time as
short to His prophets because in His
sight, a day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years as a day. I find
no value in this argument for two
reasons. First, the only infallible
person to ever live was Jesus Christ.
Prophets are forgiven sinners just
like the rest of us and even thought
they are inspired, they remain
fallible and they do make mistakes.
See Galatians 2:11-14; Acts 21:4-14
and 1 Kings 13.
Secondly, and more
importantly, God has not revealed the
amount of remaining time to any
person. For example, in
Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, no time
was specified for the fulfillment of
the vision. In the visions of John,
Peter, Paul, Joel and others, God
showed them scenes that they describe
to the best of their ability, but
without any knowledge of remaining
time, they all conclude (without
exception) that they must be living
at the end of time. We find this
phenomenon to be consistent among the
prophets across the centuries. John
was taken into vision to see scenes
about the end of the world. He
clearly saw them and wrote them down
in the book of Revelation, but God
did not reveal anything to him about
the amount of time between his day
and the end of the world.
Consequently, John was left with the
impression that the end must be very
near and he wrote accordingly.
I also find no value
in the argument that the Bible uses
words such as near or soon
to refer to a time span of thousands
of years. Don’t misunderstand.
We know that time is nothing to God
– a thousand years are as a day
and a day as a thousand years.
(Psalm 90:4) But, my
point is that God does not mislead
humanity by using His perception
of time. He would not represent
something as imminent for the sake of
deceiving people into believing
something untrue. As Paul said,
“…Let God be true and every
man a liar…” Romans 3:4
Fact is, God has never said that
the remaining time on earth was
short. This was the
conclusion of the prophets. And three
thousand years of history proves that
it was their perspective and not a
revelation from God. Keep in mind,
the subject here is quantity of time.
Because God has not revealed the
quantity of time, prophets have
consistently reached for the same
conclusion – time is short.
However, when God declares something
is about to be fulfilled, He knows
how to use our language, and He uses
words we understand, He tells us what
He is going to do and it happens just
as He declared. For example, see
Ezekiel 24:14.
How does inspiration
work?
If God gave you, an
ordinary person, a vision about the
end of the world, would that make
everything you say thereafter
infallible? No. If you thought your
vision was soon to be fulfilled and
plainly said so, and then a thousand
years pass by, would that mean the
vision was a hoax? No. This is a
delicate matter and some people may
not be able to resolve this. But, the
answer is quite simple as I see it.
At various times God reveals things
to ordinary people. They are then
free to write down what they have
seen and make comments about the
meaning. The point is the comments
about the vision come from the
prophet. (1 Corinthians 13:9) So, we
must apply two tests to the
statements of the prophets regarding
chronology. First, we can look at
history and see if their conclusions
were correct. Secondly, we can look
at the 17 apocalyptic structures of
Daniel and Revelation and
chronologically determine where their
visions belong in the long sweep of
things.
My point is that all
of the prophets we have investigated
were shown scenes about the Great Day
of the Lord and not one of them had
the faintest idea that it was still
thousands of years away. God
did not allow them to understand when
the end was coming. Everyone of them,
without exception, thought the end
was about to happen in their day.
In God’s time
Another problem arises
from the study of time. If we
conclude that thousands of years can
exist between two verses of the
Bible, how can we know when a long
period of time exists between two
verses? There is only one way to
answer this question that I know of.
The answer is found in the prophetic
matrix of Daniel and Revelation. When
all 17 stories of Daniel and
Revelation are properly aligned, we
discover the chronological location
and relative timing of each part.
Progression towards
fulfillment shows where we are in the
prophetic process. Because God lays
out a few periods, this is the only
way we can know when the end is near.
Wars, famines and earthquakes are not
positive proof that the end of the
world has come. Civilizations come
and go. Famines come and go and
earthquakes happen frequently. But,
there has to be clear evidence that
the end of the world has been reached
if we are going to believe such a
claim. So where do we find such
evidence? Only through confirming the
progressive fulfillments of
apocalyptic prophecies with
historical records can we find our
place in God’s allowance of
time. Now that the mystery of Daniel
and Revelation has been understood,
we discover that remaining time is
short. Perhaps less than 4 years.
Bottom line
Can the final
generation positively know they are
the last generation? Yes, but only
when they know the amount of
remaining time. Is there evidence in
the Bible suggesting that the
2010’s are earth’s final
years? I think so. While the evidence
is not solid, it nonetheless
is there if you are looking for it
and it makes 2011 and the years that
follow appear to be quite important.
(See Appendix D.)
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