The bible is a fascinating book. There are 66 separate books written by about 40 authors who mostly did not know each other, over a 1500 year period, and yet it tells one story from start to finish.
Pick any 40 congressmen from the same congress and ask them to write 66 books and let them work on it together and see if it similarly has the continuity and consistency of the bible. Not likely.
I think one of the most fascinating themes in the entirety of the bible from start to finish is the idea of “covenant”. There are two major covenants and several minor covenants. The two major covenants are clearly laid out for us and we have for centuries divided our bible between the two covenants. The Old Testament is the documentation of the Old Covenant with introductory remarks (or prophesying) throughout of the New Covenant. The New Testament is the documentation of the establishment of the New Covenant with explanatory remarks (and declarations of fulfillment) about the old.
When we study these covenants we discover some amazing things. I will not try to list them all as you would not have the time to read them and I do not know all of them. But I am still studying them and learning more and more of them all the time.
One of the most amazing studies of the covenants is the study of the eschatology of the covenants. The word “Eschatology” means: “Any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters”. The word comes from the Greek word “Eschato”, meaning:”last“.
So it is the study of those things which are to occur last, the things that come at the end of the covenant. We are introduced to these “last” events over and over in the Old Testament with the phrases “Last Days”, and “Latter Days”.
Here are a few of them.
“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in THE LAST DAYS.” Genesis 49:1
“And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in THE LATTER DAYS.” Numbers 24:14
“When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in THE LATTER DAYS, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;” Deuteronomy 4:30
“For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in THE LATTER DAYS; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.” Deuteronomy 31:29
“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
“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.” Daniel 2:48
“Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in THE LATTER DAYS: for yet the vision is for many days.” Daniel 10:14
If you go back to each text and look at the surrounding passages you will find that there is no doubt that each one of these refers to the last days of Israel and their covenant. So when we come to the New Testament and we begin to find these same phrases used; what should we conclude?
“And it shall come to pass in THE LAST DAYS, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:” Acts 2:17
“This know also, that in THE LAST DAYS perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:1
“Hath in THESE LAST DAYS spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Hebrews 1:2
“Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for THE LAST DAYS.” James 5:3
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in THE LAST DAYS scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” 2 Peter 3:3
“Little children, it is the LAST TIME: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is theLAST TIME.” 1 John 2:18
Can we conclude that since the Old Testament writers were writing to a Hebrew audience and about the nation of Israel that when we come to the New Testament, that the apostles who were Jewish and members of the nation of Israel, ministering to a predominant Jewish audience would actually change the meaning and application of the terms? I do not think that is a plausible possibility.
If they were to change the meaning and application of the term Last Days, then where did they announce such a change? If they did not announce or indicate a paradigm shift in this area then why would we assume that we can insert our meaning to the phrase rather than their first century inspired meaning?
There is another reason why these phrases used to describe Israel’s last days in the Old Testament should be continued to be applied to Israel’s last days in the New Testament. That reason is the reason of Covenant duration. Paul writes:
“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:” 2 Corinthians 3:7
Paul describes the Old Covenant as a “ministration of death”, “Engraven in Stone”, and then goes on to declare that it ” — was to be done away (with)” The Old Covenant had an end. This end is one of the most documented and recognized ends to a countries history and existence in all of recorded history. The destruction of 70 AD is disputed by very few as the end of the Old Covenant of Israel with God. Paul compares this passing Old Covenant with the New Covenant which he says is going to remain.
“For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.” 2 Corinthians 3:11
All through the Old Testaments, Moses and the prophets wrote about the “Last Days” or “Latter Days” of that Old Covenant. They also prophesied that there would come a New Covenant.
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:” Jeremiah 31:31-32
Other prophets wrote about this New Covenant as well. They all agreed that this New Covenant would be an eternal or “Everlasting” Covenant.
“Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”Isaiah 55:3
“For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”Isaiah 61:8
“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Jeremiah 32:40
“Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.” Ezekiel 37:26
“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” Hebrews 8:6
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.“ Hebrews 8:13
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,” Hebrews 13:20
In reading these passages from Hebrews we see that the author is confirming to his Jewish (Hebrew) audience that the New Covenant is “better” and established upon “Better promises”. He re-affirms that the Old Covenant was vanishing away, meaning it had an end. And then he agrees with the prophets of the Old Testament that the New Covenant established through the blood of Christ is an “Everlasting Covenant”.
Consider for a moment the nature of this New (Eternal) Covenant. In contrast to the Old Covenant it is built on better promises, it is a covenant of life and not death, and it has no end. So it can be said that this New Covenant has no “Last Days”. By definition a thing with no end would never have any last day or last days. So again the New Testament writers had to be writing about the end of the Old Covenant when they used the phrase “Last Days”.
In addition, remember the definition of the term “Eschatology”-the study of last things. If this be the case, then how can we impose an eschatology on a covenant that has “No End”? Can the New Covenant, which has no end, actually have an eschatology? But definition it cannot.
So when we read about eschatological events anywhere in the bible, (Old or New Testament), we are reading only of the events surrounding the end of the Old Covenant and the nation of Israel.
Paul even confirms this never ending nature of the New Covenant when he writes:
“Unto him be glory in the assembly (church) in Christ Jesus to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.” Ephesians 3:21