Last Days – ​When Will the End Come & What Should We Expect?

Q1: Is God of the Old Testament different than God of the New Testament? If there is a difference what is it? Why?

Q2: When should we expect the prophecies of the Last Days to be fulfilled?

Q3: What will the end of days look like realistically?
Is it possible we could have the wrong expectations like the Jews did 2,000 years ago?

A1: God is not different. The Time Period is different.

The Old Testament was a time in which the people of God were like servants, and God was master. Every man of God referred to themselves as God’s servant.

The Word came in the form of the Law through Moses who was this time’s central figure. It was a very physical time period. It was expected that the chosen people obey without question. Jews do not even use God’s name, but refer to Him only as Lord who provides or Lord who protects, etc. But within the scriptures of the Old Testament is the promise of something greater to come.

In the New Testament the Word of Faith came through the promised Messiah, Jesus. He referred to God as his father, and brought us up into a relationship that is more like a son or daughter of God. The expectations were also different. Jesus said that if you hate your brother you are a murderer. This is a more mental time period. Yet this too is not the highest level. Within the scriptures of the New Testament is the promise of something greater to come.

A2: ​The Prophecies of the Last Days have already been fulfilled.

They asked Jesus what were the signs they should look for and when would the end come in Matthew chapter 24.

​These have all been fulfilled. Some of them are metaphorical to varying degrees so some might argue that they have been fulfilled or not fulfilled depending on how they choose to interpret the metaphors.

Is it during our day? Was it not during the Roman persecution?

Also, every time period had reason to believe that their time period was just before the end. The persecuted Christians of Rome during the first 400 years of Christianity had good reason to believe that they were living through the last days.

Rome is the city on 7 hills. There is definitely some significance between the evil emperor Nero who persecuted Christianity and the mark of the Beast 666. When you translate his name into Hebrew and then use numerology to change each letter into a number, the numbers add up to 666.
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Actually, many modern day Christians expected the end right up until 1999. Y2K was supposed to be when Jesus would return. We also expected the end in 2012. And various cult groups named a few other dates. But now it’s 2018 and people have pretty much given up on talking about the Last Days. So what happened?

​Principle of the Last Days

​The time of Nero was the Last Days. Also, our time period is the last days. The “Last Days,” are not the end of everything. They are the end of a time period and the beginning of something new. But that time of transition in the middle is extremely difficult.

Time is Circular

Remember, time to God is not linear. It is cyclical. To us who have very short lives and small perspectives, time is linear. But to God, to the Aztecs, and to more spiritually minded cultures, time is a repeating cycle of death and resurrection. Even nature illustrates this Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Winter = the death of all things. Spring = the resurrection of all things.

​This is how the Holy Son can be both the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

​Revelation 1:8 (NIV)

​“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Miniaturization and Magnification

We can actually apply this principle to your life on a very personal level. Every time you transition from one school to another, it is the end of one time period, the beginning of a new, and a very difficult transition in between. Every test is a trial in which ultimately you pass or fail.
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We can apply to this the family or a nation. A family will often go through a severely hard time. A divorce, a catastrophe. A great loss of a loved one with infighting taking place. Nation sometimes go to war, or have to fight for their freedom in a revolution. Or an old regime is pushed out, and a new one introduced. If we look at the scriptures, they all apply on each of these levels.

​Ultimately the highest level is the level of world wide time period. God is warning us that the most difficult transition of all is when He sends the savior to the entire world. They will neither expect him nor recognize him, but God will send him when the time comes.

Will the world recognize Him? They failed to recognize the Messiah 2000 years ago, and it appears we could easily make the same mistake again.

Matthew 24:40-41 NIV

That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

​“Taken” does not mean disappear. It means one will know and follow and the other won’t. Just as the disciples who followed Jesus. Some recognized what God was doing, but some couldn’t leave their old life behind so they stayed with their family.

Mark 10:17-22 NIV

​Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Matthew 19:27 NIV

​Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

The Bible Gives Us a Pattern to Learn From

Ecclesiastes 3:15 NIV

Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 NIV

​What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

The Jews expected, “the Lord” God himself to come to them and save them from their misery. But did God Himself float down out of the sky and show them something they had never seen before? No.

Instead they received Jesus and did not recognize him. We expect “the Lord” Jesus himself to come and save us from our misery. But what will we get? A Jewish person who died 2000 years ago floating down out of the sky? No.

God will do things exactly the way He did before.

Deuteronomy 18:18 KJV

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

A3: ​What should we expect? We should expect another 1,000 years, the new time period.

​Revelation 20:4-6 NIV

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for [a]a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

2 Peter 3:8 NIV

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.