This article discusses what is meant by the biblical term ‘the end’ and in its Jewish context We will also discuss various beliefs about when, how and what the coming of the end means for believers. Many mistakes and assumptions made by modern Christians will be exposed and hopefully corrected.
We find the phrase ‘the end’ in many eschatological contexts. But, just what is it the end of?
This is the end of an age, a long period of time. It is the end of the Mosaic age, Judaism. It’s the end of the Jewish sacrificial system, of the whole of the Jerusalem Temple and priesthood mediation.
It is a mistake to think that the end of the age means the end of the world or the end of history. For the Jews it meant the end of the ‘current’ Jewish age, the beginning of the new age of the Messiah.
Jesus charged the disciples with the Great Commission, promising He would be with them “until the end of the age”. Some people think Jesus meant that before the end comes that the gospel must be preached to all nations. The degree of completion of this task is seen by many as a significant indicator of the approaching end times. That is also a mistake.
One of the most notable references to the End is found in Matthew 24. Verse 14 says: this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
This convinces many readers that the end occurs after the gospel has been preached to all nations.
But in fact, the single Greek word Jesus used for the phrase ‘all the world’ meant something else to the disciples. It meant the Roman world or the known civilised world.
Jesus did not say ‘all would hear about the kingdom’. He said that the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth. This ‘world’ was all reached within the lifetime of the apostle Paul. See the evidence at for this in Romans 10:18, 15: 10, 16:18, Colossians 1:6, 1 Thessalonians 1:8).
That, my friends, is sensational. The End has come already. That is undeniable.
Another reference to the End is found in Paul’s 1 Corinthians 15:22-25 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death”.
This ‘End’ passage is centred around Paul’s teaching on the resurrection of the dead. It shows the end comes after Jesus has completed his mission and handed over the kingdom to God the Father.
Jesus was the ‘first fruits’—He was the first to rise from the dead. Others follow! Jesus has certainty completed His mission and returned to the Father long ago.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 accurately foretells that after the last trumpet has sounded, believers are consequently and quickly raised to new life after their physical death! This continues to the present day.
It is undeniable that Christians celebrate this wonderful fact at every funeral of our fellow believers!
The sound of the trumpet is a powerful biblical image associated with significant divine announcements, such as the giving of the Law at Sinai, and the call to assemble the Israelites.
Here the “last trumpet” is the call for people of God to gather to meet the Lord also described in Matthew 24:31 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17. What could be a more significant divine announcement?
Revelation describes various events to unfold during the last days: Revelation 1:1-3; 22:6-7, 12,20.
Sure, Jesus said that no one knows the exact day or hour of His return (Matthew 24:36). But He did not say ‘years, centuries or millennia’. And He added it would be in the lifetime of many of the people He spoke with face to face. (Matthew 10:23, 16:27-28, 24:34). See, that is undeniable.
Then The End Will Come.
So when do you expect “the end’ to occur? And how do you expect Him to appear?
There is an error which the famed scholar C S Lewis made. Lewis blatantly said Jesus was mistaken! He said Jesus failed to come back in the End times as he said he would. (See his book “The World’s Last Night”). That is also the mistaken view of many liberal scholars, atheists and Islamic writers. They have assumed that since Jesus was never seen by human eyes optically, that He never appeared.
But why should any human eyes see the Lord who after His ascension and glorification dwells in unapproachable light at the Father’s right hand? No one in human flesh can see Him and live.
The first Christians expected Jesus to return within their lifetimes. Exactly how they would experience His coming they were not told. So we must be cautious in what to expect, not assuming things.
The apostles wrote 100 times in the NT letters of Jesus’ imminent coming. It is undeniable they could possibly all been mistaken. See Romans 13:11-13; 16:20; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 4:5; 10:6; Philippians 1:6; 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10-10 for undeniable evidence. The apostles referred often to the “last days,” urging believers to be ready: See 1 Peter 1:20; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2).
Many theologians in their blindness cannot see. So they adapted teachings to explain the apparent delay, making false assumptions. So they claim that Jesus did not mean in His current generation It must be some future generation—a nonsense assumption. Please see my article on this issue here.
Others offer the absurd explanation that the word ‘generation’ meant ‘race’ i.e., the Jewish race. We must stick to the plain words of Jesus. He consistently attacked “this evil generation” the Jews of His own generation.
It is another mistake to believe the End will be a worldwide event seen optically, quoting Matthew 24:23–30 literally. But Biblical prophesies of the collapsing of cosmic entities were a common motif in judgment prophecy, e.g. Isa 13:10, 19:1,24:18-20, 34;8-15, Ezek 32:7–8; Joel 2:28; Nah 1:3; Pss 18, 104:3). This would be understood by informed Jews familiar with the prophets and as Jesus taught His disciples.
Jesus said His return will come with speed, brightness, and power, as lightning! Jesus is not seen in the sky but ‘seen’ seated in the heavenly places at the Father’s side! Stephen said to the Sanhedrin, at his trial, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
It is a huge mistake to think you could see Jesus’ second coming optically. He sits at the right hand of power. He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).
The scriptures are plain. How clearer can we get? It’s time for your denial to end, the brainwashing, the cognitive dissonance to be recognised and truth to prevail.
Truth is demanded by the Lord from us all. Jesus is the truth. He seeks those who want to worship God in spirit and in truth, not those who seek fantasies, like some imagined rapture.
Instead, as He said to the disciples before they killed Him: I do not ask {Father} to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. John 17: 15-18
Ian Thomson 