False Teaching About The Last D False Teaching About “The Last Days” by Dr. John R. Rice
“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 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: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” –Acts 2:16-21.
The term, “the last days,” is often misused these days even by orthodox Christians. An eminent Bible teacher and theologian is quoted as saying, “I am convinced that we are seeing the closing days of this dispensation.”
A stock saying among some premillennial Christians is that “Jesus is coming soon.” Some Bible teachers blindly say that Jesus must come in the present generation.
Christians generally mean, when they say we are in “the last days,” that the end of the age, the end of the world as we now know it, must come within a few weeks or months or, at most, within a few years, which would mean during the lifetime of many now living. Such good Christian people believe that there are signs by which they can tell that we have nearly reached the end of this dispensation.
But to use the term, “the last days,” referring to a special time of worldliness, modernism and wickedness to include only the last thirty or fifty years, is misuse of the Bible term.
“The last days” is a Bible term clearly defined in Joel 2:28-32, quoted in Acts 2:17,21:
“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 it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
According to Bible terminology, “the last days” is that period of time beginning with Pentecost and continuing unto the day of the Lord– that is, until Christ’s personal return to reign. It is the gospel age. It coincides with the time scope of the Great Commission. The disciples were to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high and then they were to carry the Gospel to every creature. And Jesus was to be with them in power and blessing–unchanged until the end of the age.
It is true that we are in “the last days.” These are the days beginning with Pentecost and will continue with increasing blessing until the end of the age. These last days are to be marked by the
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pouring out of the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the Gospel and for witnessing by Spirit-filled sons and daughters, servants and handmaids. It is the age when “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” the age of revivals, the age of “whosoever will.”
Every heresy in doctrine has some hurtful result in Christian living. So, those who say that they have evidence that this age is coming to a close, draw some unscriptural conclusions that are profoundly hurtful. They say that the times are so vastly different to the days of sixty or seventy years ago that we cannot hope to have the same blessings that they had.
In 1899 D. L. Moody died in the midst of a great city-wide revival campaign in Kansas City. R. A. Torrey, J. Wilbur Chapman and Billy Sunday, with hundreds of other evangelists in union, city-wide campaigns, did their greatest work. Millions were saved in those revivals. But since that time, say these defeated, ultradispensational Christians, the picture has changed disastrously. Now, they say, we are in the last days. “The great falling away” has come. “Sinners are harder than ever, and great revivals are impossible!”
Surely one can see that these conclusions are based upon a false interpretation of Scriptures, and that false interpretation, that heresy in doctrine, is disastrous indeed.
Let us show, then, that the entire conception of the ultradispensationalist is wrong and that no one can scripturally and surely say that we are in “the last days” except that we are in the gospel age, which began at Pentecost, the day of revival, the day of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in mighty soul-winning power.
[1]. No One Knows Even Approximately When Jesus Will Come
In the Olivet Discourse the Saviour discussed the Second Coming. The clearest point in all His teaching on the Second Coming is that no one knows when it will be. Consider Mark 13:32-37:
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”
Observe the clear teaching of the Saviour that no man can know the time.
(1). The angels do not know when Jesus will come.
(2). While on earth the Lord Jesus Himself did not know when He
would return.
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(3). Jesus said His Second Coming was so wholly unpredictable that it was illustrated by the servants waiting for their master’s return. He might come in the evening, midnight, at the cockcrowing, or in the morning. In this world no one can foretell even approximately when Jesus will return and when this age will end. If the more than nineteen hundred years which have already elapsed since Christ promised to return be divided up into watches or periods to represent evening, midnight, cockcrowing and morning, we find that Jesus is saying that no one can know even within centuries of the time of His return.
(4). The all-important teaching of Jesus about His return is that
He may come at any moment, that His coming is imminent.
Jesus may not come for one hundred years, for five hundred years, or one thousand years. People often say, “Jesus is coming soon.” But that cannot be proven by Scripture. Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7). We know Jesus will come suddenly. Whether He will come sooner or later, we know not. Whether He will come at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning, we do not know. Jesus said that we are not to know, that we are simply to wait. We are to expect His coming, to be ready for His coming and be doing His blessed will in carrying the Gospel to every creature, but we do not know even the approximate time of His coming, nor of the end of this age.
This same strong teaching is given in Matthew 24:36-39. Again we have clear statement of Jesus that no one can know even the approximate time of His coming.
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my FAther only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Again Jesus clearly says that no man can know the day nor hour of His return. He repeats that even the angels in Heaven do not know the time; then He illustrates the total lack of information about the time of His Second Coming.
As it was in the days before the Flood when people ate, drank, married and gave in marriage and had no hint of the time when the Flood would come until “the flood came and took them all away,” just so surprising and unforeseen will be Christ’s Second Coming. They did not know even one day ahead of time when the Flood would come. So from the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, we properly infer that we cannot know even one day ahead of time when Jesus will come.
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Again this question of Christ’s return and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel was brought up by the disciples after Christ’s resurrection. Read the discussion in Acts 1:5-8.
“For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were coming together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”
Jesus had told the disciples to tarry there and wait until they were endued with power from on high. They were to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and so supernaturally empowered for soul winning.
Do you ever find Christians more concerned about the technical details of prophecy, more concerned about speculation as to the time of Christ’s return, than about soul winning? Well, before they were Spirit-filled, the twelve apostles had the same carnal viewpoint. Instead of rejoicing that they were to be filled with the Spirit for soul winning, they immediately jumped to the hopeful conclusion that Christ referred to His return, the restoration of David’s throne, and the future independence of Israel. So they asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” In strong and emphatic language Jesus told the disciples that the time and season of His glorious return and the restoration of Israel were not within their province at all, not matters for them to know.
“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”–Acts 1:7, 8.
It is well to remember that the carnal mind seizes on externals rather than spiritual internals. The carnal nature is more concerned with incidentals than with fundamentals. Men would rather be baptized than born again. Men would rather talk in tongues than have the mighty soul-winning power of the Holy Spirit. Just so, modern speculating ultra-dispensationalists prefer to look for signs rather than obey the Great Commission and win souls.
Let us clearly understand what Jesus taught. He said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons” concerning the Second Coming. Not the day, nor the hour, not the year, nor the era of the Second Coming can be foreseen. Jesus clearly said that the Father deliberately kept this secret and it is not something that Christians should seek to know.
[2]. Date Setting, Speculation, an Embarrassing Heresy
How it appeals to foolish, human pride for a man to think, In my
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superior wisdom I have figured out something others do not know! Bible teachers particularly like to show their superior understanding of the Scriptures and the times because, first, if “the discovery” is sensational, it will help get a crowd of excited hearers; second, it will be a good alibi for man’s powerlessness and fruitlessness in soul winning.
Men try to make the headlines by predicting when the next war will begin and when the next depression will come upon us. One can arouse more excitement and attract more attention if he can give plausible evidences that he has discovered approximately when the Saviour will return. That reveals that a Bible teacher is more “spiritual,” more “discerning” and more everything else that a proud carnal heart desires to appear to be! It is not surprising, therefore, that we have constantly recurring efforts to set the approximate date of the Lord’s return.
For example, a century and a half ago a farmer in New York state named Miller started to read his Bible and discovered, he thought, what the scholars had overlooked. By making a day mean a year (which it never does), he took some of the prophecies of Daniel from out of their setting and figured that Jesus must return on a certain day in 1846. Convincing many of his neighbors that he was right, these Millerites made white robes and got ready for the rapture. But they waited in vain on hilltops and haystacks for the Saviour to catch them away.
I sat at dinner with Dr. Lowe, a professor of Biblical Interpretation at the Practical Bible Training School, Johnson City, New York. He told me that his people lived in the community of Farmer Miller and many of them had been convinced that Jesus was coming on the day announced by Miller. One uncle planted no crops–why should he when he wouldn’t be there to gather them! He showed his faith by sitting on his front porch while others toiled. But since Jesus did not come, that winter thirteen of his cows starved while he and his family barely lived on the milk from one cow and corn meal.
Seventh-day Adventists are the spiritual descendants of the Millerites, and many of them still try to figure the time of the Lord’s return by misinterpretation of Daniel’s prophecy.
How foolish to think that the secret of the date of Christ’s return is given in the book of Daniel and that Jesus and none of His disciples knew it!
Since the British-Israel cult could not find the date of Christ’s return in the Bible, they turned instead to the great Pyramid and count it an inspired revelation like the Bible. In the ascending passage leading to the tombs of the kings in the pyramid they figured that one larger passage with a higher ceiling would represent the time of Christ’s return; so they took a tape measure from the supposed original ledge of the pyramid through the passage to the enlargement and counted every inch a year; so they began to foretell when Jesus would come!
One greatly-heralded British-Israel teacher in Los Angeles predicted
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that Jesus would come September 16, 1936, as I recall. Needless to day, his prophecy was wrong and his influence was broken. Date setting for the return of the Saviour has always been a heresy which turns out with much embarrassment.
In my boyhood I saw in the old opera house at Gainesville, Texas a picture prepared under the direction of “Pastor Russell” of the “Millennial Dawn” cult. He predicted, “Millions now living will never die,” and his books agreed that Jesus would come in 1914. When 1914 brought not the return of the Saviour but the First World War, Pastor Russell said Jesus came invisibly. The Russellites, later called Rutherfordites and now called Jehovah’s Witnesses, still teach this heresy.
Since speculation as to the date of the return of Christ has proved so foolish in the past and is always connected with heresy, it seems that Bible-believing Christians would take seriously the word of Jesus, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”
Such speculations are carnal and grow out of human pride and from misinterpretation of the Bible. No one knows even approximately when Jesus will return. No one knows the day, the year, the generation when He will return. It may be today. Praise His name, I will be glad to see Him! But there is no way for any honest Bible student to foretell whether Jesus will come soon or after hundreds of years.
[3]. No “Signs” of Christ’s Coming by Which We May Know It Is Near
In my early ministry I sometimes preached on “Signs of Christ’s Second Coming.” I had a chapter on that in my book, _The Coming Kingdom of Christ_. In a second edition I was compelled to modify the chapter, for I saw that the next thing on God’s program, as far as Bible prophecy is concerned, is Christ’s coming in the air to receive His saints, when the Christian dead shall be raised and living saints changed and called up to meet Him in the air. That event is imminent; that means it may occur at any time.
If Christ could come at any moment, then obviously we need not wait for any signs. And any signs could not make Christ’s coming other than imminent, could not prove He WOULD come today or this year and WOULD NOT prove He would not come today or this year.
It is important for Bible readers to see that there are two separate teachings about this which are contradictory. The Bible teaching is that Jesus may come at any moment, signs or no signs. He could have come even in apostolic days before any recent events could have occurred. The other teaching is that Jesus could only come after certain events or signs should be fulfilled and that He must come within a certain limit of time after these signs. These two teachings cannot be harmonized.
“But did no Jesus speak about signs of His coming?” No. Jesus
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spoke of one sign only and that not a sign of the first phase of His coming and the rapture but a sign which will occur AFTER the rapture, at the close of the Tribulation period, before Christ comes visibly, triumphantly to the earth to reign.
This sign is mentioned in the Olivet Discourse of Jesus. In Matthew 24:3 we have the disciples’ question, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Or better translated, “What is the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus gave the signs in Matthew 24:29,30 in these words: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
Note the following facts about His answer.
(1). The sign is to be “immediately after the tribulation.” The tribulation cannot begin till after the rapture, so Jesus must come into the air to receive His saints before the Great Tribulation. “The sign” is after Christ’s coming for His saints, not before.
(2). There is to be only one sign; it will appear in the heavens visibly just before Christ’s return in His revelation to judge the earth and set up His kingdom.
(3). We see that Christ’s coming referred to by the prophets was His coming to earth to reign after the rapture. Jews would naturally look forward to the part of Christ’s coming that will affect them, when the “angels… shall gather together his elect [the Jews] from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:31), when Christ will destroy all the enemies of the Jews, overthrow all Gentile dominion, restore David’s throne in Jerusalem and sit on David’s throne. It is this kingdom that the apostles asked about in Acts 1:6: “Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”
Gentile Christians are naturally more concerned about the rapture, the first phase of Christ’s coming. But Old Testament prophecies, in the interest of Jews, center mainly in the second phase of Christ’s coming–His revelation to Israel.
After the world is in the Great Tribulation time it will be very simple for those who know the Bible to learn when Jesus will return. There must be seven years in Daniel’s seventieth week. The Great Tribulation time itself is clearly announced to continue 42 months, 3.5 years, 1,260 days (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:14).
The terrifying reign of the Man of Sin is definitely limited. After
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the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming, the rapture, the second phase must come within a specified time. And just before Jesus returns to the earth with saints and angels to fight the Battle of Armageddon and set up His kingdom, the sign of His coming will appear in the heavens.
THERE IS NO SIGN OF CHRIST’S COMING PROMISED BEFORE THE RAPTURE. Mistaught people oftentimes say that Matthew 24:14 refers to a sign of Christ’s coming: “… this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
But the context shows that this is a message primarily for Jews who will be living in the tribulation time and not for us today. The next verse mentions the Abomination of Desolation, when the Antichrist will stand in the Temple in Jerusalem claiming to be God, which event must come after the rapture and which begins the Great Tribulation time. The following verse speaks of the flight of the Jews from the Man of Sin in those days, and verse 21 says, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
So during the Great Tribulation time the Gospel of salvation will be preached in view of the coming kingdom to the world and Christ’s literal return.
The preaching of the Gospel to all the world mentioned in Matthew 24:14 will be AFTER the first phase of Christ’s coming, not before.
R. A. Torrey called attention to two or three Scriptures which show that the Gospel has already been preached to all the world. In Acts 2:5, “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven”; and these men heard the Gospel at Pentecost. In Romans 1:8 Paul says that “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” How could people have heard of the wonderful faith of the fine Christians at Rome if they had not heard the Gospel? Colossians 1:4-6 also says that the Gospel had come to all the world in Paul’s time. So Matthew 24:14 could not and does not teach that the Gospel is yet to be preached in all the world before Jesus comes.
Besides, if the preaching of the Gospel to some unknown tribe in, e.g., Central America or the Amazon Valley, is an event that must occur before Jesus can come, then Christ’s coming could not be imminent and the scriptural warning that we must watch since Jesus may come any day or year would be foolish.
Let us say again there are no signs that will indicate when Jesus is to come, and there is not a single prophetic event which must come before the rapture of the saints.
—Reprinted from Sword of the Lord 9/16/88
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