Last Days

Sorrow Not

/ David R Maas / Leave a comment

Foundational to the church’s future hope is the bodily resurrection of believers when Jesus arrives in glory. Paul’s description of the “arrival” of Jesus in Thessalonians is written to comfort believers concerning the fate of their compatriots who died before that event. They need not sorrow “like the others” BECAUSE the dead will be resurrected when the Lord “arrives.”

When the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth, both living and newly resurrected saints will “meet him” together as he descends from heaven – (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

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A Forgotten Hope

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The biblical faith is forward-looking and integral to its doctrine of salvation is the future resurrection of the dead. And that event will also mark the commencement of the New Creation. In the New Testament, this hope is linked to two events. First, the past resurrection of Jesus, and second, his future arrival at the end of the age. And salvation will remain incomplete without the resurrection of the saints.

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Final Events

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In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul outlines the events that will occur at the “arrival” or ‘parousia’ of Jesus, one of several Greek terms applied by him to Christ’s return. But regardless of which term he employs, he always speaks of one “coming,” “revelation,” or “appearance” of the Lord at the end of the age.

In the New Testament, the resurrection of the righteous, the final judgment, and the New Creation are all linked to his return, and this is also the case in the Apostle’s first letter to the Corinthians:

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His One Return

/ David R Maas / 2 Comments

The New Testament promises that Jesus will return to the earth at the “end” of the present age. His glorious “arrival…on the clouds” will result in the judgment of the ungodly, the resurrection and vindication of the righteous, the arrival of the New Creation, and the termination of death. Thus, it will be an event of great finality.

In his parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus portrayed the “Son of Man” arriving at the “end of the age” when he will divide humanity into two groups – The just and the unjust. The “wheat” will be gathered in the “barn,” while the “tares” will be tied into bundles and burned.

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The Ends of the Ages

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The Apostle links the start of the “last days” with the death and resurrection of the Son of God. The time of fulfillment has arrived, and all God’s promises now find their “yea and amen” in him. “In these last days,” God has “spoken” His definitive “word” in His Son.

And Paul declares that the church consists of those men and women upon whom the “ends of the ages have come.” While the term “last days” is not frequent in his letters, the Apostle does demonstrate his understanding that History’s final era has commenced with the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; therefore, nothing will ever be the same again.

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