Delagrave Last Days

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="040c8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B><U>Dan Delagrave</U></B></div> <div> <B>is a youth care worker at Wyalusing Academy, a residential treatment center for adolescent youths located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  He and his wife, Debbie, have five children: two daughters at World Evangelism Bible College in Baton Rouge, Louisianna: a son at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota; and  two 11 year old twins at home. </B></div> <div> <B>Dan is the founder of </B><I><B>Fulfillment Ministries</B></I><B>. For more information and his newsletter, you can contact Dan at 807 S. Ohio St., Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin or call 608-326-6844.</B></div> <div> <B>E-mail: fulfill@mwt.net</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#003399" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT></div> <div> <B> </B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="7" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Brush Script MT" ><B>Restoration Ministries</B> </FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Restoration Ministries"><U>home</U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="151f8480.jpg" border=0 width="504" height="72" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>by Dan Delagrave</B></div> <div> <B>_______________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>"Hath in THESE LAST DAYS spoken unto us by his Son..."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (Hebrews1:2)</div> <bR> <div> <B>"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in THESE LAST TIMES for you."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (1 Peter 1:20)</div> <bR> <div> <B>"Little children, it is THE LAST TIME.."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (1 John 2:18)</div> <bR> <div> <B>"The time is SHORT.."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (1 Corinthians 7:29)</div> <bR> <div> <B>"The time is NEAR..."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (Revelation 1:3)</div> <bR> <div> <B>"The coming of the Lord draweth NEAR.."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (James 5:8)</div> <bR> <div> Futurists have no problem with making "the last days" to be "the last 2000 years." But, if we think about it, is that really a tenable viewpoint? If the Apostles declared that THEY were living in the last days, as the above verses prove they did, then can WE make that claim today as well?? What about "the last days?" The term itself screams NEARNESS. But 2000 years and running could hardly have been considered near! And saying "God has a different view of time" only makes matters worse!!</div> <bR> <div> The implications of making "the last days" to be the last 2000 years is not that "God has a different view of time.” Rather, it implies that the Apostles may have jumped the gun a little, i.e., were wrong, which, in turn, brings into question the inspiration of the letters they wrote. The skeptics of Christianity have zeroed in on this. In fact, it is their chief line of attack against Jesus and the Bible.</div> <bR> <div> No Biblical term stands alone. What I'm saying is that every Biblical term has some theology behind it! One of the criticisms I have voiced of the futurist position in general is that it is void of theological understanding on many key terms. Jesus went away and he will soon return — the end, thank you very much! Sadly, any theological exposition of a key term that contradicts the futurist viewpoint, rather than causing a re-think, is automatically discarded by those loyal to the futurist position.</div> <bR> <div> At the heart of the problem, is that many futurists approach the New Testament as if it was written to US . . . and yesterday at that! In other words, the vital original audience factor is no factor at all in futuristic interpretation. The fact is, the New Testament was written FOR us, not TO us — big difference! This should drive our interpretation. The "last days" must be kept in their proper historical context . . . and a little theology on top of that might help!</div> <bR> <div> The expression "the last days" is taken from Old Testament instruction to Israel. According to Genesis 49:1, 10, the scepter would not depart from Judah till Shiloh came in “the last days.” This accords perfectly with 1 Peter 1:20, which says that Jesus was "manifest in these last times.” Hebrews 9:26 says that Jesus appeared “once in the end of the age.” Thus, the first coming of Jesus marked the BEGINNING of the period known as “the last days.”</div> <bR> <div> Obviously SOMETHING was in it's “last days" in the first century. The question is, what was it?? Hebrews 8:13 says:</div> <bR> <div> <B> "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."</B></div> <bR> <div> We see here that it was THE OLD COVENANT that was in it's “last days” in the first century. It goes without saying that it “vanished completely” in 70 A.D. —  no Temple meant no Old Covenant! Israel after the flesh was inseparably connected to the Old Covenant, meaning that Israel after the flesh would no longer be the people of God after 70 A.D., since it's only way to God was no more. Thus, the Temple's destruction in 70 A.D. marked the END of the period known as “the last days.”</div> <bR> <div> This is in perfect harmony with Daniel 12:7, which said that the defining characteristic of “the time of the end” would be <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“the scattering of the power of the holy people.”</B></FONT> In Daniel's time, the holy people were the Jews, i.e., Israel after the flesh. The only power fleshly Israel had was it's special covenantal relationship with God by way of the Temple. That power was broken in 70 A.D.</div> <bR> <div> In the context of the Old Covenant vanishing completely, the author of Hebrews said that Jesus would come in “a little while” (10:37). This is consistent with the historical time-frame for the Lord's coming given by Jesus himself, who said he would come “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29-31). What days?? The days marked by the vanishing of the Old Covenant for sure; the Temple's destruction was the very centerpiece of the Lord's Olivet Discourse.</div> <bR> <div> Thus, when futurists say “the last days refers to the last days before Jesus returns,” they are right and wrong. It really did refer to the last days before Jesus returned! However, where futurists miss the intent is in thinking that “the last days” can either be vaguely stretched to cover the last 2000 years, OR that it began in 1948, culminating with a future “end of the church age.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. The church age was just getting underway in the first century, and, yet, the Bible writers referred to THAT time as “the last days.” It is simply untenable to think that the Church was both in it's beginning days AND it's last days at the same time. Perhaps futurists would do well to learn the law of non-contradiction!</div> <bR> <div> The last days being 30-70 A.D. is consistent with the Lord's own statement in Matthew 24:34, where he said to the disciples, <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”</B></FONT> The term “this generation” referred to the then-present generation. God called Israel's forty year time in the wilderness a "generation" (Hebrews 3:9-10). 30-70 A.D. is forty years. Paul said that the things that were written of the wilderness generation were for their examples. The typology can hardly be missed — the forty years from 30-70 A.D. represented a time of testing, or transition period, for that early church, after which they came into the fullness of the New Covenant in 70 A.D. Hebrews 10:9 says, “He taketh away the first (covenant), that he may establish the second.” The first covenant was “taken away” completely in 70 A.D. at the end of the period known as “the last days.”</div> <bR> <div> In general, Jews of Jesus' day preferred the Old Covenant, and prided themselves in being “the children of Abraham,” or Israel after the flesh. Jesus chided them for their “chosen people” mentality, which was based purely on genetics. He warned that they and their children would be destroyed and their city and Temple thrown down because they <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“knew not the time of their visitation”</B></FONT> (Luke 19:43-44). He said to them, <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation (the Christian nation) producing the fruits thereof.”</B></FONT> (Matthew 21:43). That judgment came in 70 A.D., when 1.5 million Jews perished, 250,000 were carried away into captivity, Jerusalem and the Temple were thrown down, and the entire Mosaic fabric of fleshly Israel was uprooted and destroyed. The Temple's destruction spoke plainly to the whole world that no longer would genetics determine who the covenant people of God were.</div> <bR> <div> In Galatians 4:22-30, Paul uses Abraham's two sons as an allegory for the two covenants. The son of the bondwoman represented the Old Covenant and it's people, Israel after the flesh. The son of the freewoman, represented the New Covenant and it's people, Israel after the SPIRIT. In the end, the bondwoman and her son are “cast out” because that son could not be heir “with” the son of the freewoman. Paul's teaching clearly refutes dispensationalism's “two peoples of God” theology. The son of the bondwoman was CAST OUT in 70 A.D.</div> <bR> <div> According to Deuteronomy 33:2, God and the angels came down at the BEGINNING of the Old Covenant. Thus, it is no coincidence that the same scenario happened at the END of the Old Covenant. Compare the terminology of Deut.33:2 with Jude 14. The author of Hebrews, after saying that the Old Covenant was <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“ready to vanish completely”</B></FONT> (8:13) said that Jesus would come in <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>“a little while”</B></FONT> (10:37). 70 A.D. was indeed “a little while” from the dating of Hebrews.</div> <bR> <div> Today, we look BACK at the last days as the time beginning with the Lord's earthly ministry and ending with his second coming at the end of the Old Covenant, which happened in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. When we understand the proper historical and theological context for “the last days,” the New Testament comes alive. Suddenly, we realize why all the inspired writers made such consummatory statements of imminence in the first century. The coming of the Lord really was drawing near at that time! </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>