Jesus and the Last Days
Jesus said these words to His followers during His last hours on this earth:
“ ‘Do not let your heart[s] be troubled. You have put your trust in God, put your trust in Me also. There are many rooms in My Father’s house. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going away to make a place for you. After I go and make a place for you, I will come back and take you with Me. Then you may be where I am’ ” (John 14:1–4, NLV).
Jesus’ followers did not fully understand the meaning of His words. They did not fully know when His promise would come true, either. But Jesus’ followers must have felt comforted by His words. One day, they each would have a room in His Father’s house in heaven? Jesus Himself was getting their rooms ready for them? What a beautiful promise! Jesus promised them a future life that was better than anything they could ever have on this earth.
Not long before this time, Jesus told His followers about the things that would happen before His Second Coming. Jesus gave His followers a “history about the future.” That sounds a little strange, right? After all, history is something that has already happened. So, how can there be a history about the future when the future has not happened? No one can tell the future except God. Jesus is God. He could do what no human could do. He could tell us the things that would happen before they happened. None of it was pretty. There would be wars. Country would fight against country. There would not be enough food in some places on Earth. There would be earthquakes, too. Jesus said that all “ ‘these things are only the beginning [start] of trouble’ ” (Matthew 24:8, NIrV). God’s people would experience attacks, Satan’s lies and tricks against them, and many other troubles in the future.
Today, we can look back over everything that has happened in history since the time of Jesus’ first coming. We can see that many of the things Jesus warned us about already have come true. Two big things that Jesus warned us about happened exactly when Jesus said they would. The first is God’s promise in Daniel 7:25 about how long God’s church would be attacked. God’s church would be attacked “ ‘for a time, times, and half a time (three and a half years)’ ” (NLV). (Read also Revelation 12:6, 14; Revelation 13:5; and Numbers 14:34.) This three and a half years is really a word picture. The three and a half years are made up of 1,260 days. There is a special rule in the Bible that is named the year-for-a-day rule. This rule means that in some verses in the Bible one day equals one year. Daniel 7:25 is one of those special verses in the Bible where this rule needs to be used. Then the verse makes sense. So, when we use this rule in Daniel 7:25, we see that the 1,260 days are really 1,260 years. But when did this time begin? The 1,260 years began in A.D. 538. Add 1,260 years to A.D. 538, and what year do you come to? You come to the year A.D. 1798. That was the first special message about time Jesus gave us that came true. The second special message about time is the longest time message in the Bible. That time message is found in Daniel 8:14. Daniel 8:14 talks about the 2,300 days. We can understand the meaning of these 2,300 days only if we use the one-day-equals-one-year rule here, too. The 2,300 days in Daniel 8:14 are really 2,300 years. This time message ended in the year 1844.
We are now living at the “ ‘end of time’ ” (Daniel 12:13, NLV). Or as another Bible puts it: “ ‘the end of the days [the last days]’ ” (NKJV). This wording reminds us of the 1,260 days and the 2,300 days, which are now at an “ ‘end’ ” (NKJV). They are over. That is why we are now living in that time in history that the Bible names the end of time. We do not know when the Second Coming will be. But we must be ready.
How? What do we do to get ready for the Second Coming? Maybe the best answer is found in this verse: “You accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, so continue to live following him” (Colossians 2:6, ERV). What is this verse saying to us? It reminds us that it is easy to get caught up in everything that we think must happen before Jesus comes back. We should not think too much about the worldwide troubles, the news headlines, and all the different
ideas about the last days. If we do, we may forget to think about Jesus Himself. We must not let that happen. Jesus alone will help us be ready to meet Him when He comes.
This quarter we will study about the last days. But our most important topic is Jesus. We will learn how to get ready for His coming. Yes, we need to look at history, and at things that will be happening on the earth. After all, the Bible talks about these things when it talks about what will happen in the last days. But even then, the Bible talks about Jesus. It talks about who He is. It talks about what He has done for us and is doing now. It talks about the things Jesus will do when He comes back. Jesus and the Cross must be the center of our faith. Or, as Paul said: “I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross” (1 Corinthians 2:2, ERV). What happens when we think about Jesus more and more? Then we become the same as He is more and more. What happens when we obey Him more and more? Then we will be ready even more for everything that is going to happen in the future right before the Second Coming. And we will be ready for that day when Jesus comes to take us to the special “place” (John 14:3, NLV) that He is making for the people who love Him.
Norman R. Gulley, PhD, is a professor at Southern Adventist University.
Contents
Introduction
Lesson 01. The Big War Between Good and Evil—March 31–April 6
Lesson 02. Daniel and the Last Days—April 7–13
Lesson 03. Jesus and the Book of Revelation—April 14–20
Lesson 04. The Last Days and God’s Saving Plan—April 21–27
Lesson 05. What Is Jesus Doing Right Now in Heaven?—April 28–May 4
Lesson 06. Who “Changed” God’s Law?—May 5–11
Lesson 07. Matthew 24 and 25—May 12–18
Lesson 08. Worship God Who Made Heaven and Earth—May 19–25
Lesson 09. Satan’s Lies and Tricks in the Last Days—May 26–June 1
Lesson 10. America and Babylon—June 2–8
Lesson 11. God’s Seal or the Beast’s Mark?—June 9–15
Lesson 12. Babylon and the Last Battle—June 16–22
Lesson 13. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus—June 23–29
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Source:
* Adventist.org
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