A question I am guessing we have all asked and been asked is “what time is it?” While this particular question is often looking for the exact time of day(e.g., 3:00 PM), there is another possible sense in which we ask and may be asked this question. This sense concerns more the point of time in which we find ourselves in terms of the history of the world. Different eras have been labeled the Stone Age or the Bronze Age while other eras have been labeled the Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution.
As I have been studying and thinking about the words of the Apostle Peter found in the Book of Acts and in the two New Testament letters he wrote (1 and 2 Peter), the answer that I think Peter would give to this question is that we are living at the end of the ages or in the last days. He teaches us to view the whole time between Jesus’s ascension into heaven and his coming return as the last days. He provides the reason for this view, the reality we then experience in this time, and also how we should respond.
The Reason We Are in the Last Days – The Presence of the Holy Spirit
When people talk about “the last days” and whether we are living in them, they often seem to talk about wars and natural disasters and think that these are the “signs of the end.” While Jesus talks about these things in connection to the “end,” he notes that such things don’t point to the end but rather stand as labor pains before the end (see Matthew 24:6-8).
Peter points to something else that stands as the sign that we are in the “last days,” and that is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers on the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2. When he and others received the Holy Spirit on that day, Peter said it was not just the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise to send the Spirit (see John 14:17) but also the words of the Old Testament prophet Joel through whom God said (see Joel 2:28-32) that in the last day, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people…” (see Acts 2:16-21). What happened on Pentecost is the fulfillment of that as well as other promises about the Holy Spirit that God made through the prophets (see Isaiah 32:14-18; Ezekiel 36:26-27) – and that time is now!
This era of the “the last days” has lasted a while – around 2,000 years (though this length of time may not seem as long to God since Peter says “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” in 2 Peter 3:8). We don’t know how long it will last – Jesus said we won’t know the day of his return (see Matthew 24:36-37) – but we know that it has arrived. There is not another era to come; this era will culminate in the return of Christ and the end of time, ushering in the eternal kingdom.
The Reality of Being in the Last Day- The Presence of Scoffers
These last days can also be called the age of the Spirit, as God has poured out His Spirit upon His people, and the age of salvation – as all those who will call upon the Lord will be saved. While the Spirit and salvation are key characteristics of this time, there is another, less joyful, reality that we should be aware of – scoffers and false teachers. Peter highlights this reality towards the end of his second letter, as he writes in 2 Peter 3:3-4: “Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, ‘Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation’”(CSB). Peter’s point in these words is not that there is a future day to come in which there will be people characterized this way, but that they were present in his time and will continue until the end of the last days.
Therefore, in addition to recognizing the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our time and thus in our lives, we also should know that we will have false teachers in our midst. The presence of false teachers is not something new in this era, as Peter notes that there were also false teachers in previous eras (see 2 Peter 2:1). These false teachers follow in the footsteps of the false prophets in previous generations, but may seem to take on a new intensity and danger in these last days both because Satan puts up a greater fight at the end and also because there is limited time to repent if one gets trapped in their false teaching.
Something that Peter emphasizes about these false teachers is their presence within, and not just outside, the Christian community. He notes that they are present at the feasts of the church (see 2 Peter 2:13) and twist the Word of God (2 Peter 3:16); they work from the inside out rather than outside in. Thus, we should be on guard for false teaching in this time.
The Response of Being in the Last Days – Pray and Be Sober-Minded
In Peter’s first letter, he notes how we are to live in these last days in 1 Peter 4:7-11. He begins these words by saying “The end of all things is near; therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer” (CSB). Prayer and sobermindedness should thus mark the people of the Spirit as we walk in a time of scoffing. We should be on the lookout for false teaching and be diligent in seeking to walk in the way of Jesus, which includes things like love one another (1 Peter 4:8), being hospitable (1 Peter 4:9), and using the gifts of word and deed to serve others (1 Peter 4:10-11). We don’t do so, though, through our own strength but rather in dependence upon God, which is conveyed through prayer as we ask for God’s help and strength.
Conclusion: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
As I was thinking about these words about us living in the “last days,” I remembered the famous opening words of the Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities: “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The presence of scoffers and false teachers, including inside the church, makes this in a sense the worst of times. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit makes this the best of days. Let us remember both truths about our time, knowing that the end will come at a time we do not know.
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