For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

 

This is the biblical passage which people would usually recite if they are Christians. It says that God so loved world. Then where would there be the final destination of God's providence of salvation? As God "so loved the world,' He will continue unfolding the providence, no matter how long it may take, until He can completely save the world.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9)

 

The Last Days is the time when God plans to fulfill his will of saving man.

However, the biblical messages concerning the Last Days are confusing us and even make us to doubt God in the fundamental level.

The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up (Revelation 8:7)

 

If we are to believe passages in the Bible about the Last Days, we have no way but deny the faith in God of love who is seeking to find the one lost sheep.

In addition to that, if the universe should be destroyed, God's ideal of creation would all go in vain, and He would not be the omniscient and omnipotent being. It is because such a phenomenon shall mean that Satan or man can defeat God's purpose or will permanently.

Then are we to deny the Bible? Denying the Bible, we cannot solve the question related to God and man at all. How shall we have to see the Bible, then?

who also made us sufficient as ministers of new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (II Corinthians 3:6)

 

When we are to understand the biblical passage literally, we run into so many discrepancies. We may even ruin our faith. Shall we not have to regard the meaning of those verses more preciously?

to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (Acts 26:18)

 

The only thing that the fall of man who caused the world of Satanic dominion left behind to God would be tears. God could have destroyed all men, but He is only waiting for them to come back to Him.

However, man who was cut off from God cannot find the road of salvation by himself. So God is planning the recovery of salvation of man and the ideal world of creation. Since God created man as free being, not as a robot, He cannot always intervene and do the providence. The Last Days is the time when God sends the Messiah and does the decisive interference when it is not possible any more to expect that man will come back by himself because of the fully spread evil.

In other words, it is the starting point at which the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth can be realized by one Messiah just as if the world became to be under Satan's sovereignty because of one man. 2000 years ago, Jesus shouted like this, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17)

 

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly, will be subtle. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," says the LORD of hosts, "that will leave them neither root nor branch" (Malachi 4:1)

 

Jesus' day was the Last Days. It was the age when the sinful world (hell on earth) was about to transform into the ideal world of creation (Heavenly Kingdom on Earth) with the coming of Jesus as the turning point. Namely, the Last Days is the Last Days of evil or Satanic sovereignty.

However, everytime the providence was prolonged because man failed to fulfill his portion of responsibility. Thus there were several times of the Last Days; Noah's day, Jesus' day, and the day of the Lord's Second Advent, among which we will be most interested in the day of the Lord's Second Advent. How can we know when is that time?

The Old Testament and the New Testament use the same expression in their prophecy on the Last Days. Consequently, we may be able to have a right understanding of the prophecy on the Last Days to come if we study the time of the Last Days in the past.

And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth (Genesis 6:13)

 

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? (II Peter 3:12).

 

The Bible says that at the time of the Second Advent God would destroy the earth. The Old Testament also says that the earth wold be destroyed at the day of God. Even at Noah's day, God said that He would destroy the earth. However, we are still living in that earth.

One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4)

And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has established forever (Psalms 78:69)

 

In the meantime, there is a verse in the Old Testament which says that the earth would be eternal. How are we going to understand this contradictory word? Would that mean that there is the earth to be perished and the earth to be kept forever? And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... and I will be his God and he shall be My son (Revelation 21:1-7)

God is eternal. Accordingly, the earth created as God's object should also be eternal since the omniscient and omnipotent God could not have felt happiness at having created the universe which was doomed to perish owing to Satan. Then what could it have meant that He would destroy the earth? Because of the fall of man, Satan became the dominator of man's mind and act and brought the world under his domination.

Accordingly, God wanted to destroy the sovereignty of Satan who rule the universe -heaven and earth- and establish new heaven and new earth centered on Jesus, namely, a new world centered on true love of God. Since the world has so far walked on the road which was against God's will, Jesus proclaimed another road which was 180 degree opposite to the previous one in order to go back to God.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly, will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," says the LORD of hosts, "that will leave them neither root nor branch" (Malachi 4:1)

 

There are many prophecies in the Old Testament that there will be judgement by fire at the day of God.

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)

 

. Even Jesus said that he came to cast fire. Then what would the fire that he cast have meant?

but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:4)

 

Because you speak this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them (Jeremiah 5: 14)

 

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming (II Thessalonians 2:8)

 

Judgment by fire, so, symbolized judgment by the Word or the truth. Judgment by fire at Jesus' time was fulfilled by judgment by the Word, and there is prophecy on that in I Peter 3: 7

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18)

 

Then what would be the reason behind judgment by the word? In the beginning, man was created by the Word (John 1:3).

The fall means man's not obeying the Word. For that reason, salvation has also to be made only through the word. God may have wanted man to resemble Him by himself and become the substantial body of the word, thus becoming completely free. The very first man was Jesus. Jesus came as the substantial body of the Word (John 1:14). His word and life became judgment to us.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life (John 5:24)

 

With the Word, Jesus clarified the sin, made man repent, gave him hope, and planted love. The Word has such a power

Those who believe can become new men, but those who disbelieve just wind up becoming the a failure. There is the same verse of prophecy in the time of the Second Advent.

and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many (Matthew 27:52-53)

 

This record cannot stand for their flesh literally rise from corruption. If the verse had meant that they literally rose and appeared to many people in the city, they would surely have testified to the Jewish people about Jesus, and their deeds should have been recorded in the Bible.

Then what does this accident mean?

This is the same spiritual phenomenon as one in which the spirits of Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt, 17:3). The recorder saw the phenomenon in his spiritual eye.

Thus, the biblical verses that tombs will be opened and the dead saints resurrect symbolizes not that the life of the rotten flesh get life again, but that it receives salvation through the spiritual revival.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:17)

 

Many people are waiting for Jesus who will come again with the clouds.

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! (Daniel 7:13)

 

Daniel saw Jesus coming with cloud in his dream. So the wish of the Jewish at the Old Testament Age was also to meet Jesus coming from heaven.

Jesus, however, was born at Bethlehem, while he said that he came down from heaven (John 6:51)

What would "heaven" indeed represent? Could it be that heaven meant outer space?

We often compared heaven to a sacred place, and the earth to the fallen world. Since the fall does not mean the spacial fall, the salvation does not mean a lift in space, either. Jesus was intending to restore the world of good sovereignty by coming to the sinful world under Satanic sovereignty.

But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation (Luke 17:25)

You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings (Revelation 10:11)

 

The Last Days does not necessarily correspond to happiness. Prophecies on the Second Advent are talking about suffering.

When Jesus came 2000 years ago with the word of the New Testament Age as God's only begotten son and fulfiller of commandments (Matthew 5:17), he was crucified by Pharisees and priests who do unlawful acts under the name of Jesus. The Bible says that such a persecution will come again at the time of the Messiah who will come with new word of the Completed Testament Age as the fulfiller of the New Testament Age. The power of Satan who grasped the world will not easily give his power to the coming Messiah. He would use any kind of slanders and persecution to get rid of the Messiah.

The fallen churches and ministers are doing unlawful things under the name of God and decorating little lambs with a lewd woman's wine glass. The Bible shows that small group of people who are awake and pray will realize God's will and receive the coming Lord, but that they will suffer distress and persecution together with the Lord by those powers who are catching hold of the world's authority.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him (John 4:23)

The Last Days is the point of intersection where the old age and the new age are confronting each other. The Last Days seems to concern the world, but it is related to each individual as well. Every man lives all his life amidst the conflict between goodness and evil. At every second, we find ourselves pushed into the world of evil rather than living in accordance with our original mind.

Now each one of us has to think that it is time that we should go back.

During his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said that man should be born of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

It means being born again. The same applies to us. We should not be attached to conventional idea but should respond to the providence of the new age. We have to go back to God who is looking for "me," to meet the Messiah, to be born again,,,, We have to go out in search for the word of new truth.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1)

 

The present day is the Last Days. The world we are living in is situated amid extremely fallen environment. In the Last Days, evil flourishes to the extreme and Satan has all the power of the world.

As the moon waxes, it sinks, and as the darkness becomes deep, the dawn comes bright. Likewise, the more prosperous evil becomes, the stronger God's effort to save men and people's desire toward the goodness.

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come (John 16:13).

When the day arrives, God will give men the Messiah and the word of new truth. He will, thereby guide men who are wandering amidst the sin and evil into God's will, and judge Satanic power with His word of truth.

Consequently, the world of evil shall see its end, and the new heaven and earth filled with God's love and truth will be opened.