Click here to get this post in PDF

“Last” means Last, right?

We could talk about the fact that the Hebrew and Greek can mean “last,” as in “final.” Same for the word “end.” But is that the way to study scripture? Or does scripture interpreter scripture? Is the context more important? By the way, that last question is really important. Did I just use the word “last” in a different way than last? The last question I asked was not the last question of this post or this blog or in history. It was simply the most recent sequential question before I said it was really important.

Also, the word “end.” To what end would we be headed in defining that word? Did I just use the word “end” to mean something different than final, chronological time of “the end?” I used it as a synonym for purpose. The word used for end in the Hebrew in key passages like Daniel 8:19 (about knowing “what shall be in the last end”), Deuteronomy 32:20 (about seeing “what their end shall be”), and all the Proverbs passages using the same Hebrew word (like “the end thereof being death”).

Therefore, if the words used for end and last in the bible can mean conclusion of something, purpose, final, end of an age, etc., we’ll need to get our honest interpretive hats on. A text without a context is a pretext. In other words, if I take one verse and focus on that one verse, I can pick and choose what I want it to mean. In other words, it’s a pretext for getting the meaning I want out of it. And the meaning most interpreters seem to want from the words “end” and “last days” seems to be the final end of all things, when Jesus Christ returns to judge the entire world in the final judgment. Why would they want that?

It appears that every generation of Christians has wanted to be the “last” generation, the generation during which Jesus returns. You can find interpretations of the bible going back centuries and interpreting various scriptures to prove the “obvious” conclusion that their generation is the final generation. Is it genuinely the return of Christ they want? Or is it some form of generational chauvinism? (I got the term “generational chauvinism” from one of Gary North’s writings.)

Let’s look at one passage for a moment. Hebrews 1:1-2 states: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; . . . .” How can anyone confuse that passage? When speaking of “these last days” in the past tense about God speaking through Jesus Christ, the author of Hebrews is clearly writing about the day he lived in, right? And it’s hard to make it mean some future time centuries later. However, interpreters have a way around that inconvenient interpretation. Let’s talk about that in the next post.