The Final Part of the Days

Surely the Lord YHWH will do nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets ~ Amos 3:7

Does anything tickle the ears more than a conversation brewing about “the last days?” At least that appears to be the general rule in Christian circles. Worldly folks may be more interested in football and stock market prices; to eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we shall die. But Christians look to deliverance from this vale of tears having claimed a savior, Jesus Christ, who IS, indeed, The Savior of the World. Please enjoy the pages on Christ Jesus.

Notwithstanding any arguments to the contrary, Christ Jesus Himself and God the Father appeared to will this good knowledge and understanding based upon the colophon in the first verse of the book of Revelation:

The revelation [unveiling] of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants, the things which must quickly take place. He sent and signified it by His messenger to His servant John.       (Rev. 1:1)

With these stunning disclosures from God Himself about His willful intentions, why would any believer go to anyone else to learn about the things to come? If All is from God — “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Rom. 11:36) — then in matters of what is yet to come to pass we should only seek the answers from God.

Now the book of Revelation is not the only text in the bible that prophesies things to come, for it is a cross-correlation of every prophet in the Old Testament, along with some expanded revelation of events. And all of these, the apostles and prophets give us God’s counsel on what will occur prior to the consummation (cf. 1Cor.15:24), what will happen at the close of this aeon, and into the next, and then what the Greek New Testament calls aionen ton aionen, the age of ages. So everything in these bible scrolls deals with the aeons, which God has created in Christ Jesus for His purposes.

But besides these, there is the unique corpus of Paul’s epistles which “completes the word of God” (Col. 1:25), and which concentrates on specific prophecies for a certain allotment of believers, and hints that there will be consummation when death is conquered and Christ hands the kingdom over the Father, and there is no longer any authority or rule, for God then will be All in All (1 Cor. 15:28).

In this section we call “Days to Come,” we will strive to illuminate God’s disclosure of how the final part of the days will unfold. In that effort, our appeal will NOT be to the traditions of men, but our beginning examination and our end shall be with the Word of God. And in these expositions, many of our readers are sure to find items with which they disagree. Of course, we welcome conversation, and as “iron sharpens iron,” we do hope that on the basis of scriptures that readers may want to use to propound alternative views, we are open to listen. But IN NO WISE, will we regard the opinions of men to surpass the validity of scripture, which will mean on the basis of the original languages and not founded on mistaken translations going back to King James and before.

As an example consider the following text from Paul: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The words for eternal destruction in the GNT are olethron aionion, that is, destruction eonian. The Greek word ‘aion’ refers to a period of time, very often of an undisclosed length, an age, or eon, as we would translate in in English. But is has an end, and cannot possibly refer to a period without end. That would be like saying the word ‘black’ can be used for the word ‘white.’ An eon or age has an end, even if it is not disclosed, whereas eternity has no end. The same goes for the Hebrew word ‘olahm,‘ and thus the entire bible is misunderstood in its references to the ages when they are substituted with ‘eternity.’

This is just an example of what we will bring to the discussion of the days to come and ages to come, and we come not with a Strong’s concordance in our hand, but collectively more than 60 years of biblical scholarship with much work in the original Hebrew and Greek, study of alternative readings, different manuscripts, and years of examination even of non-canonical texts such as apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Nag Hammadi scrolls, and other such gnostic works. By knowing the pitfalls and being aware of the mistakes of many who have gone before us, we may serve the body of Christ by pointing these out and exhibiting the defects.

We do NOT consider our work on a par with the Word of God, so it cannot match the perfection in God’s own disclosure through the original transmissions in the original languages. Many of the passages you see in these pages will be our own translations, because so much of what has been rendered into English by translators is so badly done, beginning with the KJV 1611. Some of the renderings there are just plain misleading and can be chalked up to unconscious theological commitments which cloud the selection of choices in the minds of the translators.

On the King James Version, just consider the following. The best Hebrew scholar in England prior to the publication of the King James edition was John Dee, a court astrologer for Elizabeth I. He had already translated much of the OT and conveyed it to his friend Francis Bacon, for inclusion in the court’s translation project. John Dee, was a kabbalist, a practicer of Enochian and Solomonic magic, and a sorcerer. Is this the type of person you want translating the Word of God for a world in need?

So, back to the topic under consideration here, our commitment to you, the reader, will be to offer a clear rendition of the texts wherein God discloses His counsel, and to first consider it within its true context: to whom was it addressed, during what time, for what purpose, and what is its surrounding meaning within its larger text and related texts. We shall also use the principle of concordance, to harmonize with other scriptures, bearing in mind both the fractal nature of God’s Word, along with its self-referential, inter-textual qualities that are absolutely essential to assure an accurate reading.

The importance of this will become particularly evident in the consideration of Daniel and Revelation, as there is so little agreement on the reference of the symbols therein that we are forced to contend with examining God’s use of symbols and His poetic disclosure within the larger body of the entire Bible itself.

To summarize, this column will be founded on the words of the apostles and the prophets, as the Church herself is (Eph. 2:20), and will when appropriate — though not beyond its limit — utilize “shadow and type” to help disclose what the counsel of God has disclosed will occur for the close of this aeon, or age.

We are now seeing definitive signs of some of the key events which Daniel was shown in vision — vision sealed up until our time. Those signs culminate in a few major events which will usher in the final week, or seven year period that closes this evil age which culminates in the judgement of all the nations, and the fiery restoration which will sweep away all iniquity.

Our prayer is that this column of writings will add to your perception of God’s administration of this final part of the days and to see just how He works all things to the good, not just for those who love Him — though in the eyes of those who love Him this is clearly seen — but as God is Love, He works everything to the good of All. (Rom. 8:28)

As you listen for yet another time to the words of the prophets disclosing the counsel of YHWH, pay close attention to just how carefully God is engineering these final days to accomplish the glorious purposes of His goodness.