“In the Last Days” Since When?

“You may be quite sure that in the last days there are going to be some difficult times.”​—2 Tim. 3:1, “The Jerusalem Bible.”

1, 2. (a) Why is it excellent for us that we are so deep into “the time of the end”? (b) What does the Bible have to say about this at 2 Peter 3:13, 14?

“THE LAST DAYS” of what? As it means the last days of an old, unsatisfactory, unsuccessful, hopeless system of things, it is fine that we have reached the “time of the end” of it. (Dan. 12:4) Happily for us, the complete end of the old organization of things will not leave our earth a frightening, empty, lifeless void. It will make room for the start of a righteous, peaceful new system of things that promises the highest success. Hence, it is excellent for us that we are now so deep into the “time of the end.” In glowing terms the Bible, the inspired Book that foretold the current “time of the end,” has this to say:

² “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell. Hence, beloved ones, since you are awaiting these things, do your utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace.”​—2 Pet. 3:13, 14.

3, 4. (a) Where, when and why did the apostle Peter speak about the “last days,” and to whom? (b) In explanation, what prophecy did Peter quote?

³ About 30 years before writing those words, the Christian apostle Peter spoke about the “last days.” That was on the festival day of Pentecost (Sivan 6) of the year 33 C.E. He spoke in the city of Jerusalem, but not in Herod’s temple in that city. He spoke in a residential section, where about 120 disciples of the lately impaled Jesus Christ had assembled in an upper room, early, before 9 a.m. Suddenly their expectations were fulfilled. The holy spirit that Jesus Christ had promised to pour out upon them after his return to heaven fell upon them with a visible demonstration. They were inspired to speak with foreign languages about “the magnificent things of God.” (Acts 2:1-11) Jewish celebrators by the thousands gathered to witness the spectacle and find out what it was all about. The apostle Peter was inspired to speak to them, explaining:

⁴ “This is what was said through the prophet Joel, “And in the last days,” God says, “I shall pour out some of my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams; and even upon my men slaves and upon my women slaves I will pour out some of my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. And I will give portents in heaven above and signs on earth below, blood and fire and smoke mist; the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah arrives. And everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.”’”​—Acts 2:16-21.

5. (a) According to Peter, when had those “last days” begun? (b) What can be said as to whether Peter then meant the “last days” of the old world system of things?

⁵ When had God said such a thing? Hundreds of years previously in Joel 2:28-32. In Hebrew the prophecy opens up, saying: “And after that it must occur that I shall pour out my spirit on every sort of flesh,” and so on. Under inspiration of God’s spirit the apostle Peter located where “after that” applied on the stream of time by saying “in the last days.” So about 850 years after Joel’s prophecy had been finished, those “last days” had begun, and Peter was living in them. But we now ask, was Peter living in the “last days” of the whole world system of things? Hardly so, for here we are, living more than 19 centuries after Peter was killed as a Christian martyr. (John 21:18, 19; 2 Pet. 1:14) How can it even Scripturally be reasoned that the “last days” applies to all this process of time from Peter’s days down to and including our troublous times, which are not yet ended? It cannot be, even though during all those past 19 centuries till now God has evidently poured out his spirit upon believers of every fleshly sort, making them spiritual sons and daughters of Jehovah God through Jesus Christ.

6. When did the “last days” in which Peter was living begin?

⁶ Do the Scriptures speak of Peter as living in the “last days” of something away back there? Yes! Those particular “last days” began with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer and Jesus’ being anointed with the holy spirit after his coming up out of the water. Thus he became the Christ, or Anointed One.​—Acts 10:37, 38.

7. How does Paul, at Hebrews 1:1, 2, indicate that those “last days” began when Jesus was 30 years of age?

⁷ So the “last days” back there began in the autumn of 29 C.E., when Jesus of Nazareth was an adult of 30 years of age. (Luke 3:21-23) Indicating the time period for this, the apostle Paul wrote the Hebrew Christians (evidently at Jerusalem) and said: “God, who long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways to our forefathers by means of the prophets, has [when?] at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things.”​—Heb. 1:1, 2.

8. (a) What did John the Baptizer say to indicate that the “last days” were at hand? (b) Why was the warning that Peter gave at Pentecost timely for the Jews?

⁸ Yes, the time proved to be “the end of these days” of the Jewish system of things, there in the Middle East. Little wonder, then, that John the Baptizer said to the Sadducees and Pharisees who came to him for baptism: “Offspring of vipers, who has intimated to you to flee from the coming wrath? So then produce fruit that befits repentance.” (Matt. 3:7, 8) Only in that way could they hope to escape from the fire of destructive trouble that would burn up the chafflike members of their nation, figuratively speaking, in 70 C.E. So, on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., the apostle Peter said to the repentant Jews who presented themselves for water baptism: “Get saved from this crooked generation.”​—Acts 2:37-40.

“LAST DAYS” OF THE JEWISH LAW COVENANT AND SYSTEM

9. Jesus’ baptism and anointing with holy spirit spelled the “last days” for what covenant, and why so?

⁹ Jesus was born under the Jewish Law covenant as mediated by the prophet Moses. When Jesus got baptized and anointed with holy spirit, he became the Mediator of a new covenant that was to be made with spiritual Jews, or Israelites. This spelled the “last days” for the Jewish Law covenant and the Jewish system that revolved around the Herodian temple there at Jerusalem. When Jesus ascended to heaven as Mediator between God and his disciples, the new covenant was sealed with the value of the blood of his perfect human sacrifice. The proof of this was given on that marvelous day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the holy spirit, which produced spiritual Israelites with whom to make the new covenant. At one and the same time this blotted out, canceled, the old Law covenant with fleshly Israel. (Eph. 2:15, 16; Col. 2:13, 14) But God’s special favor was prolonged toward the Jews for three and a half years more, till autumn of 36 C.E. Why so?

10. (a) Why did Jehovah’s favor continue temporarily with the Jews after Pentecost of 33 C.E.? (b) When, though, did the Jewish system in the Middle East end?

¹⁰ Because the prophecy specified that God’s particular favor would be continued with his covenant people for “seventy weeks of years,” and that period of 490 years ended in 36 C.E., Jesus Christ himself being martyred in the middle of that 70th week. (Dan. 9:24-27, An American Translation) But Jerusalem and its temple were not destroyed in that year, nor were the Jews deported from the province of Judea in that year. When this occurred in 70 C.E., then the Jewish system of things in the Middle East ended. That was the “end” that Jesus had in mind when he made his prophecy to his disciples.

11. (a) What shows that Jesus had the “end” of earthly Jerusalem in mind when giving his prophecy to his disciples on the Mount of Olives? (b)Was Jesus there saying that the “appointed times of the nations” would first begin after Jerusalem’s destruction, which was to take place 37 years after Peter’s speech at Pentecost?

¹¹ Peter and Andrew, James and John asked Jesus: “When will these things be?” What things? When Jesus was touring the temple, he had said: “Do you behold all these things? Truly I say to you, By no means will a stone be left here upon a stone and not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:1-3; Mark 13:1, 2; Luke 21:5, 6) In the prophecy that Jesus gave afterward on the Mount of Olives, he said: “There will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:23, 24) Jesus was not there saying that the “appointed times of the nations” would first begin in 70 C.E. at Jerusalem’s destruction and the depopulating of all Judea. That calamitous ending of the Jewish system of things in and around Jerusalem and its temple occurred 37 years after Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost, so that he was correct in saying that the outpouring of God’s spirit was taking place “in the last days”​—of the Jewish order of things.

12. Besides false Christs and prophets, what else was to enter into the “sign” that his Jewish disciples lived in the “last days”?

¹² In his prophecy of Matthew 24:4-22 Jesus showed that the mere coming of false Christs and false prophets would not be all that there was to the “sign” that his Jewish disciples were living in the “last days” of the Jewish system of things. Jesus added: “You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not terrified. For these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.

13. What human activities would be part of the “sign”?

¹³ “Then people will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end [télos] will come. Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.”​—Matt. 24:3-16.

14. According to Paul, till then, what would be the case of the Jews?

¹⁴ Till then, what? Writing about the year 50 C.E., the apostle Paul refers to the Jews and says: “They always fill up the measure of their sins. But his [God’s] wrath has at length come upon them.” (1 Thess. 2:16) Such a thing was to be expected in the “last days” of the Jewish system of things there in the Middle East.

15. Were the efforts of the Jews to stave off the “end” of their “last days” successful or not, and why?

¹⁵ The unchristianized Jews tried to stave off the end of the “last days” of their Palestinian system of things. In 65 C.E. they rose up against their Roman overlords. This resulted in an independent Jewish state for about five years. Even Jewish money coins were stamped to mark those desperate years. But remorselessly the end (télos) came in 70 C.E. at the hands of the face-saving Romans.

16. (a) In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12 was Paul referring to the “last days” for the Jews from 29 to 70 C.E., or not, and why? (b) Were other “last days” possible for fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy?

¹⁶ About the year 65 C.E., during his second and final imprisonment before his martyrdom, the apostle Paul wrote his faithful missionary companion Timothy. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12, Paul wrote to him about the moral and religious conditions that would obtain during what he calls “last days.” Likely Timothy survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Plainly, then, Paul was not writing Timothy about the “last days” of the Jewish system of things, the time period from 29 to 70 C.E. Paul was writing him about a period of last days future from the time of Jerusalem’s destruction and applying on a larger scale to more than the Jewish people, that is, to all parts of the world. Certainly the Jewish revolt in 65 through 70 C.E. did not fulfill Paul’s prediction in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. When the Christians saw “the disgusting thing,” the desolating Roman army, “standing in a holy place,” or in the neighborhood of the temple, they made their escape from Jerusalem and all Judea, to Perea.

THE LENGTH OF WHICH “LAST DAYS”?

17. If it is argued that the “last days” correspond with the entire “Christian Era” down till now, what would this mean as to length of time?

¹⁷ However, some students of the Bible may argue that the “last days” embraces the entire “Christian Era,” from the day of Pentecost, when Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32, down to our own date (1980) and into the indefinite future. Well, then, what would that mean? This: The so-called Jewish Age extended from 1513 B.C.E., when the Law covenant was established at Mount Sinai, down to 70 C.E. That was a period of 1,582 years. In comparison, how long is the so-called Christian Era if measured from Pentecost of 33 C.E. when holy spirit was poured out and the first Christian congregation was established in ancient Jerusalem? It is already more than 1,947 years long. This would mean that the “last days,” if they run contemporaneously with the Christian Era, are hundreds of years longer than the preceding Jewish Era. Queer, is it not?

18. Since the holy spirit has been in process of being poured out during the whole “Christian Era” despite the great apostasy, what is argued regarding the expression the “last days”?

¹⁸ However, the argument may be raised in a question of objection, Was it not during the “last days” that holy spirit was to be poured out, and has it not been poured out without a break, despite the great apostasy, since Pentecost of 33 C.E. till now? In recent years are there not those who claim to have been anointed with holy spirit, so that they feel obliged to partake of the emblems of the Lord’s Supper, or Evening Meal? Logically, then, does this not make the “last days” of Acts 2:16-21 coincide with the whole Christian Era, with this long, unbroken period for pouring out the spirit of anointing?

19. To whom was Joel 2:28-32 first directed, and was it before the “last days” of their system of things in Palestine began or during those days that the prophecy was fulfilled?

¹⁹ Still, we must face the fact that the period of God’s spiritual favor to the circumcised Jews ended in 36 C.E., when uncircumcised non-Jews, Gentiles, began to be admitted into the spirit-anointed congregation of Christ’s disciples. Also, the days of the Jewish system of things with their temple at Jerusalem lasted still farther, till 70 C.E. The prophecy of Joel 2:28-32, quoted by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, was directed first to the circumcised Jews, and Bible history proves that there was an outpouring of the spirit of anointing during the “last days” of the Jewish system of things in their Promised Land, and not before those “days.” Such days were certainly not the last days of the Roman Empire, the sixth world power of Bible history. That sixth world power was not succeeded by the seventh world power (the British Empire with its American colonies) till 1763 C.E., in fulfillment of the seventh head of the symbolic wild beast of Revelation 13:1-3, that had seven heads and 10 horns.

20. At present, what international political bodies are incontestably in their “last days”?

²⁰ Today, it is incontestable that the British Empire and its related British Commonwealth of Nations and its ally, the United States of America, are in their “last days.” That international arrangement of which those political bodies are the stout champions, namely, the United Nations with 152 national members, is likewise in its “last days.” How unreasonable it is, then, to argue that the long Christian Era is the “last days” meant in Joel’s prophecy!

21. Was no like period of “last days,” no duplicate, allowed for with regard to Joel’s prophecy about holy spirit?

²¹ Basing himself on factual developments, the apostle Peter applied Joel’s prophecy to the tail end of the Jewish system of things in the Middle East. But Peter was not saying, and Joel 2:28, 29 does not say, that there would be no like period of “last days,” no duplicate, during which holy spirit would markedly be poured out, correspondingly.

22. (a) Were all the features of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 fulfilled during the “last days” of the ancient Jewish system? (b) Were all parts of the compound question that the disciples asked Jesus fulfilled back there, or what yet had to be proved?

²² Furthermore, what Joel foretold in connection with the outpouring of the holy spirit, namely, heavenly portents, earthly signs, blood, fire, smoke mist, the darkening of the sun, the turning of the moon into blood, all that was not carried out in the “last days” in which the apostle Peter lived. Consequently, for Jehovah, the Inspirer of the prophecy, to be proved true in all that he predicted, there has to be another period of time called the “last days” for all parts of his prophecy to be realized. Historical facts must yet be adduced to answer the question that the four apostles submitted to Jesus Christ: “What will be the sign of your presence [par·ou·siʹa] and of the conclusion of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3) The evidence available today proves that we ourselves are living in the modern-day fulfillment of the “last days.” But since when, and why? To this inquiry we must next give our honest-hearted attention.

After These “Last Days” God’s Messianic Kingdom!

1. (a) The expression “the last days” calls for what regarding those days? (b) Did the “last days” of the Jewish system have an end?

DAYS that are called “the last days” should have an end. In the case of the Jews and their rebuilt temple at Jerusalem, those days ended in the year 70 C.E. Otherwise, why should they be called “the last days”? But historically they had an end (télos). When speaking of those final days of the Jewish system of things, Jesus said: “Then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”​—Matt. 24:21, 22; Mark 13:19, 20.

2. (a) Who were the “chosen ones” on account of whom the “great tribulation” upon Jerusalem was shortened? (b) What view of the fulfillment makes Jesus’ prophetic words extravagant?

² Reportedly, there were 97,000 Jews inside Jerusalem that survived the siege and desolation of their holy city and its temple built by King Herod. However, these were not the “chosen ones” on whose account that “great tribulation” was shortened. Rather, these were the Christians, who, after the lifting of the first siege in 66 C.E., promptly obeyed Jesus’ advice as given in Matthew 24:16-20 and fled from the doomed city to outside the province of Judea. All of that back there was bad enough. But if Jesus’ words about it in Matthew 24:21, 22 and Mark 13:19, 20 are restricted to just the end (télos) of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., then his language regarding this becomes extravagant. It certainly was not the greatest tribulation ever to occur in all recorded human history.

3. Jesus’ words of description take on their proper proportions only when we view the destruction of ancient Jerusalem from what standpoint?

³ Jesus’ words of comparison take on their correct proportions only when we view Jerusalem’s destruction as being typical or as a foregleam of a still future unparalleled “great tribulation,” the destruction of Christendom, which claims to have going on to a thousand million members. Her destruction starts off that of the whole world empire of false religion. Shortly following this will come the destruction of all worldly elements that have divorced themselves from that Babylonish world empire of false religion, but not in favor of God’s Messianic kingdom. The number of human lives wiped out during that “great tribulation” will vastly outnumber all those destroyed in the deluge of Noah’s day, that is, in the years of 2370-2369 B.C.E.

4. (a) The “wars and reports of wars” of which Jesus prophesied were those due to occur during what period of time? (b) Their being called “a beginning of pangs of distress” indicates what?

⁴ In Jesus’ prophecy of Matthew 24:4-22, the “wars and reports of wars” of which he spoke were limited to a particular time period. In the case of the Jewish system of things, about which his disciples first asked, this was the period of the “last days” from 29 to 70 C.E. This period was indeed marked by “wars and reports of wars,” together with famines, pestilences and earthquakes. Without doubt the Jews felt some effects of those calamitous things. But Jesus said that such things were to be only “a beginning of pangs of distress.” (Matt. 24:8) They would not be the final death pangs.

5. (a) Did those distressing things back there lead up to the “presence” of Christ and the “conclusion of the system of things”? (b) Also, was the Kingdom preaching done to the extent predicted or not, and why?

⁵ Those disastrous things led up to the end (télos) of the Jewish system of things in Palestine. But, as we can see today, they did not prove to be “the sign of [Christ’s] presence and of the conclusion of the system of things,” things that were included in the disciples’ set of questions. (Matt. 24:3; Mark 13:4) Also, during the “last days” of the Jewish system, the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom . . . in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations” was necessarily on a limited scale, because of the fewness of the Kingdom preachers, and this preaching was done under persecution. (Matt. 24:9-14) But, of course, the whole world was an open field for them, because the Kingdom preaching was not to be limited to just the circumcised Jews. After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, his disciples came under his command to go and “make disciples of people of all the nations.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) So the Kingdom preaching on a global scale had to be then yet future, after 70 C.E.

6. (a) What things were foretold to occur after the tribulation upon the Jews back there? (b) Why did the “chosen ones” not join “all the tribes of the earth” in their mourning?

⁶ Referring to the “great tribulation” upon Jerusalem in 70 C.E., Jesus went on to speak of things due to come “immediately after the tribulation of those days.” (Matt. 24:29) There was to be the appearing of “the sign of the Son of man”; also, a mourning, not on the part of just the scattered 12 tribes of natural Jews, but on the part of “all the tribes of the earth.” Also, there was to be a gathering of all “his chosen ones together” to a completion. These “chosen ones” would not join “all the tribes of the earth” in mourning over impending world calamity. They would rejoice, rather than mourn, over the “sign of the Son of man” appearing in heaven. (Matt. 24:30, 31) They would rejoice that they had the evidence that they were in the “last days” of the old world system. Since that mournful year of 1914 C.E., the year of mankind’s first world war, we have that evidence in overwhelming measure.

7. After the “last days” of the global system of things end, what is to be expected, according to the Lord’s Prayer?

⁷ The “last days” of anything have to be followed by something else. What will follow the “last days” of this global system of things? Regardless of what worldly forecasters envision to be earth’s state after an expected third world war, Jehovah’s Witnesses foresee God’s Messianic kingdom, the one that Jesus taught his disciples to pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.​—Matt. 6:9, 10.

8. Why do Christians still pray the Lord’s Prayer in spite of what Paul wrote in about 60-61 C.E. at Colossians 1:13?

⁸ We still pray that prayer regardless of what the apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:13, about 60-61 C.E. Away back there he wrote: “He [the heavenly Father] delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” This refers to a spiritual kingdom into which the Colossian Christians, while still in the flesh here on earth, in a religiously bedarkened city in Asia Minor, had been transferred. Undeniably, that spiritual estate of theirs on earth under the rule of Satan the Devil was not the fulfillment of the Lord’s Prayer: “Father, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come.” (Luke 11:2; Matt. 6:9, 10) For that prayer to be answered fully, there had to be an enthronement of the Son of God’s love with more than a spiritual kingdom in operation over his earthly disciples.

THE MESSIANIC KING AND HIS SHEEPLIKE SUBJECTS

9, 10. (a) In his illustration of the sheep and the goats, Jesus was referring to kingship for him to what extent? (b) After what accomplishment by Jesus would that separating work occur, and what would that accomplishment imply or mean?

⁹ In his prophecy concerning “the conclusion of the system of things,” Jesus referred to his kingship in a full sense. According to the apostle Matthew’s account, Jesus closed his prophecy by giving the illustration of the symbolic sheep and goats. At Matthew 25:31, 32 he opened up the illustration by saying: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people [not nations] one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” This takes place after Satan the Devil and his demons are ousted from their heavenly location and privileges down to our earth’s vicinity by the enthroned King Jesus Christ. All of this is as prophetically pictured in Revelation 12:5-9. As to what that accomplishment means, we read:

¹⁰ “And I [John] heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.’”​—Rev. 12:10-12.

11. (a) According to events, when did the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” begin riding? (b) Our period of wars since 1914 corresponds with what limited period foretold in Jesus’ prophecy on the “last days”?

¹¹ What informed person can deny that such extraordinary “woe for the earth and for the sea” has marked our 20th century since 1914, the year in which, according to all evidences, the so-called “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” began their ride? (See Revelation 6:1-8.) That must be an unmistakable “sign” that in 1914 the “last days” of this world system of things began and that we have entered the “conclusion of the system of things.” Certainly, also, since the ouster of Satan the Devil and his demons from heaven, it has been the “last days” for them before they are hurled into the abyss before the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah Jesus. (Rev. 20:1-3, 7) Plainly, World War I of 1914 and World War II of 1939 and the scores of wars that have followed since 1945 throughout the earth are a modern parallel of the “wars and reports of wars” (along with famines, pestilences and earthquakes) that Jesus said would make the years of 29 to 70 C.E. the “last days” of the Jewish system of things that revolved around Jerusalem and its rebuilt temple.

12. If, in 70 C.E., Jerusalem fell short of undergoing what Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:21, 22, what about that to which the global system of things of today is heading?

¹² The agonizing distress that befell Jerusalem in 70 C.E. fell short of being what Jesus described in his prophecy of Matthew 24:21, 22. But today the antitypical Jerusalem (Christendom), yes, the whole world empire of false religion, yes, the entire global system of things, is headed for the “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” Not strange, then, that we see undergoing fulfillment the prophecy that the apostle Paul made about 65 C.E. and set down in 2 Timothy 3:1: “You [Timothy] may be quite sure that in the last days there are going to be some difficult times.”​—The Jerusalem Bible.

FINAL WORLDWIDE PROCLAMATION!

13. In agreement with Revelation 12:11, what other feature of Jesus’ prophecy was to make the “conclusion of the system of things” outstanding?

¹³ According to Revelation 12:11, after Satan the Devil was ousted from heaven, the Christians whom he accused “conquered him . . . because of the word of their witnessing.” The fulfillment of this has been another feature that Jesus said would make “the conclusion of the system of things” outstanding. What feature? “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end [télos] will come. (Matt. 24:14) This precedes the end of the “last days.”

14. How has this Kingdom witness surpassed that during the “last days” of the Jewish system of things?

¹⁴ Such a witness, given by Jehovah’s Witnesses since the end of World War I on November 11, 1918, has enormously surpassed the international witness given during the “last days” of the Jewish system of things in 29 to 70 C.E. Back there the witness was given in Asia, Europe and Africa. Today it has been given not only on those continents but also in the Americas, in Australia and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, yes, globally.

15. To belittle this achievement, what may scoffers say about the missionaries of Christendom during the past centuries?

¹⁵ Scoffers at this may minimize this achievement and emphasize that the missionaries of Christendom during the centuries past got to all those places before ever the Christian witnesses of Jehovah came along. True! But the Kingdom witnessing of Jehovah’s Witnesses since 1914 has been something far different from what Christendom’s missionaries have published both before and since 1914.

16, 17. (a) In what way was the Kingdom witness given since the end of World War I in 1918 different from what Christendom’s missionaries have preached? (b) In proof of this, what did the Watch Tower magazine say in its issue of July 1, 1920?

¹⁶ “Different”​—how so? In that it has not been a witness concerning the kingdom mentioned in Colossians 1:13, “the kingdom of the Son of [God’s] love,” into which the 144,000 “sealed” spiritual Israelites have been transferred already. (Rev. 7:1-8) What Jehovah’s Witnesses have preached world wide since 1918 is something unique, something that has distinguished these as being the “last days” of the political, social, judicial, militarized system of things. It has been a worldwide witness concerning a royal government now set up in the heavens, empowered to oust the Devil and his demons from the location of its throne. (Rev. 12:5-9) Less than two years after World War I ended, in its issue of July 1, 1920, The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence published the leading article entitled “Gospel of the Kingdom” and quoting Matthew 24:14, and, under the subheading “Work for All,” it went on to say:

¹⁷ “The gospel means good news. The good news here is concerning the end of the old order of things and the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom. It means the dark night of sin and sorrow is passing away. It means that Satan’s empire is falling, never to rise again.”​—Pages 199, 200.

18. (a) According to Jesus’ prophecy, “the end will come” after what? (b) As regards Joel 2:28, 29, our “last days” run parallel with what previous days?

¹⁸ When the preaching of this good news of the Messianic kingdom as having been established in the heavens in 1914 has been done to the extent that God wills, “then the end [télos] will come.” (Matt. 24:14) So this final Kingdom preaching world wide comes inside the “last days” of this system of things. These are therefore the proper days for the final fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28, 29 to take place, just as there was an initial fulfillment of the prophecy in the days of the apostle Peter and his fellow apostles, as he himself explained on Pentecost of 33 C.E. So our “last days” are a modern parallel of their “last days.”

19. To make the comparison of periods of “last days” complete in all features, what occurrence during the “last days” in which the apostles lived must also have a modern parallel?

¹⁹ However, to make the parallel complete regarding all features, has there likewise been a pouring out of the holy spirit of anointing upon “every sort of flesh” in our “last days”? (Acts 2:16-19) We have no hesitancy in saying that there has been a marked fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29 since the world-shaking year of 1914. During World War I the foes of the Messianic kingdom, the clergy of Christendom in particular, succeeded in having the Kingdom preaching by Jehovah’s anointed servants either prohibited or seriously crippled. This was like during the 51 days from Jesus’ death on Nisan 14 up to the morning of Pentecost on Sivan 6, 33 C.E. On the 50th day from Jesus’ resurrection his few disciples, gathered at Jerusalem, received power from on high when the spirit of anointing arrived upon them and they became his public witnesses.

20. After prominent servants in the Watch Tower Society were freed from imprisonment in 1919, what occurred that corresponds with what was set out in Revelation 11:7-13?

²⁰ Likewise, after officers of the Watch Tower Society and their fellow prisoners were released from imprisonment in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., in March of the postwar year of 1919, holy spirit became mightily operative upon the remnant of Jehovah’s dedicated, baptized servants on earth. Under its driving force they addressed themselves to the work laid out for them in Matthew 24:14, the giving of the final witness to God’s established kingdom till the “end.” This corresponds with what was pictorially set forth in Revelation 11:7-13.

21. (a) On Pentecost of 33 C.E., what took place with thousands of Jewish celebrators at Jerusalem? (b) Correspondingly from 1919 onward general conventions were marked by what notable feature?

²¹ Back in 33 C.E., about 3,000 Jewish celebrators of the festival of Pentecost got baptized at Jerusalem “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit” and with the assurance of having holy spirit poured out upon them. Later the number of receivers of the holy spirit of anointing rose to about 5,000. (Acts 2:37-41; 4:4; Matt. 28:19, 20) In our own modern “last days” and less than six months after members of the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters’ staff were released from imprisonment in Atlanta, Georgia, a general convention was held at Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A., on September 1-8, 1919, and at this convention more than 200 were baptized in Lake Erie in the hope of being baptized into the spiritual body of Christ. At the second Cedar Point convention three years later 361 were baptized as prospective members of Christ’s spiritual body and with the heavenly hope. At the Columbus (Ohio) convention in 1924 there were 485 baptized.

22. At the Indianapolis convention of 1925, what application was made of Joel 2:28, 29, and what has proved God to be an accurate Time-Keeper and Prophet respecting that prophecy?

²² In the year 1925, at the convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, not only were many baptized, but also a very vital talk was given. It was entitled “The Holy Spirit Poured Out,” and it made a present-day application of Joel 2:28, 29. Thousands more than ever before were reported as partaking of the bread and the wine at the annual celebration of the Lord’s Supper. (Pages 339-344 of Watch Tower, November 15, 1925) So, during these “last days” since the war-torn year of 1914 holy spirit has been poured out in a specially marked manner to prove that Jehovah is a faithful Time-Keeper and an infallible Prophet. Shortly now these “last days” will come to their “end” (télos) in earth’s greatest “tribulation.”

23. After the foregoing things, what government will there be, with what benefit for the “tribulation” survivors and for all the ransomed dead?

²³ Finally, after all of this, what? Revelation 19:11 through 20:6 answers: Jehovah God’s Messianic kingdom of a thousand years, ushering “upon earth peace among men of goodwill,” first among the earthly survivors of “the great tribulation,” namely, a remnant of those upon whom the holy spirit was poured out during the “last days” and also the “great crowd” of their sheeplike companions who stuck with them to the “end” (télos). (Luke 2:14; Matt. 24:21; Rev. 7:9, 14, 15) Then, in due time, as those thousand years move on grandly to their successful end there will come the resurrection of all the human dead who will respond to the voice of the Lamb of God, the Messianic King Jesus, who gave his perfect human life as a ransom for them all.​—Rev. 20:11–21:4; John 5:28, 29.