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“In the Last Days” Since When?The Watchtower—1980 | October 1
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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.
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“In the Last Days” Since When?The Watchtower—1980 | October 1
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[Blurb on page 22]
“Last Days” of 41 years marked conclusion of 1,582 years of Jewish Age
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