Yep. You read the headline correctly. I keep saying that when you come to the Bible with a predetermined interpretive system, that you can’t read the actual text and understand the plain meaning of it. Your system gets in the way. A correct biblical hermeneutic is that the Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible.
Last night at the church Bible study that I have been attending for several weeks, we read the second chapter of Joel. I was thinking to myself, great, here is the prophecy and Acts chapter 2 is the fulfillment. It explicitly says so. Surely, they will see that when the Bible uses the phrase “the last days” that it is not always some far off future event.
Nope. Part of me knew this would be the case but I have hope that these people will see beyond their prejudice. Not happening yet.
Let’s look at the text. Being that Peter had just been given the Holy Spirit, it would seem difficult to say that Peter didn’t know what he was talking about, but apparently folks born 2,000 years after the fact think they know better than those that were eyewitnesses to Jesus and his ministry.
Compare these two passages for yourself.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 2:16–21.
28 And it shall come to pass afterward, That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids In those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, Blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, Before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:
Joel 2:28–32.
Peter is claiming that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. That “the last days” was 2,000 years ago.
The people in my Bible study were appalled. They would not take Peter at his word. The last days can’t be then. That is impossible. Peter was wrong. He didn’t know what he was talking about.
I was then accused of being disruptive to the harmony of the group and asked why I even bothered attending. I also was essentially told that I was going against the Holy Spirit by disrupting their harmony.
So, when I quote Scripture that says another Scripture was fulfilled, I’m disrupting the group because it’s not what they presuppose that the Bible ought to say. Makes perfect sense, right?
Asking why I am there is a fair question. Partly, it’s to see if pointing people, that claim to be Christian, to the Bible for answers is even possible.
Their little bubble is just an echo chamber of nonsense. Their creed seems to be, “Get saved and pray for the Rapture.” Christians have nothing else God expects of them but hiding out in the church while the world goes to hell. The sooner the world burns, the quicker Jesus will return. Also, they are convinced that they will never experience hardship or persecution because Jesus will rescue them before things get really bad.
This is a complete inversion of the Reformation and the Puritans and Western Culture in general, yet they think they are on the side of light. Ha!!
The Bible says judgment begins at the house of God not the doorstep of the heathen.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1 Pe 4:17–18.
Folks, eschatology is not a secondary issue. It is a primary issue. Eschatology colors every aspect of life and your understanding of the world. Bad eschatology leaded to a defective worldview. Bad eschatology is like trying to navigate with a broken compass and then thinking that you arrived at the correct destination.
When I side with the Apostle Peter, I’m wrong? Dude, I quoted him verbatim. The unbelief of others illustrates just how far off the mark our Christianity has fallen. As I’ve said before, the devil only owns the turf that the Church has freely ceded to him.
We are commanded to subject all of the world to the Lordship of Christ. Yep, every area of life and every square inch of the planet belongs to Jesus now not in the sweet bye-and-bye.