On the day of Pentecost when the church was established, Peter delivered the first gospel sermon and he quoted from Joel chapter 2 and said the world is now in the last days. In the account of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 Peter said the miracles happening on the day of Pentecost were “this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel” and Joel’s prophecies were coming to pass on that very day. Joel said his prophecy would come to pass in the last days, and Peter in essence said, “This is it!”, but what are the last days? In this study we will show that the last days go from Pentecost to the coming of Christ, and the days mentioned are two in number.
Joel’s prophecies cover a gamut of events from the pouring out of the Spirit on Pentecost to the day of darkness at the coming of the Lord. Those events cover 2000 years. We know “last days” must be more than one day, but how can “last days” last 2000 years? If you have 2000 years to go till the end of the world, how could Peter say he was in the last days in AD 33? To see the answer we need to step back from the day of Pentecost and get the big picture.
Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “a thousand years [is] as one day”. Peter’s quote is from Psalms 90:4 that reads, “For a thousand years in thy sight are as the yesterday which is past, and as a watch in the night” (Septuagint, Sir Lancelot Brenton version, 1851). Using Peter’s paradigm we can construct the following figure:
The six, 24-hour days of creation are a type of the six, thousand-year days from Adam to the Second Coming (2Pe 3:8). Peter said Pentecost was in the last days (Acts 2:16). The events of the last days extend from Pentecost to the Second Coming (“before that great and notable day of the Lord come” Acts 2:20). That time covers two-thousand years. That is two days in the 1000-years-to-a-day motif. These 2 days are the “last days”. At the end of these days, Jesus will return.
The last days go from Pentecost to the end of the world, but the events prophesied by Joel do not occur on every day of the 24 hour days during that time, because miracles ceased at some point during the last days (1 Cor 13:8-10). In spite of the cessation of miracles for a time, we should note that Joel prophesies miracles will occur in both days 5 and 6 (the last days, plural) of the 1000-year days from Pentecost to the end of the age.
There is an interesting prophecy that is literally fulfilled using the 1000-years-as-a-day motif. The fulfillment of this prophecy helps us to see the validity of taking Joel’s last days to be two, thousand-year days. In Genesis 2 God forbade Adam from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned that in the day that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he would die. Adam did eat of the fruit, but he did not die physically on that day, but physical death apparently is what God meant by “thou shalt surely die”. We can know God was warning Adam of physical death in Genesis 2:17, for later God placed a sword and an angel at the gate to Eden to forbid Adam’s return “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Gen 3:22). God put the sword and angel at the gate in order that Adam might die physically. Obviously, Adam did not die physically on the 24-hour day when he ate the forbidden fruit or none of us would be here. How then did God tell the truth? The way that God was true is that Adam died when he was 930 years old (Gen 5:5). Adam died physically on the first 1000-year day, just like God warned. If Adam can only fulfill God’s prophecy by dying during the first 1000-year day, then we have a validation of God’s use of the 1000-year days, and God’s use of them validates our use of them to explain Joel 2 and Acts 2, because all of Joel’s prophesied events did not happen during the first 24-hour day on Pentecost or even the first 1000-year day from Pentecost to the close of the first millennium after Christ.
Often Joel’s last days are understood to be the last days of the Jewish nation based on the “this generation” of Matthew 24:34 being Jesus’ generation and Matthew 24:29’s darkening of the sun having to take place while “this generation” still lives. Peter said what happened on Pentecost was part of the last days, but the thousand-years-is-a-day motif requires the last days cover 2000 years. Obviously, everything Joel prophesied did not happen on the day of Pentecost, and all of it has not happened even yet. For example, all flesh did not receive the Spirit on Pentecost; only the Jews did. The daughters did not prophesy on Pentecost. Old men did not dream dreams on Pentecost. There was not blood and fire and vapor of smoke on Pentecost nor even yet. Likewise, the sun was not turned into darkness, nor has the moon yet been turned into blood since the day of Pentecost. The Spirit was poured out on young men of Israel on one 24-hour day in AD 33 during the first of the last two 1000-year days, but Joel said the signs and wonders would be for “days” plural. If Joel’s days are 1000-year days, the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecies must be spread over more than 1000 years, and they obviously are since some of his prophecies have not yet taken place.
The sun turned into darkness is a literal event that happens at the end of the world. Revelation 6:12 speaks of the opening of the 6th seal where the sun becomes black as sackcloth of hair. Revelation 6:16-17 show that the sun going dark happens on the day that Jesus returns to subdue the satanic rebellion on earth. The opening of the 7 seals of power (7 is complete power) is Jesus exercising all power in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18) as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 17:14, 19:16). This power is exercised at His Second Coming when He retakes the earth (Rev 17:14) and raises the dead (1 Cor 15:23-26) and reinstates the rule of heaven on earth (Rev 21:2-3, Acts 3:21). The sun going dark is a literal event that is yet to happen, just like the Second Coming of Christ.
Jesus also speaks of the sun being darkened in Matthew 24:29. If the expositor can accept the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32-34 as a parable of the restitution of the nation of Israel, then “this generation” in verse 34 is the generation alive when Israel became a nation again (i.e. 1948), and the context in Matthew 24 does not require all things before verse 34 to be completed in the first century. The sun being darkened in verse 29 therefore can happen in our day while the generation alive in 1948 still exists, and when the Son of Man returns to finish bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth.
Since the texts permit an occasion for the literal fulfillment of the sun being darkened at the coming of the Lord, then the texts should be taken in their natural sense, and we should look for the sun being literally darkened before Jesus returns. Revelation 8:12 even describes a time when the fourth angel sounds when the sun does not shine for a third of the day. During that time when the sun does not shine for a third of the day, it is turned into darkness, and Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled, but it does not happen until after 2016, because it has not happened yet. Joel warns of the sun being darkened and the moon turned into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come. The great and terrible day of the Lord is coming when He comes with fire (Mal 4:1, 2Th 1:7-9), when it will be dark and gloomy (Zeph 1:15), when there is alarm against the high towers (Zeph 1:16, Isa 30:25), when men are stricken blind (Zeph 1:17), and their blood shall be poured out like dust (Zeph 1:18). It is the day the Lord smites the nations with a rod of iron and breaks them in pieces like a potter’s vessel (Ps 2:9, Rev 2:27, 12:5, 19:15). Joel says his prophecy will be fulfilled in the last days before the 24-hour day of the Lord shall come. Joel’s prophecy is not fulfilled until Jesus comes again at the end of the second day in the last two days. We are still in “this is that” which Joel spoke. We will be in the last days until Jesus comes again. Since Peter was in the last two of the 1000-year days before Jesus comes, it was perfectly reasonable to say “last days” on the day of Pentecost, because there could not have been any fewer 1000-year days and still have had days (plural) remaining before Jesus comes.
1. Doles, Jeff. Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church. Walking Barefoot Ministries, Seffner, Florida, 2008, pp101-122. Dole’s history of miracles cites a nearly continuous history of miracles from the apostles to AD 687. There is a gap between Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (634-687) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) of about 400 years for which he was not able to cite any instances of credible miracles. This corresponds to the silent 400 years between Malachi (370 BC) and John the Baptist (AD 33)