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“AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS” - Answers
2. What is the context of Peter's assertions?
3. What is meant by THE LAST DAYS?
6. THE CLUES AND THE CONCLUSIONS:
1. When was Acts written?
Acts 2
Greek text of Acts 2:11–22 in Uncial 076, written in 5th/6th century.
Book Acts of the Apostles
Category Church history
Christian Bible part New Testament
Order in the Christian part 5
At first glance, it seems that the book of Acts was written around the same time of the last events it describes. The story ends; Luke writes the book. That’s the date.
For this reason, many people place Acts in the early 60s, because this coincides with the date of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome.
https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/when-was-acts-written
2. What is the context of Peter's assertions?
For these are not drunk: Peter deflected the mocking criticism that the disciples were drunk. In that day it was unthinkable that people would be so drunk so early in the day (about 9:00 in the morning).
a. Commentator Adam Clarke says that most Jews – pious or not – did not eat or drink until after the third hour of the day, because that was the time for prayer, and they would only eat after their business with God was accomplished.
b. These are not drunk: We shouldn’t think that the Christians were acting as if they were drunk. The idea of “being drunk in the Spirit” has no foundation in Scripture; the comment from the mockers on the Day of Pentecost had no basis in reality.
c. “Nor, must we add, did the believers’ experience of the Spirit’s fullness seem to them or look to others like intoxication, because they had lost control of their normal mental and physical functions. No, the fruit of the Spirit is ‘self-control,’ not the loss of it.” (Stott)
2. (16-21) Quoting Joel 2, Peter explains the strange events at Pentecost.
“But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.’
a. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
i. This introduces the first of three Old Testament passages Peter will quote: Joel 2:28-32, Psalm 16:8-11, and Psalm 110:1.
ii. All the signs and wonders and speaking in tongues were preparing for this work of God’s Word.
iii. Unfortunately, some people set the Word against the Spirit. They almost think it’s more spiritual if there is no Bible study. Sadly, this is often due to the weak and unspiritual teaching of some who teach the Bible.
b. The prophet Joel: This quotation from Joel 2:28-32 focuses on God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. What happened on the day of Pentecost was a near fulfillment of that promise, with the final fulfillment coming in the last days (which Peter had good reason to believe he was in).
i. Joel mostly prophesied about judgment that was coming to ancient Israel. Yet in the midst of the many warnings of judgment, God also gave several words of promise – promises of future blessing, like this one that announces an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
c. It shall come to pass in the last days: The idea of the last days is that they are the times of the Messiah, encompassing both His humble coming and His return in glory. Because Jesus had already come in humility, they were aware that His return in glory could be any time.
i. Though there would be some 2,000 years until Jesus returned, until this point, history had been running towards the point of the ultimate establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. But from this time on, history runs parallel to that point, ready at any time for the consummation.
ii. It may also be helpful to see the last days as something like a season – a general period of time – more than a specific period, such as a week. In the whole span of God’s plan for human history, we are in the season of the last days.
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/acts-2/
3. What is meant by THE LAST DAYS?
LAST = Strong's concordance #2078 ἔσχατος eschatos (es’-khat-os)
From the Authorized Version -last 46, lowest 2, uttermost 2, last state 2, ends 1, latter end
1) extreme
1a) last in time or in place
1b) last in a series of places
1c) last in a temporal succession
2) the last
2a) last, referring to time
This can also be looked at as LATTER DAYS:
LATTER = Strong's concordance #0319 אחרית ‘achariyth akh-ar-eeth’
AV-end 31, latter 12, last 7, posterity 3, reward 2, hindermost 1, misc. 5; 61
1) after part, end
1a) end, issue, event
1b) latter time (prophetic for future time)
1c) posterity
1d) last, hindermost
NOTE: These words refer to an "age" or a period of time which is undisclosed but can be determined as a "season of time" which will conclude at a given point.
Isa 2:2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.
Ezekiel 38:16 and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog."
Hosea 3:5 Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.
Micah 4:1 And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will stream to it.
Ac 2:17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;
2 Timothy 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
Hebrews 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
2 Peter 3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
4. Who was Joel?
5. Where else in the Bible can we find these images of "BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD" and what do they mean?
Joel 2:31 "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
Joel 2:10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.
Matthew 24:29 "But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Acts 2:20 ‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.
Revelation 6:12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
Revelation 8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
NOTE: These are prophetic scriptures referring to the End of Time, a.k.a., The End of Days or the Last Days. These are the days in which God will pour out His Righteous Judgments on earth, which will eventually lead to the destruction of earth and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. https://biblehub.com/nasb/revelation/21.htm
6. THE CLUES AND THE CONCLUSIONS:
Peter is telling this assembly that they are witnessing an event which was prophesied by Joel approximately 900 years earlier and says, "AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS" !
This event, which is recorded in Acts chapter 2, is the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29 is the event of "THE LAST DAYS".
Look, also, in Hebrews 1:1 "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, (v2) in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world."
The Last Days' began in the 1st Century AD, and this is earth-shaking news.
https://whitestone2020.com/and-it-shall-be-in-the-last-days/
