John claimed what he called antichrist[1] would come in the last time, and the fact that there were many antichrists, to whom he could point, was proof that he and his readers were living in the last time (1John 2:18). In my previous study I showed that John meant they were living in the last time or final years of the Old Covenant, and that it would be soon destroyed, due to how corrupt the people of that Covenant had become. Moses, himself, had predicted this time would occur, and he made that known to the leaders of Israel before they entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 31:28-29). However, I believe John was not only speaking of the last time of the Old Covenant, the time when Jesus appeared (Hebrews 1:1-2), but he spoke of a particular part of the last time!
We need to ask ourselves what did John mean by the last time, which might even be translated: the last hour, because G5610 is usually translated hour?[2] In order to understand what John meant by his reference to the last hour, we need to understand how the New Covenant writers understood the days of their ministry. Christ came into the world in the last days (G2250; see Hebrews 1:2), and the last days refer to the last days of the Old Covenant. The same Greek word hemera (G2250) was used in the Septuagint for Moses describing the corruption of Israel in her final or last days (Deuteronomy 31:29). It was a time when Israel, as a nation, would become as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 32:32).
Just before he was crucified, Jesus scolded the scribes and the Pharisees, saying they were no better than their fathers who killed the prophets (Matthew 23:29-31). Then he told them they would do the same to the men he would send to them, and in doing so they would bring upon themselves the guilt of all the righteous blood spilt from the time of Able, and all this would be done within the bounds of that very generation (Matthew 23:34-36). If a generation is about the time of 40 years, or about the time it took for the evil generation to fall in the wilderness during the time of Moses, then one could count 40 years from Jesus death in 31 AD to 71 AD or from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in 27 AD to about the beginning of the Roman assault upon the rebellious Jews in 67 AD.
Jesus described the time he would be away, i.e. from his death to his Second Coming, as a watch in the night (Matthew 24:42-44), and the night was divided into three (Jewish) watches (Luke 12:38) or four (Roman) watches (Mark 6:48). Therefore, for the sake of looking back into the first century AD, one could divide up the forty years into three 13+ year periods or four 10 year periods. In Romans 13:11-12 Paul told his readers that the night was nearly over and the day was at hand. In other words they were well into the third (Jewish) or fourth (Roman) watch. It was about the hour (G5610) to awake (Romans 13:11). Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans cir. 57 AD from Corinth. This was about 30 years since the beginning of Jesus ministry. In other words from a watch in the night perspective, they were in the final watch of the night, so Jesus was about to return.
In my previous study, I connected Paul’s letter to the Romans at Romans 13:11 with John’s first epistle at 1John 2:18 both Paul and John spoke of the hour, hora (G5610). John’s last hora or hour is the same as Paul’s hora to awake (or last watch). Therefore, John is offering his readers the same information that Paul offered his. The only difference is that John wrote his epistle in the early 60s just before he was killed. All the New Covenant witnesses were slain prior to the Lord’s judgment upon Jerusalem.[3] So, John was putting the time in perspective for his readers, saying the return of Christ was very near. It was the last hour.
__________________________________________________
[1] I’ll speak more of antichrist and who or what that might be in my next study.
[2] The Greek word, hora (G5610) from which we get our word ‘hour’, is translated into ‘hour’ 87 time in the New Covenant text, while it is translated into ‘time’ only 12 times.
[3] See my study in the Apocalypse: Who Are the Two Witnesses?
Smoodock's Blog 
One response to “It Is the Last Hour!”
[…] It Is the Last Hour! […]