2 Timothy 3:1

‘But know this, that in the last days grievous times will come.’

Paul now calls on the Old Testament idea of ‘the last days’ in order to point to what is constantly emphasised in the Scriptures that at the same time as God is accomplishing His anticipated saving work and calling His people to Himself, there will also be times of trouble and distress (e.g. Isaiah 24:16-20; Isaiah 26:20; Malachi 4:1-3 and often). Salvation is to emerge out of suffering (Isaiah 48:10; Malachi 3:3). This idea occurs so often in the Old Testament that it can be seen as a central theme of Scripture.

The Jews saw everything in terms of two ages, the present age which would result in ‘the Day of the Lord’, a time when God wrought His judgmental change on the world, which would be followed by the golden age, the future age of glory and plenty, later thought of in terms of the age of the Messiah. They overlooked or ignored the prophecies that revealed that the Coming One would have to suffer at the hands of men (e.g. Isaiah 50:3-8; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12; Zechariah 13:7). When Jesus came He took up the idea and claimed that in Him the new age had come, an age in which the Coming One would suffer and rise again, salvation and deliverance would commence, and His people would be ‘gathered in’ (made into a church), but all in the midst of suffering. Thus salvation and suffering would march forward hand in hand. That is what His disciples describe as ‘the last days’, ‘the end of the ages’ (see Acts 2:17; 1 Corinthians 10:11) because it is the culmination of the former age.

The fact that ‘the end times’ began at the resurrection is clearly stated in Scripture (Acts 2:17). Thus Paul can declare to his contemporaries ‘these things (in the Old Testament) -- were written for our admonition, on whom the end of the ages has come’ (1 Corinthians 10:11). Peter likewise declares that ‘He was revealed at the end of the times for your sake’ (1 Peter 1:20), and can then warn his readers ‘ the end of all things is at hand’ (1 Peter 4:7). So to both Paul and Peter the first coming of Christ has begun ‘the end times’. The writer to the Hebrews also tells us ‘He has in these last days spoken to us by His Son’ (Hebrews 1:1-2), and adds ‘once in the end of the ages has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’ (Hebrews 9:26-28). The early writers are, therefore, at one in seeing their days (and our days) as ‘the last days’ (Acts 2:17), for this age is seen as the culmination of all the days that have gone before and as leading up to the end. Then it is to be followed by the final Judgment and the heavenly Kingdom, when all the ideas of peace and plenty will be fulfilled.

That Paul did not intend his words here to be seen as a prophecy concerning a distant future comes out very clearly in that he applies it very specifically to Timothy’s own time (from 2 Timothy 3:6 onwards the present tense is used). His actual words may well be a citation from a hymn or a recent ‘prophetic teaching’, based on an interpretation of Old Testament prophecies such as Deuteronomy 31:29 - ‘evil will befall you in the last days’; Jeremiah 30:24 or Daniel 10:14. For as Peter makes clear, ‘the last days’ (en tais eschatais hemerais) were already seen as having arrived (Acts 2:17; compare Hebrews 1:1-3).

‘The last days’ (here in 2 Timothy it is ‘en eschatais hemerais’) are regularly mentioned in the Old Testament. See Isaiah 2:2 LXX (en tais eschatais hemerais); Genesis 49:1; Deuteronomy 31:29; Hosea 3:5; Micah 4:1; Jeremiah 30:24 (LXX Jeremiah 37:24); Daniel 10:14 (LXX - ep eschatown town hemerown). Comparison of Isaiah 2:2 with Micah 4:1 demonstrates that the two phrases are basically equivalent. The last days were thus to be days both of blessing for the people of God and anguish for the whole world. The word translated ‘grievous’ carries within it the suggestion of menace and danger. The growth of God’s Kingly Rule throughout these ‘last days’ would face fervent opposition (compare Matthew 13:36-43).