The New Testament answers this question more directly than most sermons do. The last days it describes were the last days of an age, and that age closed in the first century.
Are we in the end times? Not in the way the question is usually meant. When the New Testament talks about the last days and the end of the age, it means the last days of the old covenant age, which closed when Jerusalem and its temple fell in AD 70.
We are not living at the edge of a countdown. We live in the age that came after, the age of the established Kingdom of God, and there is no clock running on it.
That answer surprises people, because most of us were taught to read the Bible with one eye on the evening news. So we will take it slowly, starting with the case for “yes, it is now,” stated as fairly as its best teachers would state it.
Start with today's news, find a verse that sounds like it, and conclude the end must be close. Every generation that has done this has found its own crises in the same verses.
Start with who Jesus was talking to, what they asked him, and the time limit he put on his answer. Then let the history show whether it came to pass.
Here is the futurist case at its strongest. Jesus listed signs: wars, famines, earthquakes, false messiahs, persecution, and the gospel preached to the whole world. Paul warned that in the last days people would be lovers of themselves and lovers of money. Believers see all of it around them and reasonably ask whether the pieces are finally falling into place, with the signs intensifying like birth pains.
That reading is sincere. It is also wrong, and the text shows why.
First, Jesus gave those signs to answer a specific question from specific men, who had just heard him say the temple would be torn down, and asked when. Second, he told them plainly that wars and disasters were not the end: “see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matthew 24:6). The verses used to sound the alarm were given to stop it. Third, he put a time limit on the whole list.
There is also a simpler problem. Wars, famines and earthquakes have happened in every century since. A sign that is always present cannot tell you what time it is. We walk through the chapter verse by verse in Matthew 24 explained.
Jesus gave the signs to his disciples so they would not panic when those things came in their own lifetime, not so later generations could read the news with dread.
The New Testament writers never talk about the last days as something far off. They talk about them as the days they were living in.
“But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”
Hebrews 1:2At Pentecost Peter points at what the crowd is seeing and says, “this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,” and quotes it as “In the last days.” The last days had started that morning.
Paul writes that Israel's story was recorded as a warning “for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” Us, meaning the church in Corinth.
“The end of all things is near.” Peter draws a practical conclusion from it for his readers: be alert, stay sober minded, and pray.
The first covenant is called obsolete and outdated, and it “will soon disappear.” The temple was still standing when that was written.
Put these side by side and the pattern is hard to miss. The last days began with Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit, and they were running out within the lifetime of the people reading these letters.
Which brings us back to Jesus' own time limit: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Matthew 24:34). Everywhere else in the Gospels, “this generation” means the people standing in front of him. The only reason to make an exception here is to protect a system.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
Look closely at the question the disciples asked on the Mount of Olives: “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). Not the end of the planet. The end of the age, an age defined by the covenant and centered on the temple. When the temple fell, that age was over.
Jesus announces that the Kingdom of God has come near and warns that the temple will be left desolate within that generation.
The Spirit is poured out and Peter calls it Joel's last days prophecy, fulfilled.
The letters all write with urgency. Revelation, written in the late 60s to seven real churches, says the time is near.
The Jewish revolt breaks out. Jesus had told his followers that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, its desolation was near (Luke 21:20), and to get out.
Roman forces take Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple. The sacrificial system ends. The old covenant age is closed for good.
At Sound of Heaven we hold a fulfilled eschatology. The end of the age prophecies in Matthew 24, Daniel, Thessalonians and Revelation were fulfilled in the first century, and AD 70 is the covenantal climax of that story. “Soon,” “near” and “this generation” meant exactly that. We are not waiting for the end or for the Kingdom. It is here, and we live in it now.
We also want to be careful not to overclaim in our own favor. You will hear it said that not a single Christian died in the siege. Eusebius, writing in the fourth century, records that the Jerusalem church left for the town of Pella before the war, which fits Jesus' warning to flee. That is meaningful later tradition, but “not one died” is more than any source tells us, so we do not say it.
For the full sequence, the Olivet Discourse and the Revelation timeline lay it out, and the great tribulation covers the siege.
Newspaper exegesis, the habit of reading each week's headlines back into Daniel and Revelation, has a long record, and the record is not kind.
Take one well documented case. In the 1840s William Miller and his followers expected Christ to appear, first around 1843 and then on a specific date, October 22, 1844. The day passed, and the aftermath became known as the Great Disappointment. The story has repeated in every generation since, with different dates and the same verses.
Fear holds attention. People who already struggle with worry keep coming back for the next update, and they carry the most damage when it goes wrong.
Many who grew up on this teaching remember being frightened as children that their family could disappear at any moment. Children cannot weigh a timeline. They just absorb the dread.
Urgency sells books and survival supplies. When the end is always about to happen, there is always a reason to give right now.
Cast a nation or a group as a beast from Revelation and real people become symbols of evil.
And it cuts in both directions. The opposite error is shrugging at the world because it is all going to burn anyway. That thinking has excused Christians from caring for creation and fixing what is broken in their towns. Both errors miss the same thing. The Kingdom is not about to arrive or about to leave. It is here, and it grows.
When Jesus described wars and rumors of wars in Matthew 24:6, what did he tell his disciples?
He said, “see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” The signs were given to calm his followers, not to frighten them, and the end he meant was the end of the age they were living in.
Some of you do not care about the debate. You just want to know if you can stop being afraid.
If you grew up with end times fear, or you have been caught in it recently, that fear is real and it is not a sign of weak faith. You were taught to brace for disaster, and it takes time to unlearn that.
Here is what is true. Jesus did not leave you a countdown. He left you his peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27). You do not have to watch the news to find out whether God is still on the throne. He is.
If the fear has become heavy, please do not carry it alone. Talk to someone you trust, and if it is affecting your sleep, work or relationships, a counselor can help. You can also send us a prayer request and someone from Sound of Heaven will pray with you.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
Hebrews 12:28The old order was being shaken and removed, and Hebrews tells the church to be grateful, because what they were receiving could not be shaken. The world has serious troubles. But you are not living under a sentence. You are living in a Kingdom. There is more on this in what the Bible says about fear.
Everything here comes back to Jesus. He announced the Kingdom, said his own generation would see the end of the age, and was right. The temple fell, and what remained was him: the true temple, the King who reigns now.
So the question is not how close the end is. It is what faithfulness looks like in a Kingdom already here. Loving your neighbor, forgiving the person who hurt you, raising children without fear, healing the sick, telling the truth. Those are not ways of killing time until the end. They are the Kingdom at work, the stone that becomes a mountain and the mustard seed that becomes a tree.
For the connected questions, read when Jesus said he was coming, when judgement day was, when Revelation was written, where the escape teaching came from, and what the Kingdom of God is. You can also see what we believe or plan a visit and ask us in person.
The last days the Bible talks about were the last days of the old covenant age, they ended in AD 70 just as Jesus said, and we now live in the unshakable Kingdom he established, with nothing to fear and everything to build.
A question you cannot shake or a fear you have carried for years, send it in. Somebody at Sound of Heaven will pray with you.
No. The New Testament writers said they were living in the last days themselves (Hebrews 1:2, Acts 2:17, 1 Corinthians 10:11). Those were the last days of the old covenant age, which closed when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, within the generation Jesus named in Matthew 24:34. We live in the age that followed, the age of the established Kingdom of God, and there is no countdown running on it.
In the New Testament the last days are the closing period of the old covenant age, running from Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost to the fall of the temple in AD 70. Peter said Joel's last days prophecy was being fulfilled in front of the crowd. Hebrews said God had spoken in these last days by his Son. The phrase describes their time, not a period still ahead of us.
Jesus listed false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, persecution, the gospel going out to the nations, and Jerusalem surrounded by armies. He gave them to answer the disciples' question about when the temple would fall, and told them not to be alarmed. Then he said this generation would not pass away until all of it happened. The war of AD 66 to 70 brought them to pass.
After four years of war, Roman forces captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. The sacrifices stopped and have never been restored. For the New Testament this was the covenantal climax Jesus had predicted on the Mount of Olives, the end of the age the disciples asked about. Hebrews had already said the first covenant was obsolete and would soon disappear. In AD 70 it did.
No. Jesus told his followers not to be alarmed, and he gave them his peace instead of a timeline. The end the Bible warned about came in the first century, and it left behind a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. The world has real troubles worth caring about, but you are not living under a countdown. If this fear has become heavy, talk to someone you trust and send us a prayer request.