We have already looked at these terms but not in the particular context of the second coming of Christ.
The incarnation and entrance into this world was in the “last days.” Hebrews 1:2 reads,
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.
Similarly, Peter uses “last times” to describe the same era. In 1 Peter 1:20, he writes,
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.
Of what days are these the last? It clearly does not mean that the Son would come at the end of time to speak to us? He does not even call it “the last day,” but the “last days.” The Hebrews writer speaks of the last days of a certain period that he calls “these last days.” Again, we have a time statement and added to it an an event associated with it. The event is the speaking of Jesus, the Son. Galatians 4:4 describes his coming to be in the “fullness of time” when he was born of a woman and under the law. The Law of Moses is the law under which he was born. There can be no doubt that the incarnation of the Son and being born into a Jewish family places Him in the first century while the Law of Moses was still in force. The “fullness of time” is a reference to the culminating work of redemption that was about to take place “in these last days.”
Ezekiel 38:16 reads,
“… 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. ”
Jeremiah 23:20 reads,
“The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it.”
If we equate the last days of Hebrews 1:2 to the first century, how can we make the same reference of the last days in that era apply to a period two thousand years in the future? Malachi and Isaiah speak of the house of the Lord being established in the last days. If Jesus’ coming in the last days refers to his incarnation in the first century, how can we make the reference to the establishment of the Lord’s house in the last days mean two thousand years from the first century? Consistency requires the last days to refer to the same period of time in which the Son speaks, mockers come, the storing up ends, and the mountain of the Lord’s house is established.