The passage in our title reads, “These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come” (NKJV).
The arrival of the Holy Spirit that marked the last days implies that the end or goal of all past types and shadows has arrived and was about to be fulfilled. Jesus explains, “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For Paul to be saying that the “end of time” had come, over two-thousand years later proves him to be wrong. It is not the “end of time” to which he speaks, but the “time of the end.” In this phrase, he has reference to the completion or fulfillment (Greek, telos) of all things past.
Hebrews 10:26 reads, “…for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” As far as the people of the first-century were concerned, only two ages were relevant. The Bible demonstrates this is ….. The two ages were “this present age,” and the “age to come.” Jesus appeared at the end of the then “present age” (Jewish age). This age (the Jewish age) was coming to naught and the age of the Messiah, the “age to come,” was on the horizon. This can be confusing, but they used the phrase “last days” to refer to their present time. They were living in the last days and its fulfillment or completion was imminent that John writes of the “last day” (cf. John 6:39, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48) and the “last hour” (1 John 2:18).
The phrase, “end of the age” (Gr. “suntelias tou aionos”) is found in Matthew 13:39,40; Matthew 24:3; Matthew 28:20, with Hebrews 9:26 using the plural “ages.” Each of the texts refers to the end of the old Jewish Age. Add to this the use of the word “end” that is directly applied to that first-century generation (Matthew 10:22-23; 24:6, 13-14; Mark 13:7, 13; Luke 21:9; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Corinthians 15:24; 2 Corinthians 1:13; Hebrews 3:6, 14; 1 Peter 4:7; Revelation 2:26), one cannot help seeing that the goal of the old law system had served its purpose as it had opened up the way for the new and better way. There is no hint in these passages to the end of time.
In addition to the explanation of the “end of the age,” the meaning and use of “the age to come” never point to an end of “the age to come.” Today, preachers all around us speak of the end of this age, but this age (not the one “present” in the first-century) doesn’t have an end. If there are only two ages (this age, and the age to come), and the age to come is the Messianic age, then it will have no fulfillment or goal to be reached and completed. Peter is clear about the matter when he wrote, “the end of all things has drawn near” (1 Peter 4:7).
(Watch for a follow-up blog)