The End Times According to the Appostle Paul

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Paul views the end times the same as the prophet Isaiah. He saw the final days as the fulfillment of prophesy. Isaiah said “Declaring the end from the beginning,/And from ancient times things which have not been done,/Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,/And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’” (Is. 48.10).

Paul understood that God understood from the beginning the need for a savior to come, not just the first time in order to atone for sin, but also a second time, so that man could be restored. He understood Revelation before it was even written, that God’s good pleasure would be accomplished.

Paul knew that there was no way to tell when the rapture would come. He said it would be like a thief in the night. Many will argue that Paul believed Christ would come during his lifetime. I don’t believe there is much argument for or against this belief, but Paul’s use of the thief is consistent with Jesus’ use of the thief for the same purpose. Jesus’ eschatology suggests that the end times will be a very long time, as long as or longer than the previous era. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that Paul may have believed the same. Certainly the early church went to great pains to preserve Paul’s words so that they could pass them on to further generations of Christians.

I believe that Paul’s understanding of the end times is consistent with the will of God as prophesied in the OT and as taught by Jesus. I believe that when you have a consistent understanding across board, then you can rely on the interpretation.

Paul also believed that there was a physical nature to the resurrection of Jesus and that there will also be a physical resurrection in the end times. This is consistent both with Gospel accounts as well as the book of Revelation. I say a physical nature because it is not terribly clear that in resurrected form we will contain the exact physical properties as we do now. It is more likely that we will be like Adam before the fall of man. This is all assuming, of course, that a physical change took place at the fall which caused man to die a physical death in addition to spiritual death.