And, it is also found them in two scriptures that we read every Feast of Tabernacles, Isaiah 2:2, and Micah 4:1.
The prophets Micah and Isaiah then go on to describe what will occur when God's Kingdom is established on the earth. He is talking about the establishment of the government of God at Christ's return, and thereafter.
It is used 16 times by Jesus Christ and the apostles in the New Testament. And they use either the last day(s), or last time(s), or last hour. And, John uses it more than all the others - 8 times; and four of those in chapter 6 alone! I will raise Him up at the last day. And also in John 11:24 when Martha comes and says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day, meaning the resurrection of the dead. And, in John 12:48 Jesus uses the last day to mean, The Great White Throne Judgment.
So, just from these few little scriptures, and we will touch on some more later, we can see that the last days, the latter days, the last time, or the last hour means pretty much the same as the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament. It could be one particular day when Christ comes, or it could mean the time of the whole year of the Day of the Lord, or it can mean the general time when Christ is ruling (which would go on for eternity); but most specifically when people talk about the last days, they are talking about the period of time just before and after Christ returns. We all knew that.
I look at this - the city set on a hill - as the nation or government of God, set up on a hill, on an eminent place. It is set up just like there in Isaiah 2:2.
I think of this in particular - Isaiah 2:2 - of being a government, yes, but also of being high in a place of eminence where people can see it, and flow up to it.
Right now on earth, the church is the representative nation of God. We are called a holy nation in I Peter 2, and He has set it up on an eminence so all the world can see it.
I have gone to this extent to say that this figure speaks, or shows the church's collective outward witness to the world. It is the people as a whole, as a group, that are set up where people in the world can see them. Not just where they can see one another, but the whole world can see the church as a collective whole, as the body of Christ, and get an example from it - can see the light from the church.
But the time is coming when this date will no longer be remembered. Nor will the dates of any other wars be remembered. The time is coming when mankind will no longer learn war anymore.
Now this world does not understand that, brethren. And the day is coming when this world will no longer learn war. It will rather learn how to achieve peace.
But for us, that time is right now. Do not shrink from the fight. Do not hold back, because so much is riding on our conversion. Let us all join in to this battle to overcome, and all fight the good fight.
So there are some left. Let us go back to Isaiah 2. This may be some of the most basic scriptures on the Millennium in the whole Bible.
Mr. Armstrong always told us that mountains were symbols of governments, and the Lord's government would be the mountain that is established on top of all the others. He has the overrule during this time.
Remember there in Zechariah 14 it said that all these people would come up and worship the king at Jerusalem. This is the same sort of picture.
Hold that thought in your mind and let us go back to Isaiah 2. It is a wonderful process. This is God's judgment of the way these things are going to be carried out.
What period of time is being talked about? We are talking, here, about the Millennium. What do these verses show Christ doing during the Millennium? Judging. Hang on to that thought.
