Letters to the Church

In his first epistle, John declares it is the Last Hour , a period elsewhere in the New Testament called the “ Last Days .” As evidence of this, he points to the presence of false teachers who are disrupting the congregations under his care. These deceivers are the products and instruments of the “ Spirit of Antichrist ” that is active already in the world, and these very same men are forerunners of the final “ Antichrist ” who is yet to come.

In his Letter to the Galatians , Paul argues that adopting the rite of circumcision would constitute regression to something rudimentary, a reversion to an earlier stage in the redemptive history of God’s people. If Gentiles adopted a Torah -compliant lifestyle, they would return to bondage and once more experience the social divisions inherent in the Law. They would forsake the great and many benefits they had acquired through the “ faith of Jesus .”

In his letters, Paul links the start of the “ Last Days ” with the death and resurrection of the Son of God. The time of fulfillment arrived, and all God’s promises now find their “ yea and amen ” in the risen Nazarene. Similarly, the  Letter to the Hebrews  declares that “ in these last days ,” God has “ spoken ” His definitive “ word ” in His Son who now reigns at the “ right hand of the Majesty on High .” Paul’s position is not unique among the documents that make up the New Testament.

The death of Jesus inaugurated the messianic age with consequent changes in the status of God’s people .  In his epistle to the Assembly in Galatia, Paul declares that his apostleship originated from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, the Messiah of Israel who gave his life to “ deliver us from this evil age .” His declaration anticipates his proposition in the body of the Letter that the arrival of Jesus changed the status of the Law for the people of God, the “ children of Abraham .”