At this very moment, you and I are living at the end of the church age. We’re within a short time period of the Rapture of the Church. Some people find this hard to believe. “Ever since I was young, my grandmamma has been saying, ‘Jesus is going to come back any day now.’ But He still hasn’t showed up yet!”

It’s true. Throughout Church history, people have been saying the Lord will be coming back at any minute, but He hasn’t yet, and I think many have lost sense of the urgency because of it. They’ve become tired of hearing it, even to the point where they doubt the truth of it.

Peter knew people would have this attitude. He wrote in 2 Peter 3:3-7: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts…

I would certainly say this describes our society today. We’ve got a generation of scoffers and mockers who deride the truth of God’s Word like we’ve never seen before. They are itching to pursue their own agendas and fulfill the lusts of their own flesh. It is one of the signs of the times that we live in.

  …and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (Verses 3-7)

This isn’t talking about Noah’s flood, but rather a time when people are willingly ignorant of the message of Scripture that tells us about earth’s history beyond the re-creation event in Genesis, which gives us a perspective on where we are in God’s scheme of things. These verses precede verse 8:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day!

You and I must understand the times and seasons of the end of this age if we don’t want to become a scoffer. And in order to properly understand the times and seasons, we need to know that a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years. (Don’t apply this principle every time you see the phrase “one day” in the Bible. This principle only relates to end time prophecy which helps us determine what day we’re living in.)

A Prophetic Preview
With this truth in mind, we can see numerous prophetic snapshots in the Word of God, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, which clearly show us that the day you and I live in is toward the end of the church age. I want to show you just a few.

In Luke 10:30-35, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. For years, Sunday school teachers have taught that this parable means you should help someone who is hurting, even if it inconveniences you. But it holds another layer of meaning deeper than simply being a good-deed doer. Let’s look at it in light of scriptural typology. Luke 10:30 says:

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

In Scripture, Jerusalem is always a type of the heavenly and Jericho is always a type of the earthly. The thieves referenced who attacked this man are a type of Satan and his demonic hosts. (Jesus referred to Satan in John 10:10 as the thief who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.)

So a man coming from heaven to earth fell among Satan and his satanic hosts. Does that sound familiar? It’s a parallel to Adam, someone made in the image and likeness of God, with heavenly origins, who was fit for living on earth. However, he fell among thieves—Satan and his satanic hosts, who had been cast out of heaven when their rebellion failed.

These demonic hosts stripped Adam of his raiment, which is a reference to the glory of God. They wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. In other words, they left him spiritually dead, but biologically alive.

And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

These verses are a clear indication of established traditional religion’s inability to do anything about man’s fallen condition.

Who was it who was able to help this man? “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him…” (verse 33). The Samaritan is type of Jesus. What did Jesus do when He saw him?

[He] went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
(Luke 10:34-35)

Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit and the new birth, Wine is a type of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus supplied to this man before bringing him to an inn. The inn is a type of the Church because that’s where those who have been left half dead by the enemy and have been ministered to by Jesus can find their growth and health return in the Lord.

The Samaritan left the man with the host, another type of the Holy Spirit, and gave the host two pence in order to take care of the man. Commentaries tell us that one day’s labor was one pence.

In other words, the Samaritan left him with sufficient supply for two days’ worth of care. If we’re looking at this in light of the end times, a day is as 1,000 years with the Lord; that means we can rephrase the verse like this:

Jesus (the Good Samaritan) left the broken man at the Church (the inn) in care of the Holy Spirit (the host) with enough provision (two day’s wages) for two thousand years before His return.

Why is two thousand years important? Scholars estimate the church age began around two thousand years ago. If Jesus left the man in care of the Church for 2,000 years then the end of this age must be close!