The “End”

 

“I Am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End”.  In the context of the destruction of the Jewish nation, people and holy city, these words become doubly significant.  Not only was Christ the Author and Creator of the universe, but He now shows Himself to be the Author and Finisher of the nation, the people, and the City.  In His perfect fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the promises, and the prophecies, He brings it to its end and becomes the originator of the New Covenant.  In Him the concept of nationhood has found its fulfillment, its completion and perfection.  In Him it continues in a new and living way, the Church, His Body.  In Him, the Old is not destroyed and annihilated but rather has become the seed crop and surety of the new Life.

What does the phrase “the end” mean in its Biblical context?  Since it contains the definite article “the”, we know that it is speaking of a previously known and well defined “end”.  Does this refer, then, to the final consummation and cessation of planet earth?  For the answer we must look at the usage of the phrase in other Biblical passages.

The Eschaton or the Telos?

Two Greek words are translated “the end” or “last (days, or time)”.  There is a strong tradition in modern church doctrines that “the end” always refers to the ‘eschaton’, a Greek word meaning “the last, extreme, uttermost (of place or time); the last state.”  The study of last things is therefore called ‘eschatology’.

The word ‘eschaton’[1] occurs in Matthew 12:45; (Luke 11:26); and 2 Peter 2:20.  In these three instances it refers to the final state of a man who has rejected the knowledge of God.  It is used in Mark 5:23 as “point of death.”  It is also used in a plural form in Acts 13:47, “ends of the [2]earth “.  In this instance it refers to geographical extent and not to time.

We see from this that the “eschaton” does not always refer to the “end” of planet earth or the whole natural creation and therefore the use of the term “eschatology” to refer to the prophetic “end” is only a partial truth – and a half-truth is a lie.  Telos, on the other hand, speaks of “perfection”, “maturity”, “fulfillment”, “accomplishment”, “verification” (of a prophecy). Although the word eschaton is sometimes used interchangeably with telos, there is a distinct difference in their meanings.  The difference between eschaton and telos is between that which is dying, being destroyed or annihilated and that which is attaining a full maturity, which is able to reproduce itself and which is achieving its desired purpose.

The Greek word telos is also translated “end” in the New Testament. [3]  Bullinger defines it as “…fulfillment or completion of anything (Latin effectus) i.e. its end or issue, (not its cessation)”.  It denotes strictly, not the ending of a departed state, but, the arrival of a complete or perfect one.”  A form of the word is used in Matthew 11:1 where Jesus is said to have “made an end” of teaching His disciples, (KJV) or “…finished instructing his twelve disciples”, (RSV).  In this case it clearly means “…to complete, fulfill, accomplish, execute fully.”  As used in Matthew 10:22, “…he that endureth to the end, (teleo), shall be saved”, it means “…to completion or perfection of the preaching of the Gospel”.[4]

Another form of the word telos is used of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Here it is very clearly speaking of “finisher” as one who brings something to its completion, perfection or fulfillment.

The difference between the two words becomes clear by observing the usage of eschaton in Matthew 12:45, “latter end”, and Mark 5:23, “point of death” as compared to the passages where telos is translated “perfect” such as Ephesians 4:13: “Till we come …unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” [5]

The “End” as Foretold by Daniel

What was “the end” that the believers in the New Testament era expected?  I submit that it was “the end” as foretold by the prophet Daniel, (9:24-27; 12:1-12).  Since the appointed time of “seventy weeks” had come to its close and the “time, times and dividing of times” had also been fulfilled, and since the Messiah had come as predicted, they had every reason to believe that “the end” was at hand.

            It is clear that the writer of the book of Hebrews believed he was living in “the end of the age, (aion)”, but not necessarily the “end of the world, (cosmos)”:

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world (Gk. cosmos), but now once in the end of the world (Gk. aion.) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (9:26)

He saw that the revelation of Jesus Christ would be the fulfillment of the prophecy that the seventy weeks would bring an “end” to the city and sanctuary as foretold in Daniel 9:26.  This shows that the “end of the world” expected in the New Testament was not the eschaton, but the telos, the fulfillment of all that God had foretold.  It was the “end of the age”, (Gk. aion[6]), that is, the end of the Jewish nation, people, and city as foretold by Daniel; not the end of the planet.

The word translated ‘end’ here, (Daniel 9:26), is a form of the word teleo, indicating an expected fulfillment, or completion of a process or a perfecting or maturing of the thing that was to end.  That thing that was coming to its fulfillment or maturity was the Israel of God.