The question we must ask is this: If Peter says Christ was manifested "in these last times," whose last times was he talking about?

THEIR LAST DAYS, NOT OURS Peter makes it clear. He told his first-century audience that Christ was manifested "in these last times for the sake of you." The "last days" were not the last days of planet earth, but the last days of the Old Covenant age. They were living in the closing generation of that covenant system, not us.

SCRIPTURE CONFIRMS THE TIMING The apostles were consistent in declaring that they themselves were living in the last days:

• Acts 2:16-17 - On Pentecost, Peter quotes Joel and says, "This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: And it shall be in the last days." The outpouring of the Spirit was proof that the last days were then present.
  
  

• Hebrews 1:1-2 - "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son." The writer does not point to a distant future, but to his own generation.
  
  

• 1 Corinthians 10:11 - "These things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." Paul declares that the end of the ages had already come upon them.
  
  

• 1 John 2:18 - "Children, it is the last hour." John did not say the last hour was far away. He declared it to be a present reality in his day.
  
  

THE END OF THE OLD COVENANT AGE The "last days" were the final days of the Old Covenant world, which came to a close in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This was the end of the age Jesus spoke about, not the end of the physical creation.

THE APOSTLES WERE RIGHT The apostles were not mistaken. They were guided by the Holy Spirit. When they declared that they were living in the last days, they were telling the truth. To deny this is to deny the authority of Scripture itself.

CONCLUSION The "last days" were not about our time, but theirs. The cross, the resurrection, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the destruction of the temple all fit perfectly within that framework. Christ appeared in their last times, to bring in the everlasting New Covenant that continues without end.