a generation of the last days

There are two ends that we should bear in mind with regard to the Messiah as you know.

• The end of the Jewish system of things on the first appearance of Messiah
• The end of the Satan's system of things on the second appearance of Messiah.

The main concern of Christians is the second coming of Christ.

Since all Christians are invited to be sons of the Kingdom, the greatest concern of Christians is not the destruction of Jerusalem, but the Lord's second coming.

Nevertheless, when Jesus' apostles asked Him, "When is it?" their concern was the destruction of Jerusalem. They did not realize that Jesus would return on the clouds of heaven, even though they had heard Him say so many times.

For example, Jesus mentioned his second coming to the religious leaders in his trial.

Mt 26:64
64 Jesus said to him: "You yourself said [it]. Yet I say to YOU men, From henceforth YOU will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

Even after the resurrection of the Christ, they still did not realize the heavenly things.
They still saw things from an earthly perspective.

So they asked as written in Ac 1:6

Ac 1:6
6 When, now, they had assembled, they went asking him: "Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?"

How did Jesus answer?

He said this.

Ac 1:7-8
7 He said to them: "It does not belong to YOU to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction; 8 but YOU will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon YOU, and YOU will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth."

Then Jesus went back into heaven.

Then his disciples were told by angels this.

Ac 1:11
11 and they said: "Men of Galilee, why do YOU stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was received up from YOU into the sky will come thus in the same manner as YOU have beheld him going into the sky."

Then what happened after that?

Jesus' disciples received the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost and they came to realize their heavenly calling and Christ's Coming to take them into heaven and judge the Satan's entire system of things and they will join Christ in bruising Satan in the head.

This is the primary concern of the Christian, not the destruction of Jerusalem.

So they became the witnesses of Christ's resurrection which is the guarantee of the future judgment of the world as stressed by our brother Paul in Ac 17:30-31.

Ac 17:30-31
30 True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now he is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent. 31 Because he has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead."

The destruction of Jerusalem was the regional concern for just only Jewish Christian who were living in the city or who were obligated to visit the city for the religious festival three times a year.

It is no more than that.

The Ends of the Systems of things

According to the Bible, all Christian in any age live in the last day or the end of the systems of things.

1Co 10:11
11 Now these things went on befalling them as examples, and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the ends of the systems of things have arrived.

The Jewish systems and the Satan's systems have ended in the first century in God's viewpoint and also ours.

Consider the following scriptures.

The Jewish system ended.

Mt 23:38-39
38 Look! YOUR house (Jewish system) is abandoned to YOU. 39 For I say to YOU, YOU will by no means see me from henceforth until YOU say, 'Blessed is he that comes in YHWH's name!' *Ps 118:26

Mt 21:19
19 And he caught sight of a fig tree by the road and went to it, but he found nothing on it except leaves only, and he said to it: "Let no fruit come from you anymore forever." And the fig tree (Jewish system) withered instantly.

The Satan's system ended.

Joh 12:31
31 Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

Lu 10:18
18 At that he said to them: "I began to behold Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven. 19 Look! I have given YOU the authority to trample underfoot serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will by any means do YOU hurt. (Don't take this literally, but we are protected from Satan and will bruise Satan's head in the end.)

Joh 14:30
30 I shall not speak much with YOU anymore, for the ruler of the world is coming. And he has no hold on me,

Joh 16:33
33 I have said these things to YOU that by means of me YOU may have peace. In the world YOU are having tribulation, but take courage! I have conquered the world."

1Joh 3:8
8 . . . For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil.

Heb 2:14-15
14 Therefore, since the "young children" are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil; 15 and [that] he might emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives.

Do you understand that from the Christ's death on the stake (pole) the old has ended, and the new has been existing.

Joh 19:30
30 When, now, he had received the sour wine, Jesus said: "It has been accomplished!" and, bowing his head, he delivered up [his] spirit.

Mt 28:18-20
18 Then, coming toward them, Jesus spoke, saying, 'All power has been given me in heaven and on earth. 19 So, go make disciples in all nations in my name, 20 and teach them to obey all the things that I commanded you. {Look!} I'll be with you each day until the end of the age.'

Until the time of His Return, Jesus has been always with us in any age.

From the time of the first century, Christians in any age have been in the last days in a sense which leads to the Christ's Return or the Lord's Day. They arrive on the Lord's Day, either literally or by the first resurrection.

The fist century Christians were about to die by brutal persecution.
Christ's Coming was imminent, since their death was the way for them to unite their Lord by means of the first resurrection. Through the first resurrection they will reach the Lord's Day instantaneously at their death, since dead is conscious of nothing at all.

The first century Christians needed to be ready to die as the born again Christian.
Reconsider the gravity of the hope of the first resurrection.
The first resurrection bring them to the Lord's Day instantaneously since death is completely unconscious.

Then the Lord's Day gives them authority to clash Satan's head who bruise them in the heel.
The time of death was approaching to the first century Christians who were about to die.
For the dead there is no time interval from their death to the Lord's Day.

The Satan was defeated by Christ's sinless death, the last days has started in a sense, Satan and Demons have been waiting for their execution along with the Judgment of ungodly people in the world.

The time of judgment or the last days has begun at the household of God in the first century. And it will end when Jesus' returns with great authority to execute judgment against Satan's entire world.

It would last for a generation for any Christian in any age until each one's death. Then they will join Christ in executing the judgment gainst Satan's world through the first resurrection. There is no time interval for the dead from the end of his life to the Lord's Day. So, the last day lasts for a generation for anybody during one's life time.

Therefore, the warning of "Keep on the watch" is applicable to all Christian in any age for their life time, since the first century.

Mt 24:42
42 Keep on the watch, therefore, because YOU do not know on what day YOUR Lord is coming.

Any Christian in any age has to keep on the watch for one's life time.
No one knows when Christ is coming back.

Everybody has a possibility to reach the Lord's Day alive.
Or we will come to the Lord's Day instantly at our faithful death and through the first resurrection.

To anyone who accepts the Christ, the authority to be the sons of the kingdom are to be given.

Joh 1:12-13
12 However, as many as did receive him, to them he gave authority to become God’s children, because they were exercising faith in his name; 13 and they were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or from man’s will, but from God.

Now is the time to gather the sons of the kingdom until Christ's return.
And there is a one generation for everybody to keep on the watch.

One's life time is a generation, within their own generation everybody can reach the Lord's Day through the first resurrection or while still alive.

We don't need to worry about the great crowd who come out of the great tribulation.
God will see to it that those who are merciful will be shown mercy at the time of the great tribulation.