Passages using the terms "soon," "near," "last days," "about to," "this generation," etc.):

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Matthew 12:32 – “in this age or in the age (about) to come” (the Greek word has a sense of imminence)

 

Acts 2:17-21 – Peter quotes Joel 2:28-32 “in the last days” as being then

 

Romans 13:12 – “the night is almost over; the day is almost here.”

 

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 – “the time is short” … “For this world in its present form is passing away”

 

1 Corinthians 10:11 – “as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come”

 

1 Peter 1:20 – “in these last times”

 

1 Peter 4:7 – “the end of all things is near”

 

Hebrews 1:2 – “in these last days” 

 

Hebrews 8:13 – “By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will

soon disappear”

 

Hebrews 9:26 – “now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages”

 

Hebrews 10:37 – “For in just a very little while He who is coming will come and will not delay”

 

James 5:3-9 – “you have hoarded wealth in the last days” … “the Lord’s coming is near” … “the Judge is standing at the door”

 

2 Peter 3:3-14 – “in the last days” … “so then…”

 

1 John 2:18 – “this is the last hour… it is the last hour”

 

 

Other passages where fulfillment seems expected in the lifetime of at least some of the hearers/readers:

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Matthew 10:23 – “you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes”

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Matthew 16:28 – “some of you who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom”

 

Matthew 26:64 – “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

Matthew 24:34 – “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened”

 

2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be… have nothing to do with them.”

 

1 Timothy 6:14 – “I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ”

 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 – “we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord”

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23 – “May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”

 

Jude 18-19 – “In the last times there will be scoffers… These are the men who divide you”

 

Revelation 1:1,3 – “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place” … “the time is near”.

22:6 – “to show his servants the things that must soon take place”

22:7, 12, 20 – “Behold, I am coming soon!”

22:10 – “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.” (compare this with Daniel 12:4, 9 – where Daniel is told to “close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end” = 500 years until Christ)

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Considering a passage which might seem counter to a 1st century fulfillment:

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2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 – Some people were falsely teaching that the coming of the Lord, the ‘day of the Lord’, had already happened. Notice that Paul doesn’t change their thinking about what that would involve; he only clarifies that something else must happen first. He also doesn’t correct them to make it clear that this wouldn’t happen for many more years. 

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