Understanding “this age” and “the age to come”
by Gordon Graham
The above graphic depicts the chronology of the phrases “this age” and “the age to come”, in their biblical/historical context. Such understanding underlies perception of the present situation affecting our eschatological outlook. Satan is NOT “the god of this age” that we are in now. He was “the god of this age” when Paul wrote 2nd Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; Romans 16:20, etc. Jesus crushed Satan’s head and bound him in the first century, cf. Matthew 12:29; Luke 10:18; Revelation 20:2; etc.
The evil one is still active but not in wholesale deception of the nations the way he was before. The Lord Jesus Christ is reigning now! cf. Psalm 2:1-12; Psalm 110:1-7; Daniel 7:13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:25; etc.
An “age” is a period of time. There is no other age that will follow the present age of Christ’s mediatorial reign (what the New Testament, written prior to the termination of the Old Covenant age with the destruction of the temple, refers to as “the age to come”). We are now in the final age of time and history, as the ascended Lord Jesus Christ reigns from on High and through His Spirit indwelling His people, living stones in the new living temple – His body, commissioned to disciple the nations (Matthew 28:18-19).
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).
Premillennialists claim that there will be another age after Christ’s Second Coming, when He will reign upon the earth for 1,000 years prior to the final judgment, with at least one variation of their system espousing a rebuilt physical temple. Instead of perceiving the Kingdom’s coming as past, present and future, they see it as wholly future. An older version of postmillennialism taught that there will be a separate “golden age” in time and history after the present age and before the 2nd Coming; but the dross of sin and death will not be consummately purged until the end. Nevertheless, there is ample scriptural warrant for optimism about the character of the millennium as the kingdom gradually grows proportionally and pervasively (cf. Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:20-21). In any case, now under the new covenant, we are not presently living in what were "the last days" of the old covenant age. See this.
Against “the age to come” as eternity
Ephesians 1:17-23: …the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age (aion) but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
It is notable that the age “which is to come” in the foregoing passage can hardly refer to eternity hereafter without conflicting with 1 Corinthians 15: 24Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
The Ephesians passage presents the ages in time/history; the passage in 1 Corinthians presents the end: eternity. Jesus’ ascension took place in what were the last days of “this age” for the writers New Testament. In this final age now present (the “age to come” for the N.T. writers), Jesus is reigning from on High and by His Spirit indwelling His people, ruling over the nations with a rod of iron per Psalm 2:9.
By contrast, in eternity, we shall eat and drink with Jesus Himself, as we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is! (1 John 3:2 cf. Matthew 26:29).
Paul wrote in the last days of the old covenant age when the temple was still standing. The “age to come”, which was then at hand, is fully here now: the gospel age, the “millennium” of the mediatorial reign of the King Jesus.
In those same last days of the old covenant age when the temple was still standing, shortly before He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; rose again from the dead; and ascended into heaven, Jesus said to the high priest: “I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 26:64) The hereafter our Lord foretold is the termination of the old covenant economy with the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the final end of that age, the outworking of AD 30 when Christ made the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself; which was also foretold by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel:
“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation*, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” (Daniel 9:26-27)
*i.e. the consummation of the ages, the transition from the Jewish to the Christian: the mediatorial kingdom of the gospel age, the final age before the end, the “millennial” reign of the risen, ascended Lord Jesus Christ as written of in Ephesians 1.
Paradox Resolved
In Luke 20:34-36 Jesus teaches that in time and history there is marriage, in contrast to after the resurrection from the dead, in eternity, there is no marriage, as people shall be immortal like angels. The Greek word aionos, often translated as “age” can also be translated as “world”, as in the KJV which renders the passage:
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world (aionos) marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world (aionos), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
Translating aionos as “age” in that context would contradict the clear passage of Matthew 12:32, about the unpardonable sin:
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age (aioni) or in the one about to come (en to mellonti).
The above passage, in which the KJV unfortunately renders aioni as “world”, clearly establishes the then current age/world and the one then about to come - as both in time/history, as there is no sin to be forgiven in eternity hereafter.
Context with respect to the full counsel of Scripture is determinative of the proper translation of words with varying connotations. For example, in Matthew 24:3, Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age/(world)?”, the phrase ending with aionos is properly interpreted as “consummation of the age”, which Jesus emphatically declared would take place before their generation passed.
Alternatively, Hebrews 11:3 is an example of aionas being better translated as “worlds” instead of “ages” (ESV renders it “universe”): By faith we understand that the worlds (aionas) were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. This passage is written by the same author to the same audience, using the same word in the same context as Hebrews 1:2: … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (aionas).
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Also see: Pilgrimage: Applying Critical Thinking to Eschatology
