---
title: 1 Peter 1:20
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-peter-1-20/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-peter-1-20.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Peter 1:20
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Peter 1:20

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.

## JW Usage

Watchtower literature treats 1 Peter 1:20's "made manifest at the end of the times" as referring to the first-century arrival of Christ without drawing out the implication for its own 1914 chronology. Because the "last days" doctrine requires the climactic period to begin in 1914 with Christ's invisible presence, passages that locate "the end of the times" in the first century are handled as references to a prior, lesser "time of the end" that does not compete with the 1914 timeline. The distinction is asserted rather than derived from the text.

## Protestant Usage

Read 1:20 straight. Peter says Christ "was foreknown before the founding of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times" — and the "times" whose end he means are the first- century appearance of Christ. Combine with Acts 2:16-17 ("this is what was spoken through Joel ... in the last days"), Hebrews 1:1-2 ("in these last days [God] has spoken to us in a Son"), 1 John 2:18 ("it is the last hour"), Hebrews 9:26 ("at the conclusion of the systems of things"), and 1 Corinthians 10:11 ("the ends of the systems of things have arrived" upon Paul's hearers). Six New Testament witnesses unanimously place the last days in the first century, using the identical Greek phrase (eschatais hemerais) that 2 Timothy 3:1 uses. Ask the Witness gently: where does the Bible itself distinguish the "last days" of Acts 2:17 from the "last days" of 2 Timothy 3:1? The distinction is not in the text. If the last days began at Pentecost, the 1914 framework cannot be the start of them.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Last Days Began at Pentecost, Not 1914](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/last-days-pentecost.md) — Acts 2:16-17 — 'This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel' [Eschatology]