Acts 2:16
Acts 2:1616No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
The Watchtower treats Peter's Pentecost sermon as a "partial" or "initial" fulfilment of Joel 2, with the "greater fulfilment" located in 1914 and following. On this reading, "the last days" in describes a different time period from "the last days" in — because the 1914 doctrine requires the distinction.
Read Peter's words without the Watchtower overlay: "this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel." Not "this resembles" Joel, not "this previews" Joel, not "this is the partial fulfilment." This is. Peter is standing at Pentecost and saying the last days promised by Joel are happening right now. Six New Testament passages agree: ("in these last days God has spoken to us by means of a Son"), ("it is the last hour"), ("made manifest at the end of the times"), ("at the conclusion of the systems of things"), and ("the ends of the systems of things have arrived"). All six use the first-century "now" as the reference point. The Greek phrase in and is the same — eschatais hēmerais. If Scripture itself places the last days in the first century, a 1914 starting date is a Watchtower overlay, not a biblical teaching.