The Blessed Apostle Peter explained that this prophecy was fulfilled during the suffering of the Lord when, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers, and they all began to speak as the Spirit enabled them. Those present were astonished and remarked, "Are not all these who speak Galileans? How is it that we hear them in our native languages?" (Acts 2:7-8). Others asked, "What does this mean?" (Acts 2:12), while some mocked, saying, "They are filled with new wine" (v. 13). But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: "Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days...'" (Acts 2:14-17).
Since Peter confirms that Joel's prophecy was realized during the suffering of the Lord, we inquire about the connection among the prior, intermediate, and subsequent texts, seeking to avoid confusing and contradictory interpretations of the same scripture. The text speaks of the day of the Lord, which is deemed great and terrible, when it asks, "Who can endure it?" We see a progression from the call to repentance following adversity to the promise of future blessings post-repentance. After much that is lengthy to recount, the following promise is issued: "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy."
I believe I have maintained the continuity of the message up to this point. The connection with what follows presents more complexity. Some assert that what is generally promised for the end times has already been partially realized. The apostles, recognizing the blessings of the future at the Lord’s first coming, spoke of the beginnings of these marvelous events to enable us to acknowledge the precedents before the fullness of time arrives (1 Cor. 13). Others suggest that, in line with what is said of the righteous, the apostles referenced all that was deemed beneficial and consistent with their present understanding through testimonies from earlier times—not to deceive the simplicity and ignorance of their listeners, as the impious Porphyry suggests, but to preach both in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2).
Following the prophets’ teachings, they recognized what the Jews anticipate to manifest literally in the end times, as being spiritually fulfilled at the first coming of our Savior—our only distinction being that while they still await its realization, we believe it has already occurred.
The term "all flesh" that the Lord mentions regarding pouring out His Spirit refers to what Isaiah proclaims: "And all flesh will see the salvation of our God" (Isaiah 40:5). Thus, God's salvation cannot be perceived unless His Spirit is poured out, and anyone identifying as a believer in Christ who disavows the Holy Spirit lacks the vision of true faith. Accordingly, in Acts, those baptized by John's baptism—who were told of the one to come (that is, the Lord Jesus)—were rebaptized, or rather, received the true baptism, for without the Holy Spirit and the mystery of the Trinity, any acknowledgment regarding either Person cannot be complete.
Not everyone who receives the Holy Spirit immediately possesses the grace of the Spirit; through the outpouring, individuals receive diverse gifts (1 Cor. 12). Some will experience prophecy as sons and daughters with notable merit, others will have dreams as older men, while some younger men, marked by valor against evil, will have visions. However, servants and maidservants, who are still governed by a spirit of fear rather than of love (perfect love casts out fear), will not bear prophecy, dreams, or visions but will attain only the gift of faith and salvation through the Holy Spirit.
The Lord will manifest signs in heavens above and on earth below: in the heavens, the sun will turn dark and the moon appear blood-red; on earth, it will quake so violently that graves will be opened and stones scattered. The terms "blood" and "columns of smoke" reference the blood mentioned in the Psalms: "Your foot will be drenched with blood" (Psalms 67:24) and in Isaiah's lament: "Why are Your garments stained?" (Isaiah 63:2). This blood, alongside the earth's blood, was shed when the Roman soldier pierced the Savior's side with a spear (John 19).
The fire represents the Holy Spirit descending from heaven, as noted in Acts: "They will be divided as by fire, and each will rest on one" (Acts 2:3). This fire, which the Lord desired to ignite within His disciples before His suffering (Luke 12:49), serves a dual purpose: it brings light for the faithful, yet inflicts torment for the faithless; hence, the clouds of smoke are a grievous blindness obscuring the eyes of the Jews, which Proverbs warns against: "As the smoke is harmful to the eyes, so is the transgression of the law to him who practices it" (Proverbs 10:26).
Isaiah prophesies of this smoke, wherein the Jews' blindness is foretold: "And I took away the door, and the house was filled with smoke" (Isaiah 3:4). Subsequently, it states, "Go and tell these people: Hearing you will hear, but you will not understand; seeing you will see, but you will not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing" (Isaiah 6:9-10).
The sun became darkened when it could not bear to witness the Lord on the cross, and the moon turned blood-red, a possibility of literal fulfillment not recorded by the Evangelists. Not every miracle performed by Jesus is documented, and were every detail included, the world itself could not contain the volumes that would be written (John 21:25). Perhaps, the sun was enveloped in darkness as a metaphor, while the moon’s crimson appearance condemned the Jews who bore terrible blasphemies against Christ, saying, "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matt. 27:25). All these events took place prior to the great and terrible day of the Lord, which must refer to either the resurrection or the eventual day of judgment, deemed truly great and fearful.
Yet, since it follows that "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved," and the Apostle Paul connects this to the period of the Lord's suffering, the reference likely pertains to the resurrection day. As Paul wrote to the Romans, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich to all who call upon Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:12-13). One may ponder the significance of "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"; although the same apostle asserts that "no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3), the essence lies in the heart's attitude when calling on the name of the Lord.
Thus, Paul and Sosthenes wrote to the Church of God in Corinth, addressing the sanctified in Christ Jesus, the ones called holy, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:2), as the Psalms state regarding Moses, Aaron, and Samuel: they called upon the Lord, and He answered them, speaking in a pillar of cloud (Ps. 93:6-7). Therefore, if it is stated that both the Corinthian believers and the likes of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel called on the name of the Lord, we must conclude that this is not solely a gift of the inexperienced but of the mature.
Furthermore, "to pour out," rendered in Hebrew as "esphosh," implies the abundance of the gift—the descent of the Holy Spirit's blessings upon all believers in the Savior’s name, indiscriminately touching all individuals, transcending any division between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, as we are all one in Christ (Rom. 10:12; Gal. 3:28). Thus, Agabus prophesied at Caesarea, many prophets emerged in Antioch, and the apostle instructed that if others received a revelation during a prophecy, the initial speaker should remain silent (1 Cor. 14). The four daughters of Philip the evangelist also prophesied (Acts 21), while older individuals like Paul, receiving divine messages, felt strong calls to action, exemplifying the Spirit's fulfillment of God's promises.
Indeed, it was declared, "For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be salvation, as the Lord has said, and to the remnant whom the Lord shall call." (In the Septuagint: "For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, one will be saved, as the Lord has declared, and there will be those who will evangelize"). Here, where it speaks of salvation, variations exist in translation, such as "who shall flee" as rendered by Symmachus, and where "remnant" is indicated, the LXX refers to evangelizing from the Hebrew root that denotes remnants or survivors.
Thus, when the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, everyone who calls upon His name after His resurrection will be saved; indeed, those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will find salvation, for law emerged from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3), of whom it is written, "It is impossible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). Hence, the initiation of the saved commenced in Zion and Jerusalem, in the watchtower of hope and peace, through those who remained faithful and were called by the Lord.
The remnant refers to those within the Jewish nation who believed, about whom Isaiah asserts, "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us a remnant, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9). The Lord called these remnants, thus evangelizing those that He summoned, as the LXX translates it. This passage is complex and open to diverse interpretations. Allegorically, we must relate all said to the times which both Apostles Peter and Paul referenced—namely, the events surrounding the Lord’s suffering and resurrection. It is not tenable to divide the preceding events from those associated with judgment, especially as it states, "For behold in those days and at that time," indicating that all occurred concurrently.
THEOSIS