Is the end at hand?

A perennial question in Christian theology is whether the end is at hand. That typically means "the end" in a temporal sense. A final stage in fallen history. The Consummation. And that's a legitimate sense.

But in Scripture, "the End" or "the Last" is a divine title. It's initially a title for Yahweh in Isaiah (Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). And that's picked up in Revelation (Rev 1:17; 2:8; 21:6 22:13).

In that sense, "the end" is a who rather than a when. In that sense, to say "the end is at hand" means "God is at hand". Given Jews conditioned by the deific sense of "the last" in Isaiah, that might well have strong connotations for eschatological usage. 

By the same token, in cases where "the end" has a temporal sense", "at hand" (or "near") has a temporal sense. But in cases where "the end" is a title for God, then "at hand" has a spatial sense. A where rather than a when. A place rather than a time. In that respect, the "end is at hand" is whenever or wherever God is present in a special sense. For instance, God makes himself a felt-presence in a miracle, special providence, or answered prayer. 

This doesn't rule out the eschatological sense of the end, yet the eschatological sense merges with God since God is the beginning of all things as well as the end to which all things tend. The end-time converges with the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 

Conversely, "the End" as God can precede "the end" as time. Paradoxically, the end can be before the end in cases where the end is a who rather than a when. We can sample the end before the end. Before the two ends converge. There's an end that marks the terminus of fallen history, but there's an End who projects himself into fallen history. Indeed, world history is bookended not only by a chronological first and last, beginning and end, but by the deific First and Last, Beginning and the End, who stands behind events.