A couple of items for the mix.
First: The expression 'last days'--depending on who is talking--often alludes to the last days of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the national identity and worship structures built around them. The end of Temple worship would not be, in their minds, a completely separate event from the more apocalyptic one we tend to think of--the total end of everything. They saw the Jerusalem apocalypse as a harbinger of the global one, the begining of the end. It tends to be a question of focus.
Temple worship is the subject of the book of Hebrews. The author argues that Temple worship and animal sacrifices are no longer needed. The identity of the author of Hebrews, by the way, is not known.
Second: scholars note that the Pastoral epistles (1&2 Timothy, Titus) reflect a later age. Many do not believe Paul wrote them. The style and outlook are different in many ways from the known Pauline epistles. Paul, for example, expected some in his generation would live until Christ returned. The author of the Pastoral epistles, as has been shown, hedges a bit. Maybe, he suggests, young Timothy will live to see it.
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Archer
All species are transitional.