What Are the "Last Days"?

What does the Bible mean by its many expressions for the last days? At first glance there are several terms that seem interchangeable, but in reality they may not always be so used.Some terms for the "end times" include "the latter days," "the last times," "the latter years," or Daniel the prophet's favorite term, "the time of the end."
Dr. Thomas Ice makes this interesting analogy:
Sometimes Christians read in the Bible about the "last days," "end times," etc., and tend to think that all of these phrases all of the time refer to the same thing. This is not the case. Just as in our own lives, there are many endings. There is the end of the work-day, the end of the day according to the clock, the end of the week, the end of the month, and the end of the year. Just because the word "end" is used does not mean that it always refers to the same time. The word "end" is restricted and precisely defined when it is modified by "day," "week," "year," etc. So it is in the Bible, that "end times" may refer to the end of the current church age or it may refer to other times.
In most cases the terms for the "last days" or "end times" refer to a period that may encompass no more that seven to ten or so years. We cannot pinpoint it more accurately because we are not certain how much time will elapse between the Rapture, which ends the church age, and the beginning of the Tribulation, begun by the signing of the covenant between the Antichrist and Israel (Daniel 9:27).
In short, the "last days," "end times," the "latter days," or even "afterward," usually refer to trends during the church age, most of them point to the seven to ten or more years, a period that pinpoints the end of "the times of the Gentiles" to the end of the "Great Tribulation".
http://www.leftbehind.com/channelendtimes.asp?pageid=519&channelID=71
As in the days of Noah....