The Doctrine of Eschatology (Last Things) from Jon Nielson "Knowing God's Truth"

Opening Questions

When you think about the end times; what extra biblical books, movies, literature, speakers etc. have influenced you the most?

Why is it important to study biblically the end times?

Are the Biblical scriptures about the end times literal or figurative?

If they are literal do we know them clearly and with detail? Why not?

Why is the study of end times different than the study of God, the study of man, or the study of sin?

Important Questions to Answer as a basis

Do you believe that Christ will return in a physical form to judge the earth?

Do you believe that Christ could return at any time?

Will you and every human who is born or has been born, have a physical resurrection and be judged by Christ?

Do you believe that God will establish a new heaven and a new earth where His redeemed will dwell with Him and sin will be no more?

Do you believe that others who are not redeemed will face the punishment of hell for all eternity?

In that hell do you believe that Satan and all His dominion will also face eternal punishment?

The answers to these questions are really nonnegotiable in the discussion of Last Things because if you deny these statements you are denying truths of the Gospel not opinions of the Gospel but truths.

Apocalyptic Literature

Read Rev. 12:1-6.

What is unfamiliar and confusing in this passage?

In these verses we see things that are hard to imagine or if not so hard to imagine they are at least not clear as we would like. The descriptions of people and what they are wearing or doing is meant to be more of a figurative descriptor than a literal description and therefore it leaves us with ideas and not facts.

What makes this type of literature different from Paul’s letters?

Why did God give us apocalyptic literature?

Read Matthew 24:1-14.

Look at verse 9: What does the word Tribulation mean?

Read Matthew 24:15-26.

This describes more of the tribulation to happen but more specifically in verse 15 we read about the “abomination of desolation”. Who is this?

Read Matthew 24:27-35.

When we read vs 27- 31 we see a picture of a returning Jesus and as we look at this time period in Revelation we call it the Millennium. What is that?

1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

The last description that we need to define is not mentioned in our Matthew passage not because it doesn’t happen but because Jesus doesn’t describe everything that is going to happen. So as we read in the 1 Thessalonians passage what is being described and what do we call that?

Perspectives on Eschatology

It is about these terms that we get a differing of opinions.

There are 3 main views on how to interpret these and it is where we have to determine what our opinion is realizing that it is an opinion based on how we interpret scripture. What we also need to recognize is that these are opinions and therefore others can and do hold contrary views and while their views are different then your own that doesn’t make them not a Christian.

Read Rev. 20:1-6.

The Three main views are these: dispensational premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism

Let’s define these

Dispensational Premillennialism

According to Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology this is define like this: The view that Christ will return to the earth after a period of great tribulation and then establish a millennial kingdom making them pretribulational and premillennial. At this time believers who have died will be raised from the dead and believers who are alive will receive glorified resurrection bodies, and both will reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years. The term dispensational is used because most proponents of this view wish to maintain a clear distinction between the church and Israel, with whom God deals under different arrangements, or “dispensations.”

Let’s define some of this:

Pretribulational - (The rapture of the redeemed prior to the tribulation)

What might be both the positive and the negative results of a pretribulation rapture position in the everyday lives and attitudes of Christians?

Similarly, what might be the positive and negative results of a posttribulation rapture position? Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology

Dispensational premillennialism holds that Jesus will return before the millennium

Beliefs:

This belief holds to a close to a literal reading of the scripture as possible and that the descriptions, characteristics, and years given are meant to be real people and real times. In fact, it holds that all scripture should be held to a literal interpretation.

Dispensational premillennialism holds that Jesus will return before the millennium. When we look at Rev. 7:4 we see a reference to 144,000 sealed servants of the tribes of Israel. Dispensational premillennialism holds that there is a distinction between Israel and the Church. Meaning that these 144,000 will be of the tribes of Israel and are not a reference to the believers of the NT church being a new Israel.

Critiques:

The first critique is that while this holds up Israel and the Jewish people in a high regard there is a distinct break in their understanding of Jesus and therefore the work that God is doing is among the new Israel. The second problem is the literal interpretation can be hard to follow when the language of this type of literature is intentionally written to be figurative.

Why should their be room for disagreement among Christians concerning the timing and meaning of events described in Revelation?

What Strengths do you see and what weaknesses?

Because of these Critiques we have a sub-view.

Historic Premillennialism

Let’s get the definition again from Wayne Grudem: The view that Christ will return to the earth after a period of great tribulation and then establish a millennial kingdom. At this time believers who have died will be raised from the dead and believers who are alive will receive glorified resurrection bodies, and both will reign with Christ on earth.

Beliefs:

It differs from Dispensationalism in a few key ways. First is the literal interpretation is not taken as strongly. There is room for figurative language and the interpretation of this figurative language. This also leaves room for interpretation on the tribulation. Historic premillennials can often be post-tribulational, meaning the rapture of the church occurs after a period of tribulation. Historic premillennialism is non-dispensational, meaning it doesn't see a radical theological distinction between the church and Israel. While Israel is still God’s people the 144,000 do not have to be specifically of the tribes of Israel.

Critiques:

The main critique here is that Historic premillennials don’t go far enough in their approach to interpreting this kind of literature and that they need to view it even more figuratively.

What Strengths do you see and what weaknesses?

Amillennialism

Now we will define amillennialism. Here again is Wayne Grudem: According to this position the passage in Revelation 20:1–10 describes the present church age. This is an age in which Satan’s influence over the nations has been greatly reduced so that the gospel can be preached to the whole world. Those who are said to be reigning with Christ for the thousand years are Christians who have died and are already reigning with Christ in heaven. Christ’s reign in the millennium, according to this view, is not a bodily reign here on earth but rather the heavenly reign he spoke of when he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”

Beliefs:

There is no future millennium because we are living in the millennium which started sometime after Christ’s ascension. This means that there is no specific duration that this “church age” will take place over and only God knows when it will end. It will however end when God sends Christ in His second coming. It is then that the resurrection of the believers and unbelievers will happen along with the judging of them. Everything will happen at that time then.

Critiques:

The main critique is that it can lead to scripture being taken too figuratively and can over-symbolize large portions of not only apocalyptic works but other works of the Old and New Testament.

As you look through Revelation 20 what do you make of these descriptions and can they be taken literally?

What Strengths do you see and what weaknesses?

Postmillennialism

Now we define Postmillennialism; According to this view, the progress of the gospel and the growth of the church will gradually increase, so that a larger and larger proportion of the world’s population will be Christians. As a result, there will be significant Christian influences on society, society will function more and more according to God’s standards, and gradually a “millennial age” of peace and righteousness will occur on the earth. This “millennium” will last for a long period of time (not necessarily a literal one thousand years), and finally, at the end of this period, Christ will return to earth, believers and unbelievers will be raised, the final judgment will occur, and there will be a new heaven and new earth. We will then enter into the eternal state. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology:

Beliefs:

Interestingly this postmillennial view has characteristics of both premillennialism and amillennialism:

Pre - They hold to a fairly literal view of scripture and therefore they believe in a real millennium, a real reign of Christ, a tribulation, and an antichrist.

Amill - They also hold to a view of the millenium already happening immediately following Christ’s ascension.

Critiques:

The biggest critique of this view is to look at the state of the world. Do we see the world getting progressively more Chirstian or less? While it is true that evangelism is up especially in much of the third world and Asia (China) the truth is the influence of Christianity is not.

Read Eph. 2:1-7.

How do these verses point to the way believers are “raised” with Christ to reign with Him?

What Strengths do you see and what weaknesses?

Closing Questions

What are some practical applications of the realities of the last days?

How should the coming return and judgment of Jesus make a difference in your life right now?

How can you be ready and awake as you wait for Jesus’ return?