The Impending Program of Eschatology
1. This program is future. The word of
God refers to it as "things which
must . . . come to pass" (Rev.
1:1). There is more to come to pass than has yet come to pass. The ages had
a beginning (Heb. 1:2), but they
will never have an ending. The ages will roll on ceaselessly into the unending
future (Eph. 3:21), and men will
have a relationship to those future things either in a condition of life or in
a condition of death.
2. This
program marks the next major movement in the unfolding of the plan of God. That
is the sense of the words "must
shortly come to pass" (Rev. 1:1).
It would appear that the great judge is poised on the threshold of a new age
just ready to usher in the next major movement in His plan for the world (James 5:9).
3. This
program is near. "At hand"
in the statement, "for the time is
at hand" (Rev. 1:3) quite
literally means near. This was the last word of Christ to His own 2000 years
ago. This means that the crisis is now 2000 years nearer, and so near that
every saint should be standing on tiptoe in anticipation.
This program is imminent. By the use of
this term, it is meant that it is possible at any moment. Three times in one
chapter of the Revelation Christ insists on this fact. "Behold, I come quickly" (Rev. 22:7). "And behold,
I come quickly" (Rev. 22:12).
"He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely, I come quickly" (Rev.
20:20).
5. This program is transitional. It will
mark the passing of the day of man and the ushering in of the Day of the Lord.
From Adam to the present God has allowed men to go their own way with notable
exceptions. But at last this period of His indulgence will be past and there
will be ushered in that period of absolute divine control. By supernatural
change of condition John was transferred into that great day to receive the
revelation recorded in the final look of the Bible (Rev. 1:10). There passed before his eyes a new order, whose
pattern, values, and stability were fashioned over the plan of God in complete
contrast with the day of man. This was in very truth the Day of the Lord so
often referred to in the predictions of the Old and New Testaments.
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