THE IMPENDING PROGRAM OF ESCHATOLOGY

The Impending Program of Eschatology

 

 

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.

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).

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).

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 Book 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.