THE PARTICULAR CONTENT OF ESCHATOLOGY

The Particular Content of Eschatology

 

Eschatology is as wide in its coverage as the Bible itself. I means of creation all things experienced commencement. These same things are now it course and must eventually experience con­summation. The Bible does not discuss every detail of the created order in unfolding the doctrines of eschatology, but it is sufficiently detailed and various, that it would be impossible to treat with justice every theme in this treatise. Nine general divisions of eschatology will be developed in sufficient detail. to make this study worthwhile.

Physical death belongs in this discussion because it is essentially individual eschatology. Physical death marks the climax of a man's career in this present state, unless God chooses to introduce an exception as He did in the case of two men. In general "it is appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. 9:27). And "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26).

Physical death introduces men into the intermediate state. While the intermediate state touches individual eschatology, it is nevertheless an area of experience concerning which the Bible has considerable information to impart. According to the Biblical record Christ described the experience of "a certain rich man" and "a certain beggar" who died. The beggar was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man lifted up his eyes in Hades (cf. ASV Luke 16:19-31).

The second coming of Christ constitutes a sizable segment of the doctrine of eschatology. It was Christ himself who comforted His disciples with the promise, "I will come again" (John 14:3). Referring to this eschatological event the writer of Hebrews declares that Christ shall "appear the second time" (Heb. 9:28). Its eschatological character is clearly assumed in the question of the disciples, "Tell us . . . what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world" (Matt. 24:3).

As a part of the concluding events at the end of the age will be the appearance of the Antichrist. This is "the prince that shall come", Satan's masterpiece and counterfeit (Dan. 9:26). This "king of fierce countenance" will appear "in the latter time of their kingdom" (Dan. 8:23), whereby all shall know, according to the apostle John, "that it is the last time" (1 John 2:18).

The resurrection of the dead is clearly marked as an event belonging to eschatological times. It was clearly understood among the Jews that the dead would "rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24). In language that cannot be misunderstood Christ confirmed this hope of the Jews. Four times in the same chapter Christ affirmed that He would "raise him up at the last day" (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54).

The Judgment of the living and dead follows the resurrection for the dead, and is definitely associated with the consummation of the age. Christ declared, "the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). "The end of all things is at hand . . . for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:7, 17). And "Christ . . . shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom" (2 Tim. 4:1).

The period of tribulation, eschatological in significance and distinguished from tribulation in general, is referred to by many expressions. Christ pointed to it as "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21). John described the same period as "great tribulation" (Rev. 7:14), but in a more emphatic way as set forth in the original Greek, namely, "the tribulation, the great one", chronologically, "immediately after the tribulation of those days….Shall appear the sign of the Son of man, in heaven" (Matt. 24:29-30).

The Mediatorial Kingdom of a thousand years is ushered in by "the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" to "sit upon the throne of his glory" (Matt. 24:30; 25:31). "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (Dan. 7:27). This kingdom consumes and succeeds all other kingdoms, "and it shall stand forever" (Dan. 2:44).

The eternal state is then ushered in by Christ's deliver­ance of the mediator al kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24, 28). There is a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth have passed away. With the ushering in of the final order the former things have disappeared (Rev. 21:1, 4). The relationships of this order will never change for the problem of sin and its results have been solved. As a state it will therefore endure "for ever and ever", that is, into the ages of the ages (Rev. 22:5).