In the first chapter of the book of Acts, we are told that the disciples, when they were in the presence of the risen Lord, inquired about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel: “And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring […]
In this article I wish to introduce a new series of doctrinal studies devoted to the theme, “The Bible and the Future.” Though I am unable to predict how many articles this series will require, the following article is intended to serve as a kind of broad introduction to the subject of the future, approached from […]
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin declares that the Old Testament was given to the people of Israel as a means to “foster hope of salvation in Christ until His coming.” All of the Lord’s redemptive dealings with His covenant people, prior to the birth of Christ in the “fullness of time,” […]
One of the almost irresistible impulses among students of the Bible’s teaching about the future is the impulse to date the return of Christ. As we noted in our previous article, this is one of the questions about the return of Christ that should be addressed at the outset of any consideration of general eschatology […]
At the close of a previous article outlining the main aspects of the Old Testament’s view of the future, I noted that the Old Testament believer, peering over the immediate present toward the horizon of the future, was anticipating a new and better day. The whole of Old Testament revelation pointed in the direction of […]
In traditional treatments of the Bible’s teaching regarding the future, it has been customary to distinguish between “individual eschatology” and “general eschatology.” The former addresses the kind of topics with which we have been preoccupied in several preceding articles, such as physical death, immortality and the state of man between death and the resurrection of […]
The event of Christ’s return, variously termed in the Bible the “revelation,” the “appearing,” or the “coming” of Christ, is, as we saw in a previous article, the great centerpiece of biblical expectation for the future. All of the lines of history converge in the event of Christ’s triumphant return from heaven to conclude His […]
The title of a recent book, The Millennial Maze: Sorting Out Evangelical Options,1 nicely captures the difficulty of sorting out the differing views found among Christian believers on the subject of the millennium. The person who attempts to make sense of these views faces a challenge not unlike that of traversing a bewildering and confusing […]
In my previous article, introducing the subject of the millennium and various millennial views, I noted that one of the major types of views is often termed “premillennialism.” In this type of view, it is argued that Christ’s return will occur “pre-” or before the establishment of the millennium. This view has, furthermore, two main […]
Few Christians in North America, at least among those who follow developments in the churches, are unfamiliar with the writings of Hal Lindsey (The Late Great Planet Earth), the Scofield Reference Bible or an institution like Moody Bible Institute. More of them are probably familiar with the subject of the “rapture,” as it is known in short-hand, than any group of Christians […]