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 […]
It has been customary in the history of theology to divide the Bible’s teaching about the future into two parts, the first dealing with the future of the individual believer and the second dealing with the future of the creation. These two divisions are sometimes termed “individual eschatology” and “general eschatology.”1 The first addresses such […]
The Bible’s teaching about the “intermediate state,” the condition of believers between death and the resurrection of the body at Christ’s return, has been subject historically to differing viewpoints. Though there has been a general unanimity in the historic Christian church that believers enjoy a provisional and intensified communion with Christ upon death, a communion […]
In two previous articles on the subject of the intermediate state, I have attempted to clear a pathway for presenting the positive biblical teaching on what becomes of believers in the state intermediate between death and the resurrection of the body on the last day. In the first article, the biblical teachings regarding physical death […]
Students of the Protestant Reformation are acquainted with the story of Johann Tetzel, the German monk and seller of indulgences who provoked Luther’s ire and decision to affix his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. They may even recall the infamous slogan by which Tetzel advertised his indulgences: “The […]
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 […]