INTRODUCTION

“What does the future hold?” All of us ask this question atone time or another. For many, the future is full of fear. So plaguing is this question that anyone who speaks with the sound of authority becomes a much-sought-after prophet. And then, there are also the psychics, the palm readers or palmists and the writers of horoscope columns.

God’s Word About the Future

While God has not revealed to us the minute details of history nor of our personal lives, He has told us about the broad sweep of coming developments and He has told us of our end.

There are large portions of Scripture which, while not giving us a newspaper-story-like account of the end of history as we know it (contrary to current popular authors like Salem Kirban and Hal Lindsey), do give us the general principles of history and which do show us how and toward what God is working. Besides, there is much in Scripture which tells us what happens to us when death comes.

We do not need to wear a path to the crystal ball nor do we need to wear out a horoscope book. That will only lead us to the foolish fabrications of men’s minds. In God’s Word we find the answer to the question: “What of the future?”

With broad strokes God paints the panorama of history. He also teaches us that believers can testify with Asaph the Psalmist: “. . . I am continually with thee: Thou hast holden my right hand. Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory (73:23, 24).” Learning what God reveals concerning this time, of His leading, we cry out, “So teach us to number our days, That we may get us a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

Eschatology

The portion of God’s revealed truth which answers the question, “What of the future?” is commonly called eschatology. Don’t let this strange-sounding word scare you. As you look at it you see that it has something in common with a more familiar word: theology. The logy in each comes from a Greek word which you have no doubt heard: logos, meaning word. Thus theology is a word or discourse about God, since the first part of the word comes from a Greek word meaning God. Eschatology, literally, is a word about, or a study of, last things, since the first part of the word comes from a Greek word meaning last.

Now, while literally eschatology should only cover those things and events which lead up to the end of history, it also covers the subject of eternity. According to Geerhardus Vos, eschatology, or the doctrine of the last things, is

the teaching or belief, that the world-movement, religiously considered, tends toward a definite final goal, beyond which a new order of affairs will be established, frequently with further implication, that this new order of affairs will not be subject to any further change, but will partake of the static character of the eternal (The Pauline Eschatology, p. 1).

In more simple terms, William Hendriksen wrote:

It has to do with those things that are going to happen last of all; that is, at the close of man’s earthly life and afterward, and also toward the close of the present dispensation and afterward (The Bible On the Life Hereafter, p. 18).

Our Proper Concern

For some, the doctrine of last things is the only part of Scripture that really is important. They will buy any book that appears on the subject and they will listen carefully to any sermon referring to it. All other points in Scripture are insignificant in comparison. Others find an emphasis on last things to be impractical and unimportant. One professing Christian once told his minister who was preaching on the last things, that he couldn’t wait for the series to be finished. He said that he simply was not interested.

Both reactions are in error. A wrong emphasis, or no emphasis, ought not to be allowed in Christian thought. There is room for eschatology. In fact, it must be part of our faith . One writer stated that eschatology “does shed a clear light upon every single section of doctrine” (Haering, The Christian Faith, p. 381). In fact, it could be said that every part of Biblical truth comes to fulfillment in eschatology. The glory and counsel of God discussed in theology, or the doctrine of God, is fully realized in the teaching on last things. The misery of sin and its chaining death taught in anthropology (or the doctrine of man), is fully crushed and overcome in eschatology. The victory of Christ, probed in Christology (or the doctrine of Christ), is revealed in the doctrine of last things. Soteriology’s (the doctrine of salvation) redemption applied by the Holy Spirit is fully completed in eschatology’s glorification of the believers. The Church, taught about in ecclesiology, is seen exalted in the doctrine of last things.

No Christian who really loves the Word of God will want to miss the instruction or the comfort given in the portions of Scripture which deal with the last things. Old and New Testament alike lay this instruction, hope and comfort before us. Though many of the prophets spoke of it, perhaps Isaiah is most outstanding (chapters 11, 13, 65, 66, etc.). The New Testament crystalizes what the Old Testament reveals and we are told that living in faith we are to look “for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ . . .” (Titus 2:13). Perhaps that man who did not like to hear about the return of Christ was revealing that he was afraid of that return because he was not ready for it.

   

Diverging Views

Just as in every other section of Biblical teaching already discussed there are many differing and often wrong understandings of the Biblical doctrines, they also appear in eschatology. Some of these we will see more specifically as we consider the beautiful truths God has revealed.

There are those who take what God reveals as being all, very literally, fulfilled in the future—a time yet to come. Many who use the Scofield Reference Bible think this way. Some theologians, like Tillich and Niebuhr, see the language of eschatology in the Bible as merely symbolic. The teaching of the second coming is a reminder and a promise that happiness is not realized historically.

Still others, like C. H. Dodd, have taught a realized eschatology. There is no future coming. Christ is here, right now. The Kingdom has come along with everything which was promised. Bernard Ramm outlines a related view—that of Bultmann: L1fe 1s eschatological when it is open to the future, when it is lived in the free grace of God, when it is love in obedience to the concrete word of God (A Handbook of Contemporary Theology, p. 44).”

All of these approaches have taken one aspect of eschatology and magnified it out of proportion so that the doctrine of last things has become a grotesque monster. In doing this the Biblical teaching has been set aside and the resulting instruction and comfort have been missed.

Plan of Study

In the months to follow we will be considering the many aspects of the doctrine of the last things. We will begin with what is usually called individual eschatology. This will include physical death, Immortality and the intermediate state. Only after considering what happens to each one of us when we come to the end of our present existence will we look at what is usually called general eschatology. This portion of our study will be, by far, the largest, since there are so many different aspects of, and so many conflicting views connected with the return of Jesus Christ.

To be sure, this study should be of great value to each believer. God tells us through Peter that we are to live as if the end is now (1 Pet. 4:7). Far from encouraging us to an “other–worldly” style of life, he is emphasizing that we are to live as God’s own children. Hearing the blessings which are ours both now and in the future should encourage us to live as recipients and heirs. Learning what God reveals about last things should stimulate us to faithfulness in the spread of the Gospel and to personal prayer. Besides, as we see the great things which God has for His own, and as we learn to understand them, the ignorance which breeds fear departs, and hope and comfort in the Lord grows.