(1) Importance of eschatology.
I view eschatology as one of the most important subjects in the Bible, on equal footing with Faith and prayer and fellowship with God, salvation, healing, evangelism, divine protection, meeting our daily needs, etc. if we do not understand eschalogy, we cannot pray properly for the world and time in which we live. Proper prayer is biblical. It is based on the word of God. It is an invitation to God to act in accordance with His Word, an invocation of His faithfulness. Eschatology is the future history of the world. A believer who understands eschatology needs not be afraid of the future. Eschatology is a catalyst for holy living( Marvin J. Rosenthal). Eschatology tells us how the world would end(Matt.24:3).
There are many things which can render one very fearful in our world nowadays: freak accidents, natural desasters like tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes; nuclear blow ups, wars, famines, terror attacks, targeted killings, assassinations, kidnapping, etc. There are lots of demented people out there, loose in our societies, ready to commit crimes and acts of terror who are not in anyway linked up to criminal gangs or criminal and terror organizations. A biblical understanding of the end times tells us the major historical events of the future. Therefore eschatology is so vital to our spiritual equilibrium who live at the edge of history.
Virologists tell us some virulent virus enzootic in animals may jump off and wreak havoc on humanity and lead to viromaggedon. Scientists in their quest for knowledge may one day revive some virulent organism asleep in the permafrost which may wipe out humanity. Stephen Hawkings tells us AIs may wipe out humanity. He is not the first to say that: Raymond Kurzweil talks about singularity and the death of human civilization. Earlier and late in the 19th Century, the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger warned technology would destroy humanity. In the midst of all these predictions by eminent scholars and innovators and philosophers, one may develop a hang up on “Sudden Disaster Syndrome” and be filled with anxiety and fear. For us believers in Messiah, Jesus, it need not be so. Our Daddy has revealed to us in His Word how the World would end. We must avail ourselves of this knowledge. If we do not, we shall be like the people of the world, fearful and on edge all the time. My submission is that a proper biblical understanding of eschatology would help us to remain balanced in a gloomy World bedeviled with sin and evil. When America invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, some brethren came to me, fearful that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological nuclear weapons, and the world may end in a nuclear holocaust. I told then plainly, in a bald language that that was not to be. They asked how I knew. My answer was very simple: that was not how God said in His Word, The Bible that the world was going to end. At that time I was not sure whether Saddam Hussein had any or all of those weapons of mass destruction. Even if he had them, it did not matter much, he could not have possibly wiped out the whole of humanity that way and in effect end human civilization.
(2) Definition of eschatology.
Eschatology is a compound word derived from two Greek words “eschaton” and “logi.” “Eschaton” means the last things and “logi” the study of. Therefore, eschatology is the study of the last things. It is the study of the last things from biblical perspectives. All religions have their views of the last things. We shall not concern ourselves with views which stem from other religions. We shall limit ourselves to the biblical view of eschatology which is so vital to our well being in these last days.
(3) The terminology of Eschatology.
Jewish theology has a dichotomous view of eschatology: “olam haze”(the present age) and “olam haba”(the age to come). This dichotomous view is also biblical.
In between the two ages is what is called the “end of the ages”(Greek:sunteleia). In this period, there is an intensification of activities on Earth in order to bring this age to a comsummate end, a conclusion and usher in another, the age to come (aioneis). The life of the age to come( zoe aioneis) is what is commonly translated as eternal life in the KJV: God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believers in Him shall not perish but have everlasting(eternal) life( John.3:16). Born again believers(more biblically accurate, born from above, Greek: genetenai annotein), though living in this age, possess the life of the age to come. Jesus told the Jewish religious leader: “you are of this age, I am not of this age; you are from beneath, I am from above.”(John.8:23). Without this life of the age to come, it is practically impossible to live the christian life.
The ends of the ages which is also called simply the end, the lord’s day etc, occurs within the 70th Seven of Daniel’s 70 Seven prophecy. This 7-year period is divided into two equal halves by the abomination of desolation in the midst of it. Each half consists of 3 and one-half years of 1, 260 days or 42 weeks. Most of the terminology of eschatology derives from events in the 70th Seven of Daniel.
Some scholars of bible prophecy choose to refer to the last 7-years of the present age as the Tribulation period, and the second half of it as The Great Tribulation. This may be somewhat confusing and build an apriori case for pretribulation rapture view. Not all of the second half of the 70th Seven is covered by the Great Tribulation: in fact the Tribulation the Great is terminated by the 6th seal judgement, the cosmic disturbances. I prefer to call it simply the 70th Seven
There is a dichotomy and duality in eschalogical terminology and the cosmic struggle: Christ and the antiChrist, day and night, above and beneath, the present age and the age to come, sin and evil, light and darkness, the saints(the holy ones) and the wicked earth-dwellers, God and Satan, demons and angels, temporality and eternity, the present and the future, life and the afterlife.
(4) God’s view of time.
In the beginning God created and the Heavens and the earth(Gen. 1:1). God finished His work in six days. He rested the seventh day and hollowed it(Gen.2:2). From here arises the concept of the Shabbat. The Shabbat is the day of rest. We know that God’s ways are not our ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts(Is.55:8,9). And again, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day(2 Pet.3:8). Daddy created the present age to last for a seven. Each of those seven days shall be a thousand years. At the end of the 6th day or better still 6th millennium would be a Shabbat. The Shabbat shall last for a thousand years. Here lies the concept of the millennium. Millennium comes from the Latin wirds, “Mille” and “annum” which mean 1000 years. Therefore, the premillennialism view of eschatology is biblically accurate. This view teaches that at the end of this age, God Almighty shall takeover the rulership of the Earth and reign for a thousand years.
God is sovereign Lord over His universal kingdom. But gave rulership of the earthly domain of His kingdom to Adam, his representave on the earthly domain of His Universal kingdom. Adam sold out to the devil. It was a legal transaction and therefore binding. Adam had the legal right to transfer rulership of the Earth to Satan, God’s adversary, (but not the moral right), inasmuch as he, Adam had rulership of the Earth from God. Adams lease of the Earth to Satan shall expire and the end of the 6th millennium, the 6th day as it were. At the end of the 6th millennium, the rulership of the Earth shall be returned to God Almighty, the Sovereign Lord of the universe, and He shall reign for one day or better still, a 1000 years.
(5) Eschalogical timeline.
We have dealt in a panoramic view with the 70 Sevens. Beyond the 70th seven is the 30-day Reclamation Period and the 45-day Restoration Period mentioned in Daniel 12:11,12: “And from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninty days. Blessed is he that waits, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty days days.” The 1, 390 days and the 1, 335 days have the same terminus-a-quo. The starting point is the abomination of desolation which occurs precisely in the middle of the 70th Seven when the antiChrist makes his debut in the rebuilt temple on Mount Mariah, Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and demands, worship and allegiance from all mortals, both, Jews and Gentiles. Beyond this is the The Shabbat, the millennium when God Almighty regains physical possession of the earthly realm of His Universal Kingdom.
(6) the Principles of biblical eschatological hermeneutics. To be continued.
Avraham.
Mt Zion Heritage Ministries 