ESCHATOLOGY WEEK 1 THEOLOGY OF HOPE INTRODUCTION AND DISPENSATIONALISM/HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALISM 11/4/2018

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1 ESCHATOLOGY WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION AND DISPENSATIONALISM/HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALISM Rev.02 THEOLOGY OF HOPE I will argue that the primary framework that Scripture should read through is redemptive. Not eschatology. However, eschatology is important because it shows where our hope lies. This hope we have shapes us into Christ s image. Or could possibly have bad outcomes. 1

2 FRAMEWORK Eschatology is one of the disciplines in theology where we cannot affirm certain aspects with certainty. We will discuss in order dispensationalism/historical premillennialism, post millennialism, and amillennialism. All four views deal with a certain interpretation of Revelation 20. 2

3 WHAT IS SET IN STONE IN ESCHATOLOGY I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Apostles Creed. Jesus will come back bodily to judge the living and the dead (Mark 13) Jesus will reign as king of all the earth (Rev 20-22). PREFACE TO DISPENSATIONALISM I went to the flagship school for dispensationalism. I was in the world of dispensationalism but not of it. However, I know plenty of dispensationalists who love the Lord and have served Him throughout the world. Like any movement, dispensationalism has changed over it s history. 3

4 DISPENSATIONALIST ESCHATOLOGY JOHN NELSON DARBY Pre-millennial dispensationalism was developed in the 1820 s and 1830 s by a small group of conservative evangelicals associated with the Plymouth Brethren. John Nelson Darby become associated with them. More or less converted from the mainline to the evangelical cause. He originally was a lawyer. Darby s eschatology was as much political as it was theological. His views on God s role in salvation were Calvinistic. 4

5 GENEROUS EVANGELICALISM There is no denying that dispensationalist and reformed Christians disagree on many issues. However, dispensationalists preach the gospel and love Jesus. Orthodox Reformed Christians have more in common with dispensationalists than they do mainline protestants. They would affirm the essentials of the EPC. LEFT BEHIND AND EVANGELICALISM Nobody can deny the impact of the Left Behind series. It has sold millions of copies! At it s best, Left Behind attempts to share the gospel with those who do not know Christ. It not only has it been imprinted on the imagination of Christians, most secular people I speak with assume this is the standard position. 5

6 THE RAPTURE 1 Thess 4:16-17: 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. THE RAPTURE CONTINUED In the air refers to the space between heaven and earth. Not literally in the air. It s apocalyptic. The emphasis in these two verses is being with the Lord forever. in the clouds is a reference to Daniel 7:13. Son of Man was Jesus favorite title for Himself. Acts 1:9 uses similar language in reference to Jesus ascension. 6

7 DISPENSATIONALISM AND POLITICS Dispensationalism has had as much to do with politics as it has eschatology (we will see post millennialism does too). Crawford Gribben states for example Left Behind is as much about politics as exegesis. Premillennial theology has found it s footing primarily in conservative churches. Moreover, in times of crisis or persecution this view has gained traction. Ronald Reagan and his cabinet were fascinated and interested in millenarian thought patterns. MAJOR WEAKNESSES OF DISPENSATIONALISM Reads current political dramas into the text which becomes endless speculation. It s view is found nowhere in the early church, middle ages, nor during the Reformation. This should not be taken lightly. It is overly literalistic in it s interpretation of the New and Old Testament. It does not play the rules of genre and historical backgrounds. The entire system is built on eschatology whereas the Bible s primary focus is on redemption. Primarily a lay movement. It has not gained attention in the academy. 7

8 PROGRESSIVE DISPENSATIONALISM The major difference is that the radical difference between church and Israel was abandoned. My personal theory (remember I had most of these professors) is that many Dallas Theological Seminary professors went over to England to complete their PhD and learned that classical dispensational was not what Scripture taught. Therefore, they ended up with a version of historical premillennialism. HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALISM Many of the early church fathers held to a literal 1,000 year interpretation of Revelation 20. Irenaeus and Justin Martyr are examples. This view has increased in popularity whenever Christians are undergoing persecution. This view should be taken more serious than dispensationalism. 8

9 WEEK TWO: POST-MILLENNIALISM POST-MILLENNIALISM What does post-millennialism mean? The gospel will be effectively preach such that the entire world will become ever increasingly Christian. The early form emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit. Very popular with the American Puritans. Has secularized forms too. For example, liberal democracy will continue to increase and increasing order will be brought to the globe. Whenever people evoke the term individual rights or progress they are evoking (more or less) a secularized post-millennial thought. In it s American form, America becomes the chosen nation to bring about the good news of Jesus Christ to all. In it s secular form, we bring liberal democracy to the world. 9

10 POST-MILLENNIALISM AND TIME One popular way for progressive Christians to preach in this movement is hijacking Jesus words on earth as it is in heaven. Time is associated with the word progressive. In my opinion, has more in common with German philosophy than Scripture. Kant SUPPORTIVE TEXTS Psalm 2 Messianic Rule : God s through the Messiah over all people. Matthew 28:18-20 Great Commission : The Great Commission implies gradual growth. Matthew 13:13-32 Mustard Seed : Jesus famous parable also speaks about gradual growth of the kingdom of God. In the secular forms, liberal democracy gains more and more traction throughout the world. 10

11 ARGUMENTS AGAINST POSTMILLENNIALISM Hope becomes this worldly. This worldly primary takes the form of moralism (popular in the last generation). People in this camp are very much into capturing and transforming culture. The results? The progressive mainline bought into this view. They have been progressively losing members. AMILLENNIALISM The prefix in the word amillennialism can be interpreted as without millennium. However, that is not the case. The term millennial becomes spiritualized so to speak. Standard view: Augustine Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, and the Roman Catholic Church (although some are post millennialists). Believes the genre of Revelation is timeless truths in it s orientation (Koester). 11

12 RADICAL AUGUSTINIANISM God (as Trinity) is the beginning and the end. (Rev 1:8; 22:13). Post- Millennialism and Pre-Millennialism are in many ways man-centered. Augustine s book City of God serves as a wonderful philosophical insight into the nature of people of God in a fallen world. The church (people of God) are always a people on a pilgrimage to the eternal city of God. The churches hope is rooted in God s action. CALVIN AND AMILLENNIALISM Believers live as citizens of two different kingdoms each with its own sources, ends, and means (Michael Horton, Systematic Theology, 926). Believers patiently await for the return of the king. There is a profound tension in the believer s heart between this world and the world to come. Calvin sometimes did not practice this theology well! 12

13 AMILLENNIALISM AND TIME Time/culture is not getting progressively worse (Premillennialism) or better (Postmillennialism). It has always been bad and is more cyclical. We live in the last days. We do not need to endlessly speculate about the times we live in and if things are better or worse. Endless speculation can result in the church losing her mission. We should be radically God centered when we read Scripture. MARK 13 Read together the entire passage. Be prepared not to know but then not know when Christ will come back. We are called to preach the gospel. There is urgency in the text that is often forgotten! The text is radically focused on God s action. Not ours! 13

14 REVELATION Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. 4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. The Defeat of Satan 7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven [b] and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Judgment Before the Great White Throne 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. REVELATION 20 CONTINUED Judgement is positive and not negative! Judgement is inflicted on those who deify their leaders. Transformation of the world is in the new creation by God (Isa 65:17; Rev 21:1). 14

15 REVELATION 20 CONTINUED Koester The specter of judgement is designed to evoke readers repentance, not resignation. Those who show unrelenting opposition to God are warned of the prospect of unrelenting judgement pg. 793 (Revelation: Yale Anchor Bible). With reference to 1,000 years, the whole book (Revelation) encourages the reader to expect a predominance of symbolic over literal language. G.K. Beale. The rich symbolism makes Revelation along with Daniel the hardest books in the bible to master. 15

16 PASTOR DOUG S PERSPECTIVE In the long run, I am very much an amillennialist because of it s relation to the doctrine of God. Who is God exactly? We always read foggy texts in light of clearer texts. Redemption, redemption, redemption. This is the major focus of the bible! Occam's razor: The view with the least amount of speculation, the most likely! God is the center, not us. We do not usher in the golden age, God does. God is the alpha and the omega. WEEK THREE: SUB TOPICS IN ESCHATOLOGY 16

17 WHAT HAPPENS TO US WHEN WE DIE? We read our preconceived ideas into the biblical text without knowing we do. For example, people imagine heaven as a place with endless recreation (just listen to country music). If we read the biblical text closely, we encounter a very different understanding of what happens to us when we die. God should be the focus of our understanding of what happens whenever we die. The afterlife is a two stage process. We will discuss this today! UNHEALTHY VIEWS Dualism: The belief that for the soul to escape from the body is good. In the early church, this was named Gnosticism. No talk of resurrection until very late in the Old Testament. This world doesn t matter at all, it will pass away. 17

18 WHY RESURRECTION IN THE FIRST PLACE? All theistic faiths affirm the goodness of creation. Whenever Adam sinned (Genesis 3), the cosmos/creation was fractured (Romans 8). This is why we feel a sense of restlessness in our hearts. If God does not raise us from the dead and redeem creation, sin is greater than God! INTERMEDIATE STATE Scripture, surprisingly, speaks very little about the intermediate state. The emphasis is on the resurrection of Jesus and final judgement of the living and the dead. There are three options. They are conscious existence, soul sleep, and purgatory. We will investigate these three views! 18

19 PURGATORY The doctrine of purgatory is official Roman Catholic teaching. However, Pope Benedict questioned it! Souls upon death go to purgatory to be purged from sin. This view comes from Origin, Plato, and the Greco Roman world. It has no basis in Scripture! This view demolishes the notion as Christ as complete Mediator between God and man. SOUL SLEEP Upon death, the soul enjoys neither heaven nor hell during the intermediate state, but unconsciousness until the final judgement. Michael Horton Two respectable theologians in the last generation held to this view. They are G. C. Berkouwer and Wolfhart Pannenberg. Both want to affirm the goodness of creation and the body of humans. This view, in my opinion, is the most textualist version of the intermediate state. My understanding is that you die and the next conscious moment you have is the final judgement. Calvin wrote against this view. The document s name was Pschopannychia. 19

20 CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE Believers live in a state of already but not yet in heaven (James 2 Corinthians 5:8; Rev 6:9-10). Believers are not complete without their body to worship God fully. There is a longing for the body and glorified state (Romans 8). Traditional view of the church and Protestant Reformers (WCF). THE RENEWAL OF CREATION The renewal of creation follows the final judgement. According to Scripture the present world will neither continue forever nor will it be destroyed and replaced by a totally new one. Instead it will be cleansed of sin and recreated, reborn, renewed, made whole. While the kingdom of God is first planted spiritually in human hearts, the future blessedness is not to be spiritualized. Biblical hope, rooted in incarnation and resurrection, is creational, this worldly, visible, physical, bodily hope. Herman Bavinck 20

21 ROMANS 8: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. ROMANS 8:18-25 CONTINUED With the majority of modern commentators, then, I think that creation here denotes the subhuman creation. Like the Psalmist and prophets who picture hills, meadows, and valleys shouting and singing together for joy (Psalm 65:12-13) and the earth mourning (Isaiah 24:4; Jeremiah 4:28; 12:4), Paul personifies the subhuman creation in order to convey to his readers a sense of the cosmic significance of both humanity s fall into sin and the believer s restoration to glory. Douglas Moo, Epistle to the Romans,

22 ROMANS 8:18-25 CONTINUED Adam s sin was cosmic in it s scope. Sin doesn t only effect human beings. It effects all of creation. This goes back to the doctrine of God. God has to re-create creation because He is greater than sin. Sin does not lock Him into a box! Perhaps higher forms of animals will be raised to life (speculative)! NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH (REV 21:1-8) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. 6 And he said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. 22

23 REV 21:1-8 CONTINUED The sea is no more chaos and destruction are gone. The sea is routinely referred to as evil space (Leviathan) in the Old Testament. What was divorced from each other (heaven and earth). Is remarried. New creation is superior than what was lost in the garden. Old Testament texts particular the prophets are in the background. This demonstrates the redemptive vision of the Bible. PILGRIMS PASSING ON OUR WAY The age we live in and the age to come have some similarities and dissimilarities. 1,2,3 John has taught RPC about the heavenly mindedness of the Christian faith. This should impact our daily lives. Christians should be heavenly oriented. We should long for the return of our king. The New Heavens and New Earth are a place for people who love God. Not a place for people to want to get out of hell. There is no mention of retirement, golf, fishing, shopping, or any other social imaginary we place onto heaven. 23