The best advice I ever heard on the eschaton was from my co-blogger Larry, who said, "Live your life as though Jesus will come back tomorrow, and plan your life as though you will be long dead before he returns." So that's what I do.
So my eschatology is very unformed, but here's what I believe: Jesus will return and the world will completely change as a result. The events depicted in the Book of Revelation did not take place in 70 AD because however one may interpret its metaphors, it's clear that it describes the complete overturning of the world. This did not take place in 70 AD, so the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.
In the meantime, why should I worry? Jesus will take care of the End Times business. There's not a thing in the world that I can or should do in order to accelerate His coming. Nor should I regard the End Times as something to fear.
8 comments:
thanks for your comments, John. By the way, where did you get that copy of my highschool senior picture?
Witherington has a great survey of eschatological positions as an appendix in his Revelation commentary published by Cambridge.
Today we'd have to slot Wesley according to our categories and might be considered a historic post-mil if I remember correctly. He certainly wouldn't be whatever the Left Behind folks are (dispensational pre-mil?) because that eschatology wasn't invented until about 40-50 years after Wesley died
Matthew, I think you're right. In his Notes on the New Testament, he wrote concerning Revelation 20:2
"These thousand years bring a new, full, and lasting immunity from all outward and inward evils, the authors of which are now removed, and an affluence of all blessings. But such time the church has never yet seen. Therefore it is still to come....These thousand years are followed by the last times of the world, the letting loose of Satan, who gathers together Gog and Magog, and is thrown to the beast and false prophet "in the lake of fire." Now Satan's accusing the saints in heaven, his rage on earth, his imprisonment in the abyss, his seducing Gog and Magog, and being cast into the lake of fire, evidently succeed each other."
Please, please consider that this matters. A dispensational premillenialist is waiting for the Lord to pull him out of the stew. A postmillenialist, however, is looking for every opportunity to lift the world out of its stew. Your view of the end things greatly changes how you do the present things.
(I am neither of those, but I won't start that fight here.)
It matters. It really matters.
i agree with codepoke that it matters. you can also see that the postmillenial position sounds like a more noble position. however, that doesn't make it right or wrong. universalism is a sweet doctrine as well. unfortunately, the pleasantness of it doesn't make it true.
Postmil is only more noble if they fight for the things for which God is fighting. ;-)
I hadn't thought of the Left Behind gibbberish having an actual impact on how Christians live now, but I guess I should have, since a lot of Christians live their lives hyperventilating about the end of the world.
But does being a premil tribble necessitate that the Lord will come back right now?
being a tribble only means doesn't necessitate that the Lord will come back now.
Most Christians believe that he will come back at an unexpected time, in the near or far future. it could be thousands of years or just a few days.
my understanding of the Tribulation is that God's judgment of the world is will be extended over a 7-year period (this Tribulation is described in Revelation), which ends with the return of Christ with his saints. others who believe in the return of Christ in judgment believe that it will all happen instantaneously, and that the book of Revelation describes a tribulation that already took place or that will never really take place.
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