- People are obsessed with what will happen in the future.
- Hollywood has produced many movies on this theme.
- One vision: total annihilation by nuclear or environmental catastrophe.
- Another popular scenario is science gone wrong or emergence of new diseases.
- Or maybe the future holds the destruction of humanity by robots.
- Or maybe humanity is destroyed by alien life forms.
- In other words, people are interested in “eschatology”.
- But today we’re talking about the Biblical perspective of eschatology. Eschatology = the study of “last things”.
- In other words, what happens in the future, particularly the final stages of the world and of individuals. Drawn from the data of God’s Word and what God has revealed about the future on the pages of Scripture.
- This is a series we’re beginning: covering the Rapture, the Tribulation and Antichrist, the Mellenium, and Is Hell for Real?
- Two realms of study: individual eschatology and general eschatology.
- Individual eschatology looks into the last things as applied to the individual: what comes after a person dies.
- General eschatology studies the bigger picture: what happens in the final stages of this earth’s current existence and what comes next. Commonly called “End Times.”
The Return of Jesus Christ
- No one knows when, but Jesus will return to this world to set everything right and to transform his people for eternity.
- “The day of the Lord”
- An OT theme: God shows up to establish his rule, eradicate evil (Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, a day of vengeance on his enemies.), and restore the whole world.
- Note: Joel 2:1 sets context: “Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us.”
- Joel 2:30-32 I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth – blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved….
- This is the background that is fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
- Jesus said many times that he would return
- It will visible (Rev 1:7 Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him – even those who pierced him.). Bodily: not as a spirit. Personal: It will be him as himself.
- The timing of Jesus’ return is a mystery (Matt 25:13 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”)
- We should be “on duty” at all times (Matt 24:42, 44 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming…. You must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”)
- Jesus will come for his people, who will be transformed
- John 14:3 “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
- 1 John 3:2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
- 1 Thess 4:14-17 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord...
