Is the theological doctrine of eschatology something that is still relevant in the culture today? Do the people in today’s society (even those in the church) even know what the term eschatology means? The purpose of this paper is to make a case for the fact that the study of eschatology is something especially important for the current time of the world.
So what is eschatology? When many people think of that word, they think of the end times, Armageddon, and every low-budget horror film they’ve seen featuring the anti-Christ. Is that really what eschatology is? Dr. Glenn Kreider of Dallas Seminary defines eschatology as the study of the culmination of God’s plan for His creation. He goes on to say that it is also the study of the completion of God’s work of redemption/recreation. So how is eschatology important for the culture today? Continue Reading…
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Is the theological doctrine of eschatology something that is still relevant in the culture today? Do the people in today’s society (even those in the church) even know what the term eschatology means? The purpose of this paper is to make a case for the fact that the study of eschatology is something especially important for the current time of the world.
So what is eschatology? When many people think of that word, they think of the end times, Armageddon, and every low-budget horror film they’ve seen featuring the anti-Christ. Is that really what eschatology is? Dr. Glenn Kreider of Dallas Seminary defines eschatology as the study of the culmination of God’s plan for His creation. He goes on to say that it is also the study of the completion of God’s work of redemption/recreation. So how is eschatology important for the culture today?
People Love Drama
Looking at the culture of today, people are obsessed with drama. Everything from TV to movies to books to magazines are filled with it. People are drawn to elements of chaos and fear in entertainment in news. Good news is not a great seller in today’s culture. Bad news and widespread fear are the items that sell the hottest. Look at the examples of Y2K and Harold Camping. Fear and drama pique people’s interests.
Movies like 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and I Am Legend all deal with elements of the “end of days.” The very thought of the world coming to an end gets people nervous and interested. The issue with the Mayan calendar ending in December of 2012 is at the forefront of people’s minds when thinking about the end of the world.
Therefore, a biblical study of how the world is going to end is a huge necessity today. There is much false information and “scare tactics” out there to either get money from naive people or to gather more followers. Proper, biblical eschatology is needed desperately to help people see the correct way to view the “end of days.”
As a pastor ministering to this generation, it will be my goal to give them a biblical worldview for the end times. Thankfully, it is not difficult to get people interested in this topic, but the real challenge will come in helping them understand the proper and biblical way to view Revelation, Armageddon, and the return of Christ.
Eschatology Brings Urgency
When one looks towards the return of Christ in a proper way, it naturally brings a sense of urgency to accomplish their mission in the world. Jesus clearly states in Matthew 24
that it is impossible to know the day or the hour in which He will return. In the passage of Matthew 24:42-51, Jesus commands His disciples to be ready at all times for His coming. He warned them to not be caught unaware of His coming.
We cannot know the day or hour of Jesus’ return, but we are commanded to live our lives as if He is coming any second. Later on in Matthew 28, Jesus gave His disciples what we know as the Great Commission. Jesus gave them the responsibility to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is something the church today should be continually doing. Time is limited for us to preach the Good News of God’s grace and salvation to the world.
Jesus also commanded His followers to be salt and light. He desires for His church to be the hope on earth to a lost and dying world. The church needs motivation to keep striving towards that goal and to keep fighting the good fight of faith on this planet. Eschatology is a way to keep a sense of urgency about our mission in the world. It is a constant reminder of the limited amount of time we have to preach the message of Jesus to as many people as possible.
If the church truly believes that there is an eternal state where people will consciously live, it is a great motivator. One would have to be heartless to wish an eternity of conscious torment in the lake of fire on someone. God desires all to come to repentance and salvation. The church should have the same attitude about everyone that is placed in its path. The church carries the message of salvation and knowing proper eschatology motivates them to share the gospel. Think of the difference in attitude between someone who thinks the soul “sleeps” after death compared to someone who believes in a conscious eternal state. The difference in viewpoints can determine someone’s eternal destiny.
Eschatology Motivates Holiness
In 2 Peter 3:10-14, the Apostle Peter states that if heaven and earth will one day pass away at the end of all things, then we should be living holy lives. He states that as we look forward to the new heavens and the new earth, that we should make every effort to be found holy at the Lord Jesus’ returning to the earth.
Holiness is a concept that is foreign to many people in this culture. Eschatology is a way to motivate and exhort God’s people to live set apart and devoted lives to their Savior. For the church to accomplish its mission as stated earlier, then the church needs to live out what it preaches. No one will listen to a hypocrite. Therefore, holiness is necessary if the church is going to impact the world for Christ before His return to the earth. Knowing that Jesus is soon returning should motivate us to live our lives with a standard of holiness that would please God.
Eschatology Brings Hope
Redemption. Recreation. Resurrection. These are all words that invoke a sense of longing for something better. This world is broken and fallen in its current state. There is death, wars, famine, rape, orphans, and tragedy all around us. Nothing is as God intended it to be. Eschatology looks at the story of God and His process of creation and recreation that has been ongoing since the beginning. Adam and Eve sinned and completely destroyed the system God had setup for humanity. The paradise that was in Eden was broken and the curse of sin fell on man and creation alike.
People need hope. Humanity is wired with the necessity of having hope in their lives. They need to believe that maybe one day things will get better. That maybe things will not always be as they are. Studying eschatology brings that hope into people’s lives. If a person looks at the plan of God, they will see that He is going to one day make everything right. He will restore all things. It is more than just a story of escaping this world and leaving for heaven. God is actually going to remake this fallen and broken world and make it new again. The creation that has been groaning since the beginning
will finally receive its rest and renewal. One day, disease, famine, war, and natural disasters will cease. They will no longer haunt the lives of people that have trusted Christ.
More than just the renewal of the earth will happen at the end of this age. God is going to resurrect every saint from all of the ages and translate them to a glorified state like that of the Lord Jesus. How amazing is that thought? Our sick, weak, and dying bodies will also be renewed one day! Now that gives me hope. People who are in a state of suffering and distress can look forward to their bodily resurrection and know that God will make things right.
Hope is a powerful force. It is even stronger than fear, the tool that is used by many when talking about eschatology. Hope can drive people to give their lives for a cause. Proper teaching of eschatology accesses that drive in people because everyone desires hope for a better tomorrow.
The church has the message of hope for the world. The gospel and the message of salvation by grace is what this world needs. But the message goes even beyond salvation. It tells of a future where Jesus will one day physically return to the earth to bring creation under His rule. The enemies of God will be defeated and His rule will be forever. No more crying, no more pain. Those things will be of the past, and no longer a part of life. For ministry, people need to be constantly reminded of the hope that is coming. It is a great source of encouragement, edification, and comfort for the church.
Proper Education of Eschatology is Needed
This relates to the previous point in the paper about how people are heavily interested in the “end of days.” Most people (including believers) live in ignorance about how things will be at the end of this age.
All of the items mentioned above in this paper are based on the idea of proper eschatological education. One cannot give people a proper worldview of eschatology without educating them. One cannot communicate the mission of the church without proper education. One cannot show the hope that is found in the message of Jesus to people without properly teaching them the correct perspectives on eschatology.
Most people are intimidated by the book of Revelation and other prophecy or apocalyptic books in scripture. Education can remove that fear and intimidation. As a minister, it is my job to properly educate the people God gives to me on how He is working currently in the world and how He will renew all things.
Many people need a simple timeline of when specific events will take place. For example, is the Rapture before the Tribulation? Is the Millennium after the Rapture or before? These questions can be answered by faithfully studying what the scripture says. In my experience, most people in my church are willing to learn the truth, they just do not have either the skills, confidence, or discipline to do it. Eschatology is crucial in the scope of the ministry of the church. It needs to be properly taught to congregations so they are not intimidated by the sometimes tricky dates, events, etc that are presented in the book of Revelation and other books of scripture.
Conclusion
Eschatology changes the way people view the Bible, their mission in life, and the way things will “end.” It is very relevant for today. Eschatology is not outdated for this culture! They need to know about the hope that is to come one day with the return of our Lord Jesus. The Bible ends with a message of hope: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”
In his work, Surprised by Hope, scholar and author N. T. Wright gives a compelling argument for his view of what the Christian hope really is. He feels that through the years of Christian history the Christian hope has been skewed from what God intended for the church to know from scripture. Wright’s thesis for his book can be simply stated as this: that the Christian’s hope is not heaven. Rather, the Christian’s hope is a physical and bodily resurrection paired with living on the physical new earth. Wright states his thesis by saying: “the ultimate destination is not ‘going to heaven when you die’ but being bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ.”
Wright builds the entire book on this belief, and relates everything he discusses back to this topic.
In the very title of his work, Wright gives the impression that this view is not something that is widely adopted in the present Christian culture. Wright states that many people are shocked when they find out that “there is very little in the Bible about ‘going to heaven’ when you die…’”
Wright spends a great deal of time in the book surveying the confusion about the future hope throughout church history. One of Wright’s fundamental beliefs is that the kingdom of God in scripture is not speaking about “our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’”
This is not the common held belief in many churches, so Wright is attempting to correct this view.
Wright spends the rest of his book proving that his thesis is the correct one to hold. He compares and contrasts the typical ancient world views of death and the afterlife with that of Christianity. Resurrection of the dead is a belief that is unique to Judaism and Christianity. Other religions and civilizations thought resurrection to be impossible.
He walks through the resurrection of Jesus, and what that signifies to future resurrection. He gives much proof for the validity of a bodily resurrection of Christ after His crucifixion.
Looking at the early church Christians, Wright makes a compelling case that they did not view “heaven” as the ultimate destination of the believer. Rather he gives much evidence that the early church looked to bodily resurrection as the future hope.
Wright also walks through the basic eschatological topics in scripture and relates them to the future resurrection and life on the new earth. He discusses the Second Coming, judgement, hell, paradise, the mission of the church, and many other topics.
This is a very deep and thorough work in the subject of eschatology. Wright has much to say about a great many things but relates them back to his simple thesis: hope is found in the future resurrection and life on the new earth surrounded by saints in the presence of the Triune God.
Critique of the Thesis
The topic of the future hope of the believer is such a massive and complex subject to discuss. It is also such a crucial subject because it is the foundation to why Christians continue to believe and spread the gospel of Jesus. It is important for every believer to know what the ultimate destination of the Christian is. I imagine this was a daunting task for N. T. Wright to undertake. The means by which he presents his thesis is twofold. He uses as the foundation the validity of the bodily resurrection of Christ. Secondly, he looks at scripture itself and what it teaches about the future hope for saints.
In terms of the thesis itself, Wright does an excellent job of making clear exactly what he wants the reader to grasp in the book. Hope is about physical resurrection and life on the new earth. Wright states this over and over during Surprised by Hope. To his credit, there is no doubt what he is trying to communicate about hope. He builds a strong case for the thesis by giving examples from scripture, creation, the early church, and life today. He looks at the scope of history and the meta-narrative of scripture and ties it all in to what God will accomplish in the end.
The story of scripture is one of creation, fall, and then recreation. God has set out to brings things back to the way it was meant to be. More than that, He seeks to make it even better. Creation was the act of a loving God. Therefore His creation is something that He wants to care for and something He values. Wright states that redemption “doesn’t mean scrapping whats there and starting again from a clean slate but rather liberating what has come to be enslaved.”
Starting fresh is a reboot of the system, not a redemption. The hope of every believer is that things will one day be made right. Wright highlights very well the beliefs of the early Christians in regards to future hope. To put it simply, Wright says that “the early Christian future hope centered firmly on resurrection.”
There was not talk of “going to heaven when you die.”
One of the most impressive parts of Surprised by Hope is N. T. Wright’s work on the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He spends a great deal of time discussing this in the book. He carefully examines the scriptures and the stories of Jesus’ resurrection as well as historical data.
The care and detail to which Wright went to prove the validity of Christ’s physical resurrection is astonishing. One would be hard-pressed to find a better argument for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Wright battles against the common arguments against the resurrection with great poise, knowledge, and control. He does battle against seven “explanations” detractors of Christianity were making against the resurrection. For example, Wright responds to the claim that Jesus was drugged on the cross and then later revived by saying: “Roman soldiers knew how to kill people, and no disciple would have been fooled by a half-drugged, beat up Jesus into thinking he’d defeated death and inaugurated the kingdom.”
With similar responses, Wright refutes other arguments against the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
The section on proving the resurrection of Jesus is something that I would recommend for any doubter to read. The case is so compelling for the resurrection of Jesus that it is difficult to argue with Wright.
I really only have one complaint against Wright and his work in Surprised by Hope. We differ on several aspects of eschatology. None of them are essential doctrines, but rather doctrines that are based on interpretation of certain passages. This critique is not the place for me to argue my beliefs against what N. T. Wright states in his book. Because Wright is a pre-millennialist, there are many things that separate us in our views of eschatology. Our views of the exact details regarding the end of days as well as the views of prophecy and how to read the book of Revelation greatly differ.
However, I feel that he could have handled differing views from his eschatology in a more respectful. He does not have to agree with my views, or those of other pre-millennialists or post-millennialists. However, it felt like he handled opposing views in a condescending way. For example, as someone who holds to the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, I was offended by Wright’s comment: “such theology is often Gnostic in its tendency toward a private dualistic spirituality and toward a political laissez-faire quietism.”
He also goes on to say that “such theology, with its dreams of Armageddon, has quietly supported the political status quo in a way that Paul would have never done.”
I feel these statements are in a way mocking the respective beliefs of faithful saints who believe the doctrine of a pre-Tribulation rapture. He should not handle opposing beliefs in a way that alienates those who differ from him in his eschatology.
Implications for Ministry Today
Is it possible for a deeply theological work like Surprised by Hope to somehow be useful and relevant in today’s culture of church and ministry? I can say with full confidence that this is a book every pastor or lay leader working in ministry should use. The concept, though it may seem unimportant to some, is deeply necessary for a proper understanding of how one should live the Christian life.
The idea that heaven is the final destination for believers in Jesus is wide spread among churches today. I know in my own tradition of Southern Baptist that this is a common-held belief of many people. They need to know exactly what they are hoping for in Christ.
Now to clarify, I feel it is necessary to explain why this view has taken hold. When we lose loved ones who have put their faith in Christ, it gives us great hope to know that they are in the presence of Jesus. For me personally, I lost my grandfather to kidney cancer nearly five years ago. Knowing that he is now with Jesus and all of the saints throughout the ages gives me great comfort. So because some people view the future hope from the perspective of seeing loved ones again, it can be easy to look forward to going to where they are. So in reading this book, I feel it has prepared me to help other people see that our hope is beyond heaven. This is not to say that heaven is irrelevant. That is where Jesus is now along with all of the saints. Heaven is real and therefore it is necessary to talk about it. However, it is not the ultimate place that Jesus will be for eternity.
I wonder how much of the viewpoint of heaven being the future hope comes just from personal ignorance? Many people just may not take the time to study the story of scripture for themselves and then just let ideas from the culture build how they view hope. I feel many people would adopt the view of hope being in the future resurrection and life on the new earth if they just simply heard the information.
The earth is humanity’s home. That is what God intended in the beginning, and He is going to bring all back to what He meant for it to be. In ministry, it is my job to preach the gospel of Jesus. It is also my job to show people the correct and biblical view of hope. Wright has given me a fabulous resource with which to do this.
As Wright notes in the book, the idea of future resurrection brings great implications to the mission of the church in the world today. The church should be working to further the kingdom of God here on earth because that is where God is going to make His dwelling. The Triune God will make His home with humanity on the earth that He will have renewed along with the bodies of all who received salvation from God by grace through faith alone. Irish worship band, Rend Collective Experiment, released a song this year that clearly speaks the message of the mission of the church. The following are a couple stanzas from “Build Your Kingdom Here”:
Unleash Your kingdom’s power
Reaching the near and far
No force of hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts
You made us for much more than this
Awake the kingdom seed in us
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ
We are Your church
We are the hope
On earth
(Chorus)
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here
We pray
This song captures the role of the church in spreading the future hope of all who trust in Jesus. The church is the beacon of hope. The message is powerful and is desperately needed in the world today.
Hope. That word only invokes a feeling of anticipation. Hope is so vital to the fabric of the human soul. Without hope, there is no drive to keep existing. Without hope, the prospect of the future is grim. Without hope, there is nothing after this life. Without hope, all of the suffering and struggles endured in life have no meaning or purpose. But hope changes everything. It gives purpose to one’s life, it allows people to think about the concept of tomorrow, and it gives those who are suffering an anchor to hold on to during the storm.
As the church, Jesus commanded us to be the salt and light of the earth. The gospel of Jesus brings hope to the hopeless. That hope is more than just “fire insurance” or a mansion in heaven win one dies. It is a hope of a glorious eternity! One filled with people who have been resurrected and glorified to match our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be an eternity on the renewed earth. The same earth that was created thousands of years ago, but was marred by sin, will be glorified and made right by the power of God.
Surprised by Hope has done much to awaken in me the need to educate fellow believers on what exactly our future hope is. If they can grasp all that God has in store for eternity, that is something they can grasp hold of and it can change their whole outlook on life.
While the idea of heaven brings great hope to me that I will one day be with Jesus as well as my grandfather, I find greater hope in the thought of resurrection. Knowing that my grandfather will one day be reunited with his body is an amazing thought. The human body he had that was slowly eaten away by cancer will in an instant be remade into a glorified body. Now that is hope! That God will take what was once a sick, decaying shell and remake it into a body that will last forever. That is hope I can cling to when life seems to close in and weigh me down. This is the kind of hope that real, physical, and tangible. This is more than just sitting in heaven on a cloud for eternity. This hope is filled with redemption, beauty, justice, love, and purpose. This is the kind of hope that makes life worth living.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wright, N. T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. New York: HarperOne, 2008.
Today, I finished reading “Surprised by Hope” by N.T. wright. It was a very interesting read. I will be writing a review for my theology class in the coming weeks, so I will hopefully post that soon. The whole topic of the book is what the “hope” of the Christian really is. Is our hope going to heaven when we die? Or is it something more? That’s what Wright discusses within the book.
All of that to say, I don’t agree with everything Wright says, but his treatment of our future bodily resurrection, and life on the new earth is one of the best I’ve read.
