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    Eschatology
    Eschatology
    Eschatology
    Ebook185 pages5 hours

    Eschatology

    By Edwin Walhout

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    About this ebook

    A scathing critique of traditional eschatology, whether a-millennial or pre-millennial, featuring analyses of most of the usual prooftexts for these doctrines. The Biblical teachings are much simpler and down-to-earth than the complicated scenarios often presented as the gospel’s view of the future.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateApr 23, 2011
    ISBN9781466039193
    Eschatology
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

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      Book preview

      Eschatology - Edwin Walhout

      ESCHATOLOGY

      A Critical Analysis Of Traditional Eschatological Theory

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2011 Edwin Walhout

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author,

      including two volumes on the Bible book of Revelation.

      All Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      PREFACE

      1 OVERVIEW: THE NATIONS IN GOD’S PLAN

      2 THE GREAT COMMISSION

      3 WESTERN CIVILIZATION

      4 TRADITIONAL ESCHATOLOGY

      5 THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS

      6 RESURRECTION

      7 PAROUSIA AND THE DAY OF THE LORD

      8 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN

      9 NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH

      10 JUDGMENT

      11 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

      12 HEAVEN AND HELL

      13 TELEOLOGY

      PREFACE

      I have, during my active professional career as a teacher, minister, and editor, returned to the book of Revelation from time to time, trying patiently to understand it. Each time I would learn some more, gain new insights, but never did I feel I had an adequate grasp of it. Until once more I looked seriously into it after retirement, and then everything seemed to fall into place in an easily understood outline. I committed those insights into print, and in time (2000) Eerdmans Publishing Company made it into a book entitled, Revelation Down To Earth.

      One of the surprising, and at the time mildly disturbing, conclusions I derived from this study of the Apocalypse of John was that there simply is no traditional eschatology in it. We seem to be brought up with the belief that the book of Revelation is all about the future, all about eschatology. What a surprise it was to me that that common assumption is not true. There is no second coming of Jesus, no rapture, no future resurrection of the dead, no millennial reign of Jesus on earth, no final judgment – few if any of the standard components of either premillennial or amillennial theology.

      Furthermore I noted that there is no implication in the Apocalypse of any kind of supernatural disconnect in the process of history, no suggestion that history will come to an end and some other kind of human existence in some other dimension of human life will take place thereafter. You will readily understand what a profound disturbance this caused in my hitherto very orthodox mentality. I had to rethink everything I had ever learned about theology. I had to return again and again to examine the various Bible texts that were relied on for traditional eschatological exegesis. And I had to do that honestly, believingly, as a steadfast and committed Christian following where the Spirit was leading. I had to do that without abandoning or even weakening my faith in Jesus and my confidence in the Bible.

      So, as I write this (2010), that breakthrough took place about fifteen years ago, and I have been at the task ever since. What I present here in this book is to show that the traditional eschatological interpretations of the Bible are simply missing the mark. They are teaching the churches to look for Jesus to do something in the future that he simply is not going to do, for it is the task that he has assigned to us: the overcoming of evil, the discipling of the nations. Sadly, when we look for Jesus to come back to do what he commissioned us to do we are shirking our duty and weakening the gospel’s effect in our world; we are functioning with a false concept of the purpose of Christianity.

      One additional item. Statistical gurus have been pointing out for years that the mainline churches are steadily losing members. One such lecture I heard suggested also that the so-called Evangelical churches are also beginning to lose members. Churches in the third world countries, and those of Pentecostal bent seem to be growing most. Why? we ask.

      One of the reasons for this decline of membership is a theological disconnect. Our theologies have developed an unhealthy, unrealistic, other-worldly outlook and orientation. We preach the gospel to make sure people go to heaven when they die. We have little use for the Cultural Mandate which lies at the very base of our human existence, thus separating our life in this world from our ultimate aim of faith.

      Theology ought to be the dynamic vision of our posture as Christians working diligently at the task the Lord has assigned us. It should be our flag, a vibrant expression of who we are and where we are going. It should be so relevant that we become excited and energized when we examine it. It should be the drumroll that summons us to fight the good fight of faith. Sadly our theology is no longer doing the job, and we ought to be honest enough to admit it. Theology today is shunned, bypassed, overlooked, ignored, honored perhaps as it lies on the shelf, but it is no longer doing its job of guiding and motivating us on the divine pathway.

      What we need is to get our theology back on track, and the place to begin is to see that the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1 is not only still valid but that it has the same goal as the Great Commission. The purpose of the gospel is to enable the human race to be the kind of image-bearers of God that we were intended to be from the beginning of creation. We need to undertake a major overhaul of our theology to bring it back into alignment with the fundamental Hebrew-Christian mindset of the Biblical authors. This book is dedicated to that task, including this scathing critique of our traditional eschatological expectations.

      1

      OVERVIEW: THE NATIONS IN GOD’S PLAN

      Old Testament history is built upon the separation of one nation from all other nations: Israel separated as a covenant people from all others (Gentiles in New Testament terminology). The divine intention was to work intensely with Israel so that in time the progress made with them could be shared with the rest of the world. That moment came when God sent his Son in the fullness of time. (Galatians 4:4,) Accordingly Jesus, in Paul’s words, has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2:14) God’s ultimate goal, seen in this context, is that the entire human race shall live the way God intended when he created us. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the means God employs to achieve this purpose. That is the Biblical eschatology in a nutshell, the Biblical philosophy of history, embracing past, present, and future.

      The actual termination of the Old Testament period of hostility, however, did not come easily. Early Jewish Christians, contending with centuries of separatist tradition in the Jewish bosom, found it very difficult to embrace Gentile believers on an equal basis. There was difficulty from both sides, often concerning the question of whether or not it was necessary for all Christian believers to obey the ritual customs of the old covenant, the Torah. Jewish believers insisted it was necessary: this is God’s will for his people, and all people must obey. Gentile believers disputed the need: if we live by the Spirit of Jesus, what value is there in external ceremonial ritual?

      It is not as if there was no preparation for the inclusion of Gentiles into the covenant community in the Old Testament literature. Jesus quoted Isaiah, one of many similar references, I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles . . . and in his name the Gentiles will hope. (Matthew 12:18) Paul does the same, And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.’ (Romans 15:12) In fact, the author of Genesis understood this expansion reaches as far back as the call of Abraham, where God says to Abraham, In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3). Accordingly, the expectation that sometime in the future Gentiles would be recipients of the blessing of God should have become an integral part of traditional Jewish faith.

      There are a few references to Jesus interacting with non-Jewish persons, eg the Samaritan woman, the Roman centurion, Pontius Pilate, but for the most part during his ministry he was concerned with his disciples and his Jewish compatriots. However, Jesus is very emphatic about how the gospel will spread beyond the boundaries of Judaism after he is gone. He says, for example, And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. (Mark 13:10) Or, as Matthew puts it, And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to the nations. (Matthew 24:14)

      Matthew concludes his presentation of the life of Jesus with the same emphasis, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:19) Earlier Jesus had prayed to his Father in heaven, As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:17) The duty of the disciples, and the entire church thereafter, is to proclaim the gospel to all nations with the ultimate expectation of discipling them. However, the disciples (and we) must not be too sanguine about the process, for opposition, severe opposition, will come, Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. (Matthew 24:9)

      Luke quotes Jesus as saying to his disciples, the Messiah is to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47) Luke, of course, was not himself a Jew, so he could write his Gospel from a Gentile perspective. Hence he stresses here that the gospel of the Messiah focuses on repentance and forgiveness of sins, not on keeping the stringent requirements of the Torah.

      Luke explains that in all the historical turbulence that will certainly come in future years, Jesus will be coming in glory via the gospel, drawing all people to himself. There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (Luke 21:25) We have seen this coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ now for two thousand years, precisely within the vicissitudes of human culture and history.

      Luke quotes Paul as explaining to a Gentile audience in Lystra, In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good – giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy. (Acts 14:16-17) Even though the Gentiles did not have the advantage of God’s special guidance in past centuries, they did have his constant blessing in the form of steady daily provision of food and happiness. Paul wants them to build on that blessing and see its culmination in the person of Jesus Christ, the messiah sent by God as the light of the world. He goes so far as to affirm that all people, Jews as well as Greeks, are able to see the eternal power and divine nature through the things God has made. (Romans 1:20) What all nations have in common, namely being humans created by God in his image, is of basic importance. It is to achieve the excellence of that common humanity under God that the temporary separation of Israel has been implemented.

      Consequently Jesus makes provision that the work he began will continue throughout the generations to come. Even after his ascension into the clouds, some persons will come to faith even though others do not, When the Son of Man comes into his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31-32) Jesus has come into his glory at the ascension, and now all the nations of the world gather before him. That is the way we must view the process of the evangelizing of the world: Jesus from heaven bringing his sheep into the fold, with the ultimate goal that every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

      Paul makes a very insightful summary of the gospel in the way he concludes his letter to the church in Rome. Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was being kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27) Paul speaks of a mystery that had been a secret for centuries. He means the secret that Gentiles will eventually be added to the covenant community. This secret, Paul affirms, has now been revealed. The gospel is to be extended to all nations, so that the entire world may come into the obedience of faith, and by doing so become the kind of people that God created us all to be in the beginning. All this historical development is due, Paul insists, to the only wise God, who knows what he is doing with the world he made, and that is why we come to Jesus Christ, to become the people of God.

      The ultimate end and goal of the gospel, that is, the intention of the Creator, is depicted for us in symbolic form in the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse of John. Although, beginning with Adam and Eve, all the nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication … (Revelation 18:3) and all nations were deceived by your sorcery (Revelation 18:23), nevertheless there has been an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation and tribe and language and people, (Revelation 14:6), so that eventually, the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. . . . People will bring into it (the holy city) the glory and honor of the nations. (Revelation 21:24-26)

      This is the philosophy of history that the Bible as a whole wishes us to see and accept. What God intended in Genesis 1 is achieved in Revelation 21, a human race living in such a way that glorifies God and provides perfect shalom for all nations. It is achieved by means of

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