The Eschatology of Hope (Part 1)
Reshaping our views on end times
Matthew 28:19
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Before we get started I would first like to define the term "eschatology" for those who may not be familiar with the word or its meaning. Eschatology simply means "study of end times." It is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what is believed to be the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world. There are a few positions held within the circle, Amillennialism, premillennialism, postmillennialism and dispensationalism. Those who hold to any of these views may be more extreme or hyper than others. I won't be touching on what each of these positions mean exactly or their backgrounds, but instead I will be making a case for the post-millennialism. I believe each Christian must carefully study and examine their traditions they were brought up with. It is very important to closely test all things to see if what we believe about God of the bible aligns with the scriptures. We must admit that we as humans at times think flaully, we like to throw in our own imaginations and interpret scripture the way we want to instead letting the Bible interpret for itself. Growing up I heard all sorts of bisare ideas and misconceptions about Jesus coming back soon and living in the end times. Texts like from Matthew 24, Luke 21, and pretty much entire book of Revelation were taken out of context and we're summed up into one apocolyptic image. Of course, that's where the left behind movie series come in. And to be quite honest, book of Revelation does seem to give us those kind of images. Hollywood has done a great job of portraying that.
But what if....what if there was a different approach to these texts? What if these texts could mean something completely different from what we may have been taught? What if there was a message of optimism for our future for those who are in Christ Jesus? This is where my post-mill position comes in and in the next article I want to share with you how and why post-millennialism is a message of hope and victory, a victorious message of hope. Eschatology matters because how we view our future will ultimately determine how we live out our lives now in the present. So what kind of legacy will you leave behind for your children, grandchildren? In the next article we will further discuss and explore the position of Postmillennialism and dispensationalism and compare the two and what kind of impact they have on how we live out our lives.
Stay tuned,
Grace and peace to all.
