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Eschatology: Doctrine of Last Things · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you hold a map to the end of the world right in your
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hands. You would assume you know that
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the directions are pretty clear, like an architect's blueprint.
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Right, you look at the schematic and you see where the load
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bearing walls go and the builder points and says well the kitchen
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goes here. Yeah, it is binary.
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The walls there or it is not there.
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We like things to be visible. We like strict categories.
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Oh totally. We really want things black and
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white. But the problem is has the
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church looks at this map and sees a literal step by step GPS
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for the apocalypse, and the other half looks the exact same
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map and sees like a piece of highly symbolic abstract art.
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Which is wild when you think about.
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It it is wild. And today we are looking at
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those blueprints. Welcome to Reformed thinking.
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As believers who hold to the Westminster Confession and
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Reformed theology, the doctrine of last things holds massive
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interest for us. Oh.
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Absolutely, it is a huge topic. And then the mission of our deep
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dive today is to thoroughly analyze extensive excerpts from
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the Moody Handbook of Theology by Paul Ends.
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Which is a brilliant text to examine because ends approaches
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the end times from a very distinct heavy dispensational
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perspective. Yeah, he really does.
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And that offers a sharp contrast to our own theological
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background. Right.
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We operate on a millennial home turf, but our goal today is not
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to pick a winner you know, or argue for our own view.
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No, not at all. We want to act as objective
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guides. We want to hand you, the
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listener, the structural logic of every major eschatological
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framework so you can read the text yourself and understand the
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mechanics behind these views. OK, let's unpack this.
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I am ready. If you want to understand the
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end of the world, we have to start at the immediate end of a
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human life. That makes a lot of sense,
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right? Before we get to global
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judgments and cosmic timelines, we have to ask a highly specific
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question. Where do we actually go the
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second we die? Yeah, and the confusion
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surrounding that question usually stems from English
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translations. A reader will see the word hell
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pop up in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and Revelation, and
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they just assume it refers to the same specific location every
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single time. Oh for sure, it is easy to just
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lump it all together. But the original Hebrew and
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Greek texts use incredibly distinct words that describe
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very different realities. If we look at the Old Testament
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well, the primary Hebrew concept is sheol.
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This word shows up 65 times. And English bibles translated
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all over the map. Sometimes it is grave, sometimes
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hell, sometimes pit. Precisely.
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But when you study its occurrences in context, the
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focus is intensely physical. The ancient Israelites were an
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agrarian society. They worked the dirt and they
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understood that when you die, you go back into the dirt.
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Ashes to ashes, right? Yeah, dust to dust.
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Sheol describes a dark, dusty Palestinian tomb.
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The physical reality of the grave is the absolute focus.
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The text points out that both the righteous and the wicked go
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there. Like when Jacob thinks his son
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Joseph is dead. Yes, Jacob mourns and says he
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will go down to Sheol and grief. He's not saying he's going to a
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place of eternal fire, he is saying he is going to the grave.
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That makes total sense. The Old Testament relies heavily
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on physical terms like Queber, which is used 71 times for the
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grave and bore, meaning a physical pit.
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The Old Testament says very little about the conscious
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destiny of the soul in the intermediate state.
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That physical focus is a massive paradigm shift for a modern
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reader. We are so conditioned by
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centuries of Greek philosophy to think of the immortal soul like
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floating away to a spiritual realm.
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Oh definitely. Platonism really did a number on
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how we view the afterlife. It really did.
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But the ancient Hebrew mindset was focused on the body and the
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dust. The tension arises when we cross
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the threshold into the New Testament because the
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terminology changes drastically. Suddenly we see the Greek word
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hades which occurs 10 times. What's fascinating here is Hades
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brings an enormous amount of cultural baggage with it.
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It was originally a proper noun. It was the name of the Greek God
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of the Netherworld. Wow.
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OK, so when the Old Testament was translated into Greek
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centuries before Christ, a translation called the
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Septuagint, the scholars almost always translated the Hebrew
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Sheel as the Greek Hades. That feels of a huge leap.
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It was, but during the intertestamental period between
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the closing of Malachi and the opening of Matthew, a new
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framework developed. Scholars identify A2 compartment
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theory regarding the afterlife. So it's not just one big tomb
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anymore, right? The historical data suggests
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this was a heavy influence from Persian Zoroastrianism, which
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the Jewish people encountered during their exile in Babylon.
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Right, the Persians had a highly developed dualism.
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Yeah, they did. So this two compartment theory
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begins to teach that Hades is not just a dusty tomb where
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everyone goes equally. It is divided.
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It has a place of bliss for the righteous and a specific place
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of conscious torment for the wicked.
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Yes, and aside from Hades, the New Testament introduces a far
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more terrifying word, and that word is Gehenna.
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Gehenna, OK. This term occurs 12 times, and
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it functions as the specific designation for eternal
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punishment. The origin of this word is
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visceral. It comes from the Hebrew
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Gehinam, referring to the valley of Hinam on the South side of
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Jerusalem. I have read about this.
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It was an awful place. Horrific.
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Historically, this valley was a site of grotesque, horrific
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idolatry under wicked kings like Ahaz and Manasseh.
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It was the site of Molech worship.
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The Israelites literally sacrifice their own infants in
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fire to a Pagan God. It is just a stomach turning to
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even think about. They would beat drums in the
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valley to drown out the screaming of the children.
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It was a place of absolute darkness, and later the
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righteous King Josiah defiled the valley to stop the
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sacrifices. It eventually became a literal
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burning garbage dump. The refuse of the city, the dead
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bodies of animals, and the corpses of executed criminals
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were tossed in there. The fires burned constantly to
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consume the rot, and the maggots never stopped feeding.
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Because of that visceral, horrifying reality, Gehenna
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became the ultimate visual aid. It became synonymous with the
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final unquenchable fire of divine judgment describing a
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punishment of permanent duration.
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I want to push back on that linguistic leap for a second.
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Go for it. Because the skeptic will look at
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this and say, wait a minute, how do you go from a localized
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geographical hazard, a literal trash dump outside the city
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limits of Jerusalem, to a universal cosmic concept of
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spiritual punishment? It feels like a massive stretch.
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I can see why someone would say that.
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Think about a biohazard sign. That specific yellow and black
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symbol might have been created in one specific laboratory in
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one specific city to mark a localized chemical spill.
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But over time, the visual is so effective that it becomes the
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universal symbol for lethal danger everywhere.
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That is a brilliant way to put it.
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Jesus takes a literal burning dump that every person in
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Jerusalem could smell and see, and he uses it as the universal
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biohazard sign for final eternal judgement.
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The biohazard analogy works perfectly for Gehenna.
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The biblical writers take the most extreme images available in
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their culture to communicate a reality that goes beyond human
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language. Right, because human language
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falls short. They use phrases like outer
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darkness and a furnace of fire, but the terminology gets even
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more specific. The New Testament uses a word
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like tartaroo which shows up only once in Second Peter
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chapter 2, verse 4. Tartaroo.
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That sounds straight out of Homer.
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It is. Peter pulls a concept straight
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from classical mythology, the subterranean abyss where
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rebellious gods like the Titans were imprisoned, and he uses it
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to describe the temporary holding cell for fallen angels,
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that is. Wild.
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Then you have the Abyss, A bottomless prison for demons
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ruled by a fallen star, which Revelation says will be opened
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during the Tribulation. So if you were reading the text
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in English and you just see the word hell covering Sheol, Hades,
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Gehenna, and Tartaroo, you will completely misunderstand what
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the authors are communicating completely.
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The physical grave is not the final lake of fire.
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The temporary holding cell for fallen angels is not the current
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state of deceased unbelievers. You have to parse the specific
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vocabulary. You really do.
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But establishing that the Bible uses these intense, terrifying
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words forces us to confront a highly uncomfortable question.
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How does the modern mind handle this vocabulary?
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Because reading about an unquenchable fire is entirely
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different from actually believing it exists.
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And that tension is driving a massive shift in modern
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theology. The text points out that in
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recent years there has been a significant movement toward a
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much softer view of final judgement.
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I have definitely noticed that. The traditional historical view
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of eternal conscious punishment is facing heavy pushback from 2
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primary alternative frameworks, universalism and
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annihilationism. OK, let's look at universalism
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first. This is the belief that
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everyone, regardless of their actions or beliefs in this life,
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is eventually saved. Even Satan and the fallen angels
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are reconciled to God in the end.
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Right, which is quite a leap from the traditional reading.
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It is, and this is not a new concept.
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The early Church Father origin was a major proponent of this.
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Origin had a fascinating and frankly bizarre justification
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for the terrifying language of Scripture.
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He claimed that the biblical threats of eternal fire were a
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gracious deceit by God. Meaning God was essentially
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lying to humanity for our own good, Origen argued.
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God used the threat of eternal fire as a deterrent to keep men
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from sinning, but God never actually intended to follow
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through with the punishment. Like a parent threatening to
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cancel a birthday party knowing they would never actually do it.
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Yes, exactly like that. And modern times, you see this
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resurface with figures like Rob Bell, who famously published a
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book calling the traditional view of hell toxic.
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I remember when that book came out, it caused a massive stir.
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It did. Bell relies heavily on human
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sentiment and logic, arguing that a God of infinite love
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could never subject anyone to permanent torment and that
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teaching such a concept subverts the message of peace the world
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needs. But the other major alternative,
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annihilationism, has gained significant traction among
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highly respected evangelicals, men like John RW Stott and Clark
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Pinnock. Which surprised a lot of people
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given their stature for sure. Annihilationism teaches that the
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wicked are not tormented forever.
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Instead, they are completely destroyed, consumed by the fire,
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and they cease to exist. They are annihilated, Pinnock
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argued from a position of what he called moral horror.
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He asked a highly emotional question.
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How could a guy who gave his own son out of infinite love install
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a permanent torture chamber in the new creation?
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Edward W Fudge offers an intriguing defense for
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annihilationism by looking at capital punishment in our human
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criminal justice system. Oh, how does he frame that?
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Well, Fudge argues that the actual act of execution lasts
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only a few minutes. The punishing action is brief,
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but the consequences of that execution are permanent.
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OK I have following. Therefore, he claims when the
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Bible speaks of eternal punishment, it means the result
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is permanent non existence, not permanent act of torment.
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Think of a judge in a courtroom. If a judge let's every single
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crime, no matter how heinous, go completely unpunished because he
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claims to love the defendants, is that judge actually good?
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Is he righteous? Most people would say no.
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Right. If you remove the penalty for
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high treason against a holy God, you degrade the value of the law
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itself. Clark Pinnock looks at eternal
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punishment and feels moral horror.
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He wants to protect God's reputation.
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But ends counters this entire movement by pointing straight to
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the grammar of the biblical text, specifically Matthew
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chapter 25, verse 46. Was that verse say?
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That verse is the structural linchpin of the traditional view
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in Matthew 25. The exact same Greek word ionion
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modifies both life and punishment in the same sentence.
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Oh, I see where this is going. The righteous go away into
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ionion life, and the wicked go into ionion and punishment ends
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argues the grammatical structure demands a parallel.
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So you cannot have it both ways. Right.
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If the eternal life given to believers is endless, conscious,
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and permanent, then the eternal punishment for unbelievers must
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also be endless, conscious, and permanent.
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You cannot change the definition of the word halfway through the
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sentence to suit your emotional preferences.
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And this is where the sociological data becomes
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incredibly revealing. The text cites a survey by James
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Hunter who found a drastic softening of doctrinal
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certainties among students in Christian colleges.
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Yeah, that data is really eye opening.
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Hunter attributes this not to new textual discoveries, but to
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a cultural ethical code of political civility.
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Hunter points out that the driving force for the current
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generation is a desired desire not to offend anyone.
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They want to be genteel and civil in social relations.
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Which is fine for a dinner party, but maybe not for
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theology. Right when your primary goal is
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to avoid awkwardness at a dinner party, you naturally begin to
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downplay the more offensive aspects of theology like divine
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wrath and damnation. It makes sense sociologically.
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Theologically, this shift occurs because the love of God is being
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redefined at the complete expense of His Holiness.
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When human sensibilities dictate our view of God, we end up
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marketing a comfortable deity to the culture rather than standing
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on textual conviction. If you are listening to this
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right now, this section challenges you to examine the
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source of your own convictions. Are your views on divine justice
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drawn from the Greek grammar of Matthew 25, or are they drawn
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from the cultural pressure of political civility?
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That is a heavy question to ponder.
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It really is, but understanding the severity of that final
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judgment forces us to ask how humanity actually arrives at
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that destination. The text moves from the
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intermediate state to the culmination of history, the
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physical return of Christ, the resurrection, and the final
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judgments. The return of Christ is not a
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minor secondary footnote in the New Testament.
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It is mentioned over 300 times. Wow. 300 times.
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And the biblical authors go to great lengths thanks to describe
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it as a literal, physical, bodily event.
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In Acts chapter one, verse 11, as the disciples watch Jesus
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ascend into the clouds, the angels tell them he will return
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in the exact same manner they saw him go.
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It is a visible localized return.
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And the immediate consequence of that physical return is a bodily
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resurrection. The hope of resurrection is
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heavily rooted in the Old Testament, long before Jesus
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arrives. A lot of people miss that Old
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Testament connection. Yeah, they really do.
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Isaiah chapter 26 speaks of corpses rising and those who
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dwell in the dust waking to shout for joy.
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Daniel chapter 12 describes multitudes awakening from the
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dust of the earth, some to everlasting life and others to
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everlasting condemnation. During the time of Christ, this
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was actually a massive theological debate.
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The Sadducees, A prominent religious sect, only accepted
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the first five books of Moses as authoritative.
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Write the Torah. Because they did not see
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explicit resurrection language in the Torah, they denied the
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resurrection entirely. Jesus rebuked them fiercely,
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telling them they knew neither the Scriptures nor the might of
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God. He did not hold back.
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Not at all. Later in John chapter 5, Jesus
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clarifies the dual nature of this coming resurrection.
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He says an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will
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hear his voice and come forth. But it is a divided
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resurrection, some to a resurrection of life, and others
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to a resurrection of judgment. If the text demands A literal
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resurrection for both the righteous and the wicked, it
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forces a terrifying question. How specifically is the dividing
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line drawn? Well, the modern mind assumes a
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single set of scales. Yes, exactly.
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We picture a single courtroom where everyone lines up.
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God weighs their good deeds against their bad deeds, and
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they are sent to their final destination.
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Like a cosmic balancing act. But the New Testament actually
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builds 2 completely different courtrooms.
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The text delineates 2 highly distinct judgments occurring at
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different times for different groups.
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For unbelievers, there is the Great White Throne Judgment
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described in Revelation Chapter 20.
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The dead, great and small, stand before the throne.
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It sounds incredibly solemn. It is books are opened,
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including the Book of Life. The individuals are judged
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according to their deeds recorded in the books, and
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because their names are not in the Book of Life, the outcome is
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permanent. They are cast into the lake of
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fire. It is a tribunal of absolute
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final condemnation. But for believers there is a
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completely different event called the Judgement Seat of
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Christ or the Bhima seat mentioned by Paul in Romans 14
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and 2nd Corinthians 5. The.
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Bhima seat that is a great word study.
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It really is. The term Bhima is derived from
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the ancient Greek athletic games like the ones held in Corinth.
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Think of an Olympic medal podium.
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It is not a criminal tribunal. Right.
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You are not on trial there. When an athlete stands on that
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podium, their citizenship is not in question.
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They're not on trial for their life.
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They're standing there to receive a reward based on their
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performance in the arena. That distinction changes
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everything. The Bhima seat does not
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determine salvation. For the believer, salvation is
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already permanently secured by the blood of Christ.
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There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
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Amen to that. Rather, the Bema seat is an
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evaluation of works to determine rewards.
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In First Corinthians chapter 3, Paul describes how a believers
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works will be tested by fire. He talks about building with
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gold, silver and precious stones versus building with wood, hay
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and straw. Precisely if the works were done
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by self effort, with wrong motives, or purely for the
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praise of men, they are wood, hay, and straw.
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The fire of God's gaze will burn them up completely.
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That is a sobering thought. It is, the text says, that
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believer will still be saved, but as one escaping through the
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flames, smelling like smoke with no reward.
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And barely making it out of a burning house.
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Yeah, but if the works were genuine, done through God's
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Spirit for his glory, they are gold and silver.
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They survive the fire and the believer receives a reward.
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The text warns that even careless words and hidden
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thoughts will be evaluated. Sins will be revealed, but they
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will be manifest as forgiven sins thoroughly covered by
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Christ. If every careless word, every
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hidden motive and every unseen act of generosity is going to be
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evaluated on a metal podium by the Creator of the universe, it
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completely reframes your daily actions.
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It changes how you live on a Tuesday for sure.
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You are not striving to earn your salvation, but your daily
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obedience has massive eternal ramifications regarding your
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capacity to glorify God in the next life.
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But establishing that these massive resurrection and
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judgement events are coming forces a huge structural
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problem. When does all this happen?
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What is the actual timeline of the end of the world?
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Because if you have a bodily resurrection and a global
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judgement, you have to place them somewhere on the historical
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calendar. Right, and this is where the
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theological blueprints completely diverge, bringing us
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to the most complex and heavily debated topic in all of
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eschatology, the Millennium. We are going to unpack the three
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major frameworks. Sounds good.
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The term Millennium itself comes from Revelation Charter 20 verse
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4. It is derived from the Latin
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word mill meaning 1000, referring to 1000 year reign of
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Christ. And the entire debate centers on
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2 questions. Is this 1000 year period literal
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or symbolic? And when does it occur in
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relation to Christ's return? Let's start with amillennialism,
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which is the historical reformed view.
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The prefix a in amillennialism negates the term meaning
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proponents do not believe there will be a literal future 1000
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year political reign of Christ on a physical earth.
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So no earthly the political Kingdom, right?
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But the name is slightly misleading because
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amillennialists do not deny a Millennium entirely.
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They believe the Millennium is spiritual and is happening right
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now. Right now.
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Okay. They argue the Kingdom of God
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was inaugurated at Christ first Coming and is present in the
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Church Age. They interpret the 1000 years of
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Revelation 20 as a symbolic number representing a long,
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complete period of time, specifically the current reign
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of deceased believers with Christ in heaven, while Christ
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rules the world right now through His Word and His Spirit.
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The key to understanding amillennialism is looking at how
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it interprets the Book of Revelation.
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It uses a literary method called progressive parallelism.
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Progressive parallelism divides the Book of Revelation into 7
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distinct parallel sections. 7 sections.
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Yes, and these sections are not chronological events happening
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one after the other in the future.
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Instead, they run concurrently. Each of the seven sections tells
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the story of the Church and the world, spanning the exact same
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time frame from the time of Christ's first coming to His
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second coming. Think of progressive parallelism
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like watching a documentary about a massive bank heist.
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A bank heist. I like this.
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The documentary director cuts the film together using seven
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different security camera angles.
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The first camera shows the Street View outside the bank.
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The second camera shows the lobby.
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The third camera shows the vault.
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You are watching. The exact same event happened 7
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different times, just from completely different
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perspectives, each revealing a new layer of detail.
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That is a great visual. That is how amillennialism
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reads. Revelation chapters one through
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three, Look at the 1st century. Chapters 4 through 7, zoom in on
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the church suffering. Chapters 8 through 11 switch
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angles to show the church protected and victorious.
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It is not a chronological timeline of the future.
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It is 7 camera angles of the entire church age.
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And because of that structural framework, and millennialists
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believe history is moving toward a single point, they believe in
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one general resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked at
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the same time, and one single general judgment at the end of
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the age when Christ returns. So it is very streamlined.
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Very Christ comes back, the dead are raised, the judgment
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happens, and the eternal state begins.
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It is a very clean, straightforward timeline.
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But I have to play the skeptic here.
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Does reading a book 7 times over make intuitive sense?
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When you read a narrative, you naturally assume event A
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happens, then event B, then event C The A millennialist is
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asking the reader to constantly hit the rewind button.
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It does require a specific literary lens, yes.
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But contrasting with that structural view is post
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millennialism. This view teaches that Christ
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returns after a long golden age of righteousness on earth.
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Post Millennialists look at the present age with incredible,
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staggering optimism. They envision the Gospel
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steadily spreading to the ends of the earth, slowly acting like
22:32
Levin and Doe, They believe the Church will successfully affect
22:36
every dimension of human life, economic, social, cultural and
22:41
political. Like everything gets better.
22:42
Everything through the preaching of the word evil will eventually
22:46
be reduced to negligible proportions and Christian
22:49
principles will become the absolute norm globally.
22:52
After this long period of global Christianization, Christ will
22:56
return to a world that has largely submitted to Him.
22:59
To understand how anyone could hold this view, you have to look
23:02
at the historical context of the 19th century.
23:05
Which was a very unique time. It was This was the dominant
23:08
view among major theologians in the late 1800s and early 1900s,
23:13
brilliant men like Charles Hodge and William GT Shed.
23:16
They lived during a period of massive, unprecedented progress.
23:19
If we connect this to the bigger picture, the Industrial
23:22
revolution was in full swing. The standard of living was
23:25
skyrocketing. Advances in medicine were
23:27
eradicating ancient diseases. The Telegraph was connecting
23:30
continents. It must have felt like a new
23:32
world. It really did.
23:34
But more importantly, from a theological perspective, the
23:37
church was experiencing massive global revivals.
23:41
Missionaries were pushing into unreached territories.
23:44
Post Millennialists pointed to the translation of the Bible
23:47
into 98% of the world's languages and the pouring out of
23:50
massive foreign aid as absolute proof that the world was being
23:54
Christianized. They thought they were literally
23:57
ushering in the Golden Age. Here's where it gets really
24:00
interesting, though. Then the 20th century arrived,
24:04
and that theological optimism shattered against the jagged
24:07
rocks of human depravity. Crashed hard.
24:09
When you look at the absolute mechanized devastation of World
24:13
War One, the trenches, the mustard gas, the slaughter of
24:15
millions of young men, it delivered a fatal blow to the
24:18
idea of inevitable human progress.
24:21
And if World War I wounded post millennialism, the horrors of
24:24
the Holocaust in World War 2, the rise of totalitarian regimes
24:27
under Stalin and Mao, and the invention of nuclear weapons
24:30
completely buried it. You just cannot sustain optimism
24:33
after that. No, you cannot.
24:35
The text notes that post millennialism declined sharply
24:39
because those global conflagrations militated
24:42
directly against the core premise of the doctrine.
24:45
You could not look at Auschwitz and say the world was getting
24:47
better and better. That historical reality connects
24:51
intensely to the listener. If you are reading the news
24:54
today and panicking about a geopolitical crisis, the
24:57
theological system you unconsciously hold is what
25:00
drives that reaction. That is so true.
25:02
Are you optimistic that human society will be entirely
25:05
Christianized through political action?
25:07
Or do you view the present age realistically, seeing a
25:10
spiritual Kingdom existing alongside constant secular
25:12
struggle, as the amillennialist does?
25:14
It totally changes how you process the Evening News.
25:17
The tension between the optimism of post millennialism and the
25:20
realism of amillennialism brings us to the third major category,
25:24
which is premillennialism. This view states that Christ
25:27
will return before the Millennium to establish a
25:30
literal, physical, earthly reign.
25:32
But there's a massive civil war within this camp between
25:34
historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism.
25:38
OK, layout historic for us. Historic premillennialism is
25:41
championed by figures like Georgie Ladd.
25:44
This view does not maintain a strict absolute distinction
25:48
between national Israel and the New Testament church.
25:51
So they see some overlap. Lots of overlap.
25:53
Ladd argues that the New Testament frequently applies Old
25:56
Testament prophecies meant for Israel directly to the church.
26:00
He identifies the church as spiritual Israel.
26:03
Got it. Because historic
26:05
premillennialists see a continuity between Israel and
26:08
the Church. They believe the Church will go
26:10
through the future tribulation period.
26:12
They do not see a secret rapture in the text.
26:14
They see a single return of Christ at the end of the
26:16
Tribulation, where he gathers his elect, conquers the
26:20
Antichrist, and establishes his thousand year Kingdom on earth.
26:24
But then we reach dispensational premillennialism, which is the
26:26
system Paul ends outlines most extensively in the textbook.
26:30
This system relies on 2 non negotiable structural features.
26:34
First, a consistently literal hermeneutic.
26:37
They interpret prophetic words and statements in their normal,
26:40
customary, physical way. They do not like spiritualizing
26:42
the text. Not at all.
26:44
Second, they maintain a strict, absolute wall of separation
26:49
between God's program for national Israel and God's
26:52
program for the church. Dispensationalists argue that
26:55
the church is a distinct, completely separate New
26:57
Testament entity that was born at Pentecost and was entirely
27:01
unprophesied in the Old Testament.
27:03
Which is a very hard line to draw.
27:05
It is. To understand why they draw such
27:07
a hard line, you have to look at how they read the Old Testament
27:09
covenants made to Israel. They point to four specific
27:13
promises. The Abrahamic covenant in
27:16
Genesis promised a specific physical land and a great
27:19
nation. The Palestinian covenant
27:21
guaranteed Israel's permanent right to occupy that specific
27:24
land. The Davidic covenant in Second
27:27
Samuel promised a literal dynasty and a literal king
27:30
sitting on a physical throne in Jerusalem, and the New Covenant
27:34
promised spiritual forgiveness and an indwelling spirit.
27:37
The dispensational logic is incredibly straightforward here.
27:40
They look at those promises, they note that God made them
27:43
unconditionally, and they conclude they must be fulfilled
27:46
literally. Which leads to a very specific
27:48
conclusion. If God promised David a physical
27:50
throne in Jerusalem, and Jesus did not sit on a physical
27:54
political throne during his first advent, then Jesus must
27:57
return to the earth to sit on a literal throne.
28:00
Where else God broke his promise.
28:01
It necessitates a future millennial Kingdom.
28:05
The promises cannot just be spiritualized and applied to the
28:08
church. Because of the strict
28:09
distinction between Israel and the Church, dispensationalists
28:12
arrive at the concept of a pre tribulation rapture.
28:15
The Rapture. Yes.
28:17
They look at the future seven-year tribulation and
28:19
identify it as the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy in Chapter 9.
28:23
They argue this tribulation is a highly specific period of divine
28:27
wrath designed to do 2 things, judge unbelieving Gentiles and
28:31
discipline disobedient national Israel to prepare them to
28:34
finally accept their King. And here is the mechanism of
28:37
that view. If the tribulation is an
28:39
outpouring of God's wrath, the church cannot be there because
28:43
the Church is the bride of Christ.
28:45
The Church is justified and explicitly saved from wrath.
28:49
Therefore, Christ must return secretly to catch up the Church
28:52
to rapture them to heaven before the seven years of judgement
28:55
even begin. The Church is entirely removed
28:58
from the board before the tribulation pieces are put in
29:00
play. And that relies heavily on
29:03
interpreting Daniel's 70 weeks. Think of a stopwatch.
29:06
Daniel prophecies a period of 490 years, 70 weeks of years for
29:11
God to finish his program with Israel.
29:14
OK, counting down. Dispensationalists calculate
29:16
that exactly 483 years, or 69 weeks, concluded precisely with
29:21
a triumphal entry and death of Christ.
29:23
Then the Jewish people rejected their Messiah, and God hit the
29:26
pause button on the stopwatch. Clock just stops.
29:28
The prophetic clock stopped ticking for Israel.
29:31
Suddenly a massive, entirely unprophesied 2000 year gap opens
29:35
up. This gap is the church age
29:37
distance. Ationless believe that when the
29:38
Church is suddenly removed at the rapture, God clicks the
29:41
stopwatch again and that final terrifying 7 year countdown, the
29:46
tribulation begins for Israel and the world.
29:48
But even within the premillennial camp, there are
29:51
intense, heated debates about the timing of that rapture.
29:55
NS evaluate several alternative views, and his critiques reveal
29:59
the underlying logic of the system.
30:01
Like the partial rapture view? Yes.
30:03
For instance, there is the partial rapture view.
30:06
This theory teaches that only believers who are actively
30:09
watching, praying, and living exceptionally holy lives will be
30:12
taken in the rapture. Worldly or carnal Christians
30:16
will be left behind to endure the tribulation.
30:18
That sounds terrifying. It does ends issues a severe
30:22
theological critique of this view.
30:24
He essentially calls it a Protestant version of purgatory.
30:27
The partial rapture view suggests the blood and atonement
30:30
of Christ is not sufficient to fit a believer for heaven.
30:33
Which is a huge theological red flag.
30:35
It is. It implies the believer must
30:38
undergo the refining fires of the Antichrist's persecution to
30:41
finish the job of sanctification.
30:44
Furthermore, it violently fragments the body of Christ,
30:47
snatching part of the Bride away while leaving the rest of the
30:49
bride behind to be battered. Then there is the mid
30:52
tribulation view. This claims the Church will
30:55
endure the 1st 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation, but will be
30:58
raptured right in the middle before the final, most severe
31:02
bowl judgments. Why the middle?
31:05
Proponents based this on identifying the 7th trumpet of
31:08
Revelation Chapter 11 with the last trumpet mentioned by Paul
31:11
in First Corinthians 15. But are they the same trumpet?
31:15
NS counters that this is an entirely arbitrary link.
31:19
The trumpets in Revelation are terrible judgments sounded by
31:22
angels bringing plagues, while the trumpet of First Corinthians
31:25
is a massive blessing sounded by God to initiate the resurrection
31:29
of the dead. You also have the pre wrath
31:31
rapture view. This argues that the seal
31:33
judgments and trumpet judgments of revelation are actually man's
31:36
wrath or Satan's wrath, and only the final bowl judgments are
31:40
truly God's wrath. That is a very specific division
31:43
of the timeline. It is therefore the Church
31:45
endures the 1st 3/4 of the tribulation, but escapes the
31:49
end. But Ends points out a fatal flaw
31:52
in that logic. In Revelation Chapter 6, during
31:56
the breaking of the very first seals, the people of the Earth
31:59
are explicitly hiding in caves, crying out to be hidden from the
32:04
wrath of the Lamb. The entire seven-year period
32:07
from start to finish is marked by divine wrath.
32:11
The intensity of these debates over the timing of the Rapture
32:13
proves how heavily your eschatology shapes your current
32:16
reality. It really does.
32:18
If you hold a post tribulation view, you expect to endure the
32:21
reign of the Antichrist and the total collapse of the global
32:24
world order. Every geopolitical crisis, every
32:26
famine and every war looks like the opening of a seal, and you
32:30
brace for persecution. Your anxiety levels would be
32:32
through the roof. If you hold a pre tribulation
32:34
view, you were looking for an imminent rescue, expecting to be
32:37
caught up before the catastrophe strikes.
32:39
But regardless of the timeline, whether you are reading the
32:42
seven camera angles of amillennialism, waiting for the
32:45
golden age of post millennialism, or calculating
32:48
the stopwatch gap of dispensationalism, all of these
32:51
architectural blueprints eventually converge on the
32:54
final, unending reality. The eternal state.
32:58
Following the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment,
33:00
where Satan, the Beast, the False Prophet and all
33:03
unbelievers are cast into the Lake of fire, the present
33:06
heavens and earth undergo a massive judgment.
33:08
Second Peter chapter 3 gives a harrowing description of this.
33:12
Peter says the present heavens and earth are being reserved for
33:15
fire. He describes the heavens passing
33:17
away with a massive roar and the physical elements being
33:21
destroyed with intense heat. So it just all burns up.
33:24
Well, the text indicates this is a severe renovation and a
33:26
profound sanctification of the earth, not a complete
33:29
annihilation of physical matter. The fire purges the curse of
33:33
sin, ushering in the eternal state, the new heavens, and the
33:36
new earth described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.
33:40
And the centerpiece of this renovated earth is the New
33:42
Jerusalem. The physical description of this
33:45
city is absolutely staggering. It is hard to even picture it.
33:48
John describes a holy city coming down out of heaven from
33:51
God. The measurements are
33:53
incomprehensible. It measures 1500 miles long,
33:56
1500 miles wide, and 1500 miles high.
33:59
That is basically the distance from Maine to Florida.
34:02
Exactly. It is adorned with massive,
34:04
flawless precious stones. It has no sun and no moon
34:08
because it is illuminated entirely by the sheer,
34:11
unfilgered Shekinah glory of God.
34:14
Believers from all ages, the holy angels and God Himself
34:17
dwelled together in this space. Sorrow is permanently removed.
34:20
Death is eradicated. And most remarkably, John notes,
34:23
there is no temple in the city because the Lord, God the
34:26
Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
34:28
Believers have direct, unhindered access to God without
34:31
the need for a mediating human priest or a physical building.
34:34
This raises an important question regarding the massive
34:37
dimensions of the city. With measurements of 1500 miles
34:40
in length, width, and height, some commentators suggest the
34:44
city will literally hover over the Earth like a satellite,
34:47
arguing that a structure of that magnitude defies our current
34:50
understanding of earthly physics, gravity, and geography.
34:54
A. Hovering City.
34:55
Yeah, but the text heavily stresses its literal physical
34:59
measurements resting on the new earth.
35:02
Furthermore, the cultural imagery used by Jesus and the
35:04
apostles to describe this eternal state is heavily rooted
35:08
in Jewish family life and celebration.
35:10
Right when Jesus tells his disciples he is going to prepare
35:13
a place for them in his Father's house, he is using the language
35:16
of a Galilean wedding. That cultural context is so
35:19
helpful. In that culture, when his son
35:21
married, he did not move away. He built an addition on to his
35:24
father's existing house, and he brought his bride to live.
35:27
In the massive family compound, Heaven is portrayed as a
35:30
sprawling, joyful physical family dwelling.
35:33
It is also repeatedly pictured as a banqueting scene.
35:37
Jesus talks in Matthew chapter 8 about many coming from east and
35:40
West to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
35:44
the Kingdom of heaven. Sitting at a table eating.
35:47
Right. A banquet emphasizes fellowship,
35:50
eating, relaxation, laughter, and intense happiness in the
35:54
physical presence of Christ. I want to look closely at those
35:57
cubic dimensions of the New Jerusalem, 1500 miles in all
36:01
directions. If you know your Old Testament
36:04
architecture, that specific shape should immediately set off
36:08
alarm bells in your head. Oh, because of the Tabernacle.
36:11
Yes, in the Old Testament Tabernacle, wandering in the
36:13
wilderness, and later in Solomon's massive temple in
36:16
Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum where the
36:19
visible presence of God dwelled, the room where the high priest
36:22
could only enter once a year under threat of death, was a
36:25
perfect cube. It was the only perfect cube in
36:27
the entire architecture of Israel's worship.
36:30
Now, at the end of human history, John sees the New
36:32
Jerusalem descending and it is a massive cotton sized perfect
36:37
cube. This vision gives you a highly
36:39
tangible, intently physical hope.
36:42
It is very real. Heaven is not a boring, ethereal
36:46
state of floating on clouds and strumming harps in a spiritual
36:49
fog. It is a renovated, physical
36:52
earth. It is a bustling, massive city.
36:54
It is a family banquet. It is the physical, material
36:57
world redeemed, purged of sin, and glorified.
37:01
The implication of that physical reality is massive.
37:04
All of creation, which Paul says in Romans 8 has been groaning
37:07
under the heavy curse of sin, is finally liberated.
37:11
Freed from the curse. The physical dirt, the water,
37:13
the trees, and our own physical bodies are reclaimed and made
37:16
perfect. The goal of God's redemptive
37:19
plan is not to scrap the physical universe, abandoned the
37:22
material world, and retreat into a purely spiritual dimension it.
37:26
Is not a cosmic escape hatch. No, the goal is to dwell with
37:29
His people in a perfected material reality.
37:32
Everything we discussed today, the intense Greek and Hebrew
37:34
lexicons of the afterlife, the harrowing reality of eternal
37:38
judgment, the complex mechanics of the millennial timelines, and
37:41
the precise timing of the rapture, all of it functions as
37:44
a mechanism to bring about this final physical restoration.
37:46
We have covered of vast territory today.
37:49
We started with a specific lexicon of the afterlife,
37:52
drawing strict lines between the physical grave of Sheol and the
37:56
eternal fire of Gehenna. We look at the modern debates
37:59
over the nature of punishment, analyzing universalism and
38:02
annihilationism against the heavy grammatical weight of
38:05
Matthew 25. Which is so crucial to parse
38:08
out. We broke down the mechanics of
38:10
the final judgments distinguishing the Great White
38:12
Throne for unbelievers from the Bema seat metal podium for
38:16
believers. We mapped out the various
38:18
millennial timelines, contrasting the realized Kingdom
38:21
of amillennialism, the Golden Age optimism of post
38:24
millennialism, and the strict covenant based futurism of
38:28
dispensational premillennialism, including all the intense
38:31
debates over the timing of the Rapture.
38:33
And we ended with the physical reality of the eternal state and
38:36
the descent of the New Jerusalem.
38:38
It is a staggering amount of information to process, but
38:41
understanding these distinct frameworks allows you to read
38:43
your Bible with a much sharper lens.
38:45
You can recognize the theological blueprints that
38:48
study Bibles, pastors and commentators are using when they
38:51
interpret prophetic texts. You move from seeing eschatology
38:54
as a confusing blur to recognizing the distinct
38:57
architectural lines of each theological system.
39:00
Which brings us back to our map. We have looked at several
39:03
different blueprints for the future today, but I want to
39:05
leave you with one final thought to ponder independently.
39:09
We talked about the New Jerusalem being a perfect cube
39:12
pattern, specifically after the Holy of Holies.
39:15
In the ancient world, God's presence was restricted to one
39:18
tiny dark room hidden behind a massive, thick veil, accessible
39:22
by one man once a year. Just one man.
39:24
But At the End of Human History features a continent sized
39:27
perfect cube descending from heaven to rest permanently upon
39:29
the earth. It implies that the entire
39:32
planet becomes the Holy of Holies.
39:34
The veil is not just torn, the walls are completely removed.
39:38
What does it mean for your daily life today, for the way you view
39:41
your physical body, your job, and your interaction with the
39:43
material world around you, if the end goal of all human
39:46
history is God dwelling fully and openly in the physical, dirt
39:49
and St. level reality of a renewed earth?
39:52
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive on Reformed thinking.
39:55
Keep reading the blueprints.