This will serve as the next installment in the haphazard series so far titled “Our Blessed Hope”. The series concerns itself with eschatology: the study of the last things. And we have already covered the binding of Satan and the biblical theology of Eden which points to the telos or end goal of eschatology.
In this installment I want to give brief treatment to the question of why eschatology matters.
“Pan-Millennial”?
With all this talk of premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism, sometimes we just throw up our hands or shrug our shoulders and call ourselves “panmillennials”, believing that it will all “pan out” in the end.
And of course, in some sense, this is tolerable. Jesus will return and that may be all we need to determine. Just as “Jesus saves” is a beautifully-expressed Gospel, so also “Jesus is coming back” is a beautifully simple eschatology.
But on the other hand, God has not just given us enough in His word to “get by”. If the extent of the Good News that God wished us to know was “Jesus saves” then that’s all He would have said. But it’s not. He says so much more about our salvation. Likewise, if all God wanted us to know about eschatology was “Jesus is coming back” then He would have stopped there. The fact is, He has revealed far more about the matter than that. And if we believe what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:16-17 then we will understand that the difficult-to-understand eschatological passages of the Scriptures are there for our teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, and ultimately for our application in the expression of good works and wholeness.
There is no doubt: it will all “pan out” in the end. God is sovereign over history and He’s directing to glorify Himself and benefit His children (Rom. 8:28). But it does matter how that happens. It does matter what that “panning out” looks like. It matters because God has chosen to reveal it to us through His word. And it matters because the way we understand the end will have a large impact on the way we do the middle.
Know the End, Do the Middle
Know the end. Do the middle. Those words are painted on a frame holding a picture of my wife and I in our home. It’s just six simple words but together they carry a profound principle: our daily lives are influenced by our hope for the future.
And that is the crux of eschatology: hope.
What does the Bible refer to as the hope of a Christian?
Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Titus 2:13
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (emphasis added)
The above are just a couple of passages that speak to Christian hope. Others could be supplied that speak to the hope of our consummated salvation (1 Thess. 5:8), the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2, 3:7). Even these have to do with eschatological matters.
Eschatology is the theology of hope. It is the doctrine of what we have to look forward to. And that is worth very much indeed.
We may scoff and question the value of more eschatology books and more talk about Bible prophecy. “Why not just be concerned with the here and now?” Well, because that’s exactly what we’re told not to do! Colossians 3:1-2 says to set our minds on things above, not on things on earth. And while some may say that leads to being so “heavenly-minded” that we’re no longer any “earthly good”, I say the exact opposite. The more heavenly-minded we are, the more earthly good we’ll be!
Our eschatology does have a profound impact on the way we “do” the middle. Are we expecting to be wisked away before the real trouble begins? Are we expecting to endure a great tribulation? Are we anticipating that the groundwork we are laying now will bloom, in time, into a glorious God-grown kingdom that fills the whole earth?
Our answers to these questions will be informed in large part by our eschatology. And they will influence our decisions right now.
The End of Eschatology
We will not study eschatology forever. At some point in the existence of our immortal souls, the “end times” will be distant memories. And that is the point. We will not hope forever. We will not have faith forever.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away…For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10, 12-13
Eschatology matters because it is the grounding of our hope. And that hope leads us further and deeper into love. Love is the greatest of the virtues because it is the only eternal one. God is love (1 John 4:16). He is not faith. He is not hope. These things will pass away, as beautiful and important as they are. Eschatology will pass away one day. Until then, however, it matters very much as we seek to grow in our understanding of God’s sovereign plan and the hope we can find in it.
Eschatology has implications for the way we live, the way we evangelize, the way we vote, the way we worship, and so much more. It is a peak into what we have to look forward to after faith and after hope.