HOW IMPORTANT IS ESCHATOLOGY IN THE SCHEME OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES?
Some people are very passionate about their particular view of End Times (“Eschatology”) while on the other hand, some people are very indifferent about it. Some Evangelical Denominations have very narrow views about what constitutes acceptable views about Eschatology. In some of these denominations they actually make agreement with their End Times position an essential requirement for ordination. Many people find the topic so difficult that they’s rather not even attempt it. One prominent Seattle preacher recently said that discussing aspects of Eschatology was as important as discussing “wookies” (from the Star Wars movie series)! In one respect he is right, in that, there are several Biblical doctrines which are far more important than Eschatology. But…
It’s critical to know what the “most important” Christian doctrines are, before you can assert that or agree with the statement that Eschatology is not among the most important Christian Doctrines. Here are the top 4 most important-
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Theology Proper – The Person, identity, nature, attributes, prerogatives and acts of God.
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Christology – The Person, identity, attributes, incarnation, ministry, resurrection and glorification of Christ.
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Anthropology – Creation, fall, nature, affects of sin, and destiny of mankind.
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Soteriology – salvation of mankind from sin, redemption, adoption, reconciliation, regeneration, sanctification, resurrection, judgment, eternal destiny.
These are the most important doctrines of Christianity. They are also referred to as “Primary Doctrines.” This is why many believers do not consider eschatology to be a doctrine that Christians should divide over. Eschatology, they argue, is a doctrine of “Secondary Importance.” After all, speculating about what the Bible says regarding the future is just that: speculation. How then can anyone make a system of speculation the basis for Christian orthodoxy? There is however some hesitation for pressing this point too far. Let me explain why…
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THE BEST STARTING POINT FOR DEVELOPING AN ESCHATOLOGICAL SYSTEM…
If you wanting to form your own view of Biblical teaching on “End Times” then your starting point should be Partial-Preterism.
If you do not have a system of eschatology, then I would recommend adopting a Partial Preterist Position for the following reasons-
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This is by far the least speculative
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It is the most demonstrably accurate
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It is the most hermeneutically consistent
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It is the most conservative Biblical position you can adopt. (And when it comes to eschatology we should not only be Biblically faithful, we should be conservative.)
This is because the more speculative we become with eschatology the greater the potential for damage to the Scriptures’ claim to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God in the minds of those who like ‘sheep without a shepherd’.
THE LEAST SPECULATIVE – (Partial) Preterism approaches all of Scripture in the same way, including eschatological passages. It does not assume that a Bible prophecy has not been fulfilled. Instead, it seeks to investigate from history whether it can be shown that a Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled. In fact, “Preterism” means examine the past. It does not endorse the concept of “Double” or “Dual” fulfilment of prophecies. Because it is grounded in historically verifiable data, it does not speculate about the future. Dispensational-Futurism (Pre-Millennialism) on the other hand as made and remade sildly speculative guesses as to how (already fulfilled) Bible prophecies will come to pass in our own day.
THE MOST DEMONSTRABLY ACCURATE – (Partial) Preterism links Bible prophecies with verifiable events from history. Where it cannot clearly do so, it does not speculate. In this way it can demonstrate that all of Revelation chapters 1 to 19 has been fulfilled (which coincides with all of Matthew 24).
THE MOST HERMENEUTICALLY CONSISTENT – Classical (Partial) Preterism approaches Bible Prophecies passages of Scripture in the same way as any other Scripture passage. This is different to other Eschatological systems which require their own “principles” or “laws” to make their system work.
THE MOST BIBLICALLY CONSERVATIVE – Classical Preterism does not try to force contemporary events into the contents of Bible Prophecy. This is one of the reasons why Historicism is not a conservative approach to Scripture because when it was developed during the period of the Reformation, it forced its contemporary events (the Reformation of the Church from the Papal abberations of Scripture and its abuses of power) into the text of Scripture as if these events were the intended fulfilment of these prophecies.
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WHEN ESCHATOLOGY ACTUALLY DOES MATTER…
Dispensational Premillennialism may sound to many like a viable eschatological alternative that well and truly is similarly dismmissed as a doctrine of ‘Secondary’ importance. But there are two reasons why we should be a little less passive in considering this eschatological system. Firstly, it impinges into the doctrine of Christology by promoting the idea that Christ will return to earth, in particular Jerusalem, to re-establish the Throne of David from a rebuilt Temple. To arrive at this interpretation, this system demands that certain Bible prophecy fulfilments be overlooked, others have to be taken in an unintended wooden literal sense, and still others be granted a “second” fulfilment. But if Christ must reinstitute the Levitical Priesthood and re-establish the Temple in Jerusalem, apart from their being no justifiable Biblical grounds for this, the question has to be asked: Why would Christ need to re-establish animal sacrifices?
The passage most commonly mentioned in discussions of the difficulty presented by dispensational literalism is Ezekiel’s temple vision (Ezekiel 40-48). The dispensationalists are looking for a reinstitution of bloody animal sacrifices in a millennial temple built in accordance with the description found in this passage.9 Dispensationalists are careful to specify that these sacrifices are merely memorials of Christ’s death and will be the millennial equivalent of the Lord’s Supper. The problem with this is that Ezekiel’s vision refers to these sacrifices as literally making atonement (Ezekiel 45:15,17,20; Hebrew: kaphar, atone). Of course, a dispensationalist can go to the book of Hebrews to prove that animal sacrifices in the Old Testament never literally atoned for sin (Hebrews 10:4). When the Reformed theologian, however, goes to Hebrews to prove that animal sacrifices were done away forever by Christ’s once for all offering (Hebrews 10:10-18), then that is “theological interpretation” and “reading the New Testament back into the Old Testament,” two practices which dispensationalists routinely criticize.
Grover Gunn, citing- J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), page 519.
Secondly, this eschatological scheme has given rise to “Christian Zionism” which has unswervingly given unguarded support to the State of Israel. Even when the Israeli Government has violated United Nations sanctions, illegally invaded surrounding territories, illegitimately confiscated property, wrongly forced families off their land, and destroyed the homes of Palestinians and the Lebanese, these Christian Zionists have still given their complete endorsement. Here is an unwitting result of an eschatological system: innocent people have been needlessly killed as its collateral damage! Christian Zionists (Dispensational Futurists – Pre-Millennialists) regard the Bible as prophesying that Israel should be re-established as the world-power in these “last days”.
This is why we must be careful about dismissing Eschatological systems as being “inconsequential” or “as important as a discussion about Wookies.”
https://player.vimeo.com/video/8546487 Understand The Book of Revelation from Dr Andrew Corbett on Vimeo.
I have written an explanation of how Partial-Preterism leads to the best interpretation of Bible Prophecy in my eBook, The Most Embarrassing Book In The BIble, and in my paperback book- The Most Embarrassing Verse In The Bible.
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Amen.
Dr. Andrew Corbett, Legana, Tasmania, Australia July 31st 2010
The subjective nature of partial preterism is just that…subjective.
Is that your subjective opinion?
There is no right answer to the wrong question. What I’m waiting for is to see and/or hear something solid about how the partial preterist’s take on prophesies, allegedly fulfilled in 70AD, etc., without it all ending up having created more problems than they solve. No need to be adversarial. I just like to see solid objects of intellectual input rather than conclusions that have flawed premises.
Don, could you give an objective example of what you see as a false premise in the exegesis of the prophetic texts and their fulfilment?
What I have called “subjective” is the application of the true prophesies to historic events. There is no record of the fulfillment of this verse:
Mark 13:14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
“…standing where IT ought not…” Where does history record that an idol (or whatever IT may have been) was set up in a Jewish temple the Romans were dead set upon destroying? Having read the available histories, I don’t see that. This is just one of a number of inconsistencies in the partial preterist viewpoint. It is recorded that they wanted the gold, and the way to get that gold was to burn the temple with hot fire, then pry the stones, one off another, to scrape out the gold that had melted into the cracks and fissures.
Don, have you considered that when Roman General, Cestius set up the Roman insignia (an object of worship) in the Jerusalem temple and Josephus records that many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants fled the city – and it is likely that many of these (if not most) were Christians heeding Christ’s warning which you have cited.
So, you’re saying that a Roman “insignia” can stand on its own in the temple? That seems like so much of a stretch that…well, it doesn’t seem to coincide with the force of the text in what it describes. I’ve not heard of an “insignia” that can be set up to stand like an idolatrous image.
Don, I refer you to another article of mine – https://www.andrewcorbett.net/articles/bible-prophecy/the-great-tribulation/ which deals with this. The fact that the Roman Standard/Insignia which was affixed to large pole could be placed in the Holy Place of the Temple is rather well established. In Rome there is a monument (“The Arch of Titus”) to the Roman victory over Jerusalem and the destruction of its Temple featuring the Roman Aquilas (‘insignia’) prominently in the stonework.
Do you also subscribe to replacement theology?
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
I don’t know exactly what vein of preterism you subscribe, but if you believe this and the following have already come to pass, where is that recorded in history?
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust [shall be] the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
I’ve heard that German circus lions ate vegetables during WWII when there was no meat available to feed them, but never straw, and the rest of what’s described in the Millennium yet to come has no standing in history so far as I have seen.
Jesus did indeed describe the coming destruction of the temple (which we know happened in 70AD) AND of His second coming to set up His Kingdom for a thousand years, but there was abomination of desolation in His statements about the destruction of the temple in 70AD. After all, He was asked specifically about those two events…when would the temple be destroyed, and what would be the sign of His second coming.
So, do you believe He came secretly…invisibly…and that we’re now living in that Kingdom of which He spoke where the above verses have been observed on this earth?
Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
I don’t recall that the Jews had seen Him coming, whom THEY pierced, and mourned, especially if it was invisible…unless it was invisible only to everyone else, even though it’s said that all eyes all over this earth will see Him at His coming.
I’m just trying to express the difficulties I’m having with the preterist views about prophecies, especially your take on the things that have allegedly been fulfilled in the past. I’m not trying to change your mind because I know that no man on this earth can do that. I’m trying to get you to change mine. My take on absolute truth is such that if someone can show me non-subjective information that stands on its own merits of verifiable truth, then I must change my mind to conform to what scripture actually says.
Don, if you take the time, you will see that I have responded to each of these. Our goal in reading and understanding Scripture is ‘exegesis’ rather than presupposing a system of interpretation that has to invent its own rules of interpretation which are contrary to sound hermeneutics.
Don, further more, Christ made no reference to His “second coming”. Even in His Olivet Discourse He never used the word “return” either to describe His coming in judgment on Jerusalem culminating in the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in A.D. 70. My mission is not be a ‘preterist’ but to be an exegete. All Christians are preterists (regarding an obviously fulfilled prophecy as having been fulfilled) to some extent. There is no dispute among Christians that the prophecies of Isaiah 7:14 about the virgin conceiving a son has been fulfilled with Mary miraculously giving birth to Jesus the Christ, for example.
That’s interesting that you think He said nothing about His return:
Matthew 24:29-31
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Reading all kinds of articles as opposed to answering specific questions isn’t something I have time to do right now. I thought perhaps you would provide short, to the point answers. No problem. My being deployed greatly limits my time as well.
He’s quoting from Daniel 7:13ff Don, in which the description is of the Son of Man going up to the Ancient of Days (not down). The disciples did not grasp that He was ‘going’ therefore they did not ask that when He was going to ’return’ – but when He was going to “come” (in judgment). We note the language is reminiscent of the the OT prophets describing Yahweh coming on the clouds in judgment such as in Isaiah 19:1.
Wow. That’s an amazing reversal of direction, especially when we couple it together with Revelation. Ok. This was a dead end inquiry. When I read the Hebrew of Daniel, the Greek of Matthew and Revelation, I’m left confused how you arrived at your conclusion.
Don, it’s exegeting the original languages — which should therefore not be amazing to you.
Again, this is interesting. Matthew 24:29-32 is directionally down, and drawing a subjective parallel to Daniel 7? Can you explain that in more detail, because although they have some of the same wording in a place or two, it’s not an exact quote.
Matthew 24:29-31
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Daniel 7:13-14
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion [is] an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom [that] which shall not be destroyed.
How do all the people on earth see what’s only in Heaven? Is it possible that these are not parallels, and there not the same event? Daniel failed to reveal that the powers of Heaven were shaken. Was that an oversight? Daniel also failed to mention the people of the earth mourning upon seeing Him. I hope you don’t mind that I retain a high measure of skepticism about your “exegeting”. When I do the same, the similarities don’t exist so far as I can see…in relation to these being the same two events, and therefore Jesus allegedly quoting that section in relation to the two specific questions asked of Him by the disciples.
Can you elaborate upon what appears to be a glaring error in your speculation?