Eschatology - Comfort & Challenge

Links to classes and information is below. 

 

Eschatology - what in the world does the word mean?  Some may know, others may not have a clue (and some, frankly, do not care).  Even if you have never heard of the word, or believe you know a lot about the word, anything God has revealed in His Word is important.  

In a broad sense, "eschatology is about the fulfillment of God's plan for human history" (Craig C. Hill, In God's Time: The Bible and the Future, 3).  The word eschatology, broken into parts, simply means the study of the last things.  

I understand you may think eschatology sounds irrelevant or too difficult and confusing.  Yet I encourage you, join us for 8 weeks (or even a week or two and then decide if you want to continue) as we look at God's Word together.  I trust we will see the "last things" are to have a profound impact on our present things.  We will be looking at the Bible (so bring one if you have it - even if you do not, please feel free to come)...and I will seek to make this as easy to understand as possible. 

If you have any questions or would like more information, please ().

As the class progresses handouts and materials will likely be made available here.

 

2/2/12 - Night One

Eschatology, what does it mean?  Should we be concerned about it?  Answering question number two - Yes - is much easier than giving a concise answer to question number one. Defining eschatology...well, that is why we are having a class.  A person can break down the word "eschatology" and learn it basically means "the study of the last things".  Yet is that a good definition?  Furthermore, who decides what the "last things" are?  Lastly, why do we even study the Bible?   

  • To listen to the first night click here: Why Study Anything?  You will be taken to another page where you can either download or stream it to listen.  

 

2/9/12 - Night Two

We have yet to define eschatology.  Yet we are starting to see the importance of it.  In light of this, why is it ignored by so many?  Why do many other flock to it and focus on it alone?  This week we entered a bit more into the book of Revelation; once again some flock to it and others avoid it like the plague.  Certainly there has to be some sort of balance in there - right? 

 

2/16/12 - Night Three 

Eschatology is still not defined.  Yet I think tonight we saw, in sobering detail thanks to an ancient document, that the people to whom Revelation was written faced some serious challenges.  Yet this is not to say we face challenges in our own right...but we can be unaware of them...and the rubber starts to meet the road. 

 

2/23/12 - Night Four

Does one's view of eschatology matter?  Is one view as good as another?  After all, since they are debated - is it merely a matter of picking one?  Keeping in mind our approach to the Bible (humility, submission, context) it does matter.  In this session we look a bit more closely at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and Matthew 24.  While not everything was covered some very apparent difficulties are being seen with a dominant view of eschatology in our culture.  

 

3/8/12 - Night Five 

On one hand it is certainly understandable that many people are bewildered and confused when it comes to the book of Revelation.  The symbolism if Revelation has already been touched on a bit - and will be more in the future.  Yet part of this session shows us the literary techniques in Revelation are not unique to it - they are found throughout the Bible.  Indeed, maybe the book is not as strange as it seems.  

 

3/15/12 - Night Six 

In this session we look a bit at the flow of Revelation in order to see what John is saying to The Church.  This session also deals with a difficult passage in Revelation 20.  Seriously, what do we do with "After that he must be released for a little while" (Rev20:3) and "And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison..." (Rev20:7).  There is certainly a lot of debate about those passages - but perhaps a look into Roman history can help us.  Indeed, it will if we have ears to hear.  [NOTE: the information dealing with the "release of Satan" was taken directly from Dragons, John, and Every Grain of Sand - edited by Shane J Wood - an amazing resource for The Church.] 

 

3/22/12 - Night Seven 

In this session we continue to see - perhaps a bit more clearly - the importance of what is often labeled "eschatology".  Yet in doing so we are also awakened to a stark reality - the clarity of eschatology is demanding.  Indeed, "Eschatology functions to call Christians to live life in the present in light of the future and because of the past." Shane J. Wood in Dragons, John, and Every Grain of Sand. p275.