CFTE7- Eschatology, End Times

“Eschatology” is a Greek term meaning “the study of the last things.” Christian Eschatology, like the rest of theology, has an Old Testament background, as the New Testament writers were Jews with a Semitic mindset, as evidenced by frequent Hebraisms. Now, the Jews divided the history of humanity into two parts: “the first times,” which extend until the Coming of the Messiah, with which the so-called “fulfillment of times” is inaugurated, and “the last times,” from the Coming of the Messiah, which speak of culminating in the final act, in which God would judge humanity and lower the curtain on History.

Eschatology is usually divided into individual or particular, and collective or general. The former concerns the fate of each individual and tries to answer such unsettling questions as these: Does everything end with death? Where will I end up at the end of my life in this world? What is reserved for me on the other side of the grave? We are told laconically (though offered only as a comparison) that “it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment.” Death thus marks the irreversible divide for the human individual.

But the final salvation of the whole person coincides with the Second Coming of Christ. Hence, the emphasis we note on the culmination of the Kingdom of God in eternity, and the final destiny of humanity.

One thing is certain for every mature believer: God is on His throne, the living God is in control of the Universe, and no matter how discordant many of the things that happen may seem to us, we know that, just as a dominant seventh chord seems to hurt the eardrum of a good musician and demands transition to a perfect final chord, so too will our God, with the final gesture of His omnipotently directing baton, bring a just and perfect end to the History of humanity: His conduct will be fully justified, and His name will be totally and universally glorified. “Checkmate” will have been delivered to evil, however much the Evil One may have trusted in the coldly calculated strategy of his moves.

The true believer finds in the Bible the answer to the most stubborn doubts and the most unsettling questions, attentive to the prophetic word “as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.”

Pages: 432

Dimensions: 13.2 x 14.3 x 2.4 cm

ISBN: 9788482678511