CFTE9 - Eschatology II

“Eschatology” is a Greek term meaning “the study of the last things.” Christian Eschatology, like the rest of theology, has an Old Testament foundation, as the New Testament writers were Jews with a Semitic mindset, as evidenced by frequent Hebraisms. Now, the Jews divided human history into two parts: “the former times,” which span until the Coming of the Messiah, with which the so-called “fulfillment of times” is inaugurated, and “the latter times,” from the Coming of the Messiah, which are meant to culminate 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 first concerns the fate of each individual, and seeks to answer unsettling questions such 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 reserved 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 ultimate fate 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 the transition to a perfect final chord, so too will our God, with the last 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 dealt to evil, no matter how 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 persistent 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.”