MENNONITE BRETHERN CENTENARY BIBLE COLLEGE, SHAMSHABA
Subject: Prophetic Response to the Struggles of the People of God (BBO16)
Topic: Eschatology
Faculty: Afaki Madam
Submitted By: Kora Samarpan Raju
1. Introduction:
“The word ‘eschatology’ arises from two Greek terms, eschatos, an adjective that
means ‘farthest’ or ‘last,’ and logos, a noun meaning ‘word’ or ‘study.’ Eschatology,
therefore, is the word concerning, or the study of, what is ultimate or last, that is, what is final
in the program of God.”
Eschatology in the context of the overall biblical story:
1. The overall biblical story.
The basic biblical story may be summarized as follows: God created a beautiful world and
human beings to live joyful, fulfilled lives in fellowship with him. Through our sin we lost
that fellowship and brought evil and death into the world. However, God did not leave us in
our sin and death. By means of a grand plan which involved calling Abraham and the nation
of Israel, he prepared the way for his own coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to
bring forgiveness of sin and to restore fellowship with him. He is coming again to utterly
destroy sin and death without destroying us. He will consummate our restoration and our
relationship with him. And he will renew the earth to be even more glorious than when it was
first created. His goal is to live in a perfect, holy, loving, familial relationship with humanity,
in a perfect environment, in which all relationships have been restored to perfection. God
himself is both the author of the story and its primary character.
2. The importance of eschatology with respect to the biblical story.
“Within the context of Christian doctrine the topic of eschatology provides an
overarching vision of the faith. It seeks to set forth what is the ultimate goal toward which
God’s work in the world is directed, how that work will be consummated and in what manner
that goal is already in the process of being realized. The Bible presents history as meaningful,
in that it is directed toward a goal—namely, the reign of God or the presence of the will of
God throughout the earth. . . . John’s vision [in Revelation] forms the climax to a long history
of prophetic promise that stretches back to the Garden of Eden”.
3. Individual versus corporate eschatology.
There are two main types or foci of eschatology: “individual eschatology” (i.e., what
happens to individuals after death), and “corporate eschatology” (i.e., God’s overall plan for
human beings and creation as a whole and how that plan is consummated). This book deals
primarily with corporate eschatology rather than individual eschatology, although there is
some overlap between them.
Major hermeneutical issues:
1. The nature of the “thousand years” (Rev 20:1-7): Is the “thousand years” a discrete period
of time distinct from the rest of history? And what does it look like? (i.e., is it a “golden age”
or not?)
2. The timing of the “thousand years”: Is the “thousand years” a past, present, or future
period of time? And does it occur before or after Christ comes again?
The different answers to the main eschatological issues tend to be based on different
answers to three hermeneutical issues:
The role of the NT in interpreting the OT
How to interpret the Bible’s symbolic
The relationship between Israel and the church.
II. Interpreting Prophecy and Apocalyptic:
Prophecy can be one of the most challenging areas of biblical interpretation. Three main
reasons for that are: (1) failure to apply the basic principles of biblical interpretation; (2)
misunderstanding the genre of prophecy; and (3) failing to understand basic biblical
theology(1)
A. The nature of biblical prophets and prophecy
God gave Israel his revelation and established his covenant. In this context, God
instituted the prophets through Moses. The prophet was to be: a man of God; a witness for
God; a servant of God; and committed to God. He was to speak the voice of God, in contrast
to listening to the voice of the people. Likewise, he served as a critic of the culture, from a
Godly perspective.
B. General considerations regarding prophecy
The emphasis is on God, not on specific events. Prophetic messages are more the “forth-
telling” of God’s word, than the foretelling of specific, inevitable, future events. The
fulfillment of prophecy lies in a person (God), and He may fulfill His word however and
whenever He chooses. For example, the prophets spoke of David returning or his descendant
coming to Israel (e.g., Isa 11:1; Jer 30:9; Ezek 37:24); God actually came in person, and the
kingdom of God became manifested through Jesus in ways the OT prophets could not
conceive (see Mark 1:15; Luke 17:21; Matt 16:19 [compare Isa 22:22]).
C. The profound effect of the NT on OT prophecy
The full meaning of any particular passage or prophecy may not be clear unless the
whole Bible and the stage of redemptive history are taken into consideration: “To read the
Bible contextually as the Word of God must include the completed canon as the ultimate
context of any particular passage”. The NT profoundly affects OT prophecy. In fact, one may
say that the NT transforms OT prophecy and is the best interpreter of OT prophecy.
Footnote:
(1)Detailed materials on Biblical Interpretation and Biblical Theology are available for free
on the “ECLEA Courses & Resources” page of ECLEA’s website: www.eclea.net.
III. Old Testament Eschatological Expectations and the Significance of Christ’s First
Coming:
A. Old Testament eschatological expectations
1. OT eschatological terminology. Several OT passages use the phrase “last days,” “latter
days,” “latter years,” or “end time” in an eschatological sense. The idea of the last or latter
days “relates to the collective aspect of eschatology: it deals with the fortunes and destinies of
the people, not with the prospect and future of the individual. It covers unfavourable and
favourable happenings occurring in the farthest visible plane to which the prophetic vision
extends, and there is not clear marking of the sequence of these in time.
2. OT eschatological themes. Before the exile of Israel to Babylon the prophets tended to
stress Israel’s rebelliousness. After the exile the prophetic emphasis shifted toward the
responsibility of God’s people to prepare for the full establishing of God’s kingdom. Those
prophetic themes included.
B. Christ’s first coming and the fulfilment of the OT eschatological prophecies
concerning Israel
The NT reveals that the synthesis of those promises is found in Christ, of whom Paul says,
“For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes” (2 Cor 1:20). The OT
prophets mingled items connected with the first coming of Christ and items connected with
His second coming. “Not until the New Testament times would it be revealed that what was
thought of in Old Testament days as one coming of the Messiah would be fulfilled in two
stages: a first and second coming” (Hoekema 1979: 12). Christ and His church fulfil the OT
prophecies in ways that were not anticipated by the OT prophets themselves. That fact has
tremendous eschatological significance: since Christ and the church fulfil the OT prophecies
concerning Israel, including the prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel, it is not
legitimate hermeneutically to contend that those same OT prophecies must have a future
“literal” fulfilment in the physical nation of Israel. To contend that is to miss the entire
storyline of the Bible, which finds its culmination in Christ and His people, the church. Some
of the ways that Christ and the church fulfil the OT prophecies regarding Israel are the
following(2)
Footnote:
(2)Because of limitations of space, this book can only show a few of the ways in which Christ
and the church fulfil OT prophecy regarding Israel. Menn 2018: 26-93 shows this more
comprehensively. It is available for free on the “ECLEA Courses & Resources” page of
ECLEA’s website: www.eclea.net.
Bibliography:
Irenaeus. 1885. Against Heresies. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, edited by Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson, revised by A. Cleveland Coxe, 315-567. New York: Christian
Literature Publishing Company. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. Online (another
edition): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.i.html.
Augustine. 1950 (reprint). The City of God. Translated by Marcus Dods. New York: Random
House. Online: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html.
