9. Eschatology

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
Hebrews 6:1-2

There is a lot of error taught in the world today concerning the events of the last times. There are those who expect a rapture followed by seven years of tribulation and then a thousand years reign of Christ on earth. Another group insists that the resurrection and all the events that surround it were figurative and saw their fulfillment in AD 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem. Still others through the centuries have set dates for the return of Christ, only to have them come and go in an uneventful manner. One group even claims Christ came in 1914 but virtually no one saw it. How confused man has become because of his presuppositions which cloud his understanding of the word of God. It will be our approach to present first what the Bible teaches about the end of the world, then we will spend some brief time refuting the error and clearing up the confusion.

We will begin by reading several key passages on this subject. Some are lengthy but for a full understanding of the subject, these readings will be helpful, if not absolutely necessary.

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
John 5:28-29

“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
Matthew 24:1-3

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be, For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Matthew 24:36-39

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall be sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”
Matthew 25:31-33

“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. “
I Corinthians 15:24-26

“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.”
I Corinthians 15:35-38

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
I Corinthians 15:51-52

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
I Thessalonians 4:13-18

These passages give us enough information to get started. From them we learn there will be a general (or universal) resurrection of the dead and that all will stand before Jesus and be judged. (See also Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, II Corinthians 5:10.) We learn that at death the wicked are separated from the righteous and will remain that way. We learn that at death our eternal destiny is sealed and cannot be changed. We learn that all that are alive at Christ’s coming will be changed and the dead will be resurrected in their spiritual bodies. We learn that no one knows when Christ will return and that there are no warning signs of His final coming. We also learn that the righteous will meet Him in the air and that they will spend eternity with Him.

This is pretty much it. That is why we must strive to remain faithful at all times so that when He appears, (and He will appear) we will be found to be faithful.

(As a note, in our first passage, Hebrews 6:1-2, we learned that the resurrection and judgment are “first principles” and easily understood. Any scheme that is not easily understood, any scheme which is sophisticated or complicated, any scheme which is labored in its defense, according to the thrust of this text, cannot be correct).

Someone, then, might ask the question, “Why do the majority of those that believe in Christ also believe in a thousand year reign by Him on earth?” We will examine the thousand year reign doctrine by first looking at what is generally taught and comparing that to Scripture. Then we will look at several passages which are misunderstood and misused to defend this false doctrine.

It is generally taught that Jesus came to the earth to set up His kingdom but that He was rejected as king and set up the church in its place. It is further taught He will return a second time and set up His kingdom in Jerusalem where He will reign 1000 years on the throne of David (I left out the rapture, tribulation, etc., because this would become too lengthy. In refuting this much of the error, all will fall together).

Observation One:

If man could overthrow the plans of Jesus once, they could do it again. How can we be sure the kingdom will ever be established?

Observation Two:

If they truly overthrew the plans of Jesus, then

(A) He made a mistake of judgment,

(B) He could not prevail against man, and

(C) the church was an afterthought, a foolish idea we have previously refuted in this work.

Observation Three:

The assumption that His kingdom is of this earth is a faulty assumption (John 18:36).

Observation Four:

The assumption that He was rejected as an earthly king is also a faulty assumption. (John 6:15)

Observation Five:

The time frame relative to the kingdom is all wrong (Luke 9:27, Colossians 1:13, Revelation 1:9).

Observation Six:

To reign on earth, Jesus would have to cease to be a priest (Hebrews 8: 1-5).]

Observation Seven:

For the 1000 year reign (as taught by men) to be true Jesus would have to leave His throne (Heaven – Matthew 5:34) and rule from His footstool (earth – Matthew 5:35).

Observation Eight:

A prosperous earthly reign would violate prophesy (Jeremiah 22:28-30, Matthew 1:12).

There are many more arguments that could be made but for now we will pass on to another issue, the textual heart of this false doctrine.

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations, no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Revelation 20:1-6

Notice several things missing from this text.

1. No rapture.
2. No tribulation.
3. The earth is not even mentioned in relation to this reign.
4. All the righteous are not included.
5. Those included were
   1. martyrs
   2. and souls (not bodies).

A lot of assumption and addition are necessary to find all the “facts” of the thousand years reign in this proof-text.

For our concluding discussion of this issue we will view several lengthy scriptures and glean briefly from them and see what we shall see. The passages are:

Matthew 24:1-51

Mark 13:1-37

Luke 17:20-37

Luke 21:5-36

Because of their length, I have chosen to have you read these from your Bible. When you have accomplished this, you may return to the text of this book.

We will not examine all the text you have read, but we will notice a few important issues in these scriptures.

First, while it was probably not so intended, the disciples asked about two major events. The first was the destruction of Jerusalem and the second was the end of the world (Matthew 24:3, et. al.). They probably thought both would occur together. The text and history have both shown that such was not the case.

Second, Jesus gave a blended answer to a blended question. Many have searched for a definitive dividing line within the text but to no avail.

Third, there are texts which clearly speak only of the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15-21, et. al.) and others which speak only of the end of time (Matthew 24:36-42, it. al). Still other texts may apply to either or both. A careful study is necessary to avoid confusion.

Fourth, there were signs of the destruction of Jerusalem but there are no signs of the final coming of Jesus. A misunderstanding of the parable of the fig tree has led some to conclude that at the time of Christ’s return the seasons will be blended. I have heard that from my youth up and it is simply not true. Of the destruction of Jerusalem there were signs (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, Luke 21:20). Of the final coming of Christ there are none (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32).

The complicated schemes invented by man simply do not stand the test of careful examination. We must stay prepared and faithful at all times because we know not when our Lord shall return.

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22