Eschatology Flashcards
Define eschatology. What are the topics included?
The study of final things in the bible. Topics include death, the intermediate state, the return of Christ, resurrection, judgment, tribulation, the millennial kingdom, and the eternal state.
What can people count on regarding physical death?
We all must die once and then face judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)
What exception to physical death might happen at the Lord’s return?
Christians alive at the Lord’s return do not seem to pass through physical death, but instantaneously receive their resurrection bodies.
How is physical death described in the Bible?
It is the separation of the soul/spirit from the body. The writer of Ecclesiastes says the body returns to the dust from which it came and the spirit to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
What is spiritual death?
It is the spiritual state of all people (except Christ) born into this world. The apostle Paul says that we are “spiritually dead in sin” until we are made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-6).
What kind of works do the spiritually dead produce?
They produce works consistent with death, darkness, and profound ignorance of God (Ephesians 4:17-19).
What happens if you physically die in a state of spiritual death?
They face the second death that is permanent. It is a permanent state of separation from the gracious presence of God. It is eternal punishment for sin
What is spiritual and physical death a result of?
Adam’s sin(1 Corinthians 15:21). Man was banned from entering the garden, taking from the tree of life, and living forever in a sinful state, so the penalty of death included physical death (Genesis 3:23-24).
What happens to Christians after they die?
They are resurrected and have eternal life. (John 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).
What happens to Christians after they die but before they are resurrected? What are the four main views?
Some say the body enter an unconscious state of limbo until the resurrection of the body. Roman Catholics argue that souls of believers aren’t purified yet so they go to purgatory. A third view is “instantaneous resurrection” taught by F.F. Bruce and W.D. Davies which says that Christians immediately receive a resurrected body which we do not see. They use 2 Corinthians 5:9. The fourth view is that the disembodied souls of believers go to be “with Christ” and will await a resurrection body at his return.(1 Corinthians 15:22-23)
What happens in the intermediate state for those who die apart from Christ?
They go immediately to hell (Luke 16:23-24) and from there await a resurrection to judgment (John 5:28-29).
Why do some say that our resurrection bodies must be incoporeal?
Because Paul said that “flesh and blood” cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50).
Why are our bodies likely to be corporeal?
Paul does not likely mean in 1 Corinthians 15:50 a contrast of material with immaterial, but a contrast with perishable and imperishable. Also, since Jesus’ resurrected body was physical, (Luke 24:39), and ours is patterned after his, we may expect ours to be physical as well (Philippians 3:21). We do not fully know what these resurrected bodies will be capable of.
What did Christ teach about his second coming?
He will return personally and certainly, though we cannot know the day (John 14:3; Matthew 24:36).
How do we know Christ’s return will be bodily?
Acts 1:11
Who will notice when Christ’s Second Coming happens?
Everyone. This will not happen in obscurity or in a “stable” in a small town in Judah. While false Christs will appear to deceive, but his real coming will be known by everyone like lightning (Matthew 24:27).
What will happen to the elect prior to Christ’s Second Comingi?
Many will be persecuted and put to death because of Christ (Matthew 24:9). This tribulation will be shortened for the sake of the elect (Matthew 24:22).
What will happen to Christ’s enemies after his Second Coming?
They will be judged by him. They will be “cut to pieces and assigned a place with the wicked” (Matthew 24:51). They will receive eternal punishment for their sin (Matthew 25:46).
What will happen to the righteous believers after Christ’s Second Coming?
Jesus will deliver them from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10). They will inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). They will inherit eternal life (Matthew 25:46).
What passages seem to teach that Christ could return at any moment?
Matthew 24:42 and Luke 12:40
What events must proceed the second coming of Christ so that it might not be immenent?
The gospel must be preached in all the world (Matthew 24:14), the great tribulation must occur (24:21), the man of lawlessness must appear (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and “all Israel” must be saved (Romans 11:25-32). There will be false messiahs and wars and natural disasters (Matthew 24:4-8). These are birth pains.
How does prophetic foreshortening resolve the tension between Christ’s imminent return and the fact that events must precede it?
The biblical writers used terms like “soon” (Revelation 22:12) and expressions such as “in a little while” (Hebrews 10:17) in connection with the second coming of Christ, does not mean the events were going to come to pass immediately, but only that they viewed the future as an imminent reality. Through this prophetic view, their message has benefit and application to every generation.
How do Liberal theologians resolve the tension between Christ’s imminent return and the events that events must precede it?
They simply deny that Christ will return bodily.
How does Louis Berkhof resolve the tension between the imminent return of Jesus and the fact that events must precede it? What is one problem with Berkhof’s view?
He stresses the “delay” over the imminence. When Jesus spoke of his coming he was sometimes referring to “his coming in spiritual power at the Pentecost; sometimes to his coming in the judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem.” He points to texts that stress delay like (Matthew 25:5). He thinks the Bible does not teach imminence, only delay. The first problem is it nullifies warnings to watch and be ready for Christ’s coming at any moment.
How do some dispensationalists resolve the tension between Christ’s imminent return and that there are events which seem to precede it? What is one problem with this view?
The secret coming of Christ called the rapture must happen first and be imminent, then Christ’s second coming with the saints to reign on the earth will happen as a different event and be preceded by many signs. A problem is that the “rapture” in (1 Thessaloninas 4:16-17) seems to be anything but secret or private (“a loud command,” “the voice of the archangel,” “the trumpet call of God”).
What is the subjectivist solution to the tension between the passages of Christ’s imminent return and passages of events that must precede it?
The subjectivist solution is that imminency passages are speaking not objectively about Christ’s return but about our experience of Christ’s return.
What will happen at or immediately after the rapture?
1 Thessalonians 4:17 says the saints who are alive at the coming of the Lord “will be suddenly caught up” together with saints who have previously died and together they will join the Lord in the air. Some argue that, together with the Lord, they will immediately return to the earth. Others, such as most dispensationalists, argue that that church is taken away to heaven where she experiences the judgment seat of Christ and the marriage Lamb.
What is the pretribulational rapture view?
The view is that the rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation begins. While God’s people have always suffered trials and tribulatins, there is yet coming on the earth a definite period (7 years) of unparalleled tribulation in fulfillment of Daniel’s seventieth week (Daniel 9:24-27). The church will be raptured before this period begins (Revelation 3:10) and will then return from heaven with the Lord at his second coming seven years later.
What is the posttribulationalist view of the rapture?
This is the view that the rapture of the church will occur after the Great Tribulation. Some think it will be three and one-half years or 7 years or no definite time of tribulation before Christ returned.
What is the midtribulational position on the rapture?
The rapture will take place in the middle of the seven year tribulation before the wrath of God is truly poured out in the last three and one-half years (before the battle of Armageddon).
Define postmillennialism.
The doctrine which affirms that through the work of the Spirit in Christian preaching and teaching in the present time of the church (before the second advent) the world at large will eventually be evangelized and won to Christ. This will turn out in a world characterized by universal peace instead of strife, universal prosperity instead of inequality, godliness instead of evil, and so on, though the time period may be more or less than thousand years. Evil will still be present to a limited degree. Through Christian influence, many economic, educational and social ills will be resolved.
What are the weaknesses in the postmillennial view?
It can’t really deal with certain important texts and themes which characterize the age of the church as one of suffering and which also demonstrate that the church’s hope is not in an age of righteousness coming apart from the literal presence of Christ. Also, since the church has come 2000 years and still sees no evidence of a postmillennial movement in history, one has cause to question this interpretation.
According to premillennialists, when will the golden age of rightousness and peace happen?
Only after the second coming of Christ, when the King if visibly and bodily present.
Why was premillennialism abandoned through the medieval period, Reformation, and the Enlightenment? When and where did it make a comeback?
Augustine’s amillennialism was that influential. Only in the nineteenth century with British and American expressions of Christianity did it make a real comeback.
