Dr Paul Allen

What does eschatology mean? The word “eschatology” comes from a combination of Greek words meaning “the study of last things,” or the study of the end times. 1 In the article “Eschatology” in the  Lexham Bible Dictionary  (LBD) Page Brooks writes that  eschatology includes death, the intermediate state, the afterlife, judgment, the millennium, heaven, and hell, but it also refers to the time of Jesus’ second coming . Keep reading to do a deeper dive into what eschatology is, where eschatological themes are in the Bible, why Christians should study eschatology, and more. You can start at the beginning and read to the end or jump to the topics that interest you. Eschatology in the Old Testament Eschatology in the New Testament What are the 4 views of the end times? Why study eschatology? Why is there so much disagreement about end times prophecy? Do the creeds agree on the end times? Where is the concept of eschatology in the Bible? According to Brooks, eschatological ideas...

Is this the end? Our world is in turmoil. Civic unrest is occurring across the world. We are still facing a pandemic that is frightening as much for what we don’t know about it as what we do. The world economy is shattered. Visions of apocalypse dance in our heads. Even non-Christians can hardly describe COVID-19 without invoking the notion of judgment. Sarah, Duchess of York, for example, is convinced that Nature itself is judging us. She recently tweeted that  “Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms . . . like the spoilt children we are. She gave us time and she gave us warnings. She was so patient with us. She gave us fire and floods, she tried to warn us but in the end she took back control.”  It has been hard for people to process what is going on around them in any other way. Catastrophe is in the air. “In Revelation, God is opening up (revealing!) his wonderful plan for the ages.” Is God judging the world?  Are all the troubles the world ...

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If the apostles believed that the end times—the last days—began with Jesus’ first coming, it seems difficult to understand that two thousand years later we are still waiting for Jesus’ promised second coming. If “the end times” began in the first century A.D., why are we still waiting for the end? Can “the last days” really last for so long? The delay of Jesus’ second coming was already perceived as a problem by some whom Peter calls “scoffers”—people who gleefully provoked the faithful Christians with the words, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” ( 2 Peter 3:4).  Peter answers that these people ignore three facts. First, they forget that God , who created the world and then sent the great flood, will one day bring about the day of judgment when the present heavens and eart...