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All the events covered under the traditional heading of eschatology concern God’s purposes and goals, and all of God’s purposes and goals are related to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

December 2022 View Issue Eschatology: A Whole-Bible Conceptby Keith A. Mathison Feature Article December 2022 View Issue You have {{ remainingArticles }} free {{ counterWords }} remaining.You've accessed all your free articles.Unlock the Archives for Free Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.Verify{{ error }}Need help? SHARE TwitterFacebook Email What do you think when you hear the word eschatology? If you are like many Christians, you think immediately of the second advent of Christ. But do you ever think of the birth of Christ? His first advent? Depending on the churches you have attended, you may think of the rapture and the great tribulation. But do you ever think of the day of Pentecost? You may think of the book of Revelation. But what about Genesis? Exodus? Leviticus?The reason that most of us think about the return of Jesus rather than His birth when we think about eschatology is that eschatology is the doctrine of the last things. The word itself is formed from a combination of two Greek words: eschatos (meaning “last”) and logos (meaning “word” or “discourse”). When we put the two together, we have the word eschatology—a word or discourse concerning that which is last.Because of this, systematic theologians have traditionally defined eschatology as that part of Christian doctrine dealing with “last things” in terms of individuals and in terms of world history. Individual eschatology deals with the “last things” for each individual human being. In other words, it deals with topics such as death and the intermediate state (the state between death and the resurrection of the body). General eschatology, on the other hand, deals with the “last things” in world history—the return of Christ, the general resurrection, the final judgment, heaven, and hell.It is important to understand this definition of eschatology, but I would like to suggest that it is also important to understand eschatology in a much broader sense. The last things don’t merely happen out of the blue. All the events covered under the traditional heading of eschatology concern God’s purposes and goals, and all of God’s purposes and goals are related to the person and work of Jesus Christ. God’s purposes and goals are purposes and goals that God has had from all eternity. This means that those purposes and goals were purposes and goals when God created the heavens and the earth. It also means that everything God is doing from creation onward has been directed toward the accomplishment of those purposes and goals. When we think about this, we can begin to see how all of Scripture is eschatological. Eschatology is about Jesus and what the whole Bible says about Him and His work.Share One way that we can see this is to consider how forward looking all of Scripture is. Christian eschatology is rooted in the promises of God, and promises are inherently forward looking, awaiting fulfillment in the future. The promises of God begin in the earliest chapters of the Bible. After Adam and Eve are tempted by the serpent and fall into sin, God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). God promises here that He will graciously change the hearts of fallen people (putting enmity with the serpent in them to replace their enmity with God). He will judge and redeem, and this will be accomplished through the seed of the woman. This is the first of many promises that God makes concerning His redemptive purpose. It looks toward something that God is going to do in the future. In other words, it is eschatological.Throughout the Old Testament, everything that God is doing with His people is related in one way or another to the accomplishment of His goals for creation and for humanity. We see this not only in God’s first promise but also in the promises that God makes when He establishes the Noahic covenant (Gen. 6–9), the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12; 15; 17), the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 19–24), and the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7). In addition, God makes promises concerning a new covenant that He will make with His people (Jer. 31). This new covenant promise includes promises that God will pour out His Spirit on His people (e.g., Joel 2). All the promises of God are forward looking in one way or another, and all these promises find their fulfillment in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).God’s eschatological goals and purposes are also seen in the various types and shadows that point forward to Christ. The entire sacrificial system centered on the tabernacle and temple, for example, points forward to Christ. He is the true High Priest (Heb. 4:14). He is the true...

Eschatology: A Whole-Bible Concept | Tabletalk