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Our senior pastor is in the middle of a 4 part series on biblical prophecy – the series is entitled “So What’s Next?”. I’ll be posting a summary/response of each message in the series.

But in this post, I just want to cover briefly the general topic of the end times, or, eschatology.

This is one of the few doctrinal areas where I hold a significantly different view then the leadership of our new church. They in large part hold to a view called dispensational premillennialism.

Before you walk away from the rest of this post after reading that phrase, let me distill it for you. Basically, it says this about the end times:

• The nation of Israel and the Church are distinct entities with distinct purposes in God’s plan of history. The Church is seen basically as a “parentheses” in God’s plan for Israel; Israel rejected Jesus at his coming and so salvation was given to the Gentiles. We are in the parenthetical period now where God is growing the Church; but at some point in the future God will get back to his plan for national Israel.
• The nation of Israel has a major role to play in the end times. The promises to Abraham about possessing the land are still waiting their ultimate fulfillment – his physical descendants will possess all the land promised in Genesis at some point again in the future. Therefore, the promises and prophecies in the Old Testament are not applicable to the Church; they are strictly reserved for the nation of Israel at some point in the future.
• One day, Jesus will return secretly and call the church, both those dead and those alive, to meet him in the air. The church will be “raptured” from the earth in a secret event.
• Following this rapture, there will be a seven year period called the Great Tribulation. During this period, the anti-Christ will rise to power and gain a tremendous following around the world. But also during this time, a remnant will be brought to Christ and resist the anti-Christ’s regime. For them, there will be great persecution and suffering.
• This time period will culminate with Christ returning and destroying the anti-Christ, establishing rule from the literal throne in the nation of Israel, and ruling for 1000 years (the millennium) on earth while Satan is bound. During this period, a return is made to Old Testament Temple worship and sacrifices.
• At the end of the 1000 years, Satan is released and gathers an army of followers for one final battle, but they are defeated by Christ.
• Following this, the final judgment occurs and the new heavens and new earth are created and dwelt in for eternity by those that had faith in Christ.

Now, I am missing a lot of details in the above scheme (multiple resurrections for different groups of people, multiple judgments for different groups of people, a time line for the establishment of the nation of Israel and events that must occur, etc…). This is just an overall high level sketch of what a dispensational premillennialist believes about the end times.

The viewpoint I hold is called amillennialism. It basically says this:

• The nation of Israel was crucial in God’s purposes for this world, but that time has passed. The purpose of Israel was to bring forth the Messiah who would bring blessing and salvation to all the peoples of the world. This happened in the person of Jesus Christ, and now, his Church no longer distinguishes between Jew and Gentile, but all tribes, tongues, and peoples are called to believe in Christ and join his Church.
• Israel as a nation has no special purpose to play any longer; for any Israelite to be saved he must believe in Christ. Romans 11 leaves open the possibility that a mass conversion of Israelites might occur in the future, but this is a conversion to Christ and not a reinstatement of Old Testament patterns.
• Therefore, the Old Testament promises and prophecies are either all fulfilled in Christ, the church, or in the new heavens and new earth. There is not a future millennium where the nation of Israel will be reinstated and return to temple worship and sacrifice to fulfill these prophecies.
• At some point in the future, Christ will return and call the church, both those dead and those alive, to meet him in the air on his way to judge the earth. This is a public event, not secret, and it coincides with the final judgment and the creation of the new heavens and new earth.
• The millennium period is symbolic for the entire period between the first and second comings of Christ, where the Church will both expand through the Gospel and will be persecuted by opposition. The opposition and persecution will increase near the end, and likely culminate in an anti-Christ figure who will be destroyed at the coming of Christ.
• The new heavens and new earth are created and dwelt in for eternity by those that have faith in Christ.

So, as you can see there are major differences. And in my mind these are not unimportant differences. But, they also should not divide Christians. And this is the stance of the leadership at Fellowship, so I am very pleased with that.

Regardless of your view, these things are in agreement:

• Christ is coming for His people
• There will be a final judgment
• There will be a new heavens and new earth where those who are Christ’s will dwell with him for eternity!

For an excellent comparison of the major views of the end times in more detail then I’ve given here, check out this chart at the Reformed Reader.

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