Some Crucial End-Times Info

by | Mar 28, 2018 | End-Times | 0 comments

Maybe the Bible’s doctrine of the end-times (“eschatology” in theological speak) isn’t something you think about regularly… but maybe we should, more? Like we noted in the previous post, certainly Jesus and the Apostles expected us to have our thinking shaped by the good pressure of the soon coming of Jesus. And there’s a lot more surrounding His coming that the New Testament teaches. Along those lines, I stumbled on this great post from Dr. Michael Vlach the other day. Dr. Vlach takes a few minutes to describe why premillennialism (the teaching that Jesus’ return will be followed by 1000 years of his direct rule as the earth’s king)…well… has just got to be true.

If you’re familiar with these discussions, you know that some good Christians read prophecy differently. But I think a quick read of Dr. Vlach’s points shows the power and clear-headed, biblical nature of his reasoning.

His main points are these:

  1.  Jesus, the last Adam, must successfully rule from and over the realm where the first Adam failed—earth.
  2. There must be a sustained visible reign of Jesus in the realm (earth) where Jesus was rejected at His first coming.
  3. There must be a reward and vindication of the saints in the realm where they were persecuted.
  4. There must be a period when all yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecies and promises will be literally fulfilled.
And here is a great paragraph:
…why must fulfillment take place during a coming millennium and not the present age or the coming eternal state? If we claim that all the kingdom prophecies and promises are being fulfilled in this present age then we would have to spiritualize many of the promises and prophecies since many of these have not literally occurred. But can we spiritualize the restoration of creation to this age? Can we spiritualize harmony among the animal kingdom? What about the restoration of Israel and physical/land promises to Israel?
If we do so, we set up an inconsistent paradigm in which promises connected with Jesus’ first coming were fulfilled literally but others will be fulfilled spiritually or non-literally.
It’s points like that last one that lead me to suggest clicking over to the entire post to read the full explanation. Dr. Vlach is  a clear, generous, and honest thinker, who is up to date on all the latest biblical scholarship. If you have any questions about things like the rapture, the millennium, “dispensationalism,” or anything related to the interpretation of prophecy and end-times doctrine, I suggest picking up any of his books, which we’ll also be carrying in our bookstore here at Calvary.