Matthew 24:24 – For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
To catalogue all the nuanced and varied beliefs about eschatology would be nearly impossible.
In summary, a Bible dictionary says, “In the twentieth century there have been three basic forms of eschatology: thoroughgoing or consistent, realized, and inaugurated.
- Thoroughgoing eschatology…is the view that Jesus and his followers proclaimed the imminent end of history. Since the end did not come when they expected, Jesus submitted to death as a way of forcing the full arrival of the kingdom.
- Realized eschatology…takes the position that the first coming of Christ represents the full presence of the kingdom of God.
- Inaugurated eschatology…views the first coming of Christ as the beginning of the kingdom that will be consummated at his second coming. As a result, believers live between the overlap of the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’. The last view most adequately represents the evangelical understanding of the biblical material.” (1)
Like most evangelical Christians, I hold the inaugurated eschatology view. I teach from the viewpoint that the Kingdom of God began at Jesus’ First Coming, He currently rules over our world and history, is working through His Church by the Holy Spirit, and will return to unveil His Kingdom in fullness forever.
With other Bible-believing Christians, despite all the secondary open-handed issues (e.g. the length of millennium, whether or not there will be a rapture and if so when, who the antichrist might be, what the mark of the beast might refer to, etc.), there are many points of closed-handed agreement that are well-summarized in an old worship hymn, “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”
Which of these three views make the most sense to you?
- J. Daniel Hays, J. Scott Duvall, and C. Marvin Pate, Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy and End Times (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2007), 140.
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