Eschatology – Page 5 – Gregory Scott Blog

Jesus vs. Nostradamus

Nostradamus has never impressed me. His so-called prophecies are vague, obscure and he doesn’t say when they will come to pass. Jesus is the real deal.

The year is 30 A.D. Jesus is walking away from the temple, a magnificant structure built by Herod the Great, when one of His disciples points out the temple buildings to Him.

Jesus says, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (Matt. 24:1-2).

Now, no building stands forever. So, if Jesus had stopped there, I would say that his prediction wasn’t too risky. But later, His disciples ask him, “when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus then answers the questions.

Jesus tells them there will be a number of signs. He even quotes prophetic language of judgment from Isaiah and Ezekiel that the “sun will be darkened” and “the moon will not give its light.” (cf. Matt. 24:29, Isaiah 13:10, Ezek. 32:7-8). In other words, Jesus is going to come back and turn out the lights on Jerusalem and the Jewish sacrificial system.

Jesus tells the disicples that when they see Jerusalem surrounded to get out of dodge. (Luke 21:20). He is also very specific about the timing: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:34). A generation, by Jewish reckoning is 40 years.

In 70 A.D., the Roman army led by its general, Titus, surrounded the City of Jerusalem. The Christians, remembering Jesus’ words, left Jerusalem, eventually settling in a city north of Jerusalem called Pella. The Romans sacked Jerusalem, entered the temple, where no Gentile was permitted to go, stole its treasures, then destroyed the temple. The temple has never been rebuilt.

Within a generation, Jesus returned in judgment, the temple was destroyed, just as Jesus predicted, bringing an end to the age of the Jewish sacrificial system. Jesus called it, and dated it. That’s real prophecy. GS

3 Presuppositions That Make You Ineffective In The Kingdom

Presuppositions are foundational beliefs that are usually assumed and unexamined. The are generally not adopted as a result of study and investigation. The are caught rather than taught.

That makes presuppositions particularly dangerous because chances are even if you aren’t consciously aware of your presuppositions, you will act on them. They affect what think and how you interpret reality.

Here are three presuppositions that will make you ineffective and irrelevant as a Christian.

1. Dualism. Dualism is the belief that the spiritual is good and matter is bad; or as Tarzan would say, “Heaven good. Earth bad.” It separates reality into the sacred and profane, the spiritual and the secular. It believes the full-time ministry is the highest calling and that so-called secular vocations are not as important. It’s what leads you to call Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and Switchfoot sell-outs for crossing over from Christian to secular music. Dualism, however, misses the mark. Jesus’ incarnation invalidates dualism. How can one maintain the dualistic belief that matter is evil when God took it on to become man in the person of Jesus? Moreover, when God finished with creation, he said it was “very good.” (Gen. 1:31).

2. Escapism. Escapism is an excessive fixation on heaven that results in seeking an escape from the world. If you’ve ever been accused of being so heavenly-minded you are no earthly good you may suffer from this presuppostion. Another symptom of Escapism is rapture fever. Regardless of what your eschatology is, any eschatology that leads you to abandon the earth is clearly contrary to the command of Jesus, who prayed for His disciples the night He was arrested, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world…” (John 17:15). Too many Christians are obsessed with getting out of the world; Jesus is trying to get them back into it.

3. Passivism. Passivism is the presupposition that God generally works for us rather than in and through us. For example, Passivists expect God to take problems away from them rather than giving them the strength and wisdom to solve them. God will work for you if you are Christian, but He has chosen to work primarily in and through Christians. Consider these scriptures: “God is at work in you, both to will and work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13); “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13); “Christ in you, is the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27); “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.” (I John 4:4).

If you suffer from one or more of these three presuppositions they are probably sapping your effectiveness as Christian. They will lead you to spend all your time in so-called spiritual pursuits and with other believers rather than engaging the world, and you will find yourself increasingly irrelevant and unable to relate to non-Christians and the world. Have you caught any of these presuppositions? GS

A Peculiar Pattern In The Book of Daniel

This year I’m doing something I’ve never done: I’m reading the entire Bible through in historical order, the order the events in the Bible happened, not when they were written.

It’s been a fascinating journey, one that has enabled me to see things in the Bible I had never noticed. I made one such discovery last week in the Book of Daniel.

Daniel is a fascinating book for me because it describes broad swaths of world history. There is prophecy pertaining to the Babylonian Empire, the coming Persian, Greek and Roman empires.

There is mention of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great and prophecies regarding Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes IV, major historical figures and objects of study for even secular historians.

It is in the context of this setting and description of historical world-dominating empires that something peculiar emerges regarding the coming kingdom of God.

The Book of Daniel essentially starts with the story of Daniel interpreting the prophetic dream of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, which concludes with a description of the kingdom of God, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed…it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44)

Later Nebuchadnezzar, after having an interesting encounter with God, praises Him and states in a written declaration, “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.” (Daniel 4:3).

Then during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Belshazzar, Daniel has a vision, at the end of which he declares “His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)

After that Darius the Mede ascends to the throne and seeing the miraculous delivery of Daniel from the lions’ den proclaims, “For He is the living God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever.” (Daniel 6:26).

It’s almost as if God placed this repeating theme of the enduring nature of the kingdom of God in the midst of this book of great earthly kingdoms and rulers to make a point: All these earthly kingdoms, the greatest the earth has had to offer, ultimately were conquered by others, but the kingdom of God will never be left for another people and will endure forever. The Lord even has two non-Jewish earthly rulers proclaim this truth so that we don’t miss the point.

And there is one last point. The enduring nature of the kingdom of God is not merely a result of the promise of an afterlife, but it is a characteristic of the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of God has endured and will continue to endure, not only because it offers life after death, but before it. GS

The One Question I Would Ask The Apostle John

Tomb of the Apostle, John — 2010 © Gregory Scott

A few weeks ago I was in Ephesus and saw the tomb of the disciple, John, author of the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation. As I stood there I entertained the obvious thought, “Wow, I’m just a few feet away from the remains of a person who walked with Jesus.”

But I also had a burning question, the one question I would ask John if I could only ask him one question: “When did you write the Book of Revelation?” The question is not just an academic one but one with profound consequences. If John wrote the Book of Revelation in the early 90s A.D. then futurists–those who believe much of what is written in Revelation, including the Great Tribulation, is in the future–probably have the better argument.

If, however, John wrote Revelation in the early 60’s A.D. before Emperor Nero’s persecution of Christians, which followed the great fire in Rome in 64 A.D., the postmillennialist view actually makes more sense. And instead of cowering in fear of a coming Great Tribulation and living in a timid expectation the kingdom of God will fail on earth, Christians can go forth confidently building the kingdom, knowing it will continue to permeate the earth like leaven.

I am firmly in the second group, believing Revelation was written in the early 60s A.D., before Nero’s persecution and before the destruction of Jerusalem. The best book I’ve seen on the dating of the Revelation is Dr. Kenneth Gentry’s book, The Beast of Revelation. There are arguments of course for a later dating of Revelation, but I believe the more convincing case is for an early dating.

Too bad though we can’t just ask John. GS

Of Economics And Eschatologies

In the 1990s it seemed everybody was getting rich. The money flowed easily and the stock market was up and to the right. Americans spent themselves into debt believing they would alway have a job and their wages would continue to increase.

Peoples’ attitudes are quite different today. People are saving money again at the highest rates we’ve seen in years. They are also getting out of debt. They expect money to be tight, jobs uncertain and the stock market unfriendly well into the future.

The difference between the attitude of people in the 1990s and in 2010 is not driven by their understanding of economic theory or history.

It’s something more embarrassingly simple: people assume the way things are are they way they will continue to be.

In the 1990s when things were good, people believed they would continue to be that way. In 2010, things are bad economically, so people assume they will continue that way.

What’s true in economics is true in eschatology. People tend to believe that the way things are is the way they will always be.

I recently read, George Marsden’s book on Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American theologian, lived and preached during The Great Awakening, the greatest revival in American history. Edwards’s experience in seeing so many people come to the Lord led him to believe he was at the beginning of an era that would culminate in the millennial peace. Instead, twenty-five years later, America was embroiled in a war for her independence.

Today, with moral standards on the decline and Christianity’s influence seemingly waning, people have increasingly adopted a pessimistic eschatology. This is why Tim LaHaye’s and Hal Lindsey’s books have been so popular. They ring true to people who attempt to predict the future by merely projecting the present.

Now, think back to the 1990s with me. What if you had saved money throughout the 1990’s, not because of any particular view of the future but because thrift is a Biblical command? Where might you be financially today?

And what if Christians, rather than withdrawing from the world because they perceived the culture as being on an irreversible decline, had continued to lead the culture as the salt and light King Jesus commanded? Where might our culture be today? GS