Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
Eschatology:
(Taken from Chapter 12 of the book: A Visual Survey of the Bible, by David L. Dawson)
Concerning these future matters, there is general agreement on the central issues. These include such things as:
- History will go on to a certain point, then God will intervene.
- There will be a tribulation.
- There will be a rapture in which God’s people will meet the Lord Jesus in the air.
- At Jesus’ return in power the Antichrist will be destroyed.
- There will be a final crushing of all opposition to Christ.
- There is a judgment that results in each person spending eternity in heaven or hell.
- There will be an eternal state of heaven or hell.
How one arranges the details of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham depends on his views as to:
- Whether the yet-unfulfilled Old Testament promises are to be fulfilled to the physical descendants of Abraham (the Jews), or the spiritual descendants of Abraham (the Church, made up of Jews and Gentiles).
- Whether the 1,000-year reign of Christ — the Millennium — described in Revelation 20 is to be taken as a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth, or as a symbol of the complete rule Christ now exercises over heaven and earth, and which He will exercise until He returns to destroy all opposition.
There are basically two forms of Premillennialism held among evangelical scholars (Dispensational and Historic).
Dispensational Premillennialism
Adherents of this position believe that the promises God gave to Abraham were made literally to him and to his physical seed, the nation of Israel. Those promises which are yet unfulfilled will one day be fulfilled to Israel during a future 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth. During this reign, Israel as a nation will have a special status in the world. The Jews will have returned to Christ and will have been converted.
This belief holds that the end time events will occur as follows:
- The Church will be raptured out of the world to meet the Lord in the air prior to the period of tribulation.
- There will be a seven-year period of tribulation on the earth which is the “Seventieth Week” of Daniel’s vision. It is described for us in Daniel 9 — especially verse 27.
- At the end of the tribulation, Jesus will return to earth in His second coming. The saints will return with Him and will reign with Christ for 1,000 years on the earth. During this Millennial reign, Satan will be bound, and Christ will rule from David’s throne. Israel will be saved, and all the Old Testament prophecies which were not fulfilled during Christ’s first coming will be accomplished.
- At the close of the Millennium, Satan will be loosed for a short time to deceive the nations, but then will be crushed forever by God.
- The Great White Throne Judgment will occur, during which all souls not raised before the Millennium will be judged, resulting in eternal condemnation for those who failed to establish a personal relationship with Jesus the Messiah.
Historic Premillennialism
This view is similar to Dispensational Premillennialism. Historic Premillennialists believe that we are now in the tribulation, which takes place over a long period of time. Unlike the Dispensationalists they believe that the saints will go through the tribulation, but will be shielded from its most severe aspects. At the end of the tribulation the Church will be raptured out to meet Christ in the air and will at once return with Him to establish the Millennial reign of Christ. Satan will be bound, and Christ will possess absolute rule. The standard of the Sermon on the Mount will prevail. The Historic Premillennialist places considerably less emphasis on the nation of Israel and sees many of the promises of God being fulfilled in spiritual Israel— the Church. He does believe that the nation of Israel will one day be saved.
A Survey of “things which must take place after this”:
(Taken from the Open Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
John is translated into heaven where he is given a vision of the divine majesty. In it, the Father (“One sat on the throne”) and the Son (The Lion/Lamb) are worshipped by the twenty-four elders, the four leving creatures, and the angelic host because of who they are and what they have done (creation and redemption); Rev Ch 4 and 5.
Three cycles of seven judgments in chapters 6-16 consist of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. There is a prophetic insert between the sixth and seventh seal and trumpet judgments and an extended insert between the trumpet and bowl judgments. Because of the similarity of the seventh judgment in each series, it is possible that the three sets of judgments take place concurrently or with some overlap so that they all terminate with the return of Christ. An alternate approach views them as three consecutive series of judgments, so that the seventh seal is the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet is the seven bowls.
The seven seals (6:1-8:5) include war, the famine and death that are associated with war, and persecution. The prophetic insert between the sixth and seventh seals describes the protective sealing of 144,000 ‘children of Israel,’ 12,000 from every tribe. It also looks ahead to the multitudes from every part of the earth who come ‘out of the great tribulation.’ The catastrophic events in most of the trumpet judgments are called ‘woes’ (8:2-11:19). The prophetic interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets adds more details about the nature of the tribulation period and mentions a fourth set of seven judgments (the ‘seven thunders’), which would have extended it if they had not been withdrawn. Two unnamed witnesses minister during three and one-half years of the Tribulation (forty-two months or 1,260 days). At the end of their ministry they are overcome by the Beast, but their resurrection and ascension confound their enemies.
Chapters 12-14 contain a number of miscellaneous prophecies that are inserted between the trumpet and bowl judgments to give further background on the time of tribulation. In Revelations Chapter 12, a woman gives birth to a male child, who is caught up to God. The woman flees into the wilderness and is pursued by the Dragon who is cast down to earth. Rev 13 gives a graphic description of the beast and his False Prophet, both empowered by the dragon. The first beast is given political, economic, and religious authority; and because of his power and the lying miracles performed by the second beast, he is worshiped as the ruler of the earth. Ch 14 contains a series of visions including the 144,000 at the end of the tribulation, the fate of those who follow the beast, and the outpouring of the wrath of God.
The seven bowl judgments of Revelations chapter 16 are prefaced by a heavenly vision of the power, holiness, and glory of god in Ch 15.
Ch 17 and 18 anticipate the final down fall of Babylon, the great harlot sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast.
The marriage banquet of the Lamb is ready and the King of Kings, Lord of Lords leads the armies of heaven into battle against the beast and his False Prophet. They are cast into a lake of fire (Ch 19).
In Ch 20, the Dragon-Satan-is bound for a thousand years. He is cast into a bottomless pit. During this one thousand-year period Christ reigns over the earth with His resurrected saints, but by the end of this millennium, many have been born who refuse to submit their hearts to Christ. At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released and a final battle ensues. This is followed by the judgment at the Great White Throne.
A new universe is created, this time unspoiled by sin, death, pain, or sorrow. The New Jerusalem, described in Rev 21:9 – 22:5, is shaped like a gigantic cube, 1,500 miles in length, width and height (the Most Holy Place in the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple was also a perfect cube). Its multicolored stones will reflect the glory of God, and it will continually be filled with light. But the greatest thing of all is that believers will be in the presence of God and “they shall see His face.”
Revelation concludes with an epilogue (22:6-21), which reassures the readers that Christ is coming quickly (22:7, 12, 20) and invites all who wish to “take the water of life freely” (22:17) to come to the alpha and Omega, the Bright and Morning star.