SERMON: New Testament Overview, Part 10: The End Times





New Testament Overview
Part 10: The End Times

  • I. Introduction
    • We have completed every book of Scripture, except one.
    • This session: Eschatology
    • Is it important that we believe in the literal, bodily return of our Lord?
  • II. What All Christians Believe
    • The Apostle’s Creed
      • Jesus Christ “shall come to judge the quick [living] and the dead.”
    • The Nicene Creed
      • He “shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead.”
    • All Christians believe Jesus will return one day to judge the world, both those alive and those who have died.
  • III. Questions about the Millennium
    • Where Christians disagree is in relation to the thousand-year or millennial reign of Christ in Revelation 20:1–10.
    • Matthew Waymeyer (Revelation 20 and the Millennial Debate) notes Christians debate 
      • whether the binding of Satan is present or future, 
      • whether the first resurrection here is a spiritual or a physical reality, 
      • whether the millennium is a literal or an allegorical period, 
      • and whether the millennial reign is heavenly or earthly.  
    • Two views sum up these questions and how Jesus’s second coming is related to it.
      • Amillenniallism
        • Postmillennialism
      • Premillennialism
        • Dispensational Premillennialism
    • Premillennialism was the ancient expectation of the church.
      • That changed with Origen, who introduced allegorization in Bible interpretation
      • Augustine adopted this method, seeing the desire for a physical kingdom distasteful
      • This became the adopted view of the Roman Catholic Church
      • The Reformation shied away from reworking this due to Anabaptist extremes.
    • Premillennialism better answers the expectations of Scripture
      • Expectation of a physical Messianic rule 
      • Restoration of Israel
  • IV. Questions about the Church
    • Jesus said He would build His church, future tense (Matthew 16:18)
      • A nation without borders
      • A people beyond ethnicity
      • Connected to believers in the OT through the Messiah
    • Israel, however, had distinct promises in the Abrahamic Covenant, etc., to a land and a rule.
    • Can Christians trust the promises of God if the church replaces or supersedes the national promises to Israel?
  • V. Dispensationalism
    • A belief
      • … that we should read the Bible with a grammatical-historical hermeneutic, 
      • … that Israel and the church are distinct,
      • … and that God has worked differently in different eras (dispensations/administrations) to bring about His glory.
    • NOT a belief… (thanks to Dan Phillips)
      • … in any particular number of dispensations,
      • … in multiple ways of salvation,
      • … in on Calvinism OR Arminianism
      • … in huge, complicated charts
      • … in rejecting the five solas or Reformed theology
      • … in a particular position on the use of alcohol, movie-attendance, dancing, nylons, lipstick, tattoo's, or tobacco
      • … or in setting dates for the Lord’s return.
    • Dispensationalism and the Tribulation
      • 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24–27 — the 70th week (the seven-year Tribulation), just like the previous sixty-nine, is for the Jews and Jerusalem.  
      • Anachronistic and allegorical interpretations aside, the church was not part of the sixty-nine weeks, and therefore should not be forced into the seventieth.  
      • While Christians will benefit from God’s plan for the Jewish nation, she does not take center-stage during the Tribulation.
      • Events:
        • A falling away and the revelation of the man of sin, the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3–5)
        • The removal of the “restrainer” (vv. 6–8), which will lead to the final revelation of the Antichrist.
        • Great deception (vv. 9–11)
        • Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21–22)
        • The Lord’s return marks the end of the Tribulation period; the judgment of the sheep and the goats.
        • The Millennial reign begins.  After that is the final state.
    • Dispensationalism and the Rapture
      • Perhaps one of the most controversial topics of dispensationalism, though everyone believes in it in some fashion.
        • A/Postmillennialists believe in a rapture of sorts after the millennium.
        • Historic Premillennialist also believe it will be with the coming of Christ, at the beginning of the Millennium.
        • Dispensational Premillennialists fall into three opinions: Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, or Post-Trib.  There’s also the pre-wrath view (we’ll be taken ¾ into the tribulation) and the partial-rapture view (only those of us who “watch” will be taken).
      • The Latin term “rapture” (rapio) is from the Vulgate, harpazo in the Greek.
      • 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 — “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
      • Distinctions between the rapture and the second coming:
        • The rapture is a meeting in the air, but no other Second Coming passage mentions this.  
        • Christians live in expectation of an any-moment appearing (1 Cor. 1:7; Titus 2:13 and Phi 3:20), yet the Second Coming is preceded by signs (e.g., Matt. 24:4-28; Rev. 19:11-21).  
        • Christians look forward to the deliverance, but the appearing of Christ will terrify (Rev. 19:11ff; Joel 3:12-16; Zech. 14:3-5).  
        • The Second Coming doesn’t reference the glorification of believers, unlike the rapture (1Thess. 4:13-18 and 1 Cor. 15).  
        • Paul refers to the rapture as a mystery (1 Cor. 15:51–54), but the OT predicted a second coming of the Messiah (Dan. 12:1-3; Zech. 12:10; 14:4).
      • Did anyone ever believe in this kind of rapture?
        • Some believe John Darby invented it in the 19th century.  But…
        • Epistle of Barnabas (ad 100)
        • Irenaeus, in Against Heresies
        • Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus (2nd Century)
        • The fourth vision of the Shepherd of Hermas (2nd century).
        • Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
        • Ephraem the Syrian (4th Century)
        • We must build our arguments from the Word of God.
    • Problems with rejecting pre-trib dispensationalism
      • One must utilize a different hermeneutic 
        • to interpret prophecy passages
        • to interpret OT promises to Israel
        • to interpret the many passages concerning the kingdom to be spiritual only (in post/amillennialism).
      • One must deny imminency (signs precede the 2nd coming)
      • One must believe that the body of Christ is changed and meets Christ in the air, only to immediately return with Him.
  • VI. Conclusion
    • While this can be exciting, we must beware issues:
      • Date-setting (God disallows and even forbids)
      • Placing more emphasis on eschatology that other doctrines
      • Faithlessness today because we’re "going to get raptured."
    • Next Time: Revelation

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