What is Eschatology? 4 main views:

Eschatology is the study of the "Last Things", End times, Last days" of the Bible.

I thought it would be a good Idea, given the forum re- organization, to lay out an overview for newcomers (or anyone who wants to know) what the 4 main views of Christian eschatology are, so folks can have a better grasp of the range of topics that this forum was created to cover.

There are of course, other views not represented within the 4 main views, and each of the 4 have subsections within them as well.

The four main schools of Historic Christian Eschatological interpretation:

1) The futurist
2) The historicist
3) The idealist
4) The preterist

1. The futurist believes that the book of Revelation speaks about events that are still in the future. Most futurists see everything from chapter 4 or chapter 6 as yet to be fulfilled. All premillennialists hold to some sort of futurist interpretation, though they vary considerably in their interpretation of the book of Revelation.

2. The historical school of interpretation died from hermeneutical exhaustion. From the time of the Reformation, when this school flourished, almost every new generation tried to find events in history that could be said to fulfill Revelation's prophecies.

3. Idealists say that the symbolism of Revelation was not meant to be applied to one specific sequence of historical events, but, more generally, to the Church of every age and land as she struggles against the world.

4. The word "preterism" comes from a latin root that means "gone by" or "past." The preterist believes that the book of Revelation predicts God's covenantal judgment upon the nation of Israel. It was future, of course, for the Christians who first received it in around A.D. 65, but most of the book is past from our perspective. The judgment on Jerusalem and its temple is seen as the final aspect of the creation of a new covenant people, a new city, and a new temple.

My next few posts will be devoted to exploring each view in greater detail.

Please feel free to add your own observaions.

YBIC,
P70

Futurism is essentially rooted in the Counter-Reformation through the Jesuit scholar Francisco Ribera (died 1591) who put prophetic fulfillment into the future. "In 1590, Ribera published a commentary on the Revelation as a counterinterpretation to the prevailing [historicist] view among Protestants which identified the Papacy with the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the Church. Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild Jerusalem . . . and rule the world for three and a half years." Ribera was subsequently supported by Robert Cardinal Bellarmine (died 1621). Early futurists such as S.R. Maitland, James H. Todd and William Burgh followed Ribera in the 1820s and 1830s. From then on it was quickly joined by some into the system of dispensationalism.

Present-day futurism sees the establishment of the State of Israel as a direct fulfillment of prophecy. Leon J. Wood, a prominent futurist-dispensational writer states, "The clearest sign of Christ's return is the modern state of Israel." The widely read Hal Lindsey writes, "The most important prophetic sign to herald the era of Christ's return" and "one of the most important events of our age" is the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Futurists also see the reunification of Jerusalem on June 6, 1967, as a direct sign of fulfillment of prophecy.

There is an expected rebuilding of a temple in Jerusalem in the middle of the seven-year tribulation period. Any travelor to Jerusalem can visit a given place and inspect temple utensils that are made ready for this temple to be built. Futurism holds that in the final millennial dispensation another temple will be built, the millennial temple, in which Jews will literally sacrifice animals again but not in an expiatory way. They will be "memorials of the one complete sacrifice of Christ.

In futurism, there is the widely anticipated "secret rapture" of all true Christians in the near future before the great tribulation takes place. In historicism, believers will go through the tribulation of "the time of trouble" unharmed; in futurism, the most widely held belief today is that believers will be raptured into heaven at the beginning of the tribulation, however there are (in lesser numbers) advocates of mid-trib and post-trip "rapture" within the futurist camp.

In futurism the great fulfillments are projected into the future and they center around Israel and the Middle East, including the coming of a future Antichrist and the False Prophet, the role of Russia, and a literal battle of Armageddon in Palestine, and so on.

Thank you parousia70, if anyone has questions ask them here.

My Pleasure Badfish! Thanks for giving this thread your "seal of approval"!

Now, on with the study..........

The historicist method, also described as the continuous historical method, is linked with the outline prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The outline prophecies of these books trace the history of world empires and subsequent divisions in an uninterrupted chain of historical events to the Second Coming of Christ and beyond. In historicism, prophecies about Israel and its future are seen to be conditional, depending on Israel's obedience. Historicism takes the entire Bible of both Testaments as providing the norms of prophetic interpretation.

This time-honored method of interpretation had predominance for Bible believers from the beginning of Christianity well into the beginning of the twentieth century. Historicism, however, has been eclipsed by futurism in popularity in much of evangelical Christianity around the world in the latter part of this century.

Idealism maintains that Revelation sets forth timeless truths concerning the battle between good and evil, which continues throughout the church age until the return of Jesus, and does not realte to specific, one time only events

I must confess I have yet to find much detailed information regarding the origins of Idealism, although I do know that this view is currently championed by modern expositor Sam Hamstra Jr.

Any insight to Idealisms origins that anyone can offer would be greatly appriciated.

R C Sproul defines preterism as:
Preterism: An eschatological viewpoint that places many or all eschatological events in the past, especially during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. (R C Sproul, The Last Days according to Jesus, p 228)

Todd Dennis (preterist archive) says "Preterism is from the Hebrew language's Preterit [Past Perfect] tense."

Preterism is the idea that some or all prophecy has been fulfilled in the generation alive when Jesus preached, i.e. it has been fulfilled in the past. It takes the divine inspiration of the bible seriously and literally. Some people have alleged that some of Jesus prophecies were wrong, in order to counter these arguments preterists believe that Jesus prophecies were indeed fulfilled in this (ie. His) generation, most notably by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Preterism takes the following key verses literally:

(Mat 10:23) When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

(Mat 16:28)I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

(Mat 23:35-36) And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

(Mat 24:34) I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

(Mat 26:63-64) But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." {64} "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

(Luke 21:20-22) 20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,[referencing 66-70AD] then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
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Although I personally subscribe to the preterist view, my purpose for this thread was to set the example of treating all eschatological viewpoints with respect, by providing an objective analysis of all 4 main views, to help folks (including myself) understand what people believe and why.

I look forward to learning and sharing more, about the various eschatological views within the body of Christiandom.

YBIC,
P70

__________________
"Once in a while, you can get shown the light"

Thank you Parousia 70 , prior to this forum I had no idea what the word Preterism meant and now I do . Your post should generate some very interesting questions , I only hope people will be mature enough to handle all the different view pionts . I enjoy posting my own views but I'm also here to learn , I can only presume this goes for everyone else . A piece of wisdom : HE WHO THINKS HE KNOWS THE MOST OFFTEN KNOWS THE LEAST .

Parousia70: There is more than one form of preterism. What you have described is Full preterism. This is heresy and is only believed by the twisting and/or omission of Bible verses.

A preterist view can also be...that some of the prophecies have been fulfilled. But this is an important difference. The second coming of Jesus remains in the Future.

I am not starting a debate. I merely am clarifying the difference. Full preterist often use the partial preterist views of the Catholic religion and maybe other Christians to back up their stance. But remember a core belief of the Catholic religion is the future coming of Christ.

Do not allow the heresy of the Full preterist to confuse you.

LOVE

Hiya Yauming.

The apostles and Christ unanimously taught the second coming was to be in their generation before all the apostles had died. Even higher criticism has known this for hundreds of years and has used it successfully to cause countless defections from the Christian faith. The forces that cause Christians to abandon Christ and adopt liberal Christ-denying theologies start with this exact issue. -- liberals and skeptics all know that Christ and the apostles were unanimous on WHEN the second coming was to be, and therefore they accuse Christ and the apostles of having made big errors -- a charge which futurist eschatology cannot defend against. Even C.S. Lewis believes Christ taught errors on eschatology. Amazing.

Check these links:

The Lowdown on God's Showdown
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=86

Priest Resigns: Eschatology leads to his demise
http://www.planetpreterist.com/modul...rticle&sid=374

A Faith Fundamentally Flawed
by Reverend Andrew Furlong
http://www.cathedral.meath.anglican....ithflawed.html


On to your other points...

You have called the Fall of Jerusalem a "non-event." (Hard to imagine the greatest disaster in the Ancient world being a "non-event")

One could argue that the salvation of the entire world was a "non-event." How many people even showed up at the Cross? Yet God's people grasped the significance by faith.

In contrast to the Cross event which was entirely flying "under the radar" so far as anyone at the time was concerned, the Fall of Jerusalem was arguably greatest disaster in all Antiquity. (And that's not even including the eternal COVENANTAL significance of the event that took place.)

We know from scripture itself that it was a universal judgement, avenging all the righteous blood ever shed on the earth going all the way back to Able (see: Matthew 23:35-36; Luke 11:29-32; Luke 19:41-44; Mark 13:1-31).

We know from Luke 21:22 that it was the "Day of the Lord" ("Day of the Lord's Vengeance" is mentioned there, picking up from Isaiah 61:2 -- also compare Luke 21:22 to Jer 46:10). We know that it was Israel's great distress/great tribulation (Luke 21:20-23/Matt 24:15-20 and that is was the coming of God to Israel to avenge the saints and remove the rights to Israel from the unbelieving rulers of the jews and their followers (Matthew 21:40-45). (True Israel accepted with Yahweh was counted through Jesus and his jewish follwers, the remant -- Gal 6:15-16; Phil 3:3; 1 Pet 2:9; Matt 21:43).

Countless commentaries on Matthew 24 from the ECFs on down to today interpret the chapter as mostly or TOTALLY fulfilled.

I don't think anyone can argue against the fact that Christ and the apostles knew exactly what they were talking about by prophesying the return of Christ in the glory of Yahweh in their generation. As jews they fully understood the nature of the "Day-of-Yahweh" events and could refer to many in their own O.T. history. And yet AD 66-70 was the GREATEST Day-of-the-Lord event in history, and was obviously the one they all were saying they would live to see (1 Cor 1:7-8; Phil 1:6,10; 1 Thess 5:23; Heb 10:25,37; 1 Cor 5:5, etc) -- they prepared for it a mere 1-2 decades before God's wrath was finally poured out.

Hope that helps. I look forward to your response.

GW