Part 3: Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things
Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things
1. What is contained in the term “eschatology”?
That history, in the course of which we are situated, will have a conclusion. It is not an endless process but a genuine history that ends in a definite goal and so has a boundary and limits. As it had a beginning, it will have an ending. That ending will come as a crisis, and everything that has to do with this crisis belongs to the “doctrine of the last things.”
2. Is the term “eschatology” a Scriptural term?
Yes, for Scripture makes mention of “the last days” (cf., e.g., Isa 2:2, LXX: eschatai hēmerai; Mic 4:1; Acts 2:17), of “last times” (1 Pet 1:20, eschatoi chronoi), of “the last hour” (1 John 2:18, eschatē hōra).
3. In many of these passages, is not something entirely different spoken of than what we understand by “the last days,” namely, the New Testament dispensation of the covenant of grace?
Considered superficially, this is indeed the case. See, for example, Acts 2:17, where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is spoken of as taking place “in the last days.” Nevertheless one ought to maintain that here, too, the eschatological meaning is present. The explanation is as follows: From the perspective of the older prophets, the coming of the Messiah coincides with the culmination of the kingdom, the end of all things. Isaiah, for example, speaks in one breath of the return from exile, of the coming of the Messiah, of the end of the world, and unrolls all these events before our eyes as in one great scene. He sees only the peaks towering above everything. Accordingly, the older prophets reckon on only two time periods: “this age” (houtos ho aiōn) and “the coming age” (ho mellōn aiōn). So, for Isaiah and for Micah the “last days” are the days that precede the end and at the same time precede the coming of the Messiah. The later prophets were granted in the Spirit to see more clearly how there would be a double coming of the Messiah, one for suffering and scorn and one in glory (Dan 7; 9; 12). Thus what in the older prophets was still combined or condensed into one coming was in the later prophets divided into two. But now from this it follows as well that the time that elapses between the first and the second coming of the Lord can be viewed from a twofold perspective. If we fix our attention on the coming that is still expected and we include everything before that in “this age,” then we and all the New Testament saints live in the last days, that is, in the period that forms the eve of the second coming of our Lord in glory. If, on the other hand, we focus attention on the coming that is already past, and we draw the dividing line between the two ages at the first coming, then we in fact already live in the “age to come.” Consequently, since the time between the first and the second coming of the Lord is governed completely by the thought of His coming either as already having occurred or as still having to occur, one can call it “the last days.”
The first of the conceptions just mentioned is found, for example, in Luke 20:34, Ephesians 1:21, and Galatians 1:4. The other conception is found, for example, in Hebrews 2:5. The one is not in conflict with the other. Our time, the time of the new covenant, in fact bears a dual character. The old age is in us and at work in us, but also the new age and what is coming already exists in what for now is its prophecy.
4. How is eschatology to be divided?
a)Individual eschatology.
b)General eschatology.
The end comes at the close of world history for everything at the same time. What belongs to that end and is connected with it we call general eschatology. But for the individual the end also comes with his departure from this life, from this age. By his death he is lifted above this age in its earthly development, and in a certain sense brought closer to the age to come. Indeed, in Scripture the antithesis between the two world-times intersects with the antithesis between two world-places. The new Jerusalem, the future city, the heavenly kingdom will be revealed when this age empties into the future age. Therefore, relocation of dwelling place is always an exchange of age. On this is based the right of the above-mentioned division of eschatology, which otherwise could appear arbitrary.