The Rare Tune

…or I could say, “End-Times for Dummies” but I liked the alliteration in “Eschatology for Everybody.”  It sounds smart.  Ironic, huh?

This is the first post in what will be a long series of me - the “everybody” - breaking down a most relevant and urgent issue: The Church and the End-Times.  Eschatology is a subject that many people either fear because they don’t understand it, or fear because it involves… well - the end of things, or they just don’t care because sadly, they don’t think it pertains at all to today.   There was a time not very long ago that I fell into each one of these categories. But today, I am not afraid.  I realize that it does matter.  Perhaps the most comforting reward I have gained in my studies is that the Bible is very clear on these things… much clearer than I once believed.

Understanding Eschatology is for everybody.  It will take you no time whatsoever to realize where I stand in my beliefs.  The question that stirs me is, “Where do you stand?”  For it is how we believe that compels us in our yearning to see Jesus return.  Are you desperate to see Him split the skies?  I am.  So the question remains… what must happen before that great, and terrible, day?

So let us begin with the basics.  If we’re going to dig deep, we need to understand the place from where everybody is coming.  The study of end-times is one of the most controversial subjects on Earth.  In the Christian Church, of which I am a part, it is perhaps one of the most dividing issues of all.

This is a very general overview of different eschatological beliefs, and by no means a complete list.  I said this was End-Times for dummies, so we will keep it very basic.  But before we can be scholars, we must start at chapter one.  So this is my chapter one… who believes what and what do they call themselves?  Keep in mind that each group is divided within itself, and many differences exist therein.

Views Interpreting Prophecy and its Fulfillment:

•  Preterism: the belief that some or all of the prophetic passages of the Bible have already been fulfilled in the past.
  • Partial Preterism
  • Full Preterism
• Futurism: the belief that Biblical prophecies concerning the End-Times have yet to be fulfilled, and they will be real events that take place when Jesus returns to Earth to finally and completely establish the Kingdom of God.
• Historicism:  the belief that eschatological prophecies have found and are finding literal fulfillment through the history of the Church age (Church history culminating in the return of Jesus to Earth).
• Idealism: the belief that all Scriptural prophecies concerning the End-Times are non-literal symbols which are perpetually fulfilled between the Kingdom of God and Satan.

Views on The Millennium:

• Premillennialism: believes that the millennium is a literal 1000 year period which takes place after the culmination of specific prophetic events and ending with the return of Jesus. This view is further broken down into two schools of thought:
  • Dispensational Premillennialism: believes in a rapture of the Church before the Great Tribulation and before the second coming of Jesus.
  • Historic Premillennialism: believes that the Church will be on Earth for the Great Tribulation up until the return of Christ, where the saints will then be caught up in the sky with Jesus and will then return to Earth with Him to reign in the Millennial Kingdom.
• Postmillennialism:believes that Jesus will return after the 1000 years, which will be ushered in by the Church in righteousness.
• Amillennialism: believe in a non-literal, symbolic 1ooo year reign which takes place between the first and second comings of Jesus.

So, I think that’s enough for our first jaunt into the wilds of End-Time study.  This is a very basic overview of the different schools of thought in understanding the Last Days.  I will not do any more overviews, nor will I compare the different beliefs… unless I feel that it helps make a point clear.  From here on I will most likely just talk about the way I understand Scripture to teach on these awesome things.  I hope this excites you as it excites me… and feel free to comment or post questions… I believe in digging deep into the Word with marvelous comrades in Christ.

Grace and peace to you…

Allison