Tag Archives: eschatology

Jesus Wasn’t Talking to Us: A Plea to Modern-Day Christians

Posted on by under end times, eschatology, Israel, last days, last things

You would have to live under a rock to not know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – not just today, but for some time now. Whichever side of the fence you stand on, or if you stand somewhere in the middle, such is a tragedy to hear about the thousands upon thousands of deaths currently.

When it comes to the American church, which typically supports Israel, there is also a view that what is taking place is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy right before our very eyes. I mentioned this in my most recent post. I recently saw someone post on social media that the hostility being shown to Israel will soon come to the Christian church. When I asked where we might find such a belief in Scripture, someone pointed to the oft-quoted “end times” passage of Jesus’s Olivet Discourse.

What is the Olivet Discourse?

Continue reading →

Are we in the last days? Well, yeah, but that started a long time ago

Posted on by under end times, eschatology, last days, last things

Eschatology is simply defined as the study of last things. I personally like the phrase last things rather than the oft-used end times, primarily because the latter phrase can leave solely scary images in peoples’ minds. Even Hollywood has picked up on this idea in all of their apocalyptic films. We need healthy and hopeful theology, whatever theological camp one lands in.

Even more, there are a lot of crazy things going on in our world today, right? A pandemic, racial unrest, political turmoil, regular occurrence of massive hurricanes, and more. Sounds like something out of Matthew 24:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matt 24:6-8)

What are we supposed to make of this? Is it the end times, or again, last days?

Continue reading →

The Misplaced Hopes of Left Behind

Posted on by under ends times, eschatology, Left Behind, rapture

left-behind-movie

I don’t believe in the rapture!

Well, I actually do believe in the rapture. But not in the particular version that we find espoused by many Christians, including the Left Behind series, which has now been launched as a new movie as of today. This version is known as a “pre-tribulational rapture” where God removes all Christians from earth, takes them to heaven, all the while a 7-year period of great tribulation takes place on earth. This is, then, followed by a millennial (1000-year) reign of Christ.

I don’t believe this version holds much water under the scrutiny of Scripture’s teaching. Continue reading →

It’s the Last Days

Posted on by under end times, eschatology, last days, last things

Eschatology is simply defined as: the study of last things. I personally like the phrase last things instead of end times because the latter phrase can leave a lot of scary images in peoples’ minds. We need healthy and hopeful theology, whatever camp one lands in.

When studying eschatology, one of the first questions that could arise is: When are the last days? And I’d say it’s an important question. Some teaching might place it around a time period such as the last seven years before Christ returns, or something of that nature (what many have termed the “Great Tribulation”). But I’m convinced we are already in the last days……and we’ve been in the last days for a very long time. Continue reading →