Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10022 Few doctrines provoke more debate among evangelicals than the Rapture, and one recurring challenge comes from those who argue that the concept is not actually taught in Scripture at all. The word “rapture” does not appear in English Bibles, and critics contend that the entire idea was invented in the nineteenth century by…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10023 One of the most common sources of confusion in eschatology is the assumption that the Rapture and the Second Coming are the same event described from different angles. If they are, the debate about timing is largely irrelevant. If they are not, then two distinct future events await, each with its own character,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10094 Both historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism affirm that Christ will return before the Millennium and reign on earth for a thousand years. On this they agree, and the agreement is significant. But the differences between the two positions are substantial enough that conflating them produces real confusion. Understanding where they converge and where…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10136 Preterism is an approach to biblical prophecy, particularly to the book of Revelation, that holds that most or all of the prophetic events described in the New Testament were fulfilled in the past, principally in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Rome in AD 70. It is a significant interpretive framework…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10137 Futurism is one of the four major approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation, and it is the framework that flows most naturally from the consistent application of the literal-grammatical-historical method to prophetic Scripture. In the context of eschatological interpretation, futurism holds that the events described in Revelation 4-22 are yet to be…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10153 The phrase “the blessed hope” has become so familiar in Christian vocabulary that it can lose its force through sheer repetition. But when Paul used it in his letter to Titus, he was describing something specific, something that was meant to shape the way believers live in the present. The blessed hope is…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10132 The relationship between the Millennium and the eternal state is one of the most important structural questions in biblical eschatology. These are not the same thing, and confusing them distorts the prophetic picture Scripture paints. The Millennium is a defined period with specific characteristics and a definite end. The eternal state is what…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10148 The opening chapters of Revelation contain letters addressed to seven specific churches in the Roman province of Asia. These are not abstract symbols or generalised moral lessons. They are addressed to real congregations in real cities, and their content reflects the actual conditions, strengths, and failures of those communities at the end of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10144 Inaugurated eschatology is a term that attempts to hold together two truths that Scripture clearly teaches: the kingdom of God has genuinely arrived, and the kingdom of God has not yet been fully established. As a description of what the New Testament actually says, it captures something important. As a theological framework, however,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10145 One of the most important patterns running through the New Testament is the way in which certain realities are described as both present and future at the same time. Salvation is something the believer possesses now and yet awaits in its fullness. The kingdom of God has arrived and yet is still coming….