Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10139 The idealist approach to Revelation, sometimes called the spiritual or symbolic approach, reads the book not as a prediction of specific historical events, whether past or future, but as a timeless portrayal of the ongoing conflict between good and evil, between God and Satan, between the Church and the world. It is the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10121 Of all the terms the New Testament uses for the place of final punishment, Gehenna is the most vivid and the most disturbing. It is the word Jesus used most frequently when warning about the ultimate fate of the wicked, and its background in both geography and history gives it a force that…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 10045 The Great Tribulation refers specifically to the second half of the seven-year Tribulation period, a time of intensified suffering and judgement that Jesus described as the worst period in human history. Whilst the entire seven years are difficult, the final three and a half years are marked by unprecedented horror, the full revelation…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 10062 Many people imagine heaven as an endless church service or as floating on clouds playing harps, and frankly, that sounds rather boring. But Scripture presents a much richer picture of our eternal existence. Far from idle passivity, heaven involves active, joyful service, worship, fellowship, governance, and creativity. We will not be less engaged…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10043 This is perhaps the most frequently asked question about the rapture, and Scripture gives us a clear answer: no one knows. However, that doesn’t mean we’re left in complete darkness. Whilst we cannot know the day or hour, we can understand where the rapture fits in God’s prophetic timeline and recognise the season…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10044 The Tribulation is a specific seven-year period of God’s judgement upon the earth that will occur after the rapture of the Church and before the Second Coming of Jesus. It’s a time unlike any other in human history, marked by unprecedented suffering, supernatural judgements, and the rise of the Antichrist. Understanding the Tribulation…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10060 The Bible’s story doesn’t end with souls floating around in heaven forever. Instead, it culminates in “a new heaven and a new earth” where God dwells with His people in physical bodies on a renewed creation. This is the biblical vision of eternity, and understanding it transforms how we think about heaven, our…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 10058 Annihilationism, also called conditional immortality, is the view that the wicked do not suffer eternal conscious punishment but are instead destroyed or cease to exist after a period of punishment. Whilst this view may seem more palatable to modern sensibilities and less troubling than traditional hell, we must ask whether it is actually…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 10057 One of the most debated aspects of the doctrine of hell concerns its duration. Is hell truly eternal, or will punishment eventually end, either through annihilation or universal restoration? This question matters enormously, for our answer affects how we understand God’s justice, the seriousness of sin, and the urgency of the gospel. The…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 10054 The Great White Throne judgement is the final judgement of all unbelievers at the end of history. Unlike the judgement seat of Christ, which evaluates believers for rewards, the Great White Throne determines the degree of punishment for those who rejected Jesus. This judgement occurs after the millennium, just before the eternal state…