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When does eschatology begin? Eschatology is a fancy

little theological word that means the doctrine of the last

things. So another way of putting the question to you is:

"When do the last days begin?

On the American theological landscape, there has been a

fascination with the end times. One could trace the rise

in interest back to the influence of the Scoffield Reference

Bible.Butin the past quarter century or more, a lucrativelittle cottage industry has fanned this flame with books

Iike Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth ot TimLaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' LeftBehind series.

In evangelicalism, options for your view of the end times

abound. On the millennium, you can be premillennial,

amillennial or post-millennial. Even within our Bible Fel-

lowship Church doctrinal statement, you have freedom

on the position of the tribulation and the rapture. You

can be pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath rapture,

and maybe some yet undiscovered combination. As one

cartoonist portrayed it, Jesus Himself might well look atthe complex eschatological spectrum with all its charts

and quip, "I'd come back just as soon as I can

figure out when."

and Daniel have been driven by current geopolitical hap-

penings rather than serious attention to the text. Anyone

remember the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev's

"mark of the beast"?

Many popular evangelical eschatologies are sorely lacking

in exegesis. Most egregiously, very few populist ap-

proaches begin eschatology where the Scriptures begin.

So we return to our question: "when do the last daysbegin?" The biblical answer is surprisingly and, given

today's climate, controversially but nonetheless resound-

ingly: the last days began already with the work of Jesus

Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension. If we are

going to follow Scripture, we should not look to the fu-

ture and say, "when do they start", but insteadwe should

be looking to the past and saying "how did they already

start." While you might need to recover from your shock,

let it be stated plainly: the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus

has already inaugurated the last days.

For discussing eschatology, we should start where Jesus'message starts. Jesus begins His preaching with the

proclamation that "the kingdom of God/heaven is at

hand." His driving out of demons shows us the kingdom

of God has come (Matt. 12:28). The kingdom of God/

heaven can be defined as the "reign of God". This reign of

God is the promise of the Old Testament where God

draws His rulership close and manifests it in the Son of

David. This reign is promised to triumph over the whole

world, defeat evil, and be an immanent adminis-

Jle*:.:;

For discussing eschatology, we should start where Jesus' messagestarts. Jesus begins His preaching with the proclamation that "thekingdom of God/heaven is at hand."

Evangelicals have allegedly become experts

on eschatology. Walk into any church and

you will find some study being done on the

book of Revelation or the end times. Often times, the

principles of interpretation are questionable and arise

more from popular fiction and bad Bible study methods

than from a serious grammatical-historical exegesis.

For example, Revelation's genre (type of literature) is

"apocalyptic", which means that John intended to use

symbolism and imagery rather than tell us that locusts

are helicopters and the holocausts must be nuclear war.

In the popular realm, most studies of Revelation, Ezekiel

tration of the eternal sovereign rule that God has always

had. In this respect the "kingdom ofGod" is an eschato-

logical event-a climax of the end time promises of God

where God draws near.

The Old Testament saints believed that history moved in

a straight line. It was not cyclical based on crop cycles,

calendars, or repeated patterns like pagans and Greeks

thought. While the calendar of the Old Testament repeat-

ed feasts and sacrifices were anticipatory of the once-for-

all climax at the end of the age, they expected history to

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The Last Days Have Begun ftontinued)

have an end or goal. Specifically "this present evil age"

would give way to "the age to come." Evil would be

undone and God's kingdom reign would be present. But

Jesus starts His ministry by telling us "the kingdom of

God has come" meaning that the age to come is dawning

in history with His work. History is on the cusp of its

intended climax. His work ushers this in bringing it to

fulfillment.

When later New Testament writers look at what has hap-

pened in Jesus, they show us that the promised last days

have dawned. Peter tells us by quoting Joel 2 that in the

The

events of Pentecost the last daYs

have dawned (Acts 2:17). He-

brews begins by recounting how

the climax of God's revelation

is in the Son: "in these last daYs

he has spoken to us by his Son."

It is the New Covenant whichis the covenant of the last days

(Heb. 8:8,10; 10:15-18). Christ's

sacrifice on the cross comes

now "once at the consummation

of the ages" (Heb.9:26). Paul

records that Jesus was born of a

woman "in the fullness of time,"

language that denotes the escha-

tological climax of God's histori-

When later New Testament writerslook at what has happened in Jesus,

they show us that the Promisedlast days have dawned.

days had began and David's house was rebuilt." What has

been said specifically of Paul's preaching can summarize

the content of all the Apostles' gospel preaching: "The

whole content of this preaching can be summatized as

the proclamation and explication of the eschatological

time of salvation inaugurated with Christ's advent,

death and resurrection."

The end of the age and last days have been inaugurated.They have started but they are not yet finished. The

mystery of the coming of the kingdom is that the pres-

ent evil age still exists (Gal. 1:4). In fact, the two overlap

and operate side by side. But the death of Christ was an

advance in-breaking of the day of the Lord where God

::judged the sins of His peoPle

in His Son. The resurrection of

Jesus was His vindication. He

has walked through the day of

judgment in advance of the final

day. His vindication fits Him to

be exalted in His human king-ship over all things from now

until that final judgement He

will execute (Acts 2:33-36 ; 17 :31

Rom. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 15:20-27;EPh

1":20-22; Heb. 2:6-9). With His

vindication, He begins the "new

creation" expected in Isaiah's las

days (Gal. 6:1'5;2 Cor. 5:17). Thi

is why Christ's resurrection is a

cal program. 1 Cor. 10:11 tells present day believers that

the Old Testament is for "our instruction on whom the

end of the ages has come."

The writers of the New Testament proclaimed that in the

work of Jesus at His death, resurrection and ascension to

the Father's right hand Scripture has been fulfilled. The

death and resurrection of Christ marked an eschatologi-

cal event in advance of the ending of all things. So for the

New Testament, it is not as if the kingdom was offered

only to be postponed. A postponed kingdom or eschatol-

ogy is false according to Scripture. Quite the opposite,

the kingdom has begun. In fact, central to Old Testament

eschatological predictions is the restoration of the throne

ofDavid from which the Messiah would reign. Acts

1-5:L6-17 quotes Amos 9:11-12where God says, "I will

rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its

ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind

may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by

my name." With so many Gentiles seeking the Lord, and

the apostles needing to defend Gentiles turning to God,

the Apostles look at the Old Testament and say in effect,

"this is what we were supposed to expect when God's last

12 grc.onevoice Falt 2011

frrstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20). It is the first part of the harvest

in advance of the rest but guaranteeing the rest. The

resurrection was expected in the last days and with Jesu

resurrection the last days have begun.

Still the issues of premillennial, post-millennial, and

amillennial are important. To say that eschatology has

been inaugurated and that the promised last days have

begun with Jesus' first Advent is never to deny nor min

mize His second Advent. But despite all of that, it is eve

more important that we begin with eschatology where

Scripture begins. The biblical eschatology is that the las

days begins with the death, resurrection, and ascension

of Jesus Christ. If we do not start our study where Scrip

ture starts all subsequent escapades in and explorations

of the topic will ring hollow to the tune the Bible has se

That is sadly the state of far too many popular evangelic

eschatologies. i'l

For a further treatment of the Kingdom of God and lnaugurated

Eschatotogy, see the author's study paper for the Kingdom of God

Study Committee entitted The Presence of the Kingdom of God i

the New Testament. lt can found on the BFC History site' www.

bfchistory. org/201 1 kingdomstudies. htm