Tag Archives: definitions

AN ESCHATOLOGY GLOSSARY (3)

Theology April 9, 2014 Comments: 6

PMT 2014-043 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.Explaining

This is the third and final installment of a brief series defining key eschatology concepts. Hopefully it will be useful for earnest Christians endeavoring to study this field of systematic theology, a field so over-run with crackpots and untrained enthusiasts. So let’s begin where I left off in the preceding article.

Last Days. In the biblical scheme, the Lord Jesus Christ is the focal point of history. His coming divides history into two parts. The Old Testament era served as the “former days” (Mal. 3:4) that gave way to the “last days,” the times initiated by Christ’s coming: “God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). The last days are initiated by the appearance of the Son (Heb. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:20) to effect redemption (Heb. 9:26) and by His pouring out of the Spirit (Acts 2:16, 17, 24; cf. Isa. 32:15; Zech. 12:10). The “ends of the ages” comes during the apostolic era (1 Cor. 10:11). These will run until “the last day,” when the Resurrection and Final Judgment occur to end history (John 6:39; 11:24; 12:48). Because the last days have been with us since the first century coming of Christ, no days are to follow them except for “the last day.” Consequently, no Millennium will introduce another grand redemptive era in man’s history.

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AN ESCHATOLOGY GLOSSARY (1)

Theology April 4, 2014 Comments: 2

PMT 2014-041 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.Definitions

Eschatology is a fascinating study in systematic theology. However, it is an easily abused doctrine that is taken up by so-called “prophecy experts.” To reclaim eschatology as a legitimate field for evangelical study, it might be helpful to define a few key concepts. In this and the next two blogs, I will be offering “An Eschatology Glossary.”

Abomination of Desolation. A phrase deriving from Daniel (9:27; 11:31; 12:31) which is cited by Christ in his Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:15). In Dispensationalism this refers to the desecration of a future rebuilt Jewish Temple. That event occurs during a seven year Great Tribulation which Dispensationalists believe precedes the Second Coming of Christ. The term actually refers to the physical and ritual desecration of the Temple in September, A.D. 70 when the Roman soldiers “brought their ensigns to the temple and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6:6:1). The phrase is found in the portion of the Olivet Discourse introduced by Jesus’ reference to the destruction of the first century Temple (Matt. 24:1-3) and ended by the declaration that “all these things” will occur in “this generation” (Matt. 24:34).

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