Why Eschatology?

First published as Not Many People Know This… the day after I’d launched this blog in November 2011, this item was repeated on the home page over subsequent years. It alerts followers and visitors to the acceleration in fulfillment of biblical prophecies, as shown in the closing links to some of those events:

As you may have gathered from my Welcome, I’m into eschatology – the theological study of the destiny and judgement of nations and all people, even angels!  You may know it as ‘The Last Days’ or, more popularly, as ‘End-Times’. The origin of this term is in the ancient Hebrew Torah’s description: Acharit Hayamin, ie. ‘Last of the Years’.

Let me take you for a very brief visit into one of my favourite classes where Dr Chuck Missler is asking his students, “Why Eschatology?”.:

“It is very practical”, he answers himself and explains:

“Apparently, we’re being plunged into a period of time about which the Holy Bible says more than any other period – including the time when Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee!

“Now that’s a preposterous statement – and I challenge you to challenge my statement! To do so you need to do two things:

1 – Find out what the Bible itself says about this and – this is a bit harder,

2 – Find out what’s really going on – but you won’t get that on the ten o’clock news!

“Fortunately, thanks to the internet, the alternative press and to talk-radio you can do some homework and find out what really is going on. The more you do those two things the more you’ll understand why many scholars are extremely excited about the horizon we’re moving into – because it all deals with the return of Christ to rule earth.

“It really is remarkable how controversial this topic is, but there are:

  • over 1800 references in the Old Testament to this event – 17 Old Testament books give prominence to the event.
  • over 300 references in the New Testament – 216 chapters in 23 of its 27 books give prominence to this primary issue: the return of Jesus to rule on earth.

“You may not believe what the Bible says, but what’s utterly astonishing is that so very many claim to believe in Jesus yet have no grasp of the idea Christ is to literally return and rule!”

I respect Chuck for frequently stressing that we shouldn’t take what he says as ‘Gospel’ but always do a ‘Berean check’ per Acts 17:11; that is, to search the scriptures to find out whether or not his ideas line up with them. Also, I admire his public apology for admitting that, having long taught about an anticipated Middle Eastern war from some scriptures, he’s gained a better understanding from other passages. So Chuck explained why he’d changed his mind.  For more information visit his website at Koinonia House.

What are we to do when mainstream news (eg. Bigoted Brainwashing Corporation) doesn’t help?  To find out, read Not on the 10 o’clock News…

Footnote:  some of many eschatalogical developments: