In truth, it wasn’t until my late twenties that I began to question the popular narrative of eschatological defeatism, to plumb the depths of Biblical truth, and to discover for myself, what God has really said about the “end”. Since then, my journey has taken me all over the Bible, through the annals of ancient history, and to what I believe is the Biblical position. My goal in sharing this with you, is so that you will have great joy, great confidence, and a great hope when it comes to the topic of eschatology. 

Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology

If we are the products of our environment, then it’s fair to say I was shaped by Vanilla Ice, M.C. Hammer, and dispensationalism. None, of which, have aged all that well.

Of dispensationalism, it was the ubiquitous stench in every Southern pew and the dank evangelical air that surrounded my Christian upbringing. My first study Bible, for instance, was a black leather Scofield Reference edition, which kindly pointed me to the bright hope that the sky was falling and everything else was failing. In current events, Mikhail Gorbachev’s disturbing birthmark was the best explanation we all had for the mark of the beast, credit cards and computer chips were ushering in a one-world currency, and the dreaded Nicolae Carpathia was soon to step out of the shadows and make himself known to the United Nations.

Yet, amid all the eschatological ruckus, I do not remember feeling any real hope, encouragement, or authentic love for God. The only motivation I had to live like a “Christian”, was to make sure I punched my upcoming ticket for an imminent rapture, which appeared to me more like an evangelical wonkavator than anything akin to hope.

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