Stephen Wellum: "Eschatology, properly understood, is nothing more than a thorough study of God’s great act of redemption in Jesus the Christ."
“...we must guard against the temptation to divorce biblical eschatology from the gospel and thus our Lord Jesus Christ. After all, the purpose of biblical eschatology is always redemptive, ethical, and Christological. It is redemptive and ethical in the sense that, in the simplest of terms, biblical eschatology attempts to unfold God’s eternal plan in history, beginning with creation and ending in the new creation, and as such, it always calls us to live in the present as God’s obedient children in light of God’s great redemptive work. In this way, eschatology exhorts us to faithfulness to Christ and the gospel, and it warns us of its opposite.
“In addition and most important, biblical eschatology is also Christological and thus gospel-centered. In truth, eschatology, properly understood, is nothing more than a thorough study of God’s great act of redemption in Jesus the Christ. Eschatology, then, not only presents us with the Bible’s metanarrative, it also unpacks how that grand story is centered in Jesus. How our Lord was not only anticipated and predicted in the OT, but how, in our Lord’s coming he has literally ushered in and inaugurated the “last days.” By his incarnation and life, supremely his death, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, God’s promised plan of salvation has been accomplished, and now we await and anticipate the consummation of that plan in the glorious appearing of the King of kings and the Lord of lords (see Eph 1:9-10; Phil 2:6-11; Rev 4-5; 19:1-21).
“When eschatology is presented in this way, not only is it true to the Scripture, it is also able to move us to action, obedience, worship, and service. Such eschatology will never leave us merely satisfied with this world, but it will orient us towards the future where the church will rightly learn to cry afresh with the church of all ages, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).” -- Stephen Wellum, “Thinking Biblically and Theologically about Eschatology”
“In addition and most important, biblical eschatology is also Christological and thus gospel-centered. In truth, eschatology, properly understood, is nothing more than a thorough study of God’s great act of redemption in Jesus the Christ. Eschatology, then, not only presents us with the Bible’s metanarrative, it also unpacks how that grand story is centered in Jesus. How our Lord was not only anticipated and predicted in the OT, but how, in our Lord’s coming he has literally ushered in and inaugurated the “last days.” By his incarnation and life, supremely his death, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, God’s promised plan of salvation has been accomplished, and now we await and anticipate the consummation of that plan in the glorious appearing of the King of kings and the Lord of lords (see Eph 1:9-10; Phil 2:6-11; Rev 4-5; 19:1-21).
“When eschatology is presented in this way, not only is it true to the Scripture, it is also able to move us to action, obedience, worship, and service. Such eschatology will never leave us merely satisfied with this world, but it will orient us towards the future where the church will rightly learn to cry afresh with the church of all ages, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).” -- Stephen Wellum, “Thinking Biblically and Theologically about Eschatology”
posted by Chad Richard Bresson at 8/03/2010 08:00:00 AM
3 Participation
