Eschatology

Christendom just wrapped up its official season of waiting. “Advent” (from the Latin, adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival”) is a nearly month long liturgical celebration marking the long-awaited arrival of Messiah some 2,000 years ago.

But coupled to this retrospective, celebratory focus, there is also to be a prospective, anticipatory disposition. To be sure, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born in a Bethlehem stable two millennia past. But this same Jesus will come again and Christians are called to await his second advent with expectant hope (Titus 2:13).

It is worth noting that the disposition of awaiting Messiah’s coming binds God’s people together across the millennia. From the first cryptic prophesy (Genesis 3:15), thousands of years of increasingly unambiguous prophesies encouraged a spirit of keen anticipation of Messiah’s first advent.

Through nearly 40 years in the conservative evangelical world, I’ve heard many sermons about America. Often the point is to compare America with ancient Israel.

The problem is the Bible explicitly tells us that there is no other nation that is comparable to God’s chosen people and nation of Israel (see 2 Sam. 7:23; Ps. 147:19-20; Amos 3:2). In that regard, she is entirely unique—a direct creation of God, fashioned through Abraham out of the chaos and godlessness at Babel (see Isa. 43:1-15).

In the last article, we examined the strange vision from Daniel 7. Here, we look at what this vision means.

Daniel 7 has the same message as Daniel 2 (see the article here). But, whereas Daniel 2 quickly sketches God’s victory over Babylon, Daniel 7 expands the message by way of more fantastic visions. It’s like how Genesis 2 expands on Genesis 1.

Daniel’s visions are endlessly fascinating to Christians.¹ So are those from Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation. They stick in your mind so vividly because they’re exciting, dramatic, bizarre, otherworldly, almost fantasy-like. This is a very particular style of writing God uses to communicate hope to desperate people.

What is Jesus saying at John 14:2-3? What is “my Father’s house?” Where is it? When will Jesus take believers there? In the last article, we examined the theory that it refers to being “up there” in heaven, and that Jesus takes believers there at an event called the pre-tribulational rapture. We concluded this idea isn’t supported by the text and gave it a “D” rating for probability. That doesn’t mean the pre-tribulation rapture is false—it just means to “see” it in John 14:2-3 you must smuggle it in from elsewhere.