Friday, January 22, 2010

So what is your Eschatology?

I have recently been working on updating my ministry resume, which means I am also reading through a doctrinal statement I wrote up before I attended seminary. Fascinating it is how some of my theology has become more honed through my seminary career and how other points have become more vague. Well, one point anyways.

Coming out of a very fundamental Baptist background, it is no surprise that my original doctrinal statement was very specific in regards to a pre-tribulation rapture and pre-millennial eschatology. Today, it is different. It is not that I am no longer “pre-trib/pre-mil,” but that I take a different path; the path of the “I don’t know” view. The reason is simple. Our interpretation, when we are honest, is a best guess understanding of Scripture based on our own presuppositions and approach to exegesis. This is not far off from what the Jews of the 1st century also did. They looked at their present surroundings, looked at the Scriptures, looked at the prophecies, and made interpretations and formed expectations as a result. Yet, as we well know, they were wrong. Today we are dealing with a form of literature which we are not fully sure about what a correct interpretive method would be. So how is it we can be so adamant about our personal eschatological views?

Therefore, the best approach is to remain somewhat vague and humble in our conclusions. What I say today is there are some things we are certain about, and others we are not. Best guess scenario; I do still fall in line with a pre-trib/pre-mil view. But the only thing I would say is absolutely certain is Christ will one day return in judgment, and those who are his will be with him for eternity and those who are not will be cast into eternal judgment known as hell. What more really needs to be said? After all, Jesus did say we will never know neither the hour nor the day, but instead we are to be ready always.