Eschatology

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The book of Revelation contrasts two distinct approaches to leadership. This presentation describes these approaches and draws conclusions as to how Christians should practice leadership in light of the eschaton. The two approaches are traced from the rebellion in heaven, through creation, the life of Jesus, and with a focus on the apocalyptic messages of Scripture. This study is needed because the practice of leadership in the church has a profound effect on the church’s witness and accomplishment of mission. Faithfulness among God’s people in the last days can only be experienced when leadership is practiced according to God-honoring principles. This presentation concludes that the loving, non-coercive, relational dynamic—demonstrated by the Lamb’s leading during the eschaton—provides a biblical template for Christian leadership in the present time.

Theistic evolution, a widespread theory held by Catholic and non-Catholic believers, seeks to explain the origin of the universe. Among Roman Catholics it became official after Pope John Paul II’s affirmation before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that there is no real conflict between Scripture (and theology) and the findings of science. Theistic evolution is a reigning paradigm among Protestant— even Evangelical—scholars, and Adventists are no longer the exception. The paper questions evolution in its theistic version by pointing out implications for Adventist eschatology, beginning with implications for key principles of eschatological interpretation and following with implications for ten key Adventist eschatological beliefs.

The millennium issue is one of the most controversial in Christian eschatology. This presentation compares two approaches toward the millennium: the Orthodox and the Adventist. The understanding of the Orthodox position on this crucial eschatological problem is very important for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in countries that traditionally were under the strong influence and dominion of the Orthodox Church. Analysis and evaluation of two positions, and finding common ground and distinctions, will facilitate a constructive dialogue between Orthodox and Adventist believers.

Traditional Adventist evangelistic presentations begin with the prophecies of the book of Daniel, depicting human history and leading to the second coming of Christ and the events preceding it. During the series, eschatology is presented as the end of a linear historical timeline, and most of the Scripture passages are interpreted with a Western linear and binary logic. However, Scripture was written in a Mediterranean culture, where the perception of time and space was different than the Western worldview. The Majority World, even today, shares non-Western values and worldviews. In most of Asia, time and history are perceived as cyclical, and biblical prophecy as presented by Adventist evangelists and pastors raises more questions than answers. This presentation looks at the basis of the Adventist understanding of eschatology and offers an alternative interpretation of key biblical passages that remains faithful to Scripture and at the same time speaks to the Eastern mind. Its purpose is to offer a hermeneutical basis for missionaries and evangelists working in Majority World countries to be able to build their biblical studies and public presentations on an Eastern rather than Western worldview.

The concept of shaking, or sifting, occurs in the writings of Ellen G. White virtually throughout all her prophetic ministry (1844-1915). In this study, it was considered within the framework of five basic periods, marked by a particular impacting crisis that played an important role to set the background that prompted the quotations. The eschatological shaking is a period that will occur prior to the second coming, terminating with the end of the Investigative Judgment in the Heavenly Sanctuary (close of probation), encompassing both individuals and groups. These are the causes: (1) rejection of the truth; (2) religious persecution; (3) suffering; (4) rejection of the testimony of the True Witness; (5) false teachings; and (6) the supernatural satanic deceptions. While many from among God's people will leave their position and unite with the wicked, many others will abandon the ranks of the wicked and unite with the faithful remnant, resulting in a polarization regarding the commandments and God's remnant people. The shaking is a process with a present aspect: it has already started and is increasing in intensity; a pending aspect: the greater and final shaking is about to happen; and a future aspect: the great and decisive shaking will still occur.

The topic of Eschatology has always been a major topic for Judaism—biblical Judaism as well as rabbinical Judaism. This presentation explores the last judgement, the resurrection of the dead, the world to come, the afterlife (Gan Eden, “Paradise”; and Gehinnom, “hell”). It will also discuss the Jewish answer to the question of whether Israel or the nations will inherit the world to come.

This study explores the general methods of doing hermeneutics-our preunderstandings of the Bible, exegesis, biblical theology, systematic theology, applied theology. Particularly, this paper investigates the systematic theology which involves special method: It has a source: God, a center: Jesus-Christ, a worldview: the Great Controversy, derived from Scripture, which is its sole basis. This presentation is meant to equip everyone to have a better understanding of the Bible. It provides the context and motivation for missions and the shape of spiritual life.

Since the ultimate aim of Christianity is the second coming of Jesus and the arrival of the kingdom of God, the delay of the second coming of Jesus is one of the most important issues to be solved by Christian theology. This presentation explores the understanding of Christian eschatology in modern theology with the historical dialectic method, and proposes the historical understanding of the kingdom of God as a synthesis of Christian eschatology. To understand Christian eschatology as the correct Christian theology, we should pursue the historical understanding that the Kingdom of God was presented in the past as the crucifixion of Christ, and is realized today in the lives of Christians, and will be completed in the future through the second coming of Jesus Christ.

This presentation probes the relationship between Christian eschatology and Jesus’ ethics. The central theoretical idea is that the moral resources for Christian decision-making, derived from the life and teachings of Jesus, motivate moral living in the present moral order by detailing present and futuristic rewards. This paper addresses five interrelated sub-categories within the ethics of Jesus: personal ethics, social ethics, political ethics, religious ethics, and business ethics. After examining the nature of these sub-categories of Jesus’ ethics, this presentation concludes that the eschatological consciousness of Christian ethics is revealed more clearly in Jesus’ ethics. By implication, therefore, the article recommends that desire to be part of God's plan for humanity's ultimate future ought to inspire moral living in the here and now.

This presentation explores the correlation between Ellen G. White’s great controversy vision and health vision in the context of the Civil War. It argues that the prevailing social, political, and religious conditions within nineteen-century American society and the spiritual decline among Sabbatarian Adventists laid the ground for the injection of a new prophetic vision at a time of paradoxical crisis. Furthermore, it maintains that such visioning unfolded the visualization of God’s missional purpose for Christian life in the progressively changing world.