The Doctrine of Last Things

Eschatology as the Study of Last Things

Today we are looking at the doctrine of last things. The handout may say last thing, it should say last things. And that particular doctrine is known as eschatology. Eschatology is the word eschaton in Greek means last things.

So in the sense of the study, a lot of people, when you think of last things, they begin to want to talk about things like rapture and second coming and great tribulation and all that stuff, right? That's what people think about last things or end times.

But what I want to show you today is that the doctrine of eschatology actually encompasses a lot more than just what's going to happen in the end. Because the doctrine of last things also has a personal component.

Everybody's got their handouts now, right? Notice on the handouts we have the personal... Did you get one brother? You got one? Who here didn't? Nobody? We have the personal eschatology and we have the universal eschatology.

Personal eschatology deals with death and afterlife and universal eschatology deals with end times and judgment. Everybody open your Bibles to Hebrews 9 .27. You may know this without having to look it up.

It is a very common verse. It is one that I use a lot when I am evangelizing, when I'm talking to people about the faith and I'm sharing my faith with people, oftentimes I will point to Hebrews 9 .27.

I even have a card. You know those cards that you get at the doctor's office, the appointment cards? It says you have an appointment. I had one made that is a gospel track. It says you have an appointment and under date and time it says Hebrews 9 .27.

And when you turn the card over it's got the verse, Hebrews 9 .27. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this is judgment. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this is judgment. So when we talk about eschatology, the first thing that we need to remember is that all of us have an end time which is coming and it's coming possibly more rapidly than any of us want to think.

A hundred years from now we will all be dead. Look around. Everybody in this room will be dead in a hundred years. Go ahead. No, I'm just saying a hundred years from now everybody here looks to be over 20.

Maybe there's somebody under 20 here but most people don't live past 80 years. Some people live past 90 years and there's even some people who live past a hundred years. We call them centurions. People who live over a century.

But very few people live over a hundred years. Therefore I can say with great confidence that within a hundred years from now every one of us is going to either be with the Lord in heaven or we are going to be under the Lord's wrath in hell.

But we're going to be somewhere but it ain't going to be here. And so when people talk about are we in the end times, people ask that question all the time. Are we in the end times? Yes you are. Because whether or not the world is going to end in the next hundred years I don't know.

But I know you are. And so you are in the end times. Some of you may not have 40 years left. I'm 40 years old. If I live another if I'm not halfway through I'd be very surprised. If I live over 80 I'd be very surprised.

I'm 40 years old this year. Born in 1980. And if I live to 80 something years old I'll be surprised. So we are all we are all in our own personal end times. One way or another it's going to end. And so we need to know what does the Bible say about this end that we have to look forward to.

And so we're going to look at two parts of what I call personal eschatology which is what happens at death, immediately at death. And then we're going to look at the resurrection of the body. And then if time allows we will look at the universal end times.

Because I know that's what most people are interested in. Oh how do you interpret Revelation? How do you interpret that millennium? You know people get excited about that. But I will tell you the more important thing you need to consider is your own end.

That's the thing that matters most. So let's look first what happens immediately at death. There are two competing views. One of which is I believe biblical and holds to the historic faith. And the other view is I believe unbiblical and does not hold to the historic faith.

But there have been people who have believed it so I like to bring up both sides. The first view is called soul sleep. The second view is called continued consciousness. So what's the difference? Well soul sleep means when you die physically you also die spiritually.

Your spirit dies and goes into the ground with your body and it stays dormant until the resurrection. That is called soul sleep. That's unbiblical. I'm saying that's unbiblical. But that is a very popular view among some cults.

Jehovah Witnesses believe that. Even some Adventist groups believe that. It's got a fancy name called psychopenicia. Basically simply a fancy word for soul sleep. And it just is the idea that your body and your soul are intricately linked and therefore when your body dies your soul dies.

And it's asleep in the ground until such time as you're resurrected and at the resurrection your soul is awakened, your body's awakened, and you're brought back to life. Now there are some Bible passages that people will try to use to defend that view such as 1 Thessalonians 4 that talks about those who sleep in Christ.

You know that term being asleep is often used to reference people who are dead. Remember when the little girl died and Jesus said to the people outside she's not dead, she's only sleeping. And they laughed at Jesus because they knew that she had died.

And so the idea of soul sleep is based on the euphemistic use of the term sleep to refer to those who have died. However, the other view is referred to as continued consciousness or the consciousness of the soul.

And I believe that has a much greater biblical testimony. I'll give you a few Bible verses if you want to write them down. Number one, Luke 23 43. Jesus was on the cross, the repentant thief was next to him, and Jesus looked at him and said what?

Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Luke 23 43. I say to you today you shall be with me in paradise. That is an important passage because Jesus gives a time frame of their entrance into paradise and their consciousness in paradise.

Today you will be with me. You will experience this today because you're going to die today. He ain't going to live past today. So today you'll be with me in paradise. I think that is a very key passage.

The second one would be Acts 7 and verse 59. When Stephen was being martyred, Stephen is the first Christian martyr. After the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the first person to be killed for their faith was Saint Stephen.

In Acts chapter 7, it says he saw the Lord standing and he said Lord what? Lord Jesus receive my Spirit. So there is an expectation on behalf of Stephen that the Lord would be receiving him in the Spirit that day.

Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne.

They cried out with a loud voice, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Now this one is pretty powerful if you think about it.

This is Revelation 6 verses 9 and 10. And what it says, it says that John sees a vision of heaven and under the throne are the souls of people who have been martyred for their faith. And they are crying out for what?

Justice. Why are they crying out for justice? Because they know how they died. See this is an interesting reality. Not only do they have consciousness, but they have memory. They know how they died. They're calling out for justice.

Isn't that interesting? That not only are they present and conscious, but they are also aware of themselves. Somebody said one time, when you go to heaven you lose all your memories of the earth. Well then that means I didn't ever exist and this existence doesn't matter.

I don't like that idea of you lose all the memories. Because you lose all the memories, that means basically you're a new person. And this doesn't matter. I don't think that's true. So, yes.

When Jesus was talking about Lazarus and the rich guy, and he remembered his brothers.

Yeah, Luke 16. Very good. Yeah, that's true. That's a good example. In fact, that was the last one of my verses. No, it's okay. Luke 16, 19 -31. It says very clearly, it says when Lazarus died, his soul was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, which was the paradise that Jesus talked about.

But it says that the... I'll ask you a question. It says the rich man closed his eyes and opened his eyes in Hades. So the righteous man had an angelic escort. The unrighteous man closed his eyes and opened them in hell.

Luke 16, what? 19 -31. Okay, brother, you had to send it first.

Just the thought of whatever death at that time was like during that period, but the rich man also had healed his body. Whatever he had felt, a physical, some type of physical,.

Felt some type of pain. Yes, he was able to experience torment in whatever way we don't know, but he was able to be... he was able to experience thirst, take a drip of water, touch my tongue. There was all those things.

And so yes, it's hard to understand, but there was an experience that he felt. Fear for his loved ones as well. Yes, and he felt fear. That's right. But you had a question, brother? What is euthysm, sir?

Euthysm? Yeah, am I saying it right?

Oh, euphemism. Euphemism is a way of... it's a language, a use of language. It's hard to define.

A euphemism is... Wow. I've never heard that, that's why I was asking.

I'm trying to think if it's a... Yeah, it's not a synonym and it's not a simile, but there's... it's a... a word picture. It's a word picture, a euphemism. Can you spell that, sir? E-U-P-H-E-M-I-S-M.

I've never heard it before. Yeah, euphemism, it's like a word picture. It's not something that is... it's real. Like I said, when they say sleep, soul sleep is a euphemism for death because it looks like they're asleep, but they're actually dead.

So it can look like one thing and mean another?

Yes, yeah. Euphemism is a use of language.

Literally it means one thing, but it's kind of just like...

Yeah, it's an allegorical use of language, a word picture. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, sometimes I use words and I think about... I know what they mean, but it's hard to explain what they mean. That's okay, thank you.

That was Luke 16... You're talking about which one? Luke 16, 19 -31. Yes?

Rewinding back, you've got soul. Sleep, the body dies, the soul dies until... Until resurrection.

I said continued consciousness. That's where when you die, your body dies, but your soul continues to live either with the Lord or in punishment. And that's the view that... Well, it's not just... I like it better too, but I also think it's biblical.

Right. And that's why... Yeah, here's two more verses to put down. I've got a lot of Scripture to... because a lot of people want to debate this, so I like to make sure we understand this isn't just one or two verses.

2 Corinthians 5 -8, Paul says this. He says, we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. That one is an important passage because Paul says, I would rather be absent from the body.

And to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Yes?

Old Testament time. The death experience and place death in the arm of the bosom of Abraham, that was that considered paradise and the death experience that a Christian experienced now. If we die, we'll be in the presence of the Lord.

Now, is that two different places as an Old Testament saint and a Christian saint dies? Is that two different experiences or is that all one same place? Were they with the Lord like Abraham when he died?

Was that a place? Because he said, over on the next gulf, there's a gulf separating me and thee and we can't cross to each other. But they were able to see each other in a sense of how they determined that then.

But how is that to where we die, we're in the presence of the Lord? How does that work?

There's a question regarding, was there a difference prior to, this is the question you're asking, was there a difference prior to the coming of Christ about where the soul was conscious? Luke 16 is our only real indicator to answer that question.

So the first way to answer, we have to say, do we think Luke 16 is a narrative or a parable? I think it's a narrative, meaning I think it's telling something that is actual. And if it is a narrative and not a parable, then it is telling us that there was a place known as Paradise and that also known as Abraham's bosom which existed prior to the cross.

So yes, I do believe that Old Testament saints who died in faith were with Abraham in a paradisical condition. After the cross, however, I believe that the saints, even the Old Testament saints, I believe all saints are now with the Lord.

There's a passage in the New Testament that talks about Christ going and setting the captives free and talking about leading captivity captive and some people consider that to be the moment that when Christ died, went and led Paradise into His presence and were there forever.

I don't know that I can prove that biblically, but I think that it's reasonable.

But wouldn't that contradict the Old Testament saints from being resurrected.

At the end of age? No, because they're still spiritual. Their bodies are still in the ground. We will all be raised in the end and that's where we're going to get to in a minute, the resurrection of the body.

The issue is only the location of the spirit. Because our spirits, wherever they are, they're not omnipresent. So they have to be somewhere. Right now, my spirit is in my body. But when I die, according to this passage, 2 Corinthians 5 .8, my spirit won't be in my body anymore, it will be with the Lord.

Be absent from the body.

No, no, go ahead. My last one. I'm with you on that. What does it mean when John explains what you just talked about, the people that were saying... Calling out for justice?

Well, it says those particular ones were ones who had died for their faith in Christ. They were martyrs on this side of the cross. Yeah, so I would say that those people are those who died... Guys, I know there's a lot of questions.

I'll take them quickly. Yes, go ahead. No, there is still a coming judgment where the body and soul will be reunited and there will be a final judgment. That's what we're going to talk about. See the next part where it says the resurrection of the body?

Wherever we go when we die, wherever our spirit is when we die is not the final place. It's not the final place. There is a final place coming. What we would say is a final resurrection of the body where there will be a final judgment.

This is all in Revelation 20 and 21 where it says death and hell gave up their dead and they were cast into what? Lake of fire. That's the final end to those who are unsaved. And those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they are with the Lord in the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven.

See, this is the thing people don't understand. The eternal state is not a purely spiritual state. The eternal state is a physical new earth. If you read Revelation 20 and 21, the new earth is our home.

We're not going to be sitting on clouds, strumming a harp, watching the little fat cherub baby go by singing songs. We're going to be on a new earth and I believe it's going to be very much like this earth was prior to the fall.

Adam and Eve were in paradise. There was a river. There was a tree of life. Read Revelation 21. Paradise. A river. A tree of life. You see, the whole narrative of the Bible is four parts. Creation. Fall.

Redemption. Restoration. Restoration of what? The creation. It's bringing us back to a better place. See, the new paradise, there will not be an opportunity for fall anymore. There won't be a tree of knowledge of good and evil.

There won't be an opportunity to fall anymore. Does that make sense? Now, he had his hand up first. Gary? Oh, thank you. That's a very good question. Purgatory was based on a misunderstanding of how sin is forgiven.

See, Roman Catholics believe that sin has to be dealt with by the individual. And because you might die with sin undealt with, you have to go to a place to be purged of that sin. Therefore, the term purgatory comes from the idea of purging.

It's not a biblical concept. It's a concept that arose in the Middle Ages, and it was a way to essentially try to help people find salvation in themselves, which is not what the Bible says. The Bible says we're supposed to find our salvation in Christ.

But purgatory is, there's no biblical passage at all that would support it. Some people try to use 1 Corinthians 3 that talks about wood, hay, and stubble, gold, silver, precious stones being burned up in the fire, and they say, well, that's purgatory.

That don't jive. There's no way to defend it biblically. But that's a very good question. The idea though is a misunderstanding of how we are saved. Yes? So when you mean virgin, you mean legit like virgin?

Yeah. They think purgatory you go and get burned. All your sins get burned away. Yeah. Just like you put silver in a furnace and all the dross comes to the top and you scoop it off. That's the way they see purgatory.

And so, that's why during the time of the Reformation, people would try to buy their way out of purgatory. Because they didn't want to go there. They didn't want to be miserable. So they tried to purchase indulgences which allowed them to take time off of their sinnets.

It's like hell light. It's like you've got hell that's bad, but then you've got hell light. You know, which is purgatory. So, we're still on part one. The two views are either this. Either when you die, you're going to sleep until the resurrection.

Or when you die, your spirit is going to be somewhere either with the Lord or in a place of torment until the resurrection. Either way, both... I'm going to use the board for a minute. Both have this.

Here's you. You have died. So, this is you dead. They will say there is a time period between your death and the resurrection. So the question is are you awake or are you asleep? If you're asleep, think about it when you fall asleep at night.

Wake up the next morning, it's like no time passed, right? Unless you're like me and you have incredibly weird dreams. Anybody have weird dreams? I have the weirdest dreams. And so sometimes nights seem like they take ten years.

Like I could live a whole lifetime in a dream. But, essentially the idea is this. For those who hold to this view, the bottom view, they would say when you die, basically like falling asleep, you're going to wake up at the resurrection.

I don't think that that's biblical, but I don't think it's heresy. I think it's heterodoxy. There's a difference. I'll explain it another day. Ultimately, I think it's wrong, but I don't think it'd send anybody to hell for believing that.

I don't think that that's... If somebody believed in soul sleep, I would say I think you're wrong. But at the end of the day, it's not something that... You're not denying Christ. You just have a different view of what happens when you die.

Right? Psychopenicia, soul sleep, if you believe that, I disagree. That's all. I believe you are awake, so I would hold that view, and I would say this view is not biblical. Alright, make sense? Now, everybody agrees that there's a resurrection coming.

This is why we don't say the body doesn't matter. Some people like to think the body, it's physical, it doesn't matter. The soul is the only thing that matters. The problem with that is the Bible doesn't teach that.

The Bible teaches that the body is going to be raised. Now it will be changed to a new body, but it will still be, corporately, this body. I hope it looks better, because this looks kind of rough. But I do hope.

I don't know what I'm going to look like in glory, but I will have a physical body that's raised. The verses for that, 1 Corinthians 15, 35 -44, give absolutely. In fact, Paul says if you don't believe in the resurrection, then all of Christianity is useless.

1 Corinthians 15, 35 -44. This body will be raised, and this body will be changed when it is raised. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first, and those who are alive together will be caught together with Him in the clouds to forever be with the Lord, right?

That's the resurrection. There was an old painting. The painting was of a graveyard, and all of the graves were broken open and all the dirt was piled up next to the headstones and the title of the painting was, The Great Gettin' Up Morning.

The idea is on the day of resurrection, everybody's going to get up. And so this leads to a question about, well, what are we going to be like when we are raised? Everybody write this verse down. 1 John 3 .2.

1 John 3 .2. I'll read it to you. It says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

So, what's that say? When Christ returns and the resurrection occurs, we will be like Him. What does that mean? What was Jesus like when He came out of the tomb? His body was new. What's that? Glorified.

Thank you. The only thing we know He had was He had the nail prints in His hand. And why? So He could show Thomas. But also, I think those nail prints go into eternity. My opinion, again, take it. Feel my side, look at my hands.

Why? So that we will always remember what He did for us. The hands of Christ will always have the marks in His hands. Only Him. I was going to say, I've got a scar that goes down the side of my leg. It's about that long.

I fell off a dock when I was about eight years old. And something was on the edge of the dock that I caught on my way down, and it sliced up the side of my leg. And it was awful. Bled everywhere. I mean, it was real bad.

I could have gotten an infection. It was very good I didn't get really sick. But that scar, which I have to this day, I don't think it will be there anymore. I've got metal in my mouth from teeth that have rotted.

Not rotted, but fillings from what they call cavities, right? I don't think I'm going to have that in the new heaven. I hope I don't have as much of me in the new heaven. I don't know. But it won't matter.

I ain't going to be trying to win no beauty contest in the new heaven. He had his hand up first, brother. Go ahead.

In A, you were talking about what happens nearly after death. He said in 2 Corinthians, I'd rather be absent of the body than be present before the Lord. And then in the resurrection of the body, we talked about 1 Corinthians and 1 John.

Where did he get all his? Was these just his personal beliefs? Because these weren't biblically, scripturally backed up with his. Where did he get all that?

Paul tells us in Galatians that he had revelation directly from Jesus Christ.

I don't understand the question.

Yes, yes. I would say this. Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Spirit. 1 Peter says this. It says, holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Spirit of God. And so we know the apostles are being carried along by God's Spirit to give us what we need to know.

This is why 2 Timothy 3 .16 says all Scripture is theanoustos. It's God breathed. So even though it's from Paul's pen, it's from God's mind. And so these are not just Paul's interpretations of the truth.

This is Paul's revelation of the truth. God revealing His truth to us through the apostle Paul, through John, through Peter, through Mark, through Luke. These are God's revelations to us through them.

He had his hand up first, brother. I was just going to say that Jesus can do whatever He wants to do. But He appeared to the apostles in a.

Different form. Another form. You mean the two on the road to Emmaus?

Right, that's what I'm saying. I guess the kind that He expects with the two I just don't see that the two would notice that if He would have had the prince in His hand. I don't know.

Well, you know, the interesting enough about the story of the two on the road to Emmaus, it says they were kept from seeing Him. It doesn't say His figure was changed. It said they were kept from recognizing Him.

So it doesn't necessarily mean His face was different. It just means they didn't mentally, God sort of put blinders on where they couldn't recognize who He was. And it says when He broke the bread, their eyes were opened.

Maybe they saw the nail prints then. I mean, I'm just this is all speculation. I'm just thinking when He broke the bread before them, they see the bread. They remember Christ breaking the bread. They see His hands.

Then they see the nail prints. Then He's gone. And that's the thing. He is taken away immediately. It doesn't say He just walked away. He was out of their presence. Exactly. Then they think back. Why didn't we recognize who that was?

Alright, so we have what happens immediately at death. Then we have the resurrection of the body. When the body is resurrected, it's not just reconstructed. It's not like a Frankenstein monster where God puts all our pieces back together.

But it's glorified. It's a new body built on the old body. Using the old body. And some people say, well, what if somebody's burned to death? What if somebody's cremated? God knows where every molecule in the universe is.

There is no rogue molecule that God can't find. I used to have a fear. I'll tell you my fear. I'm going to be honest. There's 60 of y 'all. Y 'all can giggle if you want to. Think I'm a child. But I had a fear one time.

I watched a film about a shipwreck. People were drowning. And it was a sad movie. And I got to thinking, wow, if I died, and I was a lot younger. I was less mature. I'm not real mature now, but I was less mature then.

And I got to thinking, well, if I was to drown in the bottom of the sea and get ate up by a big whale or something or a shark, no one would ever know where I was. It's like if I die now, y 'all would know.

Y 'all would pick up my body. Hopefully somebody would take it to the funeral home and do something with it. But if I died in a shipwreck and I was swallowed up by a whale and I became whale excrement.

You know? And my point being, would God know where I was? That was sort of a fear that came over me. I was like, would I be so far gone that I would be away from God's ability? And the answer is obviously no, right?

But that's like a real genuine thought I had. That's not the worst fear, but the idea is being separated from being able to be found. To be lost. And to be out of His presence, unable to be found. What a fear.

It really did kind of grip me, you know, to be so far gone that God couldn't find me. But I can't. That's the beauty, right? God is omnipresent. The Bible says this in Psalm 139, if I go up into heaven, you are there.

If I go down into Sheol, you are there. I can't escape His presence. There's a place over in the Middle East where Muslims go and they do gambling and they visit prostitutes and stuff. It's a very small place.

And they say they do that because it's too small for Allah to see. It's a place that's too small for Allah to notice. So they can go there and they can visit their prostitutes and they can go do their gambling and get drunk and get high and Allah doesn't see it.

Well, you understand though, that's wrong. I cannot escape the presence of God. Even if I wanted to.

So they acknowledge they have a limited God.

Well again, not all Muslims believe it. The ones who go there believe it. They figure they can get away with whatever. Alright, so, a new body fit for a new earth. That's the resurrection. A new body fit for a new earth.

God takes the old, He fashions it into something new. That is our personal eschatology. You will die, you will live after your death. And you will either live with the Lord in comfort, in joy, or you will live in the wrath of God.

People say if you go to hell you're separated from God. No you're not. In hell you're separated from His grace and His mercy. But you are under the full weight of His wrath forever. You can't go anywhere and be away from the presence of God.

He is everywhere. But in hell His grace is no more. That's right. So that's our personal eschatology. I knew we were going to spend most of our time on that. Now, in the limited time we have remaining, let's look at part two, which is universal eschatology.

Yes, you may ask a question. So on that new body, so when you leave Jerusalem after the weddings of the Lamb, because I've heard we're going to be praising the Lord for eternity, and then I've heard that like Aidan had a job on paradise, every issue one is going to have a front job or something to do, there's going to be something to do besides praising the Lord.

Because if we look at it in paradise, Aidan had a specific job, so besides praising the Lord, everything that he did,.

He had something to do. Yeah, I don't think. I think, again, you are asking a question that we don't have a specific answer to, and that's what we are going to do in the new earth. But I think that it won't be, number one, it won't be boring.

Well, if it's heaven for my wife, there's going to be some kind of shopping mall there. That's a joke, Jennifer, if you're listening. Alright, he had his hand up first. Let me answer him real quick. Very quickly, we will not be bored.

I do not know what we're going to do, but we will have a life there. It's not just going to be sitting on a cloud strumming a harp forever. He had his hand up first. I knew this was going to be a lot of questions today.

Yes? Hold on, I can't hear his question, please.

Revelation chapter 21 says the second death. It's talking about the lake that burned.

Before it was over, which is the second. The Bible describes death in two ways. The Bible describes death as the act of physical, the stopping of the physical body of living. Right? When Adam was created from the dust of the ground, God had to breathe into him life.

He wasn't living until life came in, right? So before that, it was just a dead lump. God breathed life into him. What does the Bible say when we die? Our last breath. We die and our body goes back to the earth.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There is physical death, but there is also spiritual death. Think about Ephesians 2. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. So there is a spiritual death.