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Eschatology

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How do you handle questions from different eschatological views?

The Story of Hope and The Way to Joy are primarily designed for use with unbelievers or new believers, so “eschatological views” questions wouldn’t come from them.  So, I assume, this question could be worded more clearly like this: “How do you address concerns of people who want to use these books but who hold eschatological views (views concerning the “end times”) that differ from the views expressed in The Story of Hope?”

It’s very good question and one that concerns us!

The authors of The Story of Hope hold to a pre-tribulational, pre-millennial view of eschatology (study of “last things”).  But, we did not intend to use The Story of Hope to promote our view of last things.  The Story of Hope was written primarily to present God’s redemptive plan (“Big Story” or metanarrative) in such a way that unbelievers and can understand it and be saved.  It is our intention to focus on what is most important—God’s provision for redeeming fallen men and women, as well as the physical creation which has been cursed as result of Adam and Eve’s fall.

But to tell the whole “Big Story,” we can’t just jump from Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension to Revelation 21 & 22 (new heavens and new Earth).  Well, I suppose we could do that, but it would by-pass some very important “hopeful” features in God’s story of hope.  For example:

• For us, the return of Jesus for believers is one of our most precious hopes.  We believe it’s the event that Paul refers to as “the blessed hope” in Titus 2:13.
• And what hope would there be for mankind, if God did not eternally banish Satan into a place of eternal damnation?  If we stopped in our study at the ascension of Christ back to the Father in heaven or if we jumped from the ascension to Revelation 21-22, we would be neglecting this key prophetic event that appears in Revelation 20:7-10.
• If we failed to deal adequately with the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-15), we would miss a key opportunity to warn unbelievers of the dreadful, eternal wrath of God that they will face if they reject God’s provision for their redemption.

So, while we do not intend to promote any particular view of last things, to tell the entire Big Story of the Bible, requires that we make our eschatological views known.  And as we do that, we certainly respect other legitimate interpretations as to how the story ends.

Question: Would we ever create a version of The Story of Hope that could be used by amillennialists (those who believe that there will be no literal, earthly 1000 year reign of Christ), for example? 

Answer: We might be willing to work with some evangelical organization to allow them to adapt The Story of Hope in a way that did not contradict our views, but did present the end of the story in a way that did not contradict their eschatological views.

For additional information, read the Cultivate blog article on the End-Focus for The Story of Hope. 

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