Christian eschatology

Broadly speaking, Christian eschatology focuses on the ultimate destiny of individual souls and of the entire created order, based primarily upon biblical texts within the Old and New Testaments.

The following approaches arose from the study of Christianity's most central eschatological document, the Book of Revelation, but the principles embodied in them can be applied to all prophecy in the Bible.

[26] Different authors have suggested that the Beast represents various social injustices, such as exploitation of workers,[27] wealth, the elite, commerce,[28] materialism, and imperialism.

"[33] As Stephen Smalley puts it, the beast represents "the powers of evil which lie behind the kingdoms of this world, and which encourage in society, at any moment in history, compromise with the truth and opposition to the justice and mercy of God.

Edward Bishop Elliott, in the Horae Apocalypticae (1862), argues that John wrote the book in exile on Patmos "at the close of the reign of Domitian; that is near the end of the year 95 or beginning of 96".

In his commentary on Daniel 8:14 published in 1831, he stated that the 2,300-year period should be calculated from 334 BC, the year Alexander the Great began his conquest of the Persian Empire.

Those who hold to this view usually fall into one of the following three categories: Pretribulationists believe that the second coming will be in two stages separated by a seven-year period of tribulation.

Revelation divides the great tribulation into four sets of increasingly catastrophic judgments: the Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets, the Seven Thunders (Rev 10:1–4) and the Seven Bowls, in that order.

Postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Messianic Age in which Christian ethics prosper.

Postmillennialism holds that Jesus Christ establishes his kingdom on earth through his preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that he equips his church with the gospel, empowers her by the Spirit, and charges her with the Great Commission (Matt 28:19) to disciple all nations.

Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and of nations.

After an extensive era of such conditions Jesus Christ will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final judgment after which the eternal order follows.

The amillennial view regards the "thousand years" mentioned in Revelation 20 as a symbolic number, not as a literal description; amillennialists hold that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the current church age.

(Ezekiel 18:4)[76] This alludes to the Catholic belief in a spiritual state known as Purgatory during which souls not condemned to Hell but not completely pure go through a final process of purification before their full acceptance into Heaven.

While the Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the term purgatory, it acknowledges an intermediate state after death and before final judgment, and offers prayer for the dead.

[Matt 24:21–22] Furthermore, the Messiah's return and the tribulation that accompanies it will come at a time when people are not expecting it: Of that day and hour no-one knows; no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

Preterist Christian commentators believe that Jesus quoted this prophecy in Mark 13:14 as referring to an event in his "1st century disciples'" immediate future, specifically the pagan Roman forces during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

[82][83] Futurist Christians consider the "Abomination of Desolation" prophecy of Daniel mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:15[84] and Mark 13:14[85] as referring to an event in the end time future, after the removal of the "one who now restrains", when a 7-year peace treaty will be signed between Israel and a world ruler called "the man of lawlessness", or the "Antichrist" affirmed by the writings of the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians.

[91][92] Some adherents believe this event is predicted and described in Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible,[93] where he uses the Greek harpazo (ἁρπάζω), meaning to snatch away or seize.

Because of the seemingly highly symbolic and even cryptic language of this one New Testament passage, some Christian scholars conclude that Mount Armageddon must be an idealized location.

The hermeneutical method supports this position by referencing Judges 4 and 5 where God miraculously destroys the enemy of His elect, Israel, at Megiddo, also called the Valley of Josaphat.

[123]Millennialism (from millennium, Latin for "a thousand years"), or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent), is the belief that a Messianic Age will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future eternal state of the "World to Come".

Christian millennialist thinking is primarily based upon the Book of Revelation, specifically 20:1–4,[124] which describes the vision of an angel who descended from heaven with a large chain and a key to a bottomless pit, and captured Satan, imprisoning him for a thousand years: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain.

The Book of Revelation then describes a series of judges who are seated on thrones, as well as his vision of the souls of those who were beheaded for their testimony in favor of Jesus and their rejection of the mark of the beast: They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

However, the story is not yet finished: "When the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea."

There is a passage in Ezekiel, however, where God says to the prophet, "Set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him."

Following the defeat of Gog, the last judgment begins: "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" [Rev 20:10].

Therefore, and according to the biblical sources (Matt 5:31–46), the conjunction of the Last Judgement and the works of mercy is very frequent in the pictorial tradition of Christian art.

Once again, we see the imagery of the marriage: "I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" [Rev 21:2].

[133] The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker, 1984) says: The rich symbolism reaches beyond our finest imaginings, not only to the beatific vision but to a renewed, joyous, industrious, orderly, holy, loving, eternal, and abundant existence.