HELPFUL ESCHATOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS

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HELPFUL ESCHATOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS

PMW 2025-064 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am currently working on a book on the Two Ages of Redemptive History, which is a book that will supplement another projected I have almost completed researching: “The Olivet Discourse in Context.” In this blog posting I will simply list some well-stated, random observations of various theologians regarding eschatological phenomena. I hope you find these helpful, for I will have them in my book!

Just for fun, I will begin with one of my own:

Ken Gentry
In Romans 8:23 Paul speaks of the redemption OF the body, not a redemption FROM the body. This fits nicely with his statement in the much abused fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, where Paul speaks of “THIS” body being resurrected, NOT removed or replaced. See verses 53–54.

Paul Beker, Paul the Apostle, 180, 152–53
(p. 180): “A theology of the cross that is unrelated to the resurrection as ‘first fruits” of the kingdom of God and the future resurrection of the dead is in danger of neglecting the created order and the hope of God’s final cosmic victory over his rebellious creation, which he promised in the resurrection of Christ…. The proleptic victory of the cross and the resurrection moves toward the future publica victory of God in the final resurrection.”
(pp. 152–53): “Paul does not think of Jesus’ ascension in terms of a removal scene, as if a Gnostic savior figure leaves the scene of corrupted matter by shedding his body on the cross and by ascending to his proper heavenly abode, where Spirit conjoins Spirt… [Christ’s resurrection] is a proleptic event that foreshadows the apocalyptic general resurrection of the dead and thus the transformation of our created world and the gift of new corporeal life to dead bodies.”

THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN
by Milton S. Terry Cover (front) to Apocalypse Commentary
This book is Terry’s preterist commentary on the Book of Revelation. It was originally the last half of his much larger work, Biblical Apocalyptics. It is deeply-exegetical, tightly-argued, and clearly-presented.

For more study materials: https://www.kennethgentry.com/

Larry J. Kreitzer, “Resurrection,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 807
“It is important to note that the English phrase ‘resurrection from the dead’ evokes a rather different mental picture than does its Greek equivalent anastaseos nekron (Rom 1:4; cf. Phil 3:11 which has ek nekron, lit. ‘out from the dead ones’)… In Greek, however, the noun behind nekron is a plural one, which means the phrase anastasis nekron may be translated literally as ‘resurrection from out of dead ones’ (cf. Phil 3:11). The Greek expression contains a much more dynamic image, conjuring up a picture of ‘the standing up from the midst of corpses.’”

William Dennison, Paul’s Two-Age Construction and Apologetics, 30
“On the one hand, therefore, Paul states that the new creation has been fulfilled because we have entered into the fulness of time (Gal. 4:4; II Cor. 5:17; 6:2), and on the other hand he asserts that the believer still lives in the present evil world with the expectation that it will cease (Rom. 87:18; 11; 15:12:2).”

Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, 45
“When [Paul] speaks here [in 2 Cor. 5:17] of ‘new creation’ this is not meant merely in an individual sense (‘a new creature’), but one is to think of the new world of the re-creation that God has made dawn in Christ, and in which everyone who is in Christ is included. This is also evident from the neuter plurals that follow: ‘the old things have passed away, the new have come,’ and from the full significance that must be ascribed here to ‘old’ and ‘new.’ It is a matter of two worlds, not only in a spiritual, but in a redemptive-historical, eschatological sense. The ‘old things’ stand for the unredeemed world in its distress and sin, the ‘new things’ for the time of salvation and the re-creation that have dawned with Christ’s resurrection.”

The Book of Revelation and Postmillennialism (Lectures by Ken Gentry)

In the first of these three 50-minute lectures Gentry explains Revelation’s judgments to show they do not contradict postmillennialism. In the next two lectures he shows how the Millennium and the New Creation themes strongly support the gospel victory hope found in postmillennialism.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 27, 467
(p. 27): “The coming of the kingdom is the initial stage of the great drama of the history of the end.”
(p. 467): “At his death and after his rising from the dead came the signs of the catastrophe of the world and of the palingenesis attendant upon the parousia of the Son of Man, Judgment is visited upon the temple (‘the veil of the temple was rent’) and rising of the dead is seen (‘many bodies of the saints which slept arose,’ Matt. 27:51–53; cf. also vs. 45, ‘there was darkness over all the land’). All these events clearly point to the connection between the resurrection and the coming of the parousia of the Son of Man.”

Geerhardus Vos, The Eschatology of the New Testament, 26
“The present state continues to lie this side of the eschatological crisis, and, while directly leading up to the latter, yet remains to all intents a part of the old age and world order. Believers live in the ‘last days,’ upon them ‘the ends of the ages are come,’ But ‘the last day,’ ‘the consummation of the age,’ still lies in the future (Matt. 13:29, 40, 49; 24:3; 28:20; John 6:39, 44, 54; 12:48; I Cor. 10:11; II Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2; 9:26; James 5:3; I Pet. 5:20; II Pet. 3:3; I John 2:18; Jude 18).”

Willem Van Gemeren, The Progress of Redemption, 353, 33
(p. 353) “Our Lord spoke of the kingdom as present, as growing, as cataclysmic, and al future.”
(p. 33) The new heavens and new earth speaks of: “transformation and restoration: a new heaven and earth; redemption of creation; a holy people; the beneficent presence and rule of God and his Messiah.”

The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation
This long-awaited commentary has now been published. It is an 1800 page, two-volume deeply exegetical, academic commentary on the Bible’s most mysterious book.