Your Kingdom Come: the Doctrine of Eschatology Lesson Four the End of the Age
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Your Kingdom Come: The Doctrine of Eschatology Lesson 4 The End of the Age Manuscript For videos, study guides and other resources, visit Thirdmill at thirdmill.org. © 2016 by Third Millennium Ministries All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means for profit, except in brief quotations for the purposes of review, comment, or scholarship, without written permission from the publisher, Third Millennium Ministries, Inc., 316 Live Oaks Blvd., Casselberry, Florida 32707. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 International Bible Society. Used by Permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. ABOUT THIRDMILL Founded in 1997, Thirdmill is a non-profit Evangelical Christian ministry dedicated to providing: Biblical Education. For the World. For Free. 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Contents INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 GENERAL RESURRECTION.........................................................................................2 Early Controversies ......................................................................................................3 Divine Authority ...........................................................................................................4 Hell ...........................................................................................................................5 Heaven .....................................................................................................................6 Effect on Creation .........................................................................................................6 Natural world ...........................................................................................................6 Hell ...........................................................................................................................8 Heaven .....................................................................................................................8 Effect on Human Beings ...............................................................................................9 FINAL JUDGMENT .......................................................................................................11 Judge ...........................................................................................................................12 Parties .........................................................................................................................13 Fallen angels ..........................................................................................................13 Unregenerate ..........................................................................................................13 Regenerate..............................................................................................................14 Evidence .....................................................................................................................14 Decisions .....................................................................................................................16 Curses .....................................................................................................................16 Blessings ................................................................................................................17 NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH ..........................................................................18 Purity...........................................................................................................................18 Newness ......................................................................................................................20 Geography ...................................................................................................................21 Unified kingdom ....................................................................................................21 New Jerusalem .......................................................................................................23 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................24 CONTRIBUTORS ...........................................................................................................25 GLOSSARY......................................................................................................................26 ii For videos, lesson guides and other resources, visit Thirdmill at thirdmill.org. Your Kingdom Come: The Doctrine of Eschatology Lesson Four The End of the Age INTRODUCTION When God created the world, his goal was to turn the entire planet into his earthly kingdom. He began by setting up the Garden of Eden as his sanctuary. And he appointed humanity to increase in number, and to spread the borders of the garden to the ends of the earth. But, of course, humanity sinned, and plunged both the human race and creation itself into corruption and death. As a result, the earth still hasn’t been prepared for God, and he still hasn’t brought his kingdom to earth in all its fullness. But God hasn’t given up on his plan. And at the end of the age, he’ll fulfill it — perfectly. He’ll restore his faithful people to life, purge his enemies from his world, establish the new heavens and the new earth as his permanent kingdom, and reign forever from his throne in the New Jerusalem. This is the fourth lesson in our series Your Kingdom Come: The Doctrine of Eschatology, and we’ve entitled it “The End of the Age.” In this lesson, we’ll continue our study of the last events of history that will finally end this age and fully consummate the age to come. As we saw in our first lesson in this series, the Old Testament expected God’s kingdom to unfold in three phases: the initial creation of the universe and its creatures; a long period of redemption necessitated by humanity’s fall into sin; and finally, the everlasting eschaton, also called “the age to come.” The eschaton is the ultimate state of the universe after redemption is complete, when God’s heavenly kingdom fills the earth. We also saw that the New Testament changed these expectations by dividing the eschaton into three stages. The age to come began with the inauguration, which spanned Jesus’ life and earthly ministry, including the foundational work done by his first century apostles and prophets. During the inauguration, this age began to overlap with the age to come. This age is characterized by sin, suffering and death, while the age to come is characterized by God’s blessings for his faithful people. The second stage of the eschaton is the continuation, which began immediately after the inauguration and will continue until Jesus returns. During the continuation, we suffer the hardships of this age at the same time that we enjoy the beginning blessings of the age to come. And the third stage is the consummation, which will begin when Jesus returns. In the consummation, God will completely end this age, and permanently replace it with the age to come. So, in this lesson, when we talk about “the end of the age,” we have in mind the end of this age, and the full consummation of the age to come. Like our last lesson, this lesson will focus on