Eschatology: Pathology and Treatment

I. Prologue: Is Wackiness Curable?
Quirky thinking is a persistent psychological "feature" of human nature.: Human wackiness manifests especially in matters of mystery, passion, power, religion, and the future.
Non-panaceas: logic, education, age, spirituality, wealth, community, diversity, holiness....
New Testament hopes are not free from human quirkiness, but their wackiness is centered and disciplined differently.

II. The Rise of Christian Eschatology
Jesus' first disciples regarded creation's final future: through Jewish apocalyptic messianic expectation (Acts 23:6, 26:6-8, 28:20),
reshaped definitively by the decisive 'end-time events' of
Christ's signs and wonders (Acts 2:22, 10:36-38),
crucifixion and resurrection (Acts 2:23-24, 10:39-41),
ascension to the Father's right hand (Acts 1:6-11) to reign (Matt 24:45-25:30) "far above all authority" (Eph 1:21, 1 Pet 3:22),
outpouring of the Holy Spirit to equip disciples (Luke 24:49, John 14:16, Acts 2:33),
and promise to return in judgment to establish his kingdom (Acts 1:6-11)
and share it with faithful co-heirs (Rom 8:16-17, 1 Pet 1:3-9, 1 Cor 6:9-11).
This kindles and sustains disciples' new lives of apocalyptic hope in Christ's coming future (Acts 10:42-44)— an 'interim ethic':
"Stay awake; watch" (Matt 24:42, 1 Thess 5; cf. Montecito Fire Department),: and multiply knowledge of God's kingdom to anticipate his appearing (Matt 24:14, 2 Pet 3)
by bringing the 'Great Commandment' (John 13:34-35) and 'Great Commission' (Matt 28:18-20)
to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The ascended and seated Christ is: eternal prophet (John 16:12-15, Matt 28:20, 1 Cor 2:2-13),
eternal priest (Heb 7:23-8:2, 9:24, Rom 8:34), and
eternal king (Col 1:13, Eph 5:5, 2 Pet 1:11, Rev 3:21; cf. 1 Cor 15:24ff).
Jesus manifests 'presence-in-absence' during the 'end-times' (Matt 28:16-20, cf. 1 Cor 5:3-5) with: "real presence" (cf. Matt 18:16-20, John 6:54, "Sweet Presence of Jesus") and
"real absence" (cf. Matt 26:29, 1 Cor 11:26, "When We See Him").
His reign is mediated by: the Holy Spirit (who "will take what is mine and declare it", John 16:12-15, even with signs and wonders) and
the church (mission, ministries, worship, and prayer in Christ's name; John 20:19-23 and Acts 1:6-9).

III. Israel's Eschatology Transformed
Jesus' ascension radically shifts the church's understanding of Israel's national hopes:

IV. Later Developments
NT voices assimilated Jewish and Greco-Roman cultural convictions, but critically, within the apostolic apocalyptic framework,: but Platonistic Greco-Roman thought reasserted itself as a Christian eschatology and endemic folk religion.
Christian eschatology soon solidified creedally, but its themes were dis-integrated and de-apocalypticized:: For instance, baptism for forgiveness of sins was linked with beginning of organic life and civic standing, and regulated through sacramental penance.
Resurrection of the body declined in popular consciousness, and life everlasting was identified with disembodied afterlife in heaven.
The kingdom's manifestation was associated with Constantinian civil power.
Renewal movements and modern eschatologies recovered some apocalyptic framework and themes,: but often selectively and artificially, mixing them with popular cultural and ideological instincts:

V. Prognosis
Recovered scholarly knowledge of first-century historical background allows a restoration of Jewish apocalyptic sensibility: in which Jesus' and the apostles' directions can be interpreted, translated, and heeded more clearly.
The gospel checks, de-centers, and reshapes our futurist wackiness with authentic hope:: like an antibiotic, or better, a probiotic.

Israel awaits a bright national future in an evil world.	Jesus Christ leads its apocalyptic restoration.	E.g., Gen 28:10-15 in John 1:44-51.
Israel's righteous ones seek assurance and vindication.	Christ's vindication offers a way to address his followers' old narrowness, grandiosity, arrogance, insecurity, fragility, despair, paralysis, and ruthlessness (cf. Rom 1:28-31).	Ps 110:1-4 in Col 3:1-17 and Heb 7-8.
Wayward Israel needs international judgment and restoration.	Jesus' Holy Spirit characterizes the church's life, experience, and hope.	Isa 66 in Rev 21; Joel 2:28-32 through Pss 16 and 110 in Acts 2:14-39; Prov 11:31 in 1 Pet 4:12-19.
Apocalyptic prophecy discloses reality to suffering Israel.	The Church's apocalyptic perspective foresees Christ's deliverance from its present and future enemies.	Joel 2:30-31 in Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45; Deut 32:35-39 in Rev 1:17-18 and Rom 12:19-21.
Israel expects final, sure, decisive judgment-salvation from enemies.	Jesus' past and future appearings frame Christian hope, mission, and church life.	Dan 7:13-14 in Mark 14:61-64 and Rev 1:7-8; Ps 68:29 in Eph 4:7-10.

name	Postmillennialism	'Spiritualism' / 'Animism'	Amillennialism	Premillennialism
future timeline	The Millennium precedes or even replaces Jesus' parousia. The world improves as the Church spreads. Jesus makes a 'soft landing' (if any) in a world the gospel has prepared for him.	We are judged individually after death and go to heaven or hell. Resurrection and cosmic judgment are sidelined. Revelation becomes (merely) "the hymnal of the Church," or something awkward.	The Millennium and Tribulation are not literal spans of time or sequential. They are concurrent, comprising the whole Church age.	Jesus' coming (parousia), a 'hard landing' in an increasingly rebellious world, brings the Millennium, either before a time of global tribulation ('Pre-tribulation') or afterward ('Post-tribulation').
character	Some earthly (and conventional ideological) 'hope' dominates and domesticates biblical history.	Cultural notions of the soul's individual future crowd out the historical character of the Bible's vision of creation's past and future.	Associates life allegorically and symbolically with biblical events. Current events may be taken to presage the final massive apostasy before the end.	Weaves obscure, 'decoded' apocalyptic passages into a future timeline. Dispensational timelines chronicle 'Rapture'/Tribulation, 'Antichrist', Return, Millennium, Apostasy, Judgment, and New Jerusalem.
examples	Constantinianism; progressivism / meliorism; Rastafarianism; R.J. Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionism.	Dante's Comedy (taken literally); folk Christianity.	Most established Catholic and Protestant church teachings.	J.N. Darby; William Miller; Hal Lindsey; Left Behind.
weakness	Hope can yield to conventional wisdom.	Hope can yield to Gnosticism.	Hope can yield to abstraction.	Hope can yield to calculation and superstition.
distinctive ethic	Speed the Millennium with social action.	Improve prospects for the afterlife.	Align private and public orders with God's reign.	Be ready for the Rapture and/or Tribulation.