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Read this book with the help of the
Holy Spirit. Do not approach it with religious or
denominational filters, but allow the Holy Spirit to
witness truth to you. What Harold Eberle and Martin
Trench have written here will cause a shift in your
thinking of eschatology or end-time events. We need a
shift that will move the Church from a rapture mentality
to a harvest theology. We must take off the grave
clothes and put on the wedding gown as the bride of
Christ. We are the bride of Christ, and the Groom is
coming for His bride, but He is coming for a bride in
victory that is bringing the kingdom of God on the earth
by fulfilling the will of the Father.
We are not the Church in failure, running out the back
door while the devil kicks in the front door. We are the
Church of Luke 10:19 that has authority over all the
power of the enemy.
One thing that I have noticed is that Christians who
focus on the harvest don’t really have much time to
worry about a rapture. Their goal is to get as many
people into the kingdom as possible in preparation for
the wedding. A victorious eschatology will put a rapture
mind-set behind and a harvest work before you.
Cal Pierce Director, Healing Rooms Ministries
International
Eschatology refers to the study of
end-times. The
eschatological view presented in this
book reveals
that the kingdom of God will grow and
advance until
it fills the earth. The Church will rise
in unity, maturity,
and glory before the return of Jesus. We
will
present to you a victorious eschatology.
Most of the great leaders throughout
Church history
held to a victorious eschatology.
However, during the twentieth century,
Christians
became increasingly skeptical and
pessimistic
about the future. During World War I,
Christians in
Europe began to embrace a negative view
of the
world. Christians in North America
followed suit during
the Depression and World War II. As the
world
was thrust face-to-face with challenges
and the wickedness
of war, people embraced a negative view
of humanity
and a pessimistic view of the future.
It was during those trying periods when
many
Christians embraced a more pessimistic
eschatology.
They came to believe that the world
gradually is slipping
under the influence of wicked leaders
and eventually
Satan will take control of the economic
and religious
systems of the world. Preachers who
embraced
that pessimistic view began to teach
that an antichrist
figure will soon rise to prominence and
then
deceive most of humanity. They also
taught about a
coming great tribulation during which
God will pour
out His wrath, judging and destroying
the earth.
As we mentioned, most of the great
leaders in
Church history held to a more victorious eschatology.
The pessimistic view did not enter into
Christianity
in any significant way until the
publication of the
Scofield Reference Bible
(1909), which proposed in its
footnotes a very negative scenario of
future end-time
events. Since that time, hundreds of
scary end-time
books have been promoted within
Christianity. The
most widely read are known as the
Left Behind
series,
written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B.
Jenkins.
Such books and the associated teachings
have become
so commonly accepted in the modern
Church that the
negative eschatology has become the most
popular
view. It is important to note, however,
that this view
has been popular in Christianity for
only the past 60
years. It reached its zenith of
acceptance just before
the close of the last millennium, when
Christians became
fascinated with the possibility of the
world ending
in the year 2,000.
Now that we have crossed into the new
millennium,
Christians are lifting their eyes to the
future.
Many leaders are discovering that the
Scriptures give
us a more optimistic view than they
previously had
believed. They are embracing a
victorious eschatology
that teaches that Jesus Christ and His
Church are
going to take over this world, not
Satan.
The theological label that is used to
refer to the
victorious eschatology presented in this
book is the
p artial
preterist view. In
contrast, today’s popular
view is called the
futurist view.
Eschatological View Theological Name
Victorious View Partial Preterist View
Popular View Futurist View
These theological labels, the partial
preterist view
and the futurist view, refer to when the
prophecies in
Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation
are fulfilled.
The word “preterist” comes from the
Latin praeteritus,
meaning “that which has past.” So the
partial
preterist view is that which sees part
of the prophecies
in Matthew 24 and part of the book of
Revelation
as already fulfilled. In contrast, the
futurist sees virtually
all of the prophecies in Matthew 24 and
the
book of Revelation fulfilled in the
future.
Theological Name Matthew 24 & Revelation
Partial Preterist View Part Past, Part
Future
Futurist View All Fulfilled in the
Future
This is what we will be showing you as
we proceed.
In section 1 we go through the
prophecies recorded
in Matthew 24. In section 2 we discuss
some
issues that are key in considering the
partial preterist
view. In section 3 we study the
prophecies in chapters
2 and 9 of the book of Daniel. In
section 4 we work
through the book of Revelation. Then in
sections 5, 6,
and 7 we present the partial preterist
views concerning
the Jews, the antichrist, and the
rapture. Finally,
in section 8 we clarify what is meant by
“the endtimes.”
As pastors, we (Harold Eberle and Martin
Trench)
used to believe and teach the futurist
view. However,
even as we taught our church
congregations the related
ideas, we both realized that there are
many
scriptures that simply do not fit into
the scenario of
events proposed by the futurists. After several years
of in-depth study, we have come to
believe that the
partial preterist view is more true to
the Scriptures.
This we will show you in the pages to
follow.
In addition to studying specific Bible
passages, we
will insert a few quotes from well-known
preachers,
teachers, and reformers that show how
the fathers of
the faith shared a victorious
eschatology. Not every
leader throughout Church history would
explain
every verse of the Bible the same as we
will; however,
the fundamental view that the Church
will rise in victory
and power before the return of Jesus
Christ has
been the predominant view of the Church
for the past
2,000 years.
Charles Spurgeon
I myself believe that King Jesus will
reign, and the
idols be utterly abolished; but I expect
the same
power which turned the world upside down
once,
will still continue to do it. The Holy
Ghost would
never suffer the imputation to rest upon
His holy
name that He was not able to convert the
world.
( The
Life and Work of Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
1992, 4:210)
Jonathan Edwards
The visible kingdom of Satan shall be
overthrown,
and the kingdom of Christ set up on the
ruins of it,
everywhere throughout the whole
habitable globe.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards ,
1974: 488)
Origen
It is evident that . . . every form of
worship will be
destroyed except the religion of Christ,
which will
alone prevail. And indeed it will one
day triumph, as
its principles take possession of the
minds of men
more and more every day.
(Origen Against Celsus,
1660, 8:68)
John Wesley
All unprejudiced persons may see with
their eyes,
that he [God] is already renewing the
face of the
earth: And we have strong reason to hope
that the
work he hath begun he will carry on unto
the day of
the Lord Jesus; that he will never
intermit this blessed
work of his Spirit until he has
fulfilled all his promises,
until he hath put a period to sin and
misery,
and infirmity, and death; and
re-established universal
holiness and happiness, and caused all
the inhabitants
of the earth to sing together
“Hallelujah.”
( The Works of John
Wesley, 1985, 499)
Preview Chapter 1
After the disciples asked Jesus their
questions in Matthew 24:3, Jesus answered talking about
false leaders claiming to be Christ, wars, earthquakes,
famines, persecutions, and people falling away from the
faith. He also talked about the gospel being preached
around the world, followed by destruction, tribulation,
and people being taken away.
Christians who believe the popular endtime view study
our Lord’s answers and conclude that all of the events
listed are going to happen in the future, shortly before
the end of the world.
Victorious eschatology comes to very different
conclusions when studying Matthew 24. We will go with
you through Matthew 24 verse by verse to explain, but
first we need to identify clearly the questions Jesus
was asked by His disciples.
As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the
disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when
will these things happen, and what will be the sign of
Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3)
Some translations (e.g. King James Version) end
this verse with “end of the world,” because the word
aion, which is used in the original Greek, may be
translated as “age” or “world.” Using the term “world,”
popular endtime teachers tend to summarize the questions
asked by the disciples into an inquiry about the second
coming of Jesus and the end of the world. Therefore,
when Jesus gives His answer in the verses that follow,
all His comments are thought to be answering that
question.
Victorious eschatology begins by noting that in Matthew
24:3, the disciples asked Jesus not just one question,
but three questions.
Question #1: “When will these things happen?”
Question #2: “What will be the sign of Your coming?”
Question #3: “What about the end of the age (world)?”
Recognizing three distinct questions dramatically
changes how we understand the answers Jesus gives in the
verses to follow. We will see how our Lord first answers
question number one in Matthew 24:4-28. Then He answers
the second question in Matthew 24:29-34. Finally, He
answers the question about the end of the age (or the
end of the world) in Matthew 24:35-25:46.
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