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Eschatology and Missions
How has the understanding of future events affected the
perspective and motivation for world evangelism?
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Importance of Eschatology
 What we repeat in our minds and believe give us our
beliefs, values, convictions and motivation for action
 Different views of eschatology have motivated missions
 The Church has shifted from Premillennial to Amillennial
to Postmillennial back to Premillennial and now back to
Postmillennial
 Second coming referred to 300x in the NT (1:5 verses)
 The Great Commission is mandated until the “end” of
the age – when Jesus returns
 Do we have time to waste?
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Effect of Messianic Eschatology
 Jews had just had 100 yrs of freedom from Greek
oppression until 63 BC when Romans conquered them
 Messiah was prophesized to bring superiority to Israel
 Daniel’s prophecy was remarkable accurate to the week
or day of His crucifixion in 69 weeks of years, leaving 1
week (Daniel’s 70th week) unfulfilled = Great Tribulation
 Mark 10 reveals their motivation was to be in power
with Messiah
 If He were going to go away, when would He return.
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Problem of Immanency
 NT sensed He was coming again soon, but TIME GAP
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Parables
Peter’s prophesized old age
Increasing catastrophes (Matt 24:1-13)
Mission to accomplish (Matt 24:14)
 Immanency is a motivation for living (Tit 2:11-13)
 “Nothing has to be accomplished before His return”
 Jesus was asked about the signs of His coming and
 Great Commission has to be accomplished (Matt 24:14)
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Great Commission to be done?
 Matt 24:14NET, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a
testimony to the nations, and then the end will come.”
 Pretribulation denial: this is accomplished by the 144,000 in
the Tribulation – can’t have a restriction to the rapture
 Preterist denial: this was accomplished before 70 AD by
representative nations
 Amillennial denial: this is already done or spiritual viewed,
or is the mission of the Church now.
 Postmillennial view: this must be done in the kingdom now
to deliver the world to Christ as mission accomplished
Comparison of Millennial Views
Events of
Matt 24
Events of
Matt 24:1-14
Events of Matt
24:15-44
Events of
Matt 24
Events of
Matt 24
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Problem with One-Generation View
Matt 24:34, “…this generation…”
 Preterist: fulfilled in the first generation of believers
 Thus they see the Great Commission fulfilled in 1st cent
 Matt 24:34 linked to Matt 28:19-20
 Premill, some postmil: fulfilled in the last generation
 Within the 7 year Tribulation period or before the 2nd
coming
 144,000 are the instruments to fulfill the mandate
 Linguistic view: “Generation” means “family, race, or
age of generations of a people” – Thus refers to the
perpetual existence of Israel until the 2nd Coming
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Exegesis of Matt 24:14
 “gospel of the kingdom”– “good news” of the kingdom of Christ – He
has all “power and authority” as King now though not here physically.
 “will be preached” – kerusso: “announce formally with the authority
of a ruler”– not teaching, but proclaiming facts in common language
 “in the whole world”– “inhabited earth,” thus wherever people live–
koikumene from oikos, “household” = other fold
 “as a testimony”– martyria “first hand witness” – priority: every
people get an opportunity to understand the gospel
 “to all peoples”: ethnosin, “races of people” or people groups – this
is the priority of the Church.
 “the end shall come”: telos, “termination of a process, the limit of a
thing to exist”—either the conclusion of the Tribulation or Church –
 Cognate with “the end” in Matt 28:20
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144,000 to finish the job?
 Presumption that the Church will fail in its mission
 98% of missionary force is focused on nominal Christians
 40.5% of world pop. live in unreached people groups (2,161 people groups
as primary target)
 Premillennial problems with 144,000 Jewish evangelists
 No connection between the 144,000 and the people groups in heaven in
Rev. 7 and not chosen until the middle of the Tribulation Period.
 The 144,000 would require miracles to accomplish the task in the last
half of Tribulation with everything destroyed.
 The Jewish evangelists would require a love for Gentiles
 Would require a mastery of linguistics or gift of tongues in short period
of time – no hint of this in Scripture
 Would require much time to find, set up logistics, learn language,
culture, contextualize message, etc.
 Would have to have a mastery of the New Testament to explain the
gospel
 Better explanation: there were believers among their people group who
told of rapture as in “Left Behind” = many converted from former witness
Five reiterations of the Great
Commission
 Three of the Five mandates are to go to all “ethnic”
groups
 The church has only discovered this focus in the past 50
years!
 We have only know how many people groups actually
exists for the past 25 years!
 A handful of committed linguists are committed to
reaching the last 2100 people groups by 2025.
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Effect of 2nd Coming on Early Church
 Misunderstanding led to idleness and false hope (2 Thes 3:6)
 Proper view leads to godliness and zealousness (Tit 2:13; 1 Jn
3:3) and no fear of death or persecution (1 Thes 4:13-18)
 Paul lived in the light of the 2nd coming Judgment Seat
accounting of one’s life (Phil 4:1; 1 Thes 2:19; 2 Tim 4:8)
 No greater joy than to be praised by God in Christ at the
Judgment Seat (1 Cor 4:5)
 Paul lived in the passion of the mandate: “preach where Christ
has not been named” (Rom 15:20) and “preach the gospel in the
regions that lie beyond and not boast of work already done in
another person’s area” (2 Cor 10:16)
 Peter spoke of “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day
of God” (2 Pet 3:12)
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Effect of 2nd Coming on Church History
 Premillennialism was the dominant view for first 300 years
(Philip Schaff)
 When the Church came to power it was assumed to be the
beginning of the millennium, the Roman state became the
millennial kingdom on earth, and premillennialism was forbidden
 The postmillennial (or amillennial) view carried through the Dark
Ages, supported by Augustine’s City of God.
 Since the Church was the kingdom there was little interest in
world expansion but rather defense of the Roman (Catholic)
Empire
 When Rome fell, the motivation was to rebuild the Church as the
Holy Roman Empire
 Inquisitions, Crusades and torture were means of forcing people
into the Catholic Empire (“rule with a rod of iron” (Rev 12:5;
19:15). Fierce action because they were the kingdom.
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Early Protestant Missions
 Catholicism was so corrupt that the Protestants attempted to reform the
Postmillennial kingdom.
 The kingdom was to go to all the nations (thought of as geopolitical countries)
 Postmillennial Kingdom mandate demanded the transformation of society’s ills:
poverty, illiteracy, disease, polygamy, child prostitution, slavery, etc.
 Foundation of American ideal was a postmillennial dream – democracy and
Christianity became synonymous (as Rome and Christianity)
 Postmillennial social transformation motivated the Awakenings and revivals and
global mission effort
 Edwards and Finney were sure that when they had enough conversions and
social reforms the millennium would begin
 The passion for repentance and change was to bring in the kingdom
 The Civil War marked the beginning of the end for evangelical
postmillennialism, and premillennialism began to fit the global corruption
 Liberal theologians held on to the social change mandate of postmillennialism as
the evangelicals abandoned that view
Awakenings, Pentecostals and
Fundamentalists
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 1st Awakening died in the Revolutionary War; 2nd Awakening died in the
Civil War; 3rd Awakening died by WW1; 4th Awakening is the Charismatic
Movement which is now guided by Kingdom Now postmillennial theology
 Holiness Movement and Wesleyan theology shifted from
postmillennialism to premillennialism
 Holiness Movement sought for power to be holy by the Spirit Baptism (a
post-conversion, 2nd work of grace)
 Pentecostalism began when a young lady spoke in tongues seeking the
baptism, soon a revival in Azusa St Mission in LA.
 As Postmillennialism lost credibility some turned to Amillennialism (less
mission focus) and many to Premillennialism (more mission focus)
 Postmillennial liberals controlled the major Protestant denominations
so Fundamentalists split off to from independent denominations and
missions by 1920-1935, maintaining a rigid premillennialism
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Premillennialism and missions
 With the establishment of Israel in 1948 Premillennialism was
authenticated and required doctrine by most evangelical
missions (though major denominations were amillennial). 60% of
SBC pastors were premillennial in ‘80
 Many interpretation of signs of the times gave great emphasis
for world missions
 When the Charismatic Movement began (1960) most of its
constituents were neither Pentecostal nor Fundamentalist
 Most of their eschatology was Amillennial or Postmillennial
 As Charismatics exploded around the world Dominion Theology
brought a revival to Postmillennial hope (change society to a
theocracy)
Postmillennial Dominion and Kingdom Now
Theologies and Missions
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 Amillennialists and Postmillennialist joined in forming Dominion
Theology, a coalition of Evangelical churches committed to changing
America and ultimately the world
 Amillennialists tended toward Reconstructionism and theonomy, while
Charismatic Postmillennialists tended to Kingdom Now Theology
 Reconstructionism is Christians should gain influence or control over
society and government to obey God’s laws
 Kingdom Now adherents follow Latter Rains Pentecostal extreme views
of global Christian dominance and power
 Both see the conquest of Democracy and Christianity as the keys to
millennial reign
 Premillennialism is seen as powerless and offers little change impact
to society, thus has lost its influence
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The New Postmillennial Kingdom Now
 As society turns more intolerantly post-modern and
pluralistic, they turn anti-Christian.
 This forces a reaction from the Religious Right to fight for
their freedom politically, rather than spiritually.
 The Kingdom Now Charismatic strategy is to infiltrate key
roles to take over local and national government
agencies, and all other influence career areas (press,
education, entertainment, government, etc)
 A parallel strategy is to conquer the demonic power grid
of Territorial Spirits through prayer and miracle powers to
free evangelism to transform every society completely
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Kingdom Now “kings and priests”
 As a coalition of believers of all denominations band in
united prayer and worship to bind Satan and his demons,
the blindness of the unsaved is supposedly lifted and the
power of the gospel is unleashed.
 A network of small prayer groups become Shepherddiscipleship relationships under prophets and in turn
apostles who rule over large geographic areas, though not
officially affiliated with any one church.
 This umbrella structure of submission to your discipling
Shepherd, then to your prophet and area apostle is key to
the new Kingdom. They plan to take over everything.
 Seven Mountains the Apostles are taking over
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Fundamentalists and Unreached
 In the midst of political, social, philosophical and moral
(and now economical) upheavals, a handful of people
have committed to the unengaged people of the globe.
 From a Dominionist or Postmillennial point of view these
are insignificant people – they will never change society
 Their only importance is to those who value the Word of
God and seek to fulfill Christ’s purpose: “some from every
nation and kindred, and tongue and people” (Rev 14:6).
 They must come first because they are in the Book.
Changing society is a hopeful consequence, but not a
priority yet.
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Biblical Second Coming Motivation
 Postmillennialism and Amillennialism tend to be both
gospel and societal change agents
 Premillennialists tend to focus on spiritual change of
individuals, while giving credence to moral social
change (esp. abortion)
 The Immanency of the Rapture is the key motivator:
what will Christ find us doing in that moment?
 If time is short then it cannot be wasted…not a single
day wasted
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Primary Motivation of Premillennialism
 Now is not the glory of being a “king” now or a “somebody” like the
disciples wanted (Mark 10).
 Rather to pay any price, suffer any loss, go anywhere, learn to
communicate to anybody the single most important message that
Jesus is alive and He has provided salvation for all.
 Living in the light of the Bema Seat daily, going to bed sensing that
today I contributed to the kingdom purpose of our Lord. The
motivation to be “useful” or “good” (meaning in 2 Cor 5:10)
 Refusal to accept excuses for failure or to detour to other worthy
causes, rather a bull-headed, “must needs go” or train/support
others to the unreached peoples
 The mandate is not to “go and make disciples…” but to “go and make
disciples of all NATIONS.” Watch where people put the period.
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A Final Word on Escatology
Because the blessed hope of our Lord's return has so
refining an influence on character it is the very mold and
matrix of missions. Its whole tendency is to make us
unselfish, to relax our grasp upon material treasures and
carnal pleasures; to fashion us "not after the law of a
carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life." It makes all time seem short and the whole world
seem small; dwarfs the present age into insignificance and
lifts the peaks of the age to come into loftier altitudes, on
a nearer horizon, in a clearer view. It so magnifies the
approval of the coming Lord as to make present
compensation for service and sacrifice appear trifling.