Eschatology: A Biblical View

By Michael Scantlebury

This book you are holding was being prepped for release at the end of 2019, but the Spirit of the Lord interrupted my plans and asked me to hold off for the time being. After discussing this leading with other men of God whose opinions I value, I decided to postpone its publication. Fast-forward with me five months to one morning when the Holy Spirit woke me in the early hours. “Do you remember the day I asked you to pause your work on the book?” He continued, “What is happening now—the Corona virus pandemic—this is why I had you delay it.” At the time, when I was first writing, the chaos of COVID-19 did not exist, or at least, it was not yet made public. But the resulting global lockdown has had many Believers, and even the unsaved, asking if this is the end of the world! The spirit of fear and dread has gripped the hearts of so many; the Lord said to me: “NOW is the time to release this book!!!”

Imagine you are a time traveler who has traveled back to the 1800s. You meet Abraham Lincoln and reveal to him that you have arrived from the 21st century. He might ask you how people send messages in the 21st century; you could try to explain how the email system works. How would you describe it? You're trying to communicate how "fast" an email really is delivered; but you're trying to do it in a way that wouldn't totally blow his mind. Would you use imagery with which he’s familiar? Perhaps you would tell him it’s like a postman riding his horse at 500 miles per hour. Or, you might liken it to delivering a message by train from New York to LA in less than one day.

That's the conundrum we face when trying to understand difficult verses in the Bible, especially on themes like eschatology. The prophetic writers of Scripture were limited to conveying God's mysteries in language their readers would understand. Two to three thousand years later as we read these prophetic Scriptures through a 21st century lens, it is possible to come up with strange, speculative interpretations. This especially happens when we don’t understand what those Scriptures would have meant to a first century Believer, or to a Jew living in the time of the Old Testament Prophets.

The book before you delves deeper into this topic and much more, as it presents you with a biblical view of eschatology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781486620289

Book preview

ESCHATOLOGY—A BIBLICAL VIEW

Copyright © 2020 by Michael Scantlebury

Editorial Consultant: Anita Thompson – 604-521-6042

Cover design by: Kainos Studios – https://kainoscs.com

All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the King James Version; Scriptures marked (NASB) are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All Scriptures marked NIV are from The New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Those marked YLT are from the Young Literal Translation and used by permission; and those marked MSG are from The Message Bible and are used by permission.

Scripture throughout the text is indicated with italics. Words in roman (regular) text within Scripture quotations have been added by the author for emphasis. Please refer directly to the Biblical translations presented for the original representation.

Hebrew and Greek definitions are from James Strong, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, n.d.).

Michael Scantlebury has taken author’s prerogative in capitalizing certain words that are not usually capitalized according to standard grammatical practice. Also, please note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized as we choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of disregarding standard grammatical practice.

ISBN: 978-1-4866-2027-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4866-2028-9

Word Alive Press

119 De Baets Street Winnipeg, MB R2J 3R9

www.wordalivepress.ca

Cataloguing in Publication information is can be obtained from Library and Archives Canada.

BOOKS BY MICHAEL SCANTLEBURY

The Restoration Of Zion – Pattern For Building

As It Was In The Beginning

Daniel In Babylon – The Study Guide

Principles For Victorious Living Volume II

Principles For Victorious Living Volume I

Present Truth Lifestyle – Daniel In Babylon

Esther: Present Truth Church

The Fortress Church

Called to be An Apostle – An Autobiography

Leaven Revealed

Five Pillars of The Apostolic

Apostolic Purity

Apostolic Reformation

Jesus Christ The Apostle and High Priest of Our Profession

Kingdom Advancing Prayer Volume I

Kingdom Advancing Prayer Volume II

Kingdom Advancing Prayer Volume III

Internal Reformation

God’s Nature Expressed Through His Names

I Will Build My Church. – Jesus Christ

Identifying and Defeating The Jezebel Spirit

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Eschatology: A First Look

Chapter 2

Jesus: The First Fruit of the Dead

Chapter 3

Understanding the End Times

Chapter 4

Understanding the New Covenant

Chapter 5

Understanding Matthew 24—Question One

Chapter 6

Gnosticism

Chapter 7

Exegesis and Eisegesis

Chapter 8

Understanding Matthew 24—Question One Continued

Chapter 9

The Abomination in the Holy Place

Chapter 10

The Great Tribulation

Chapter 11

Closing Question One

Chapter 12

Understanding Matthew 24—Question Two

Chapter 13

Understanding Matthew 24—Question Three

Other Titles by Michael Scantlebury

PREFACE

The book you are holding in your hands was originally going to be released towards the end of 2019 into the early part of 2020 but the Spirit if the Lord spoke to me to lay that plan aside for the time being. After discussing this with other men of God that I value, I decided to hold off on its publication.

Now fast-forward five months later, the Spirit of the Lord woke me up in the early hours one morning and I heard Him ask me if I remembered that day when He asked me to pause and not continue with the book.  He continued to speak to me and said, What is happening now (the Corona virus) is the reason why. You see five months ago the Corona virus pandemic did not exist with the global lockdown with many Believers and the unsaved asking if this was the end of the world!

The Spirit of fear and dread has gripped the hearts of so many and the Lord said to me: NOW is the time to work at releasing this book!!! Hear me and hear me well: we are NOT living in the last days. We are NOT seeing the end of the world. We do not need to buy into that spirit of fear.

Please join with me in this deep and compelling study of God’s Word so that we can grasp firmly a detailed understanding of where we are in the scope of God’s eternal plan. I implore you humbly to lay down any preconceived notions about the Scriptures regarding the End Times and let the Word of God speak to you like never before. It is my earnest prayer that many eyes and ears will be opened to both see, -and hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying.

Chapter One

Eschatology: A First Look

I would like to begin this tome with a quote that a good friend of mine made on his Facebook page. His name is Apostle Axel Sippach, and here is what he said:

Some Thoughts FRom Apostle Axel On Biblical Hermeneutics (Paraphrased)

If you were a time traveler and traveled back to the time of say Abraham Lincoln and told him you were from the future in 21st century. What if he asked you how people communicated in the 21st century, and now you had to try and explain say how an email works. How would you explain it?

Would you use something he would be familiar with to describe it? Perhaps you would tell him that in the future postmen would ride horses at 500 mile per hour. Or you might tell him you could deliver a message by train from New York to LA in less than one day. You’re trying to find a way to communicate how fast an email really is. But you’re trying to do in a way that wouldn’t totally blow his mind.

That’s kind of the conundrum we have when trying to understand difficult verses in the Bible, especially in themes like eschatology. The prophetic writers of Scripture had to convey God’s mysteries in language that their readers would understand.

Fast forward now 2-3,000 years later, and we are reading these prophetic Scriptures through a 21st century lens, and sometimes coming up with all kinds of weird speculative interpretations because we didn’t understand what those Scriptures would have meant to a first century believer, or a Jew living in the time of the OT prophets.

Look at how we use different slang today: cool means great; bad means good; hot means awesome; cold means terrible; dog means my friend. You feel me? Oh, I meant to say, do you understand? LOL.

So 500 or 1000 years from now, if some is studying writings from our time, and they didn’t have a cultural or urban dictionary available, what kind of conclusions would they come up with from what they are reading if it has many slang expressions?

This is why the biblical hermeneutic (filter/lens) of audience relevance is extremely critical to understanding the Scriptures. Scripture was written for our instruction, but not all Scripture was written directly to us. This is why true disciples of Christ will be students of the Word who will study.

They will not just believe something because their favorite preacher says it. They will have a more noble Berean attitude and say, show it to me in the Word. They will let Scripture interpret Scripture and do their research to get at the best possible interpretation with the study tools available.

It is given unto us, Christ’s disciples, to understand the mysteries of God and His Kingdom. We have the Word of Truth, and the Spirit of Truth. And we have Google, which gives us access to be able to do thorough research if we want to.

Here is what Proverbs 25:2 declare to us: Reading from the NIV:

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

The End Times is always a much-debated topic amongst the followers of Jesus Christ. It is referred to as Eschatology or (a branch of theology concerning the final events in the history of the world or of humankind). Many of the Faithful have sold all of their possessions and driven to the purported area where Christ would appear to wait for the return of the Lord. They were no doubt fervent in their beliefs, but nothing happened and they found themselves unemployed and disappointed. As Believers we need to understand Eschatology or we too will be following after every wind announcing that the coming of the Lord is near. In order to avoid other incidents such as these, it is prudent to start at the very beginning in order to interpret things correctly… From the Holy Scriptures we know that God who existed all by Himself created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in it. The obvious and valid question that could be asked is this – why creation? Allow me to leave that question for you to ponder as there is just no way for me to give you a valid reason as to why God created the Heavens and Earth seeing that He existed perfectly all by Himself. However, you can certainly give it your best attempt… Please allow me to offer this as you give it your best attempt: My answer would partially be in the form of several questions, Why did God need to create the universe? Why did God need to create man? Why did God need to send his Son to die for the sins of His elect? What is the answer to all those questions? He doesn’t and He did