A Lutheran's View on Eschatology
Written by Darrell Genzlinger in September 1997
Revisited and modified in Summer 2003When I was growing up in South Dakota my folks had me baptized as an infant, took me to church, and sent me to Sunday school and confirmation class, which I am forever grateful. When in the seventh and eighth grades (Sept., 1945 - May, 1947), I was instructed in good Lutheran theology, which I accepted without reservation. That is, until I was about 30 years old. Then, I began to question the Lutheran view on end time events. In particular, the teaching that a) New Testament Christians are the new Israel, which is just another way of saying, God is through with the Jewish nation, b) the end of the world comes instantaneously to everyone at the Lord's second coming, and c) there isn't a millennial age, or reign of Christ, on earth. I no longer accept these teachings as being Biblical. I believe God is fulfilling prophecy through the Jewish nation, Israel, today. And, the calling out of His saints in the rapture and Christ's millennial reign are a part of these eschatological events. I will address these three theological issues below.
The Biblical references are taken from the New King James version. Direct quotations are in bold print.
a) God is not through with the Jewish nation
A Jewish remnant is discussed in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah. The remnant is a special people who have received or are to receive God's grace and forgiveness. On that day of at-one-ment, at the end of the great tribulation, Christ will heal the Jewish nation. (The tribulation is a period of approximately seven years. The great tribulation is the last three and one-half years of the seven-year period. Christ will return to earth at the end of the great tribulation.)Zech. 12:10
"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."Isaiah 10:22-23
For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them will return; the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land.Lest one may think God is talking just about the remnant returning from Assyria or Babylon, Paul quotes Isaiah in Rom. 9:27 as if it applies for the future.
Isaiah 49:15
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.Jeremiah 31:36
"If those ordinances depart from before Me," says the Lord, "Then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever."Romans 11:25-27
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."Genesis 17:7
The Abrahamic covenant is an everlasting covenant.b) Rapture
I Thess. 4:13-18
The saved people (Christians) will rise up to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. (These passages don't say anything about the unsaved, or non-Christians.) This departing of the saints will be "in a twinkling of an eye" (I Cor. 15:52), or rapere. Thus, the word rapture comes from the Latin word rapere.Isaiah 4:2
In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped.I believe, the phrase, 'For those of Israel who have escaped', is referring to the people caught up in the rapture and escaped the tribulation.
Acts 1:6-7
The disciples asked Him, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority."The kingdom of Israel is different than the kingdom of heaven. The Lord did not rebuke them.
Isaiah 57:1 (pre-tribulation rapture)
The righteous perishes (disappear) and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil.The same thing happened to Noah and the other seven with him. They were caught up seven days prior to the flood coming. God shut the door of the ark seven days prior to the rain coming.
Micah 7:2 (people who missed the rapture go through the tribulation)
The faithful man has perished (disappeared) from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net.Isaiah 26:20-21
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain.This probably is referring to His people left behind after the rapture because it reads 'shut your doors behind you'. I believe God would have shut the door if they were taken in the rapture.
If you are one who believes the rapture gives people a second chance then think again.
II Thess. 2:1-12
Verse 7 tells us what will happen when '... only He (Holy Spirit) who now restrains will do so until He (Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way.' The coming lawless one (the antichrist) will have a field day. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (vs. 11 & 12).I believe it will be just as hard or harder for the unsaved, especially the so-called Christians, after the rapture to come to accept Christ as it was for the Pharisees, Sadducees and other Jews to accept Christ during these last 2000 years.
c) Millennial reign of Christ on the earth
Ezekiel 29:8-16
God will make the land of Egypt desolate (uninhabited) for forty years. Neither foot of man or beast shall pass through the land. The people of Egypt will be scattered among the nations. At the end of the forty years He will gather them back into the land of Egypt.This has never happened. It could happen very easily with the weapons of destruction that we have today. Radioactive, chemical, or biological freeze-out is a real possibility.
If the world comes to an end with one big bang then we have at least 40 years left, and probably much more because the Egyptians will need to be gathered back into the land. Therefore, Christ's coming for His Church, the bride, would not be imminent.
Zechariah 14:1-21
God will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem (vs. 2) (tribulation). Christ returns with all His saints (vs. 5 and Rev. 19:14) (end of the great tribulation). Christ begins His reign as King over all the earth (vs. 9). Everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King (the Lord) and keep the Feast of Tabernacles (vs. 16). Whichever of the families of the earth do not, there will be no rain (vs. 17). If the family of Egypt will not go up to worship the Lord, they will get no rain and instead will receive a plague (vs. 18) (during Christ's millennial reign).Isaiah 65:17-25 (during Christ's millennial reign)
The Lord will create a new heavens and a new earth (vs. 17). A child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed (vs. 20). They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them (vs. 23). The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food (vs. 25).Isaiah 66:22-23 (during Christ's millennial reign)
"For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me," says the Lord, "So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the Lord.There is no sun or moon in Heaven. See Rev. 21:23.
Ezekiel 40 through 48 (during Christ's millennial reign)
This is talking about the millennial age which has not happened yet.A new city, Jerusalem, and a new temple will be built. The city will be the highest point around. A spring of water will flow out of the temple eastward toward the Dead Sea which is no longer dead, but teaming with fish. The priests will offer burnt grain and animal sacrifices on the temple altar on New Moons, Sabbaths, and feast days, such as, Unleavened Bread (Passover) and Tabernacles. Levites will work in the temple. The land will be divided up between the twelve tribes of Israel. The boundaries are given. The prince has special laws governing him and his sons.
Because there is death (44:31), marriage and divorce (44:22), and widows (44:22), this can't be Heaven.
Revelation 20 (Christ's millennial reign)
This is after the tribulation talked about in Rev. 4 through 19 and ending with the return of Christ (referred to as Christ’s Second Coming). Christ throws the antichrist and false prophet into the lake of fire. Satan is bound for a thousand years. The thousand years is mentioned six times in Chapter 20. This is Christ's millennial reign. It is also called the millennial age in contrast to the age we are in.I think some scriptural passages, such as, Isaiah 4, Isaiah 11, and Isaiah 35, could be referring to the millennial age, but they are difficult to prove without associating them with a passage already given.
Many more passages are ciphered. For example, the account on the Mount of Transfiguration is ciphered. Matthew 17:1 "After six days ....". Mark 9:2 "After six days ....". Luke "About eight days ....". This makes sense if you accept Psalm 90:4 and II Peter 3:8 as literal. One day equals a thousand years.
Supporting evidence
Genesis 2:16-17
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."I agree that 'in the day that', Adam died spiritually. But he did not die physically until he was 930 years old. Does God have two definitions for a day?
He does have two definitions for a day. See II Pet. 3:8. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Several apocryphal writings have this age lasting 6000 years. The seventh day, or from 6000 to 7000 years, will be a day of rest. The Epistle of Barnabas, Fragments of Papias, and The Book of Jubilees are three such books.
The Epistle of Barnabas is believed to have been written in the first half of the second century.
The Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 15, verses 5-14
Of the sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifieth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. And He rested on the seventh day.Papias was the bishop of Hierapolis and a companion to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna who was martyred around AD 156. Papias provides some of the very earliest testimony about the early church's stance on the millennium and the authorship of Matthew, Mark, John, and Revelation. Papias mentions two Johns in the same sentence. One called John and another called the elder John.
Fragments of Papias
"... there will be a millennium after the resurrection from the dead, when the personal reign of Christ will be established on this earth."The Book of Jubilees is believed to have been written by a Pharisee during the second century before the Christian Era.
The Book of Jubilee, chapter 4, verses 30-31
And he (Adam) lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years are as one day in the testimony of the heavens and therefore was it written concerning the tree of knowledge: 'On the day that ye eat thereof ye shall die.' For this reason he did not complete the years of this day; for he died during it.All glory and praise be to God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who He raised from the dead so that I might have eternal life.