And we're back.
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We're talking about eschatology
in the Gospel of John.
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And we said--
what Dr. Paulien said
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that the father raises the dead
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and gives life to
them the time is now.
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So this time referring to
is that spiritual revival.
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This passage is
divided into two parts.
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You have verses 21 to
25 and verses 26 to 30.
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Both of them are introduced with
the same Greek words just as
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and then the father gives
life and then Jesus gives life.
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So both of them
start the same way,
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but it's clear that
they're not exactly the same
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because the one is now
and the other is later.
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The one is spiritual
and the other is physical.
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So the
eschatology has two parts,
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there is a present tense to it
and there is future tense to it.
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Most of us when
we think of end time
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theology or eschatology
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we're thinking
about the end time,
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we think into the future.
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You know, when Jesus comes,
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but here John brings
that future into the present.
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That future
resurrection can be present now.
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So the resurrection of
Jesus not only predicts
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that all of us will be
resurrected at the end,
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but resurrection power
can come into our lives now
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when we receive Jesus.
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And that
revolutionizes faith I think.
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Because we come to realize
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that there is a
real and living power.
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The word of Jesus brings real
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and living power
into our lives today.
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So we can experience
that resurrection of life now.
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Now, that's right.
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Now the old age is still here.
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You know, the works of
the devil are still here.
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So it's not a complete
freedom from life as it now is,
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but it's a joy and
a taste of that future
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that's present right now.
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And so where are we
are picking up now then.
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Well, what I like
to do is review quickly
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some of the different
eschatologies of the Bible.
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Many people read
the Bible as a whole,
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you know, Genesis to Revelation
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and try to
construct a single theology
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and that is good
and very, very helpful,
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but what we sometimes miss
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is the perspective of
different eras of the Bible.
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So you go back to
Moses and you say to Moses,
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okay, "What's the
end going to be like?
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What is your view of the end?"
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And Moses says it's
like this Deuteronomy 28,
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if Israel obeys and does
what God asks them to do.
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They'll become more
and more prosperous,
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they'll be more and more peace,
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their enemies will be defeated.
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Gradually, heaven
will be come on earth.
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In other words, it
won't be a dramatic entry.
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It will just be
a gradual process
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of getting better and
better, happier and happier
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sin more and
more being dealt with.
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If Israel disobeys,
things are going to go downhill,
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instead it's going
to get worse and worse
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until they end
up going into exile.
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So Moses has a
conditional eschatology,
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he gives them two paths.
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Your future can go either
way depending on how you choose.
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So it's a conditional future,
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it's a gradual
process kind of future,
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that's the end time
through the eyes of Moses.
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Now when you
get to the prophets,
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you know Isaiah and
Jeremiah and Ezekiel and so on.
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I think it's
getting pretty obvious,
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Israel is not going to obey,
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they're not going to
achieve that positive end time.
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And so the
prophets add to the idea.
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They say things are
going downhill here,
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but some day God is
going to break into history.
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He is going to come either
with a Messiah or Himself,
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there's this two
different ways of expressing it.
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He is going to come
and break into history.
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He is going to
transform history,
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transform the nation.
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He is going to
transform our hearts.
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He is going to
transform the environment
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and then that
gradual path toward
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the future
blessing is going to start.
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So God will
break-in into history,
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into geography, into
the world as we know it.
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And gradually
develop this perfect world
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that Moses promised.
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You get passed the Old Testament
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and you get into the
Jewish apocalyptic writers
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and I think, the sense is just,
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you know, even if God broke-in
this world is too hopeless.
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And so when the
apocalyptic writers--
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you start getting this vision
that when God does break-in,
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He's going to
completely destroy the old.
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He is going to
just smash it to bits.
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And He's going
to start all over,
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create a new
heaven and a new earth,
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reestablish everything,
resurrect the righteous,
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plant them there, and move on.
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So in the Jewish
apocalyptic writers
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between the Old
and New Testaments
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you have the idea of two ages.
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There's the present evil age,
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the age in which
everything's messed up,
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God will destroy that
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and He'll create a
brand new age, a new earth
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in which everything is going
to be different, all right?
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Which of these views
that the New Testament writers
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accept in a sense all of them,
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but particularly the
Jewish apocalyptic view?
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The idea in the
Book of Revelation
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God doesn't step in here
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and gradually
make things better.
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He smashes it at the end
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and it's a new
heaven and new earth.
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So that kind of language
is drawn from the prophets
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but has a deep
meaning from the developments
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in the intertestamental period.
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So along comes Paul
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and Paul believes
we're living in the old age
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but at the very end of the
old age Messiah's going to come.
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Messiah's going to
reign for a period of time,
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it's actually 400 years
and then He's going to die.
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And when Messiah dies God
will destroy the whole thing.
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We actually have
documents that teach this.
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Destroy the whole world,
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they'll be seven
days of primeval silence
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and then the
new world will come,
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so there is a distinct
gap between the old and new
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they don't mix together at all.
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Now you can understand
why Paul would reject Jesus,
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as Saul of Tarsus,
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because if he
believes that Messiah
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is the last
event of this old earth
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and that when Messiah dies
this old earth is destroyed.
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How would he know
that Jesus is a fraud?
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Because Jesus dies
and nothing happens,
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the world is still
here, nothing is changed,
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Satan is still busy.
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He's saying come
on this is a fraud.
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What changes his mind?
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Why does he
suddenly change in his mind
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and say, yes,
Jesus is the Messiah,
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because on the road to
Damascus he meets Jesus Himself
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and then he goes to
Simon the Tanner's house
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and for three days,
his theology is messed up.
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He has got to figure
out, how do I fit this Messiah
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into the reality that
the old age is still here?
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And Paul
develops the New Testament
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view of eschatology then.
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He is the most clear exponent
or even perhaps, the first.
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In that the new age
has come back into the old
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and the two are
now side-by-side.
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With the coming of
Jesus the new age has come
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and it overlaps the old,
so you have in a real sense,
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the new has come.
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Heaven is present now,
but in the real sense also
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the old is still here so
there is a tension between them.
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And I think this is
what Christians experience,
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when they recognize that,
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you know, I want to
follow Jesus, I love Him,
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I give my life to Him and
yet my life is still messed up.
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There is that
tension inside of you
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because Christ
has entered your life
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and yet Satan is still at
work and trying to trouble you.
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So Christians can
live in a life of turmoil.
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And that's the story of the
New Testament that's normal.
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It's the way things are
in the present evil age,
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but you can begin to
taste the life of heaven now,
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right now in what Jesus brings.
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So for the New Testament writers
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the end has
already come in one sense,
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and has not yet
come in another sense.
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That's kind of hard
to bend your head around,
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but over time it becomes clear
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and it helps to
explain some of the struggles
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we have, in following God.
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In Romans 8, Paul says,
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you know, "We groan within
ourselves longing for the end."
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You know the
things that are not quite,
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we have the taste
in us of eternal things
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and yet we're often stuck
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in the mundane
things of everyday life.
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So when you come back
to the Gospel of John,
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John is the New Testament writer
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that most strongly
emphasizes the present reality,
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heaven has come, the
judgment has already passed.
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We are already
accepted with God,
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we have present
tense eternal life.
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And it's real and
it's here right now.
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Yes, there is
still something coming
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in verses 26 to
30 get into that,
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but in reality the power of the
resurrection is a present tense.
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Now the term judgment
often sounds very frightening
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for many people,
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how can someone take
courage in facing the judgment?
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Well, the good news
about the judgment is,
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it isn't just a negative thing.
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We think of
judgment as God coming down
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and smacking us in the face,
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you know, or spanking
us or throwing us in prison
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or killing us or
something like that.
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But now judgment
is not just reckoning
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that some person has not,
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you know, reached the
level that they should be.
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Judgment is also
saying, look, in Jesus Christ,
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you have an eternal life now,
you are acceptable to Him now,
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when you receive Jesus
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that faith brings
you into this new age.
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And now you have a reality
that you didn't have before.
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So judgment in the New Testament
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sense is not a frightful thing
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because judgment also
protects us from the evil one,
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judgment also acknowledges
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that we are with God
and where God wants to be.
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And there is a
security, a stability there.
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It's says you have eternal life.
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You have passed
over from death to life.
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Now you will not come into
condemnation at the judgment.
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So we can have an assurance now
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that when the judgment comes
it will be positive for us.
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So judgment then is to
our advantage. Exactly.
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We should not be
afraid of it. Exactly.
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It's a metaphor of what God has
already determined to do for us.
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Yeah, and we can have
the assurance of that now,
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so we don't have to be worried
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about the
judgment in the future.
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And how can I have
that assurance now?
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In Jesus Christ.
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When you give your life to Him
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and have that
trusting relationship.
00:11:04.23\00:11:06.45
Dr. Paulien, thank you again
00:11:06.48\00:11:07.97
for being with us
in this Bible study.
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And, friends, I pray that
you accept Jesus Christ today.
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And have that assurance
of eternal life in Him.
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God bless.
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