Until my college years, my eschatological knowledge consisted of two things: binge reading the Left Behind series I had purchased in a Sam’s Club on a vacation and Larry Norman’s “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” The Left Behind books, if you somehow don’t already know, are a fictional portrayal of what the world could look like after a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture. The series has sold over 80 million copies.
In the last two decades, I’ve done a bit more reading and studying on what the Bible says about the future. While sitting in Tom Schreiner’s New Testament class in seminary, I learned that there’s much disagreement about the details of those future events, even among otherwise like-minded evangelicals.
Given Scripture’s clear language, there are several things, however, that we should all agree on. First, Jesus first came to establish a new covenant and rule a new kingdom as its King (Matthew 6:10; John 18:36; 1 Corinthians 15:20). Second, Jesus will return personally and bodily at a time that none of us knows (Matthew 24:44; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; 1 Thess. 4:16). Upon this return, he will deliver the fully consummated kingdom to his Father (1 Corinthians 15:23–28). Third, until Jesus returns,
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