God And His Word - A Question And Answer Approach To Understanding The Bible

APPENDI X

WHAT DO THE INTERPRETERS SAY?

Although all Christians believe in Christ's Second Coming, opin ions on the details surrounding that great event continue to vary. The branch of theology dealing with the future is called escha tology (from eschatos, the word for "the last"), and it is an impor tant aspect of our Christian belief system. Of greater importance, however, is our understanding of the clear, fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Our eschatology should evolve out of a good grasp of those points that are the clear est and least mysterious in the Bible. The fact of Christ's Second Coming is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity and part of our doc trinal foundation. The speculative aspects of the events associated with Christ's return need to be studied, but they must not be made issues that divide us from other Christians. They are neither tests of orthodoxy nor facets of absolute truth on which our theolog ical faith rests. This chapter is meant to be a helpful survey and source of ref erence of the four major schools of thought on the Second Com ing of Christ. The names commonly used to classify these broad categories are based on the place that the Millennium-the thou sand-year period mentioned in Revelation 20:2-7-holds within each belief system:

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