THE BIBLE

and

THE FUTURE

Anthony A. Hoekema

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 1979 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

All rights reserved

First edition 1979

Paperback edition 1994

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoekema, Anthony A., 1913–1988

The Bible and the future.

Bibliography: p. 317.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8028-0851-6

1. Eschatology—Biblical teaching. I. Title.

BS680.E8H63 236 78-9966

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission.

Portions of this book represent a revised (and expanded) version of my essay on amillennialism in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, ed. Robert G. Clouse, © 1977 by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of the USA. Used by permission.

Gratefully dedicated to my colleagues and students at Calvin Theological Seminary

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

PART I. INAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY

1. The Eschatological Outlook of the Old Testament

2. The Nature of New Testament Eschatology

3. The Meaning of History

4. The Kingdom of God

5. The Holy Spirit and Eschatology

6. The Tension Between the Already and the Not Yet

PART II. FUTURE ESCHATOLOGY

7. Physical Death

8. Immortality

9. The Intermediate State

10. The Expectation of the Second Coming

11. The Signs of the Times

12. The Signs in Particular

13. The Nature of the Second Coming

14. Major Millennial Views

15. A Critique of Dispensational Premillennialism

16. The Millennium of Revelation 20

17. The Resurrection of the Body

18. The Final Judgment

19. Eternal Punishment

20. The New Earth

Appendix: Recent Trends in Eschatology

Bibliography

Index of Subjects

Index of Proper Names

Index of Scriptures

Preface

THIS BOOK IS AN ATTEMPT TO SET FORTH BIBLICAL ESCHA-tology, or what the Bible teaches about the future. As noted in the Appendix, there are three major eschatological positions, each with a different perspective on the coming of the kingdom of God: the kingdom is either (1) present, (2) future, or (3) both present and future. The point of view adopted in this study is the third: one that recognizes a distinction between the “already”—the present state of the kingdom as inaugurated by Christ—and the “not yet”—the final establishment of the kingdom which will take place at the time of Christ’s Second Coming.

In keeping with the thesis that eschatology is a reality involving both the present and the future, the book is divided into two sections. The first section, Inaugurated Eschatology, deals with the present fulfillment of the kingdom and the blessings already enjoyed by the redeemed community; while the second, Future Eschatology, takes ...