Invitation to hope: De-mystifying eschatology in the New Testament

I have always been a future-oriented person. I had thought it was a strength to be able to look ahead, articulate long-term goals, and connect those with my present steps: That is, until I moved to Lebanon.

For many living in Lebanon and several other countries in this region, it’s easy to get shaken off balance and frustrated because the future seems so unpredictable and outside our control.

It can seem like setting goals involves too many variables. One can get discouraged and wonder if a good future is even possible.

When my wife suggested that, instead of giving up my “future-orientation” in frustration, I apply it to an even longer-term view—such as eternity—it got my attention.

In fact, a light went on for me, as I recalled noticing in the past, and even teaching about, how central eschatology (beliefs about “the last things”) is for the apostle Paul.

He returns to it so often that he doesn’t seem to have been able to think about other topics without doing so.

Much of this was because, for Paul, Christ’s death and resurrection signaled the end of the old age and the beginning of the new. So, eschatology includes and impacts our present life, in addition to the future.

I have sometimes encountered fellow believers who see Christian teaching about the future as mainly speculative or arcane—mysterious and perhaps understood by only a few.

Many see eschatology as something believers easily disagree about, and thus not something that deserves much attention. I have been one of those Christians as well, but I see it rather differently now.

I have come to realize that I need to digest a larger measure of biblical affirmations about the future; maybe other believers living in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond do also.

The Bible points to a path that can transform our orientation toward what is ahead. Throughout Scripture, we find a truly hopeful and practical theology of the future, which is what I wish to explore in this blog post.

I won’t deal with the whole New Testament in this one post; I’m going to focus on the letters of the New Testament. (Sherri Ellington deals more with sayings from the gospels in a recent blog post about awaiting Christ’s return.)

It’s generally acknowledged that the opening section of each New Testament letter, from Romans through Revelation, introduces that letter’s particular vantage point. (I consider Revelation to be one long letter; see Rev 1:4-5; 1:9-11; and 22:21.) Each biblical writer’s introduction gives insight and something of a basis for interpreting the rest of the letter that follows.

So, as an experiment, and to write this blog, I closely read the opening section of each of the New Testament’s 22 letters, to see what they say about the future. I found that the introductory sections of all these letters, except tiny Philemon and 3 John, include an eschatological aspect. (And, though not in his introduction, Paul does eventually offer an eternal perspective in Philemon, as well, in verse 22).

I also found that these statements about the future are normally linked with implications for the practical Christian life.

Indeed, much of what strikes me when I come across statements about the future in the New Testament is the great extent to which they are part of the foundation and framework for how we are to understand our lives as Christians. Our present is intertwined with our future.

Paul affirms: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6; see also 1 Cor 1:7-8).

Christ’s death and resurrection begin “the end of the ages” (Heb 9:26) and give us hope for today and tomorrow: “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3b).

The New Testament also presents the giving of the Holy Spirit as a present eschatological reality, and thus a source of hope: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:13-14).

As we read the openings of the New Testament’s letters, we find a sense of security and safety as we face the future.

We have an “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” for us (1 Peter 1:4; also 2 Tim 1:12). And we ourselves are being “kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1; and see verse 24).

These and other statements we find about the future in the New Testament’s letters tend to be general, not highly detailed or difficult to understand, and not particularly controversial.

Too often, we believers have been mystified about eschatology, as though it’s a historical blueprint written far in advance, or an enormous, esoteric, and detailed system which only a few can figure out by comparing various biblical passages.

Certainly, we find some statements that are debatable and difficult to understand. Revelation 1:1-3 for instance, says the content of this book of prophecy will happen “soon,” and “the time is near.” And some of Revelation’s images are tough to decipher (though it sometimes interprets its own images, as in 1:20; 12:9; and 17:15, 18).

In contrast, the apostle Paul doesn’t typically use much detail when speaking of end-time events, confessing, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12).

Admittedly, he does go into detail when he responds to concerns and false statements about Christ’s return (1 Thess 3:13-5:2; 2 Thess 2:1-16), and when he responds to those who deny the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:12-28).

We also find complexity when Paul deals with the future of his fellow Jews in Romans 11. Despite the unbelief of most, Paul states: “all Israel will be saved” (11:26), and “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29).

However, Paul, like the rest of those who wrote the New Testament’s letters, never shows concern for or makes a clear statement about the future of the land of Israel.

Eschatology’s complicated aspects are more the exception than the norm. Controversy is mostly absent as we study what the New Testament’s letters say about the future.

New Testament writers desired believers like us to be at home with eschatology, owning it for our lives, so that it doesn’t feel strange or scary.

Thus, the biblical writers tend to stick with a few key convictions that they repeat over and over in various ways:

• We believers await the future coming of Jesus Christ, which gives us a measure of accountability (there will be a judgment) but also genuine hope.


• God will make all things new.


• We will be with him forever.


• In the meantime, we also have hope for this present life because we get a taste of the future now, through the power of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit renewing and transforming us in the image of Jesus (Rom 6:4; 2 Cor 3:18).

The New Testament’s statements about the future give us a narrative to live by. We come to own these words when we learn to understand the story of our lives as taking place between Jesus’ resurrection and his coming again.

Wherever we are, this gives us an orientation of trust and resilience as we face the future.

From the perspective of the New Testament’s letters, it’s difficult to imagine the Christian life apart from integrating it with convictions and hopes about the future.

The future is always in view. By choosing to study passages on the New Testament’s eschatology, and reflecting on them with other believers, we can practice paying attention to them and can digest their affirmations for our lives.

Thus, we can learn to be at home with the Bible’s statements about the future, and shift from fear and frustration to confidence and hope.

Dustin Ellington is Associate Professor of New Testament at ABTS. Originally from the USA, he has lived in Egypt, Zambia, Lebanon, and Jordan.

This article was first published on the blog of the ABTS and was re-published with permission.