Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics Series: Eschatology, Vol. XIII, 176 pp, hardcover

PLEASE NOTE: This is the PRINT version of the book.

By John R. Stephenson

This dogmatic resource is based upon the outline and thought pattern of the Lutheran Confessions. The series is strictly and consciously confessional in its presentation of doctrine and its assessment and analysis of modern theological trends throughout the Christian church.

CONTENTS

General Introduction

Preface

Abbreviations

Part One: Introduction

1.   General Apostasy: The Sign of Our Time
2.   What Is Eschatology?
3.   Realized and Inaugurated Eschatology in Holy Scripture

Part Two: The End of Man the Microcosm

4.   Temporal Death
5.   The Immortality of the Soul
6.   The Intermediate State of Souls

Part Three: The End of the World (Macrocosmic Eschatology)

7.   The Signs of Our Lord’s Coming
8.   The Parousia and Its Concomitants
9.   The Consummation of the Law in the Finally Impenitent:
Hell and Eternal Damnation
10.  The Consummation of the Gospel in the Heavenly Life of the Blessed

Bibliography

Indexes

From the book

“The signs of the end times listed by our Lord in the ‘little apocalypses’ of the synoptic gospels (Matthew 24, mark 13, Luke 21) have known some measure of fulfillment in every age of Christendom, so that the fathers from the New Testament onwards have confidently looked for the imminent consummation of all things at Christ’s return in glory.  While emphasizing the ‘generic’ quality of the pointers to the end, a recent writer in this field observes a marked ‘intensification’ of the signs in our own day.  This phenomenon can be discerned most readily in the swelling apostasy within Christendom itself from ‘the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).  We live in the throes of a tragic intra-ecclesial defection from Christ which currently poses a massive threat to the integrity of His church as she subsists in a multiplicity of confessions and denominations.” (p. 3)

“The signs of the end times listed by our Lord in the ‘little apocalypses’ of the synoptic gospels (Matthew 24, mark 13, Luke 21) have known some measure of fulfillment in every age of Christendom, so that the fathers from the New Testament onwards have confidently looked for the imminent consummation of all things at Christ’s return in glory.  While emphasizing the ‘generic’ quality of the pointers to the end, a recent writer in this field observes a marked ‘intensification’ of the signs in our own day.  This phenomenon can be discerned most readily in the swelling apostasy within Christendom itself from ‘the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).  We live in the throes of a tragic intra-ecclesial defection from Christ which currently poses a massive threat to the integrity of His church as she subsists in a multiplicity of confessions and denominations.” (p. 3)

“Dogmatic discussion of eschatology fitly ends by encouraging and praising the labors of the pastors of the church who are called to refresh the often weary pilgrim people of God . . .  The testimony of St. Augustine fifteen and one-half centuries ago comes from the pen of a theologian who was never for a moment disengaged from the rigorous demands of pastoral life. The four activities of the unnumbered company of the saved highlighted in the celebrated closing words of The City of God recapitulate themes central to Biblical eschatology. ‘Stillness’ describes the perfect repose in God of those who in earthly time were justified by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. ‘Vision’ denotes the fulfillment of human intellect in its beholding the Truth which is God Himself. ‘Love’ as it wells up from God to saturate His people and flow back to Him satisfies the heart and will of men and women made for personal communion with their Maker and with each other. ‘Praise’ is both the creaturely response to the divine mercy which gladly gives God His due and also the voice of Christ in calling out to the Father. Held before the struggling church of Christ on earth is the sure hope of the endless end of enjoying Almighty God forever. The ancient witness of the fifth-century bishop of Hippo remains unwrinkled to this day, since the mystery of God in Christ is and will remain an ever-fresh fountain of life:

There we shall be still and see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise. Behold what will be in the end, without end! For what is our end but to reach that kingdom which has no end? [City of God, 22.30] (p. 133).