Lectionary Bible Study - Background - Christian Eschatology
Christ comes to God's People Christian Eschatology: Living in Hope for God’s Future From time to time, I will use this blog to explore some of the larger biblical and theological themes that appear in our Sunday readings. Over the next few weeks, several of our lectionary texts will deal with Christian eschatology—the hope for God's future and the question of how God's people live while waiting for that future. Before we encounter those texts individually, I thought it might be helpful to step back and look at the larger biblical picture. The word eschatology comes from the Greek eschatos , meaning “last” or “final.” Christian eschatology is therefore often described as the study of the “last things”: death, judgment, resurrection, the return of Christ, and the fulfillment of God's reign. Unfortunately, popular Christianity has sometimes reduced eschatology to predictions about the end of the world—who will be saved, who will be condemned, and when Jesus will return. T...