Every 2nd Saturday of the month we have a men’s Bible study at the Northside building. We invite all the preachers, elders, deacons, and faithful Christian men to attend this study. We always enjoy a good fellowship together and many of us go out to lunch together after the class.

This month we are starting a new series of lessons on Last Things. A few of the preachers and other men have volunteered to teach the subjects in this series of lessons. Our preacher, Norm Fields, will be starting us off with the first lesson of the series, Biblical Eschatology.

Be with us if you can and mark the 2nd Saturday of every month for our men’s Bible study! Every 2nd Saturday at 9:30 AM at the Northside building (1101 Hogansville Rd.).

Biblical Eschatology[i]

• The word “Eschatology”
  • From two Greek words: eschatos – last; logos –
  • So, last word; or the study (word) of what comes last.
• The key word in our title, though, is Biblical.
  • Many of the things “studied” under the heading of Last Things is not Biblical.
  • Therefore, in the study of Last Things, it is also necessary to expose the many unbiblical – unscriptural – things that people believe about what comes last.
  • What are some reasons we should be familiar with things falsely believed about Last Things?
• Many unbiblical ideas will be studied in this series of lessons:
  • Premillennialism
  • AD 70 Doctrine – Realized Eschatology
    • Two extreme unbiblical
    • One says Christ is coming to establish His earthly kingdom, the other says the 2^nd Coming has already occurred.
  • Renewed Creation – the idea that the physical earth will be renewed to its Eden-like pre-sin state and man will live forever on the earth.
  • Annihilation – the idea that hell is not a state of everlasting punishment but that the souls of the lost are burned up and cease to exist – i.e. are annihilated.
• Reasons to study and teach Biblical Eschatology:
  • It is intriguing – some of the most common questions asked have to do with what happens when we die and what will happen when Christ returns (Acts 17:30-34).
  • It teaches that is more to life than the here and now. We don’t live for just he here and now! We live in anticipation of what comes after this life (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Revelation 2:10; 2 Peter 1:13-15; Matthew 6:19-21; 25:34, 41, 46; et al (?)).
  • It motivates faithfulness – connected with the last point, when we know that there’s more to us than the here and now it motivates us to live for what comes next (cf. 1 Peter 2:11).
  • It encourages evangelism – we need to be busy preparing people for what comes next! Many congregations have lost their evangelistic zeal because they’ve become more focused on “social programs” for the here and now than on the “spiritual progress” focused on what comes next (cf. Hebrews 12:1-2).
  • What other reasons would you add to show the importance of studying and teaching Biblical Eschatology?

[i] Adapted from “Biblical Eschatology,” Alan E. Highers, Spiritual Sword Quarterly, 23:2, April 1992, pp. 1-2.