Eschatological Beliefs and Teaching

Eschatological Beliefs and Teachings

Key ideas

Sources of Authority

Apocalyptic ideas of the early church

• ●  Christians believed that Jesus would return to Earth and replace the sinful and evil world in which they lived.

• ●  Most Christians believe that God has a plan that is yet to be completed and the end time is a different way of expressing this belief.

• ●  People living in early times believed the end of the world was near- they lived with this expectation in mind.

The book of Revelation-the end of time is imagined and described( frighteningly and dramatically)

‘He shall come to judge the living and the dead’

The Creed- Second Coming

Resurrection

• ●  Humans possess an immortal soul that cannot be seen

• ●  Possessions of the soul makes humans unique.Christians

  believe that Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven showed that there is life after physical death.

• ●  Human life is sacred.

Many Christians believe that at the end of time all the dead will be raised to be judged by God.

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Life After Death

• ●  Christians believe that Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven showed that there is life after physical death.

• ●  Their mortal bodies will die but their spiritual bodies will live on

• ●  At the end of time all the dead will be raised to be judged by God

- ‘so it will me with the resurrection of the dead .... The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable .... it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body’

(1 Corinthians 15:42,44)

-‘My Father’s House has many rooms; if that were not so would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare

• ●  Events in the world are not random and uncontrolled but a part of God’s plan which in the end will have a good outcome.

• ●  Some Christians believe that unless they help others their salvation and eternal life in heaven will be…