WHAT IS ADVENTIST ESCHATOLOGY?

Ángel Manuel Rodríguez

Biblical Research Institute
Fourth International Bible Conference
Rome, Italy
June 2018

Adventist eschatology is an exploration and exposition of

biblical apocalyptic eschatology. It announces a future
characterized by a drastic discontinuity between the present
order of things and a future one to be established by the Lord. It
proclaims the consummation of the eschatological newness
initiated by Christ and therefore it should place its primary
emphasis not on what will be terminated, but on the
establishment of God’s eternal kingdom on earth and the healing
of the cosmos. Adventist eschatology is a biblical vision of a
most glorious future for the cosmos and the human race. As we
proceed in our exposition of the topic, I will discuss first my
comprehension of the nature of Adventist eschatology and, then,
some of the challenges that it faces to further assist us in
elucidating its nature.
Adventist Eschatology: Nature
Biblically Grounded
First, I will begin with the question of knowledge or
epistemology. How do we know what we claim to know about
eschatological events? The answer is simple: The epistemic
ground of Adventist eschatology is divine revelation. It is not
founded in political theories, modern cosmogony and
cosmology, or even science fiction. Our vision of the future of
the cosmos is the result of God’s speech through which He
shared with us His plan for His creation. Our own perceptions of
the future are limited by the fact that we are by nature creatures
existing in the present. We can, through the use of reason,
scientific explorations and speculations, statistical analysis, and
our past and present experiences, imagine what the future will
be like and even begin to prepare now for it, but our
configuration of it will be always partial and too uncertain to
place our full trust on it. Only an omniscient, omnipotent, and all
loving God can formulate the best future for His creatures,
reveal it to them in the form of a promise, and call them to
embrace it in full confidence in Him and in His power to deliver
what He promises.
Since the divine plan has been preserved in the Scriptures as the
depository of God’s special revelation, the Scriptures are our
only canonical source of information about apocalyptic
eschatology. Any Adventist discussion about eschatology must
be grounded and flow from the biblical text. It is true that we
also have the writings of Ellen White, which in many cases flesh
out some of the biblical information—particularly with respect
to the historical fulfillment of the prophecies—and provide
significant theological insights on the topic, but this information
only enriches the biblical data and should never take its place.
The epistemic ground of Adventist apocalyptic eschatology is
and should always be God’s revelation as preserved for us in the
biblical record.
God, the Cosmos, and Time
Second, Adventist eschatology is about God, the cosmos, and
time (or space and time) created by God. Space and time are the
spheres within which God reveals Himself and interacts with
His creatures. The cosmic element signals the fact that
eschatology is not simply about one’s personal or private interest
in the future, but that it is mostly related to cosmic concerns that
impact all creatures in the cosmos and on this world. We should
never overlook the cosmic dimension of apocalyptic eschatology
otherwise it could become an anthropocentric search for self-
realization. This myopic view of eschatology could easily distort
our understanding of the nature and purpose of biblical
apocalyptic eschatology. The time component in our eschatology
reminds us that eschatology is about the future of the cosmos;
about God’s plans for His creation. God is not only Lord over
the past and present, but also over the future.
Understood as Hope
​Third, I would suggest that true Adventist eschatology
should be understood as hope in the sense of waiting for or
expecting the arrival of the good from the Lord. When it is
described as the waiting and expectation of the good or the new,
hope is directly related to the passage of time, to divine activity,
and to an specific comprehension of human nature. To the
question whether humans are by nature creatures existing in a
condition of anguish or despair, the biblical answer is that
humans are creatures of hope, constantly oriented toward the
future. By creating beings that will exist within the sphere of
time, God created beings that exist in a state or condition of
constant expectation. For humans every second is a waiting
period and every breath is an unconscious expression of our
hope to go on living. Hope is practically instinctive for humans
—in the midst of deep anguish and fear we usually hope for
deliverance.
This pull toward the future was the condition of Adam and Eve
as they came from the hands of the Creator. On the sixth day,
they looked forward to the seventh day and the good that it
would bring. And indeed it brought something new, namely, a
day of rest and fellowship with the Creator. The sixth day was
gone forever and the new had arrived. It was not that the sixth
day was inferior or imperfect, but that God had more for them
than He was willing to pack into the sixth day. He surprised
them by planning for it to reach them on the seventh day.
Centuries later we continue to hope, but this time we look
forward for a better future in the midst of a cosmic conflict that
threatens our existence.
Connected to the Cosmic Conflict
​Fourth, a biblical view of eschatology has to take into
consideration the presence of evil in the cosmos and in human
existence. The intromission of the anomaly and senselessness of
evil in the cosmos resulted in a cosmic conflict. When God, in
order to appropriately resolve the conflict, gives to the powers of
evil time to manifest their true intentions and reveal their
characters, at that moment, eschatology came into existence—
the hopeful waiting for and expectation of the moment when evil
powers would be unmasked and then properly eradicated from
the cosmos by the arrival of the new. With respect to humans,
something unique occurred. In spite of their allegiance to evil
powers in the cosmic conflict and the permanent loss of a future,
God created for them, out of grace, a new hope and a new
future.
Unlike evil powers, for which there is no hope, and unlike the
unfallen beings, for whom forgiving grace was not necessary,
humans will exist looking forward, not in anguish but in hope, to
the moment when their existential predicament will come to an
end through divine grace. This hope was theirs only in the form
of a promise of God proclaiming to them the future arrival of the
new (Gen 3:16). Hope is always ours in the present in the form
of a divine promise accepted by faith. While we wait for the
fulfillment of the promise we experience in our daily life pain,
suffering, and even death. The future looks uncertain, but
comfort and assurance is found in a hope that rejects the present
as the final destiny of our lives and anticipates a bright morning
that will bring to an end suffering and death. This is the arrival
of the consummation of the new introduced in human history by
Christ.
Divine Origin of the Good/New
​Fifth, by concluding that eschatology is by definition the
expectation of the arrival of the good and new from the Lord, we
introduce two important ideas into the discussion of Adventist
eschatology. First, eschatology is not predominantly about the
end of the cosmos or human history but about an act of divine
recreation that will be as good as God’s creative activity was in
the beginning. Biblical eschatology is damaged when it is
presented as God’s future work of de-creation instead of God’s
work of recreation; it tends to infuse fear in the human heart and
not hope. Second, eschatology and the future it announces is the
exclusive work of God on behalf of His creation and not the
result of human ingenuity manifested through social, scientific,
and technological progress, or the use of self-improvement
technics. The human hope grounded in the progress that the
enlightenment offered to humans has proven to be a utopian
view of the future, leaving humans is despair (in the
etymological sense of the word, Latin de [“absence of”] and
spes [“hope”],“to be without hope”). Such hopes were natural
hopes configured by humans from below.
The twenty-first century inherited from the previous one a
humanity living in a state of hopelessness and fear. Progress and
human inventions demonstrated to be inept and powerless to
bring to fruition a hope like the biblical one. The Adventist
apocalyptic hope we are discussing is the exclusive work of God
that transcends the threshold of death and death itself resulting
in freedom and a new life.
Christ-Centered
​Sixth, Adventist eschatology is by definition Christ-
centered. Yes, it is the work of God, but it is His work through
the Son. Christian theology practically marginalized eschatology
by considering it to be an appendix in systematic theologies,
dealing primarily with the afterlife. Now things are changing
and hope has become, at least for some theologians, the center
of Christian theology. Theology, it is said, is to be done from the
perspective of hope, that is to say, from the perspective of the
ultimate goal of theology. To some extend this could appeal to
Adventist theologians because for us eschatology is inseparable
from Christ (soteriology), the cosmic conflict, and ecclesiology
and consequently every theological topic is related to the
eschatological consummation of the work of Christ. We do not
simply emphasize the saving power of the cross but also His
mediation in the heavenly temple and His return in glory as
events that unfold the fullness of the cross. When hope is
interpreted from a Christological perspective it finds its roots in
the past, impacts the present, and determines the future of the
cosmos.
Biblical cosmic Christology specifies that this cosmos was
created through the Son, is held together by Him, and is being
reconciled through Him (Col. 1:16-20). The future of the
cosmos and of the human race is determined by the work of the
Son in the cosmic conflict. It was He who faced the challenge of
a fallen cherub in heaven and defeated him (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek.
28:14-17; Rev. 12:7-9) and who at the end of the conflict will be
recognized by the same evil powers as Lord of all (Phil. 2:10-
11). The future and the hope that God offered in love to the
human race was from the very beginning a Messianic hope
centered on the future coming of the Savior; the seed of the
woman. On the cross He defeated all evil powers (2:15) and at
the close of the conflict all of His enemies will be placed under
His feet. I will argue below that a Christ-centered eschatology is
indispensable in Adventist theology if we want to properly
represent biblical apocalyptic eschatology. It is because of His
work of redemption on the cross that we can unquestionably
proclaim that the cosmic conflict will climax in a cosmic
theodicy.
The Future Impacts the Present
​Seventh, Adventist eschatology is not only about the future
but also about its impact on the present. The hope we embrace
requires from believers to live “in holy conduct and godliness”
(2 Pet. 3:11), for “everyone who has this hope . . . purifies
himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). There is such a thing as
an eschatological ethics or a Cristian way of life determine by
the presence and coming of God’s kingdom. But there is more to
hope than personal holiness. The expectation of a future world
free from pain, suffering, and death is to be embodied in a deep
concern for those who suffer. We seek to alleviate suffering
while waiting for its eradication at the realization of our hope. In
other words, our future hope does not make us indifferent to the
sorrowful condition of our planet and its inhabitants. The model
for this view of the present impact of eschatological hope is
Jesus, the most powerful proclaimer of the world to come, who
went through towns and cities healing the sick (e.g., Matt. 4:23).
Hope is more effectively proclaimed when a token of it touches
those who now mourn and hunger.
​The presence of our hope in the now must deal with the
vacuum left by the collapse of hopes built on scientific and
technological progress and political promises. Technology,
science, and politics have demonstrated to be a mix bag of the
good and the bad. Our hope should not abandon any of these
fields, but, while denying that they are a proper source for
ultimate human hope, we should find a place for them while
hope waits for its consummation. As the church continues to
grow, its impact on society will also increase making it
necessary for us to explain how our hope relates to politics and
science and technology—the most powerful elements in our
global life. The fact that these areas of human life produce not
only the good but also the bad suggests to me that God has not
yet given up on them and consequently neither should we. They
are involved in the cosmic conflict. Our hope forces us to call
those spheres of human knowledge and life to work, in whatever
they are aiming to achieve, for the good of the people, in service
to others. We should challenge them to restrain the natural
tendency to self-service and uncontrolled manipulation of
scientific and technological developments that instill fear and
anguish in the human heart. Otherwise our hope could become
irrelevant for society. Society needs a glimpse of what our hope
will look like when fully realized.
Adventist Eschatology: Challenges
​Apocalyptic eschatology is by itself a challenging subject
in that it is by nature concerned with the future, about which
humans know little and that tends to create anguish in their
hearts. Adventists also face challenges that in some cases are
unique to their eschatology. I will discuss some of them and
suggest some pathways to follow in seeking to address them.
Divine Love and the Extermination of the Wicked
I will begin with what is probably the most critical theological
challenge we face and that we as theologians, perhaps with a
few exceptions, have not yet carefully addressed. It is about the
connection between eschatology and divine agape. At first it
may appear to be a simple matter, but I venture to say that it is
far from simple. If the key question in the cosmic conflict is the
charge that God is not whom He claims to be, namely a God
who in His most fundamental nature is absolutely oriented
toward the other in self-giving love, then the resolution of the
conflict would have to be based on an incontestable revelation of
His love that would have a profound persuasive power. We have
correctly argued that such revelation eventuated on the cross of
Christ, but our question is how that revelation of God’s love
relates to the fact that at the resolution of the cosmic conflict
presumably millions of intelligent creatures will be permanently
deleted from the universe. How is the extermination of a portion
of God’s creation, and particularly intelligent creatures, be an
expression of divine love?
​There are those who claim that God does not kill anybody
or that sinners die by themselves as a consequence of their sins,
without the intervention of God. However, these answers evade
the explicit language of the Bible associated with the judgment
of the wicked (e.g., Rev. 20:10, 14; 21:8) and transform God
into a detached observer of one of the most devastating cosmic
singularities. Such answers imply that the final resolution of the
cosmic conflict is the outwork of impersonal laws or the very
nature of evil and not that of a loving, personal God. The other
option would be to conceive of God as personally and directly
inflicting intense pain on the wicked while rejoicing in His final
victory over them. I would propose that the extermination of evil
and the wicked should be interpreted as an expression of God’s
love. It could not be otherwise because He is by nature love. I
assume that at that moment God does not suspend or deactivate
His most gracious and loving nature; He remains the great “I
AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14). If this were not the case,
eschatology would not be climaxing into a theodicy but into a
display of divine power difficult to comprehend and that would
instill immense fear in the cosmos by leaving the cosmic conflict
unresolved.
​I am sure there are diverse ways to approach this challenge,
but my proposal will be to begin with a Christological
understanding of the extermination of the wicked. We should
never detach eschatology from Christology. And that means that
the hermeneutical key to decode the extermination of the wicked
is the cross of Jesus the Christ as the most glorious display of
God’s love. There are many ways to justify this approach to the
topic, but I have chosen to provide for your consideration a
simple one. Jesus Christ is the only person who so far has
personally experienced the fullness of God’s judgment as the
“Wicked” of the wicked who took upon Himself the sins of the
world (John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21). According this approach, His
death is paradigmatic for the death of the wicked at the eschaton.
​Based on these introductory comments, I would suggest
that the extermination of the wicked will include two important
elements without which we could not speak about a cosmic
theodicy. Here they are: persuasion and surrender or
capitulation. Persuasion does not bring the war to an end
because it does not change the nature of the forces of evil but
prepares them to accept that the war is over and their destiny is
unchangeable. Persuasion reaches its climax during the final
judgment. I say “reaches its climax” because the Millennium is a
time of cosmic reflection for the evil powers on earth that
prepares them for the realization, during the final judgment, that
they were on the wrong side of the cosmic conflict. What is it
that persuades them? The divine agape that did all that was
necessary to save them. During the judgment the books are
opened and they do not only see their wicked choices but also
and most importantly the divine activity in their lives and
particularly on the cross of Christ.
Ellen G. White, in an insightful comment clarifies what happens
at this moment in the mind of evil powers: “The abundant
evidence given by God that he desires the salvation of all, will
be the condemnation of those who refuse the gift of heaven. At
the last great day . . . the cross of Calvary will appear plainly
before those standing before the Judge of all the earth to receive
sentence for eternity. They are made capable of comprehending
something of the love that God has expressed for fallen human
beings.” As they see the love of God manifested through the
cross, that revelation of divine love penetrates their darkened
minds and persuades them that God is indeed a God of love—
how this would specifically happen remains, to me, a mystery.
At that moment even Satan will recognize that he deserves to
die.
​Then all the wicked will begin to experience the second
death—the realization that they are eternally separated from
their loving Creator. The intensity of such a pain is
incomprehensible to us, but it was experienced by Jesus. The
desire to continue to exist in total alienation from the Creator
produces in the wicked indescribable pain—spiritual, emotional,
and physical. Jesus went through that experience and He
suffered as long as He chose to hold on to His life. The
experience of eternal death came to an end when He shouted,
“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). I
will submit to you that the wicked will go through the same
experience until they too give up their life willingly to the
Creator, who as such has the right to take it from them. It is not
through war that God takes their lives. His plan is that they will
voluntarily give it back to Him. The persuasive power of the
cross will result in willingness to bring the war to an end by
acknowledging that God has the right to take it from them. Here
we witness the full expression of the cosmic theodicy. I
acknowledge that much more work is needed in order to
interpret the extinction of the wicked as a revelation of divine
love and not only of His justice, but I have chosen to begin with
Christ.
Delay of the Parousia
​The second challenge that Adventist eschatology confronts
is the conviction of many Adventist that the parousia has been
delayed. This opinion is clearly influenced by the biblical
conviction that eschatology is historically validated through its
fulfillment and with respect to the parousia it is obvious that
such validation has not yet occurred. Interestingly, instead of
abandoning the promise believers prefer to speak about a delay.
In other words, the argument of a delay serves to affirm the
trustworthiness of the promise. From the time of the pioneers we
have constantly waited for the Lord to come soon, that is to say
within a short period of time. The prophecies had been fulfilled
and what was left to be fulfilled was not much. Yet, we are still
her, one-hundred and seventy-four years later. The question of
the delay has haunted Christians for a long time to the point that
some have concluded that the language used to describe it is
mythological. Such scholars decided to recast the theological
content of the return of Christ into the language of modernity.
They considered waiting two thousand years to be a long period
of time. In contrast to that view, in Adventist eschatology what
is particularly disturbing for some is not that we have been
waiting for two thousand years, but that we have been waiting
for one-hundred and seventy-four years. For us the apocalyptic
prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, particularly their time
periods, explain why we are still here, but the lack of time
prophecies going beyond 1844, contribute to raise the question
of the delay.
​The search for answers has been dominated by efforts to
identify who is responsible for the delay. The primary, if not the
exclusive answer has been ecclesiological. That is to say, there is
something deeply wrong with the church that needs to be
corrected before the coming of the Lord could occur. For
instance, some argue that Christ will not come until the church
accepts and proclaims a particular understanding of the gospel.
Others would argue that the delay is due to the deteriorated
spiritual condition of the church that must change in order to be
ready to receive the Lord. Some claim that Christ will only come
after a significant number of church members reach perfection
of character. More common is the conviction that Christ will
only return after the message of the church is proclaimed to the
whole world. We do not have time to evaluate these and other
views, but independent of their value or lack of it, these attempts
to explain the delay of the parousia serve to alert us to the fact
that the question of the delay is real and that it is necessary for
us to address it. In fact, some have addressed it, but more work
is needed.
​The topic of the delay raises questions about the interaction
between divine sovereignty and human freedom and also about
the connection between events in heaven (the mediation of
Christ that will soon end) and the activity of the church on earth
(the realization of its mission). These need our attention as Bible
students. But perhaps the delay is about the time between the
two epiphanies of Christ: What should we do while hope waits?
In this particular case it would then be important to explore the
contribution of apocalyptic prophecies to this perceived or real
delay and the nature of the mission of the church. Adventist
believe that not all apocalyptic prophecies have been fulfilled
and that therefore we are still living in the time of fulfilment.
Christ’s work of salvation in the heavenly sanctuary has not yet
been concluded. Certain things most happen before the Second
Coming and they are now in the process of happening.
Therefore, it is imperative to keep hope and expectation alive
within our community of believers, which leads us to our next
challenge.
Certainty of the Christian Hope
​What makes our eschatological expectation certain? The
history of hope reveals that history itself is a great cemetery of
human hopes. These were utopias that for a short period of time
provided apparent meaning to some human beings, but that
finally demonstrated to be unsubstantial. As I look at the church,
I wonder why the Christian hope, a matter of significant
importance, does not seem to be to many church members a
matter of major concern. There is little talk about the Second
Coming of Christ and we tend to live as if time will last
indefinitely. The element of expectation appears to be in
intensive care and consequently the life of a believer is in many
ways indistinguishable from that of unbelievers. Many of those
who are sitting on our pews seem to be facing almost a crisis of
eschatological hope. When this hope is appropriated, it leads
believers to a holy and pure life (1 John 3:3). We need a revival
of the apostolic hope in the life of the church. The conviction
that Christ is coming soon can and should transform us by
changing the way we relate to God and to others.
Perhaps I could venture to say that probably some of our
theologians may be facing a crisis of hope. The temptation to
reject the historicist apocalyptic methodology may be connected
to such a crisis. The concept of the cosmic conflict and the
specificity of the biblical, apocalyptic eschatological hope that
we hold so dear are directly related to a historicist approach to
apocalyptic prophecy. Preterism would leave us without such a
hope. Biblical hope tells us that God has been personally and
directly involved in history leading it and pointing to its
consummation at the parousia, when His presence within our
history will be visible, audible, and permanent. This same God
has provided for us an outline of historical events that, as they
are fulfilled, validate our eschatology and help us, in our
pilgrimage, to locate ourselves within the flow of apocalyptic
events. We need to stand together on this approach to prophecy
if we want to revive hope within the church.
So, back to our question, what makes the Adventist
eschatological hope uniquely certain and absolutely trustworthy?
My Christological perspective on biblical eschatology provides
for me an answer: Biblical eschatological hope is absolutely
reliable because of Christ. The Bible establishes that Christ is
our hope, our living hope (e.g., 1 Tim. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:3), not
simply in the sense that He is the source and foundation for our
hope, but also in a more literal and direct way. He is what I
anticipate with great expectation. In the glorified Man from
Galilee we already see the concrete or palpable expression of
our hope, making it supremely reliable. In other words, since
there is a human being in whom what I am hoping for has been
realized, my hope is trustworthy. I have evidence for it in Christ.
Let me provide a few examples to illustrate the argument. We
look forward to the moment when we will exist in the glorious
presence of God, but this is already a reality for the man Christ
Jesus (John 14:3; 1 Tim. 2:5). The hope of those who died or
will die in Jesus includes their resurrection from the dead and
for them, as well as for all of us, this hope is trustworthy
because another human being has already been resurrected from
the dead—“The one who raised the Lord Jesus form the dead
will also raise us with Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:14; NIV). We look
forward to the moment when our bodies will be transformed into
a glorious body because Christ’s body has already been glorified
—“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly
wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform our
lowly body to be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). We firmly
believe that we will ascend to the Father because Christ already
ascended: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be
also” (John 14:3; cf. 1Thess. 4:17). We will reign with Christ
because He is already reigning as King—“To him who
overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just
as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Rev.
3:21, NIV; 2 Tim. 2:12). We will live forever because He lives
forever and ever—“Whether we are awake or asleep, we will
live together with Him” (1 Thess. 5:10; cf. Rev. 1:18).
The point is simple: Our hope is reliable and trustworthy
because there is a human being positioned in the very presence
of God who is the embodiment of our hope. For Him it is a past
and present experience, but for us it is the shape of our future; it
is still our hope.
Science and Biblical Eschatology
​The conflict between scientific theories and biblical
theology is not limited to the area of origins but it also includes
the field of biblical eschatology. The topic has been a matter of
discussion between scientists and theologians. At the turn of the
Millennium a number of natural scientists, theologians, and
philosophers met during three years at Princeton and Heidelberg
to discuss the topic of the interaction between the present
scientific understanding of the future of the cosmos and biblical
hope. The result of this consultation was published in the year
2000. In the introduction of the book, John Polkinghorne and
Michael Welker wrote: “[Eschatology] is a particularly
challenging one for the theology and science discourse. It seems
to provoke an irreconcilable split between the sciences and
theology by implying that there are two distinct realms of
reality.” According to them eschatology is much less compatible
with scientific theories than creationism.
Eschatology and science is an area where Adventists have done
very little, probably because of our primary concern with the
biblical doctrine of origins. But the truth is that modern
cosmogony and cosmology appear to challenge not only the
biblical view of origins but also that of the future of the cosmos.
For many, scientific theories demonstrate that there is no future
for the cosmos because it will come to an end in a cosmic
catastrophe; it will freeze or fry. The idea is that the finitude of
the cosmos is part of its very structure and consequently it will
collapse on itself. The implications of this view for the human
psyche are impossible to fathom. According to it everything we
do on this planet is senseless and absurd; impossible to justify it.
Nothing will be preserved.
I would suggest that it is difficult to speak with finality about the
future end of the cosmos. I get the impression that we are still in
the realm of well-informed speculations difficult to demonstrate.
The cosmos is immense and we know so little about it that it
would be better to show a good dose of humility when
addressing the question of its future. As believers, we should
take into consideration divine providence at a cosmic level as
suggested by the presence of the Spirit of the Lord within the
cosmos before creation week (Gen. 1:2). But even if the
scientific analysis is considered to be able to predict what would
appear to be the logical destiny of the finite cosmos as we now
know it, one should keep in mind that according to biblical
eschatology the cosmos exists in the hope of being “set free
from its slavery to corruption” (Rom. 8:20). The realization of
this hope would preempt the scientific predictions of its death.
With the arrival of the new there will be a most wonderful future
for the cosmos. My primary point in this discussion is not to
resolve the challenge, but encourage us to confront this
particular challenge to Adventist eschatology.
Conclusion
​What is Adventist eschatology? It is a vision of the future,
identified as the Christian hope, configured in the divine mind as
part of His redemptive plan, centered in Christ, preserved in the
Scripture, and appropriated by faith in the divine promise. It is
only visible and accessible in Christ making it absolutely
trustworthy. This hope is a manifestation of our deepest desire to
go back home, to be in the presence of our Creator and
Redeemer. But at the same time it expresses our disgust with the
present condition of the world that, under the influence of evil
powers, afflicts humanity and opposes the values of the kingdom
of God. It is indeed a cosmic problem and therefore this hope is
not only about the future of humans on this planet. Since the
problem is cosmic, its resolution through Christ is also of
cosmic proportions and will culminate in a cosmic theodicy.
God will be recognized by all as a self-sacrificing God who
deeply loves His creatures and always procures for them the
best. It is precisely love that is manifested in the extermination
of the wicked and that brings the controversy to an end.
Adventist apocalyptic hope reaches us form God and speaks to
us as creatures oriented toward the future that are eagerly
waiting for the new. While hope waits for its full realization, we
seek to live a holy life and to express this hope in service to
others and to God in the fulfillment of the mission of the church.
This apocalyptic hope needs to be nurtured by speaking about it,
by not forgetting its nearness, and by sharing it. According to it
the future is glorious: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth
. . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold he
tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be
among them, and He will wipe away every tear form their eyes;
and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be
aby mourning, or crying, or pain; for the first things have passed
away’” (Rev. 21:1, 3-4).
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