Jesus, the Prophets, and the End of the World: An Introduction to Biblical Eschatology

By Trevor Bucknell

The Old Testament prophets and their writings were hugely instrumental in the formation of the second temple eschatology, so an appreciation of the Old Testament prophetic literature greatly helps us in understanding the life and ministry of Jesus and the rationale of the early church. Israel's story of divine election lay at the core of their identity as a nation and people, constantly reinforced in the religious practices and rituals that made up their lives. That story, by the time of Jesus, was heavily influenced by the eschatological expectations created by the prophets. The people of Israel expected, looked for, and waited for God's intervention in their history and in their lives once again as he had intervened in the past.
The eschatological message of the prophets focused on two themes, the kingdom of God and the day of the Lord. The first theme largely found its fulfillment in the coming of Jesus and the birth of the church, though it awaits his return for its culmination. The book of Revelation presents an unfolding of the second theme, the day of the Lord. This forms the common theme in the prophets of God's final and culminating act of righteousness and justice in this age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Jul 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781498223270

Trevor Bucknell

Trevor Bucknell is on staff at a large church in Melbourne, Australia, where he serves as Executive Pastor and Missions Pastor. He holds an MA (Min) from Harvest Bible College in Melbourne and has served as pastor in several churches, as a missionary for many years, and has taught in Bible Colleges and seminars in several nations. He is married to Judyth and they have two grown children.

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Jesus, the Prophets, and the 
End of the World

An Introduction to Biblical Eschatology

Trevor Bucknell

16821.png

Jesus, the Prophets, and the End of the World

An Introduction to Biblical Eschatology

Copyright © 2016 Trevor Bucknell. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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To my Mum and Dad with deep gratitude for everything, and to my family—my wife Judy, my children Julia and Arun, Luke and Anastasia. You bring great joy into my life.

Foreword

In the beginning, the Bible declares in its opening sentence, God created the heavens and the earth—one creation. On the earth God then fashioned a stunningly beautiful home for himself, bursting with light and life, in which he planted a garden temple. In the garden temple he placed an image of himself—a man and woman fashioned from the earth itself and infused with his life—to serve as his stewards. Their privilege and responsibility was to rule over his earth and to serve him in his temple, kings and priests. So it was, and so it should have remained. It was very good.

The stewards, however, were persuaded to rebel against the creator, annexing the earth for themselves and consigning and confining him to heaven, some indeterminate and distant location where he was free to do whatever God does. So the creation was separated into two realms—heaven and earth. The one was given to God and the other claimed for the independent human beings.

It was determined that God should remain in heaven where he belongs and only interfere in the earth, if at all, to benefit human beings in some way in what they are doing with their earth. He should perform beneficial miracles, for instance, when asked and be available to help whenever needed. But he should not interfere with the way his stewards are running the earth. Some of the stewards even began to declare that he, the creator, no longer existed. He was just a myth, a psychological construct of weak human beings. Human reason could explain how everything came into being.

But the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it (Ps 24:1). He will not be confined and he will not remain in a distant heaven. He has always continued to intervene in the lives of those made by him and he has always had his prophetic representatives among them, as we will see in the following pages. The image bearers are still responsible to him. The story has not changed.

Though heaven and earth are divided by human beings, it was not like that in the beginning and it will not be like that in the end. The earth is still God’s and he has a plan to take it back and renew it. He has a plan to rescue the image bearers from the consequences of their own foolishness and to demonstrate to all creation the depths of his wisdom, power, and love. The center of that plan—the place where heaven and earth come together again fully and forever—is in his son Jesus Christ.

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Eph

1

:

9

–

10

)

God has a plan, and the Bible tells the story of how he put that plan into action at an incomprehensible cost to himself. The prophets have always played a central role within that plan, declaring his good will to their own generations and declaring his good will for the future, speaking it into being. We are now nearing the end of the story, and the end—as was the beginning—will be very good. God will be back.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up you ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in . . . (Ps

24

:

7

)

Preface

This book began life as a course of lectures prepared for Harvest Bible College in Melbourne on the topic of prophetic literature, which dealt primarily with the study of the Old Testament prophets. I have taught variations of the course several times in Australia and overseas. As I have studied, prepared, and lectured, I have been continually struck by the interconnections between the prophetic material and the content of the New Testament. Specifically, the huge impact that the prophetic books had on the development of the theology of the late Second Temple period, preparing the way for the ministry of Jesus in the gospels and the early church in the book of Acts. In fact, I am persuaded that in some ways the gospels and Acts belong with the Old Testament more than the New in the sense that they present the completion of Israel’s story, which has no proper ending apart from them. The focus of the Old Testament story, from the offspring promised to Eve (Gen 3:15) to the offspring promised to Abraham (Gen 12:7) and David (2 Sam 7:12–13), on to the messiah and suffering servant predicted in the prophets—all of this and more arrives at its fulfillment in Jesus and the kingdom of God coming on earth. The stories about him in the gospels and then the stories about the Spirit-filled—and thus prophetic—church in Acts, present the outworking of all the Old Testament promises and types.

Continued study led in turn to an appreciation of the close connection between the Old Testament prophetic material and the book of Revelation. The author of Revelation, in fact, sees himself as one with the prophets, and his revelation as summing up the prophetic promises and predictions, bringing them to completion and fulfillment.

The Prophetic Literature course has always been very well received by students, and many have commented that it should be more widely available. Also, the further pursuit of these connections between the Old Testament prophetic material and the gospels/Revelation lay outside the parameters of the course I was teaching, so the idea of this book was born, both to make the material available to a wider range of people and as an avenue to allow me to pursue these other ideas. This has also resulted in the development of a different course, one that can now be called prophetic eschatology, or biblical eschatology. I taught this as an intensive in a Bible College in India and the students were greatly appreciative.

I have discovered that it takes a lot of time and thought and plain hard work to write a book. The tale grew in the telling, and it has filled my thoughts day and night for months and years on end. It has meant long hours of my spare time sitting at the computer, writing and checking, revising and revising again. It has been worth it for me personally as I have come, I feel, to a deeper understanding of the Bible story. I hope it brings a similar pleasure to those who might read it.

I have myself read a great number of books over the course of my life, and I have absorbed from these a good many ideas and insights from many people. My thinking is an anthology of all of these plus, hopefully, a few original ideas and insights of my own. From some authors I have gained a lot, from others a gem or two. I am grateful to them all and I have attempted to acknowledge the contribution of other authors to my thinking whenever I could. I apologize in advance for any seeming attempt to pass their ideas off as my own. This has been a concern for me in writing this book. After a lifetime of reading, study, and writing, it is not always possible to remember the source of every idea or concept. I am indebted to all of those who have given me illumination and understanding.

This started as a seriously academic book with many more citations from erudite (or learned) scholars, obviously chosen to lend weight to my theses and filled with wonderful words like praxis and pericope which roll so wonderfully off the tongue. But I teach often in developing nations and I would like to make the book available to that wider audience for whom English is not the first language. So I have simplified. What is the good of a book that is only going to be read by a few select people?

It is still a serious book, a book about issues that deserve the effort needed to understand and appreciate them. I believe that some of what I write about here has been previously misunderstood by many Christians, so I have provided supporting Scriptural references whenever I could in an attempt to anchor the book firmly within the biblical text.

The book is written in three sections. The first one deals with the Old Testament prophets and lays the necessary foundation for what follows, as the prophets themselves do for the later biblical eschatology. The second section focuses on various aspects of the life and ministry of Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testament expectations and prophecies, albeit with an unexpected twist. The final section focuses on the book of Revelation, bringing all the prophecies and the various elements of this book to their conclusion. What binds the three sections together is the contention that there is an underlying and unifying story that flows through each, a prophetic eschatology, if I can put it that way.

This is not, of course, a completely comprehensive coverage of these topics. Each chapter, or at least each section, could form the basis of a separate book by itself. I have tried to produce at least an introduction to the eschatology of the prophets and the Bible. It could be much improved on, I know but maybe that’s true of all books. I believe it’s an improvement on much of what passes for eschatology in certain sections of the church at present. I am aware that the book contains some big holes. It includes, for instance, very little comment on the covenants, which form the background for the development of the prophetic eschatology, and it does not include more than a passing comment on the prophetic material found in the Psalms. That material is, in some ways again, a different kind of prophetic literature, but it would be very helpful to integrate it with the prophetic literature proper. Maybe a future book.

There are several people I need to thank: My wife Judy, daughter Julia, and friend Dr. Nabil Yassi were early reviewers and pointed out areas that needed correction and improvement. Dr. Jon Newton kindly reviewed an early version of the book and gave several valuable suggestions which necessitated a major rewrite. My friends Andrew Groza, Phil Kennedy, and Len Wrennall also gave valuable feedback. Roger Branford made suggestions that meant another major revision. I am grateful to each one for their helpful suggestions.

Introduction

The book is written within certain parameters. Firstly, I take a canonical approach to the biblical material. It has been the norm lately in academic circles to dissect the Bible in search of understanding—to study it analytically; to break up books into multiple parts, attributing them to multiple authors; and to divide the text up into smaller and smaller sections. Then opinions are given and evidence produced to show which portions are original or authentic and which are not. There may be validity and value, of course, in this kind of analysis if the motive is indeed to seek understanding that leads to obedience. But while these questions of authorship and originality are interesting—and may have some bearing on the interpretation of some passages—they do not lie within the scope of this book and they are also, necessarily, matters of conjecture, debate, and opinion. We have to deal in the end with the text in the form we have received it.

There is, secondly, a difference between doing theology systematically and doing it biblically. Systematic theology asks the question, "what does the text say about . . . (insert any subject, e.g., sin)." Most introductory courses on theology are studies in systematics. Again, there is obvious value in such an approach.

Biblical theology on the other hand, as I use it here, looks for the big picture and asks the question "what does the text say?" This is an entirely different enquiry, as it allows the text to speak for itself. It also recognizes that every biblical writer was a theologian in his own right and had, therefore, something to say, a particular theological point to make. This is the approach I take in the following pages.

I also make the assumption, thirdly, that a divine mind somehow guided the writing and composition of the biblical material and that, therefore, though the Bible is a collection of many books and several genres, one divinely guided storyline runs through and unites them all in a grand revelation of God and his eschatological purpose for those made in his image. The Old and New Testaments, therefore, are bound together, each providing an essential context for the interpretation and full understanding of the other. Certainly the New Testament authors regarded the things they were experiencing to be a fulfillment of Old Testament expectations and prophecies.

The Bible is a strange book. Some of my other favourite books I have read many times and each time I read them they get smaller in a sense as the story becomes more familiar. But the Bible is entirely different, it gets bigger the more it is read and studied. New kaleidoscopic interconnections are constantly discovered between passages and books. A single verse, phrase or word can open up like a flower, a passage or idea thought to be mastered and understood can suddenly reveal new, unimagined, depths. Millions of people have studied the Bible for thousands of years, yet more and more books continue to be written about it. There has been in recent times an explosion of must read material being produced. I wish I had time to read it all.

So, the biblical story begins, I contend in this book, in Genesis and reaches its culmination in the book of Revelation. It starts in Eden and finishes in the New Jerusalem. It begins with the story of the original creation and finds its fulfillment in the new creation. The whole Bible, after Genesis chapter three, is an eschatological story about the defeat of death and evil and the triumph of God’s good will, intention, and purpose.

Central to everything is the crucifixion and resurrection. In order to make the story possible and to bring it to its divinely ordained culmination, Jesus—who was with the Father in the beginning—through whom, by whom, and for whom all things were created, humbled himself and died on the cross. This beautiful planet, unique among the heavenly bodies, was created to be a stage upon which the greatest demonstration of love, wisdom, and power that the universe will ever see would take place. A stage for the sacrificial and vicarious death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. The Old Testament prophets in some measure foresaw this and though they themselves did not understand the total picture, they prophesied it in various ways and laid the theological foundations for recognising it and understanding it when it came to pass.

If we hold, then, that the Bible presents us with this one large story, the book of Revelation is seen in a new way. Wonderfully examined and expounded in hundreds of books, it is usually studied in isolation, a composition separate from the other biblical documents in both Old and New Testaments and therefore difficult to understand. In this book it is seen as an integrated part of the whole, in fact as part of the prophetic corpus. It presents, in this context, the culmination of the divine plan—the creation cleansed and renewed, justice and righteousness fully extended to all humanity and the people of God dwelling once more, as in Eden, in his sanctuary and enjoying his presence. Evil is finally and fully destroyed in all of its manifestations and the new creation destined to continue forever.

Within those parameters, then, this study arrives at two conclusions. Firstly, that the Old Testament prophets and their writings were hugely instrumental in the formation of the Second Temple eschatology, so an appreciation of the Old Testament prophetic literature greatly helps us in understanding the life and ministry of Jesus and the rationale of the early church. Secondly, the book of Revelation presents an unfolding of the Day of the Lord, which forms the common theme in the prophets of God’s final and culminating act of righteousness and justice in this age.

Israel’s story of divine election lay at the core of their identity as a nation and people, constantly reinforced in the religious practices and rituals that made up their lives. That story, by the time of Jesus, was heavily influenced by the eschatological expectations created by the prophets. The people of Israel expected, looked for, and waited for God’s intervention in their history and in their lives once again as he had intervened in the past.

The more we can soak our minds in the Old Testament, then, the more we will understand Jesus and the New Testament. Allusions to the Old Testament in the New are innumerable. Jesus, the evangelists, Paul—all are speaking against an Old Testament background. They are soaked in the Old Testament Scripture, and they are writing—in the beginning certainly—to a people who are similarly soaked in the Old Testament writings and worldview. The events that were happening to them and among them they saw as fulfilling Old Testament expectations. The last days had begun, and they were living in them.

That’s the story this book has to tell, really. I hope you will enjoy the journey. It’s not necessarily an easy book to read in parts, but I believe it’s a story that urgently needs telling. The modern church, or a large portion of it, seems to be living in the situation that Jesus predicted when he talked about the days of Noah and Lot, when people were carrying on their everyday lives, secure in the illusion that everything in the future would always remain the same. Lulled into a kind of historical sleepiness by the relative ease of modern life, we in the West are living, frighteningly, in what James Dobson referred to somewhere as the illusion of permanence. But it will not always be like this; storm clouds gather, spiritual forces are being marshalled, great and frightening events lie ahead. Great people are needed, and great deeds are waiting to be done. Great courage will be required to lay hold of great opportunities. The times they are a-changing.

Glossary

Canon refers to the list of books considered to be authoritative Scripture by the Jewish or Christian communities. The word canon comes from a Greek word meaning rule, or measuring stick. It is the standard against which all other revelation is measured.

Eschatology is a branch of theology concerned with what are believed to be the culminating events of history. Some take this in a very narrow sense of meaning the end times, but it properly refers to the outworking of the accomplishment of all of God’s plans and purposes for the creation.

Genre is the term for a style or category of literature, art, or entertainment. The Bible contains several different genres—for example, history, gospel, letters, or prophecy—several different styles or kinds of literature. Identifying the genre of a piece of literature is important because each requires a different approach to its interpretation.

Hermeneutics is the process of biblical interpretation. It involves general rules—such as the need to interpret within context—and rules, or principles that apply to specific genres.

A meta-narrative is just a big, controlling story. The Bible in many ways is a story book. It often presents truth to us in the form of stories about the interaction between various people in the plan of God. There is, for instance, the story of Abraham and Lot, of David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba, and so on. To say there is a biblical meta-narrative makes the claim that all of these smaller stories are bound together under one big story. The prevailing postmodernism of our times is basically a skepticism towards such meta-narratives, and this has affected the approach of many to the study of the Bible as it has to many other areas of study. So the concept of a biblical meta-narrative is not always accepted among scholars and theologians.

A motif is a recurring element in a story, a repeated theme or pattern that forms a larger picture.

Redaction is a form of editing, revising, and updating documents for publication or circulation. Many Bible books appear to have had some level of redaction. For instance, Moses is held by many to be the author of the books of Torah, but they sometimes speak about Moses in the third person, even referring to events after his death. Obviously someone has edited them.

The Second Temple period in Jewish history refers to the time when the Second Temple existed, from about 530 BC to AD 70 when it was destroyed by the Romans. This, of course, includes the historical period covered by the gospels and most of Acts, which is the period I mainly refer to when I talk about it in this book. (Properly, I suppose, it is the late Second Temple period.) The first temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC.

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It is commonly referred to by the Roman numerals LXX (70). Legend has it that seventy Jewish scholars made the translation over seventy days in Alexandria in the late second century BC.

The Synoptics: The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they include much of the same material, often in a similar sequence and with similar wording. The content of John’s gospel on the other hand is comparatively different. The term synoptic comes from the Greek syn, meaning together, and optic, meaning seen.

Except where noted, I have used the NIV translation of the Bible throughout. We turn now to the first section of this book, a study of the Old Testament prophets and their importance to the rest of the biblical story.

Part One

the prophets

From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention.

—Jeremiah 7:25–26

Chapter One

an introduction to the prophets

Something started God’s prophets to writing. By the time they had finished, they had produced a body of literature unparalleled in human history. Nothing before or since has equaled the corpus of literature produced by the prophets of Israel.

¹

To many Christians the Old Testament prophetic books effectively remain a mystery. Without extensive study, the genre, form, style, chronology, and history of the prophets are all difficult. Study of these books in Bible colleges is often restricted to third year or even post-graduate level, or left as an optional elective, which means, in the end, that not many people actually get to do the study. It follows, consequently, that for far too many Christians the books are either ploughed through while following a Bible reading plan, effectively ignored, or read devotionally as sources of encouraging personal words from God.

This is a great shame as these books are a major key to understanding the biblical meta-narrative (big story), the biblical story as a whole. In fact it is not too much of an overstatement to say that without an understanding of the prophetic books and of the ministry and message of those who left such an incredible legacy, the New Testament, especially the gospels, cannot be properly understood.

The Old Testament prophets in large measure laid the theological foundations of the late Second Temple period, the historical setting for the ministry of Jesus and the early church. The messianic and eschatological expectations evident in the gospels, with all their associated concepts—the kingdom of God, the return of Jesus, the resurrection, etc.—cannot be properly understood if isolated from the background of the ministry and writings of the prophets. The life and message of Jesus himself cannot be fully appreciated and understood if seen apart from the preparatory work of the prophets. The book of Revelation likewise claims to follow in the tradition of the prophets and, indeed, to bring the prophetic message to its intended conclusion. So the prophetic books are also essential background to understanding the final book of the Bible. That’s why this book is presented in three sections focusing on the ministry of the Old Testament prophets, the person and work of Jesus, and the book of Revelation.

So, many Christians have little idea of the importance of the prophets and their message as the context for understanding all that follows them in the unfolding redemptive program of God. There is often, again, only a vague appreciation of how the prophets and their writings fit into the overall biblical picture. I hope that in the following pages we may be able to address these issues in some measure and to reveal something of the immensity of the wisdom, power, and love of God’s plan, as outlined by the prophets and unfolded in the rest of the Bible. I hope we can do something towards restoring the prophetic literature of the Bible, and the prophetic ministry so prominent there, to the important place it deserves as a key to the biblical story. The prophets have been God’s representatives in the world from ancient times, speaking his words and will into the creation and especially to his elect people.

Some points to start with: This is a book about the prophets and their message and how they relate to the New Testament. Our starting point is the prophetic literature found in the Old Testament. This is not a survey, however, of the Old Testament prophetic books, nor is it a critical discussion of those books. There are many very good commentaries, Old Testament surveys, and other Bible study aids