The Eschaton

The questions of when "the end of the world" will happen, and those other questions surrounding it, have been asked for centuries. And so these few blogs from me will obviously not answer those questions. In fact, the when, how, etc. of the "last days" will not be discussed here.

My interest in this subject started when I was just a lad. My father, Henry J. King, was a preacher who preached many sermons on "The Second Coming of Christ." I also listened to men like C. F. Derstine and others who gave very vivid and often charted sermons on how everything would be before, during, and after the return of Christ. During the second world war this subject received very much attention by preachers across the country, for it was thought by many to be the beginning of the last times. My father became convinced during that time that he would live to see the second coming and he spoke that from the pulpit many times. But as time went on following the close of WWII many needed to change their views on the subject. Before my father died in 1981 he realized that his long-felt conviction was probably not going to come to pass. He told me one day near the end of his life, "Wayne, the most important thing is to be ready to meet the Lord."

My interest in this subject continued through the years. Before I went to Goshen College Biblical Seminary my father expressed the concern that I would learn things there about the second coming that were different from his teaching, and the things I had heard from little up. And so it was. I heard that there was another way to look at this subject and I continued to seek to learn more. I finally decided that I needed to study the Bible for myself to seek to discover what I understood it to teach about the end times and the coming of Christ.

I worked hard on my study off and on for many years. Finally in 1988 I completed a manuscript which I entitled "Eschatology and the Redemptive Purposes of God." I sought to have this manuscript published but was unable to find a publisher who wanted to do it. I proceeded to reproduce some copies myself and bound them into booklets, giving away a few to friends and family. Later I revised this edition a bit and renamed it "Biblical Eschatology," made some copies and bound them with a plastic binding, and retained just a few copies.

While that manuscript is quite theological, I prefer not to be too theological on this subject in these blogs. Not that I wouldn't enjoy doing that - theology was my forte in my preaching as well as in informal discussions. But it is much more helpful to look at things from a more practical standpoint. That's what I'll attempt to do here.

I'm not sure where these blogs will take us, but hopefully it will make a bit of sense to the readers. And I'll try not to get too long as that gets boring. So, I invite you back to the coming blogs on this subject, and I also invite your comments.

Maranatha (even so come Lord Jesus)

Pilgrim on the way