Comparative Eschatology

Dispensationalist Premillennialism

This is the school of thought popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible and Hal Lindsey. The most important point is that the Church and Israel are understood to have distinct roles in salvation history. God's primary covenant is with Israel; because Israel did not accept Jesus, God had to come up with a temporary alternate plan--the Church. This is the key problem! The Church is seen as a sort of parenthesis, a "plan B." God still needs to finish all his plans with Israel in the last days, giving them a new temple, a renewed kingdom, and a second chance to accept Jesus. But to do this, he has to get the Church out of the way. That's where the secret snatching away of the Church -- the "rapture" -- comes in.

Dispensationalists place great stock in Daniel 9's prophecy of 70 weeks (490 years). They see the first 69 weeks as a period that brings us to the time right before the death of Jesus -- but then they separate the final week (seven years) and project it into the future.

There will be a tribulation, a persecution of Jews by Antichrist. The Church will be "raptured" before this--all Christians suddenly disappear from the earth. This could happen any instant, with no warning, and in a time of peace and prosperity.

As some explain it, the sudden rapture of all Christians will leave a vacuum, and this is what will allow the Antichrist to attain universal domination. They say he will be the leader of a revived (worldwide) Roman empire with ten divisions. The temple will be rebuilt, but after 3 1/2 years he'll turn against the Jews and persecute them.

At the battle of Armageddon, Christ will return with the Church, and put an end to the Antichrist. The Jews will be suddenly converted, and the eternal kingdom will be established.

Reconstructionist Postmillennialism

Postmillennialism was most popular in the optimistic days of the 19th century. It was thought that society was gradually improving, and that humanity would be able to bring in the millennium "through deeds of love and mercy."

A new strain of postmillennialism is represented by the "reconstructionist" movement, also known as "dominion" theology. It's basically old school Calvinism, which sought (and failed) to create pure Christian societies in 16th century Geneva, 17th century Massachusetts, and 20th century South Africa. Typical representatives are Rousas Rushdoony and David Chilton.

They believe that most of the book of Revelation applies to events that happened in John's day. The millennium, however, will be an earthly period of a thousand years in which the Church exercises dominion over the world. God's law will be the standard for civil law (hence this position is known as Theonomy). At the end of the millennium, there will be an apostasy, and Christ will return.

Here's a quote from The Chalcedon Foundation that sums it up:

Christ is already reigning from the heavens (Ac. 2:29-36). He extends His kingdom in the earth by His Spirit, using redeemed humans, Christians (Ac. 2:14-21). The Bible teaches that Christ will return after all human enemies are placed under His feet (1 Cor. 15:24-27). Jesus indicates that it will be a good, long time between His First Coming and His Second Coming (Mk. 13:32-37; Lk. 12:37-48). Between these two Comings, the kingdom of God will grow slowly, almost imperceptibly (Mt. 13:31-33). But it will one day overwhelm the earth. Then will be fulfilled the great Old Testament prophecy that, "[T]he earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14). There will be an extensive Christian culture on earth not only after Christ's Second Coming, but also before.

The Creed of Christian Reconstruction places this eschatological theory in a broader Calvinist context. While Dispensationalism drives a wedge between Israel and the Church, Reconstructionism would submerge Christianity under the weight of OT law.

Catholicism

The Catholic Church confesses the return of Christ in every mass: "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!" "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead."

Yet the Church has been reluctant to attempt to describe last day events. The selection below from the Catechism of the Catholic Church is typical of the restraint found in official Catholic teaching. Generally it can be said that Catholicism has an amillennial position; the millennium is generally understood in a symbolic manner. Works on Eschatology by most Catholic theologians show an amazing lack of interest in topics which consume so many other people.

Joseph Ratzinger's book, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1988), is typical. He rejects all attempts by man to usher in the kingdom of God. Yet "the return of the Lord can be described only in images," images which are borrowed from OT theophanies and Roman imperial court liturgies. Because of this, "The cosmic imagery of the New Testament cannot be used as a source for the description of a future chain of cosmic events. All attempts of this kind are misplaced." (201-202) Instead of trying to predict the future, we should live the reality of the presence of Christ in the Church and in the Eucharist, "until that time when the Lord himself gives to it that final reality which meanwhile can be sought only in image." (204)

Nevertheless, the Catechism does make some specific claims. First, the Jews will be converted; second, the Church will be persecuted by the Antichrist before the return of Christ.

But the silence of the Church and its theologians has not stopped individual Catholics and movements within the Church from speculating about the end. Here we come upon the distinction between "public revelation" and "private revelation." The former is binding on all Catholics, the latter is not. "Private revelation" includes such things as Marian apparitions, as well as the teachings of individual saints. An example of a typical eschatological schema from these sources is below.

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

674 The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus.[568] St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old."[569] St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?"[570] The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles",[571] will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all".[572]

675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.[573] The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth[574] will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.[575]

676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,[576] especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.[577]

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.[578] The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.[579] God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.[580]

EWTN Q&A: Endtimes

EWTN Q&A: Whore of Babylon

From "private revelations" and the teachings of saints some have compiled scenarios that look like this:

A "chastisement" will come upon the world, which will involve wars and dissension within the Church. The pope will flee Rome and be murdered. A "great king" will unite Europe, and restore the Roman empire (the fourth beast of Daniel 7); he will be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by a saintly pope. During three days of darkness, the enemies of God will die off.

The Catholic faith will be reestablished, and the Churches will unite under the pope. This will usher in an "Age of Peace," also known as the "Age of Mary" or the "Eucharistic Reign of Christ."

When the great king dies, the kingdom will be broken up into ten kingdoms, but the age of peace will continue for some time--maybe centuries.

Then the final events will come quickly. There will be a universal apostasy. A new king will arise, the Antichrist, who will overthrow the three kingdoms which won't obey him. He will reign for three and one half years.

During his reign, all the Jews will be converted.

The antichrist will attempt to mimic the ascension of Christ from the Mount of Olives, but will be killed.

Sometime after this, Jesus will return.

[See, for example, Desmond A. Birch, Trial, Tribulation & Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist (Santa Barbara: Queenship, 1996), the works of Fr. Stephano Gobbi, founder of the Marian Movement of Priests, and Bud Macfarlane, Pierced by a Sword, an apocalyptic novel.]