Brian, author of the awesome blog sunestauromai, has put up a pretty candid post on the link between preaching and eschatology (study of “last things”). He quotes from Eugene Peterson’s books Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness, where Peterson says that “Pastoral Work is Eschatological.” Brian tells us of his initial reaction:

I don’t really want to preach or teach about it right now. I grew up with the typical dispensational premillennial/pre-trib futurist view on last things where folks like Hal Lindsey, Tim Lahaye, John Hagee, Grant Jeffries, all had the stage front and center. This burned me out on last things (I think). I got tired of the road map approach to the end of the world and got tired of all the debates about the rapture, or the millennium and all the crazy different views. There was gross misunderstanding and confusion that immediacy meant immediately and that wore me out.

Having come from the same background, I completely understand Brian’s viewpoint. In fact, it was the very charts, timelines, and categories that people forced the teaching on the end-times into that all but killed my interest in the subject. I got to the point where I was just fine to say “I don’t know” and move on. It’s all too difficult to figure out anyways.

There’s a problem with that though. The Scriptures teach on it. Therefore, it must be something God wants us to understand (even if it takes Jesus coming back to make sense of it all for us!).

I think the problem is that we don’t have a sufficiently biblical understanding of the “end times.” By this, I don’t mean we have to have our millennial ducks in a row, or know whether the Antichrist has come, is coming, or should be Antichrists. What I mean is we need to see the period inaugurated by Jesus for what it is–the Last Days. It’s not so much that we are in the “last days” because we think Jesus is coming back soon… we are in the last days precisely because he has already come! Now, I’m not saying that the second-coming has happened already, what I’m saying is that the Biblical “last days” were ushered in at Jesus’ first coming. This is how the New Testament consistently sees the time period between the two comings. This is something everyone can agree with, regardless of whether you’re “premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial…panmillennial… preterist or vegan” (see here for the quote).

Here is my comment to Brian’s post (which, at the moment seems to be awaiting moderation):

I don’t think Peterson is talking about the parousia eschaton. He’s not talking about the end of history. I think he has a more rounded view… The New Testament puts forward Jesus as the Eschaton… the last days were inaugurated in Him and his work. The kingdom was ushered in (already/not yet!) in his person and ministry (Mark 1:14-15). The hope of the future crashed into the present through his resurrection (the substance of the new creation). Whenever we preach Christ, we are preaching eschatology. Peter’s sermon starts by quoting Joel about the last days, and he applies them to the events they were seeing happen before their eyes (Acts 2). As people respond to the Gospel and place their faith and trust in Jesus, they become new creations, themselves a foretaste of THE new creation which God will usher in. They become part of the eschatological community of all nations, tribes, and tongues (Rev 7:9). In fact, this new community is already seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). I think this is what he means when he says it must be eschatological. Our preaching should reflect the already/not yet tension of the Bible.

The problem is that we’ve become sensationalistic in our teaching of the Last Days. Our categories have become confused. And often we tend to interpret the eschatological scripture in light of newspaper headlines. No wonder we get burned out! 88 reasons the Rapture will occur in 1988 is long past gone, but we continue to try and figure out what Jesus himself said he didn’t know… the day when history will come to an end. After all the calculations and charts we all have gotten somewhat burned out, and again, no wonder. We must get back to biblical eschatology–the kind that brings Paul to the kinds of statements about the present such as “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” after discussing the future resurrection.

We must preach eschatologically, because we are a part of the eschaton now, in the present, through Jesus.