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A great temptation in reading the Bible is to skip over the parts that you don't understand -- or at least refuse to take them seriously. This is particularly the case with ideas like "Last Judgment," "Second Coming," and so on. This whole side of Biblical thought is suggested by a covenient, though jawbreaking, word: eschatology. This is a word you have never needed before, and you probably don't want to be bothered with it now.
Your algebra book says A = ?r2
. . . which means that the area of a circle can be found by multiplying the distance from the center to the periphery by itself and then multiplying the product by 3.14159265+. But what a space saver to put "A?r2"!
ah r h po a e A box score has, Mays, cf. 5 2 3 8 2 0
. . . which means that Willie Mays played center field for the Giants, made the eight put-outs and two assists, while playing errorless ball, and that in five times at bat he made three hits, for an impressive .600 average. But what a space saver to put:
ab r h po a e Mays, cf. 5 2 3 8 2 0!
In the same way, this book uses the word "eschatology,"
. . . which means "the last things" (from the Greek, ta eschata). It represents an attempt to think about final things, about fulfillment, about an area of life that transcends anything of which we have any direct and firsthand experience. It reminds us that time, the time in which we live, is not complete in itself. Nor is our human history complete in itself. It is going somewhere. Our "three score years and ten" are not the whole story. Our life and experience, in other words, are surrounded with something more ultimate, more fundamental, than what we touch and feel from day to day. God has purposes that go beyond anything that can be fully accomplished here.
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