“Let us not hesitate to await the Lord’s coming, not only with longing, but also with groaning and sighs, as the happiest thing of all. He will come to us as Redeemer” -John Calvin (Institutes 3.9.5)

When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Matthew's Jesus alludes to the common Jewish practice of whitewashing tombs to set them apart from their surroundings so that people would not unwillingly walk among or upon them, thereby unknowingly becoming corpse impure. He denounces his opponents for not being what they seem. They appear pure and righteous on the outside--white as snow-- yet they are actually full of impurities due to their lawlessness --that is their moral impurity (Matt. 23:28).  He does not criticize the Pharisees for being punctilious observers of the law, or "legalists" as Protestant theology often calls them; rather, he censures their hypocrisy and their lack of lawful, righteous living. The Pharisees simply are not righteous enough according to Jesus. -Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death, p111

Did Jesus Go to Heaven to Build Us Mansions? 

Many think John 14:2–3 means Jesus is in heaven now building us luxury homes in heaven. What does the Bible say?

 1. “Mansions” is actually a mistranslation.

“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places…”

(John 14:2, NASB)

The Greek word (monē) means “room” or “dwelling”—not a mansion.

 2. “My Father’s House” = The Temple, not heaven.

“Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business!”

(John 2:16)

“Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?”

(Luke 2:49)

To Jewish ears, this always meant the Temple—not heaven.

3. The hope of the gospel is resurrection, not escape to heaven.

“An hour is coming… all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth…”

(John 5:28–29)

“You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

(Matt. 19:28)

“You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers.”

(Ezek. 36:28)

God's promise is a resurrected body, a restored Kingdom, and reign with Jesus on earth.

4. Jesus went to prepare the way through His blood—not build mansions.

“He entered the holy place once for all… having obtained eternal redemption.”

(Heb. 9:12)

He went as our High Priest to establish the New Covenant, not start a construction project in heaven.

5. Jesus is coming back to earth—not just to take us to heaven.

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself…”

(John 14:3)

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory… then He will sit on His glorious throne.”

(Matt. 25:31)

His return means reign in Jerusalem, not a 7-year stay in heavenly condos.

In conclusion:

Jesus didn’t promise to take us away forever. He promised to return and dwell with us—in His Father’s House—the Messianic Temple, on a renewed earth.

Let Scripture, not the traditions of man, shape our hope. - Joel Richardson 

Christ loves His church, and He will love it to the end.

You will not regret a life spent doing the same. - BA Purtle

"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet." (1 Cor 15:51-52)

The suddenness of the day of the Lord taken to its ultimate end, "the twinkling of an eye." Maranatha. - John P. Harrigan 

“If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell [Gk gehenna], ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:47-48)

The messianic kingdom is clearly antipodal to the lake of fire/gehenna in the age to come (cf. Mt 8:12; 13:42; 25:34, 46, etc). So if the kingdom is "already not yet," what’s up with Gehenna? Why isn't it also being "spiritually" realized? - John P Harrigan 

Jesus was wounded for our transgressions (Isa 53:5), but He resurrected with no wounds, only scars. Nobody wants someone on their team with open wounds, but everyone wants someone with scars. - Bob Sorge

Israel was Israel when Jews were banned from Jerusalem by Hadrian in 131.

Israel was Israel when the main population moved north to the Galilee.

Israel was Israel when the Sanhedrin was established in Tiberias ~193-358.

Israel was Israel when upward of 13 synagogues and multiple yeshivas located in Tiberias produced the Mishnah (c. 200) and Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400).

Israel was Israel when Heraclius decimated the Jewish population in the Galilee in 629.

Israel was Israel when Umar ibn al-Khattab allowed 70 Jewish families from Tiberias to return to Jerusalem in 638.

Israel was Israel when the Masoretic community flourished (based primarily out of Tiberias and Jerusalem) well into the 10th century.

Israel was Israel when Omar Abd al-Aziz banned the Jews from worshipping on the Temple Mount in 720 (a policy which remained in place for the next 1000yrs).

Israel was Israel when Christian Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered Jews throughout Palestine (and Europe!), thus leading to the Jews often fighting alongside Muslims against the Crusaders.

Israel was Israel when Saladin issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem after the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

Israel was Israel when over 300 rabbis from France and England emigrated to the land of Israel in 1211.

Israel was Israel when the Jewish population dwindled for almost 300 years under the severe oppression of the Mamluks.

Israel was Israel when mass Jewish immigration began immediately after the Turks conquered the region in 1517.

Israel was Israel when Safed became the center of Jewish mysticism and saw the installation of the first Hebrew printing press in 1577.

Israel was Israel when ~1000 European Jews under the leadership of Judah HeHasid immigrated to the land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem in 1700.

Israel was Israel when tens of thousand Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe and Sephardi Jews from Turkey, Bulgaria, and North Africa immigrated to the land of Israel throughout the 1800s.

Israel was Israel when ~35,000 Jews (mostly from Russia and Yemen) immigrated to the land of Israel from 1904-14.

Israel was Israel when ~350,000 Jews immigrated to the land of Israel between WWI and WWII.

Israel was Israel when Jews declared independence from Gentile subjugation on 14 May 1948.

Israel was Israel when ~850,000 Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews fled or were expelled from Muslim countries in the years following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (most of which settled in Israel).

Israel was Israel when ~380,000 (in 1990–91 alone!) Jews immigrated after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Israel is Israel today. - John P. Harrigan

My teaching on Jesus and John the Baptist from Luke 7. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

(Heb 11:1)

By which he means the assurance of eschatology (cf. 10:34-39). Conviction concerning the coming reward (11:6, 26), the coming city (v. 10, 16), the coming homeland (v. 14), and the better resurrection (v. 35).

Jewish eschatology thus creates hope which is how the saints "preserve their souls" (10:39). - John P Harrigan 

There are two times in the Bible when God spoke to Moses from within the cloud—His face shining like the sun. Both the pre-incarnate Son of God and the incarnate. Once was at Mount Sinai at the tent of meeting, and the other was at the mountain of transfiguration. - Joel Richardson 

Christian Nationalism. Preterism. The Prosperity Gospel. Bethel’s Gospel of Healing. What do they all have in common? They all emanate from an overly realized eschatology—rooted in a Gnosticized, self-focused, comfort-driven Christianity, that refuses to suffer humbly and bear the cross daily.

Each, in its own way, denies the reality of the futurity of the coming Messianic Kingdom. Each hijacks biblical hope and reshapes it into triumphalism for this present age.

Jesus taught us to embrace the cross now, while we groan with all of creation, longing for the glory to be revealed then.

The early Church lived in the grip of a Jewish apocalyptic hope—a framework that saw the cross not as a vending machine, but as the painful gateway to glory. They saw this age as corrupt and broken. The next age, the Kingdom of God in fullness, is what we long for. Not to reign now, but to suffer in hope.

The Gnosticized Gospel promises resurrection without death, crowns in this age, without a life of crucifixion, comfort without judgment. The biblical Gospel promises something far better: Rest for the poor, relief for the persecuted, and hope for the hopeless. - Joel Richardson 

"If anything can put a divine glow on a Christian’s face, it is a readiness to forgive. If you are ready to forgive, you possess one of the sweetest beauties of the Redeemer’s character." – Spurgeon

Yet Harrigan is right. Eschatology drives discipleship. The Apocalypse of John is not “extra credit.” Our perspective on the end of days is not tangential or inconsequential. Rather, first-century Jewish apocalypticism—the idea that this age is coming to an end and that we must live instead for the Messianic Age, which God will establish through supernatural means—lies at the core, at the foundation of our worldview.

Our eschatology determines the way we live our lives, and it acts as the engine that drives our actions and the fire that ignites our spirits with fervor, urgency, and devotion to the Master. The knowledge that he could return at any moment and that we will stand in judgment at that time is the ink that writes the stories of our lives and communities.

Getting eschatology wrong comes at a grievous price. The New Christian Right stands as an example of just how dark and ugly the church can become when it misreads what the Bible has to say about the end of the age. So, I want to challenge you today to be inspired by the prophets’ and apostles’ vision of the real millennial kingdom, a just kingdom led by an incorruptible king.

Let this eschatological vision uplift you to a new level of devotion and discipleship, just as it did for our spiritual ancestors in the days of the apostles. - Jacob Fronczack, the New Crusaders

The concept of “more good than bad” means nothing on the day of judgment. Our hypothetical 5 percent of bad (i.e., misdeeds in this age) will comprise 100 percent of the trial at the judgment seat of God. As a man who loved and served the poor his whole life merits nothing when he stands before the judge for a single murder, so also when humanity stands before its Maker on the last day. In this way “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  - John P. Harrigan

When the Church embraces a false kingdom now theological worldview, then it's just the Christian right versus Christian left—each praying and fighting against one another to establish their own vision of the kingdom here on the earth. 

The solution? Embracing the cross now, seek to be salt and light—a positive influence, as we all await the coming King who will establish the Kingdom of righteousness, justice, peace and everlasting joy. -Joel Richardson 

I always knew that Jesus died for vile and deeply flawed sinners.

It was only later in life that I realized I was in that group. - Chad Bird

"A man cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven." -John the Baptist (Jn. 3:27) 

-No need for pride. 

-No need for jealousy. 

-No need to wish you had a different life. 

You have what heaven has given. Hard to accept sometimes. But true. -Travis M Snow 

"Theology divorced from the story of Israel is no longer biblical theology." — Michael Wyschogrod

This King died once, never to die again. Death and suffering and shame he traveled once. None shall make him bleed again. None shall slap him. No spit shall ever again splash upon his cheeks. He will come again to make war, and none shall bruise him. His eyes are fire, his sword shall find its target, his robe is dipped in blood, he is flanked by angelic armies, and on his thigh he has a name written: “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11–16). Today is a day of mercy. Today he extends his ring to kiss by faith. Notice his hands pierced for sin...  “blessed are all who take refuge in him.” - Greg Morse

The early church meditated upon these thoughts further. The first Clemens epistle contains a martyrs’ summary in the style of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Shepherd of Hermas looks at martyrdom as the most powerful testimony to the hostility between God and the “world,” and for that reason it is the fulfillment of the Christian life. Next, the idea of the “imitation of Christ” [Mimesis] becomes dominant in the martyr book of Polycarp (d. 155): the passion of Christ becomes the prototype for the path of suffering of all loyal disciples, even to the smallest detail. And thus teach all those early books of the developing Christianity. The church of the first centuries interpreted the work of Christ by means of the concept of the “Theology of Martyrdom,” and vice versa understood the fate of the martyrs through the fate of the Master. -  Ethelbert Stauffer

The most amazing thing about Colossians 1:24 is how Paul fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. He says that it is his own sufferings that fill up Christ’s afflictions. “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” This means, then, that Paul exhibits the sufferings of Christ by suffering himself for those he is trying to win. In his sufferings they see Christ’s sufferings. Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us. Our calling is to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in bringing them the message of salvation. -John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, p 269-270

In the resurrection, one of the great realities will be that we who are in Christ will never be tempted again, and never sin again.

Yet another reason to strive for holiness now, as well as to anticipate the age to come.

“Come, Lord Jesus.” - BA Purtle

What do I believe? Let's start by asking what kind of Premillennialism do I ascribe to? I reject Pretribulational Dispensational Premillennialism with its overly rigid division of Israel and the Church, along with some of its other peculiarities. That said, I probably am quite close to many forms of Progressive Dispensationalism. Perhaps it could be described as a simple Historical (Postrib) Premillennialism with a much greater Israel-centric taint. That would be a simple way to describe it. This is the only way I can justify my reading of the Scriptures. 

It honors the covenants and the fathers, while celebrating the broad diversity within the one unified Body of Christ and the many cultures of both Jews and Gentiles that it's comprised of. 

It adheres to the biblical two-age model: This age and the age to come. 

It thus views the cross as something to be embraced now, not as a Charismatic vending machine, nor as the symbol of political dominance or victory. Yes, it allows for ongoing miracles now, as gifts and signs that point forward to the resurrection, but not guaranteed in this age. 

It places the poor and persecuted, the sick, and the downtrodden, at the center of the Lord's affections. It offers a concrete, tangible vision of hope for the poor, the downtrodden, the persecuted and all who groan. 

It understands the age to come as the restoration of Eden and the Restoration of the Kingdom of David. A restored paradisiacal earth, with Jerusalem as the seat of global authority. Jesus on the throne ruling over a world dominated by peace, justice, righteousness, and so much joy. 

Anyway, I think that's all really cool and thoroughly biblical. I hope you will consider this rather than some of the other expressions of Christianity presently trending. - Joel Richardson

Theology 101: If it offends everybody, it’s probably not the gospel. If it offends nobody, it’s probably not the gospel. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

If Israel is now just like any other nation, and if the Jews are no different from any other people, then something must be wrong, for Satan clearly hasn’t received the memo. If the Lord has rejected and divorced Israel from her corporate calling and as His special people, then there would be no reason for Satan to place such a great emphasis on and expend so much energy at the end of the age to assault Jerusalem and the Jewish people. This simply wouldn’t make any sense. - Joel Richardson, When a Jew Rules the World

Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews is in the eleventh chapter of Romans. And there are also many passages of the Old Testament that cannot be interpreted in any other sense, that I cannot now stand to mention. - Jonathon Edwards

Earthly renown is not the measure of a person’s significance. Oh, what unknown heroes will be manifest in the last day.

“They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy.” Hebrews 11:37–38

-John Piper

Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is not a "fulfillment" or "radical redefinition" of the hope of Israel, but is understood by Paul and the apostles as exemplary, showing the pattern that the nation of Israel has followed in the past and will follow in the future. -Joshua Hawkins 

A Baptism message I gave in Spanish and English. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

“The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth where they are scattered, and brought home into their own land.” —Puritan, John Owen, 17th Century

Our sanctification and future glorification are not the grounds of our justification, but the bright consequences of it.

The “once for all” cross-work of Jesus Christ for His people is the fountain from which every prophesied good has and will ultimately burst forth. - BA Purtle

This is why Yeshua asked us to take the cup and bread as a proclamation of his death in the presence of God. We are to beseech God to remember Yeshua’s sacrifice and to act on his behalf by bringing the redemption, the new covenant, and the Messianic Era, thereby fulfilling the good news message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That’s what it means to “do this in remembrance of me.” Then, he will finally be able to recline at the table and eat and drink with his disciples again. -DT Lancaster, Do This in Remembrance of Me

“For the Lord said, ‘I am coming to gather together all the nations, tribes, and languages.’ Now by this he means the day of his appearing, when he will come and redeem us, each according to his deeds”  -   2 Clement 17:4

John 14:2: I am going there to PREPARE a place for you.

Rev 21:2: And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, PREPARED as a bride adorned for her husband.

We don't go up to it. It comes down. -Rabbi Brian Samuel 

“May grace come, and may this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha! Amen” - Didache ~90A.D. 

In like fashion, when the Jesus tradition envisions the Son of man coming on the clouds or foretells the general resurrection, we should, even if this puts us in the disagreeable company of modern fundamentalists, think of the redeemer literally flying upon the clouds and of the redeemed literally coming forth from their graves—and also of all that those events represent: the vindication of Jesus, the triumph of believers, the judgment of the wicked, the fulfillment of prophecy, etc. The literal and the symbolic need not be sundered. - Dale Allison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet, p.164

Jesus, the prophets and the apostles had words of woe for wayward Israel. The big difference between them and most Christian Nationalist types who speak ill of the Jews is that the former wept and prayed for Israel’s salvation, believed that Israel remains “beloved for the sake of the fathers,” and held firm conviction that in covenant fulfilment God would one day redeem Jacob from all his sins and troubles. The latter do not.

The vision for Israel’s future restoration is upheld by and will find consummation through Jesus Christ.

There is a massive chasm between the two views. 

One is Biblical, the other is concocted by men. One is of the Spirit, the other is of the flesh. And if we claim to be Christians, we’d better see to it that we’re taking our cues from Holy Scripture. While we must absolutely call Israel to repentance and Gospel faith, for there is no other hope for them (or us!), it will not be well in the end for those who boast against the natural branches. -BA Purtle 

Rather than mitigating the apocalyptic tone, the New Testament actually amplifies the idea that God will conclude this age with fire. 

The Gospels introduce John the Baptist warning the people of Israel about “the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7), with the unrepentant being “thrown into the fire” (v. 9) and the Messiah coming to “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (v. 17, nasb; cf. Isa. 66:24). Jesus likewise warns the crowds concerning “that day” (Matt. 7:22): “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 19). And later he declares, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age” (Matt. 13:40). Similarly, Jesus uses the metaphor of a vine and branches to communicate the fearful apocalyptic reality: “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6).  - John P. Harrigan, The Gospel of Christ Crucified, p.68

There is not yet a theocratic kingdom proper. At this moment, Satan is still called "the god of this world / age" (2 Cor 4:4; John 12:31). 

God is sovereign of course. His sovereign rule has always been true. Jesus is sitting at His right hand, awaiting the appointed time to crush His enemies like grapes or like a footstool under His feet. Jesus was explicit however that the throne of David will not be established until after He returns in Glory, in the resurrection, in age to come. We are not yet in the resurrection. “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Mt 19:28) “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne." (Mt 25:31) - Joel Richardson

The primary reasons many Christians do not properly understand biblical prophecy is because they interpret the Bible two ways: 

(1) They begin at the end of the Bible and interpret it backwards. 

(2) They approach it with a Gentile arrogance and a Christian-supremecist posture. 

Paul dedicated an entire chapter in his letter to the Romans warning against these very things. Every significant theme within biblical prophecy is rooted in Moses and the Torah. The prophets simply elaborate upon the foundation already laid in Moses. The Bible is only to be read, interpreted, and understood with a spirit of humility—and on its own terms, in the actual order in which it was revealed. - Joel Richardson

The Messiah’s death was constitutionally sacrificial, and thereby vicarious and sin-bearing. Either Christ Jesus bears our sins before God on the last day, or we bear our own sins eternally. - John P. Harrigan, The Gospel of Christ Crucified, p.219

In the degree to which Christianity cut itself off from its Hebrew roots and acquired Hellenistic and Roman form, it lost its eschatological hope and surrendered its apocalyptic alternative to “this world” of violence and death. It merged into late antiquity’s gnostic religion of redemption. From Justin onwards, most of the Fathers revered Plato as a “Christian before Christ” and extolled his feeling for the divine transcendence and for the values of the spiritual world. God’s eternity now took the place of God’s future, heaven replaced the coming kingdom, the spirit that redeems the soul from the body supplanted the Spirit as “the well of life,” the immortality of the soul displaced the resurrection of the body, and the yearning for another world became a substitute for changing this one.  -  Moltmann, Spirit of Life, p.89

Sound eschatology produces hope grounded in reality, discernment of the times, and sobriety in the Church for holiness and gospel mission. 

Poor eschatology produces false hopes, confusion-laden thoughts of history, and distraction from that which is uppermost in biblical priority. -BA Purtle 

Perhaps...Jesus did think that God's Torah (that is, Leviticus and Deuteronomy) was an outdated set of taboos, but we have no evidence that he did, and, in the behavior of the later church, we actually have counterevidence.... On the evidence of Paul's letters, the Gospels, and Acts, these apostles chose to live in Jerusalem, worship in the Temple, and keep the festivals, the Sabbath, and the food laws. Could they really have understood nothing? - Paul Fredriksen, "What you See", p.89

Yahweh must be faithful to the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;  

he must protect his reputation in Egypt;

and he must hold fast his heritage,

the people he redeemed through his mighty acts. -Dr. Jim Hamilton

“He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42)  

“Jesus has a lawsuit with the world. His witnesses include John the Baptist, the Scriptures, the words and works of Christ, and later the witness of the apostles and the Holy Spirit.”  - Allison A. Trites

Far from a “complex background” of expectations concerning the kingdom of God, the New Testament shows almost no signs of confusion concerning its basic nature. No one questioned what kingdom John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, nor did they question Jesus when he was “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4:23). None of the disciples asked Jesus what the kingdom entailed when he sent them out preaching, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 10:7), because it was commonly assumed to coincide with “the day of judgment” (v. 15), salvation (v. 22), the coming of the Messiah (v. 23), Gehenna (v. 28), and eternal life (v. 39). -John P. Harrigan, The Gospel of Christ Crucified, pp.145-146

Projected to its eschatological culmination, the Messiah/Christ is the one appointed and anointed by God to execute the day of the Lord, raise the dead, judge the wicked, reward the righteous, etc. Thus Peter summarizes the apostolic commissioning: “[God] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that [Jesus] is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Paul likewise concludes redemptive history in his preaching to the Athenians: “[God] has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed ” (Acts 17:31, csb).  -John P. Harrigan, Gospel of Christ Crucified, p.121

Unfortunately, at a popular level the term “Christ” often means little more than a sort of last name for Jesus. His proper name was “Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” (John 1:45, nrsv; cf. Matt. 26:71; Luke 24:19; John 19:19). When his followers ascribed to him the name “Jesus Christ,” or “Jesus the Messiah” (Matt. 1:1, 18; Mark 1:1, nlt), they had in mind a whole host of ideas that are often absent from the consciousness of the modern church. - John P. Harrigan, Gospel of Christ Crucified, p.344