Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven?: With Contributions by Timothy Keller, R. Albert Mohler Jr., J. I. Packer, and Robert Yarbrough. General ... W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson.

Author:Zondervan & Christopher W. Morgan & Robert A. Peterson & Timothy Keller & R. Albert Mohler & J. I. Packer & Robert W. Yarbourgh
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Christian, Eschatology, Theology, Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages), Religion & Spirituality, Christian Books & Bibles
ISBN: 9780310494638
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-08-01T22:00:00+00:00

HELL FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF FULFILLED AND NOT-YET-FULFILLED TEACHING OF THE LAST THINGS

One of the most important observations about biblical prophecy is that some parts have already been fulfilled while others have not. This is often called the “already” and “not yet” of prophecy. The “already” refers to the greatest event predicted in the Old Testament, the coming of the Messiah. The “not yet” refers to Jesus’ second coming and the end times.

While there are roots to this “already/not yet” aspect of God’s plan in the Old Testament, it is more fully seen in the New Testament. Many New Testament teachings are affected by it, including signs of the end of the world, our adoption as God’s children, the coming of the Antichrist, and more. Thus, while salvation and judgment belong mostly to the last day—they are “not yet” fulfilled — they can also be seen in the present—they are “already” here.

As beautifully as anywhere in Scripture, 1 John 3:1–3 combines the realized and unrealized aspects of salvation:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! … Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

John knows that “now we are children of God,” but he also writes “what we will be has not yet been made known.”

Judgment, too, is partly fulfilled and partly unfulfilled. We see the “already” aspect in the verses immediately following John 3:16:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:17–18)

For every believer in Christ the verdict of the last day is announced ahead of time — he or she is “not condemned.” Similarly, for everyone who rejects the Son the final verdict is also already announced — he or she is “condemned already.”

Yet it is incorrect to say that heaven and hell are merely what one makes of this life, because Scripture’s main focus when speaking of both is on what lies ahead.

Here is what will happen. Christ will return in glory. As Matthew writes, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31). At his word all of the dead will rise: “… all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out” (John 5:28–29). Then, he will make the final separation between the saved and unsaved. Indeed, “all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt.

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