The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Section X: Last Things
The title “Last Thing” conjures up pictures of Kirk Cameron for a lot of Southern Baptists. But this is not the case for all Southern Baptists. And the view that those books and movies put forward has not historically been taught among Southern Baptists.
My reason for beginning here is that I want to say plainly that the Baptist Faith and Message does not take a particular end times view. There is room in this statement of faith for all 4 major views of the end times, which are: Historic Premillennialism, Dispensational Premillennialism, Amillennialism, and Postmillennialism. Where you land on these four views basically comes down to how you interpret Revelation 20. We can date three of these positions all the way back to the first 400 years of Church History. Dispensational Premillennialism, which is the most popular today and is the basis for the Left Behind book series and movies that were so popular a few years ago began with John Nelson Darby who was born in 1800.
There is a helpful chart that you can look at here, that describes the different views. Dispensational Premillennialism is a subset of Premillennialism that is a bit different, but you do get a pretty good understanding of the differences by looking at the chart.
That discussion, which is likely the one you expected to have when you saw the title of this upcoming session is not what we will be discussing today. We will be looking at the broad statement that we have concerning the end times.
Broad statements, I believe are important. They give boundaries to acceptable belief. And here we see the boundaries of acceptable belief on the end times outlined in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Here is that statement.
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Isaiah 2:4; 11:9; Matthew 16:27; 18:8-9; 19:28; 24:27,30,36,44; 25:31-46; 26:64; Mark 8:38; 9:43-48; Luke 12:40,48; 16:19-26; 17:22-37; 21:27-28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 17:31; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 15:24-28,35-58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 1:5; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 5:1ff.; 2 Thessalonians 1:7ff.; 2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:27-28; James 5:8; 2 Peter 3:7ff.; 1 John 2:28; 3:2; Jude 14; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1-22:13.
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.
Here we begin where so many end times conversations do not. We begin with God’s sovereignty over history. This first statement simply says that God is in control of everything that happens. And God is moving history toward “its appropriate end”. God will bring about the end of history as we know it.
We are considered foolish if we do not know this. And it would be foolish for Christians not to consider this as primary to understanding the end times. God struck Nebechuadnezzar and he ate grass like an ox in the wild until he understood it and said this,
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35 ESV)
And Paul quite plainly states it in the Book of Ephesians,
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV)
We discussed God’s Sovereignty under Article II of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. And it is appropriate that our statement begins here.
There is so much time and effort spent thinking about what is happening in the world that we oftentimes miss the truth that God is in control. He is moving all things toward their appointed end. We are not living at the mercy of what some group of people does or does not do halfway across the globe. It is God who is in control. And it is God who is moving history along to its appointed end.
According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.
It is outside of the boundaries of orthodoxy to believe that Christ will not return personally or visibly. It is also outside of the boundaries of orthodoxy to believe that Christ has somehow already returned. There have been groups of people throughout history that have claimed otherwise, but those beliefs exist outside of what Scripture teaches.
Two passages of Scripture from the Apostle Paul make this quite clear. Many of the words of Jesus do this as well, but for now we will look at these passages from Titus 2 and 1 Thessalonians 4.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)
Notice that we plainly await “the appearing” of Christ. He will return personally and visibly. And we see this again from Paul.
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1Thessalonians 4:16-18 ESV)
These are plainly descriptions of an actual and physical event. This is not a description of a resurrection that is spiritual only that could somehow be missed. This is a cataclysmic event. And to believe anything else is to be outside of the orthodox and historic understanding of the return of Christ.
Another thing to notice from 1 Thessalonians 4 is that “the dead will be raised”. When Christ personally and visibly returns “the dead will be raised”.
and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.
There is one thing that our statement of faith does not discuss that, now that I really put some thought into it, probably should be there. And that is the intermediary state.
The intermediate state is how we describe what has happened to someone who dies before the return of Christ. Scripture describes these people as residing in a place and condition that will not be their place and condition for all eternity. The believer dies and their spirit goes to be with the Lord even as their body decays (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:23). So the believer immediately enters into the presence of God upon their physical death. The unbeliever does not. They are in a place of punishment, also awaiting the day when they will be once again embodied and undergo eternal punishment (Luke 16:19-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, 2 Corinthians 5:10).
So, all those who are in the intermediate state, whether that be in Hell or in Heaven, will rise for the Judgment of Christ. And all people will stand before Christ in the Judgment.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV)
The judgment will be different for believers and unbelievers. But we will all be judged.
The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
It is very likely that you are not comfortable with the term “righteous” and “unrighteous” concerning the judgment. And that is because you rightly see yourself as “unrighteous” in a very real sense. That is what brought you to Christ. But this is the language that Scripture uses concerning the judgment.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)
Notice what the text says here. The wicked who do not care for others will find themselves in eternal punishment. The righteous who did care for others will find themselves in eternal life.
There is a difference between the saved and unsaved, the believer and unbeliever. There is a difference between those who have trusted in Christ and those who have not. But it is not because of something innate within us, it is because of the work of Christ in making us holy.
This was covered in our recent discussions on the Baptist Faith and Message. This was covered in Section IV. Salvation of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The believer is counted righteous in Christ because of the finished work of Christ and the imputation of that to the believer. The believer is also regenerated, that is born again and desires to follow after Christ. The believer is also going through the process of sanctification throughout their life so that they grow to be more like Christ throughout their entire life. As Daniel Scheiderer put it.
“We must admit that according to Scripture there is a fundamental difference between Christians and non-Christians: Christians are righteous and non-Christians are unrighteous. Looking at our lives, laden as they are with indwelling sin, it is difficult to see how this can be. However, looking to Christ we see that we are righteous because we are clothed with His righteousness, and this is evidenced in our growth in holiness through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Those who have clung to Christ the King will be judged righteous, while those who have continued in rebellion against Him in Adam are and will remain unrighteous as they undergo judgment.”[1]
Conclusion
The discussion here is not the typical end times discussion. But it is a good discussion for us to have. I believe it is the discussion hat we need to have as Southern Baptists. In this statement we have identified the boundaries within which we can live as orthodox believers.
I am sure that you will have other discussions about the end times with people. You might even go home thinking about it tonight. And this statement of faith identifies the boundaries within which that discussion should be had according to Scripture.
Someday, when Jesus returns personally and visibly to the Earth and the dead rise and the judgment takes place, all of your questions about the end times will be answered.
R. Dwain Minor
[1] Daniel Scheiderer, Still Confessing: An Exposition of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Founders Press, Pp. 126-127.