What is our Hope if Prophesy has been Fulfilled?

WHAT IS OUR HOPE IF PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED?

One of the most sincere questions I have heard since embracing fulfilled eschatology is this: If the prophecies concerning the coming of Christ have been fulfilled, what are we hoping for now? Or, what’s next??

For many Christians, myself included for many years, our hope was closely connected to a future return of Jesus. And six everything. We believed there would come a day when Christ would descend from heaven, put an end to the present order of things, defeat evil, and finally make everything right. No matter how dark the world became, we could look toward the sky and say, “Jesus is coming.”

So when someone begins to see the time statements of Scripture differently, that change can be unsettling. If Jesus really meant that generation, if soon really meant soon, if at hand really meant at hand, and if the judgment and coming described in those passages were fulfilled in the first century, an honest question naturally follows:

Then what are we looking forward to? Where is our hope?

I understand that question because fulfilled eschatology changes more than our interpretation of Matthew 24 or Revelation. It changes the story we have been telling ourselves about where history is going.

But I have come to believe something beautiful.

Fulfilled eschatology did not take away my hope. It changed my understanding of what my hope is.

WE WERE TAUGHT TO HOPE FOR AN END

Many of us were raised with an eschatology centered on the ending of the world. We heard that conditions would continually deteriorate, deception would increase, wars would intensify, the Antichrist would arise, a great tribulation would engulf the earth, and eventually Jesus would return to rescue His people.

We were fed this, most likely, innocently.

Because of that framework, we often interpreted bad news as evidence that prophecy was unfolding before our eyes. Wars, earthquakes, political turmoil, economic problems and moral decline could all become signs that the end must be getting close. Our hope therefore became attached to an escape from history.

But what if the gospel presents something different?

What if Jesus did not establish a kingdom destined to lose ground until He returned to rescue it?

What if He established a kingdom that cannot be destroyed?

Daniel saw such a kingdom long before Christ came:

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.

Daniel 2:44

Notice what Daniel did not say. He did not say God would establish a temporary kingdom that would struggle for a few thousand years until evil overwhelmed it. He saw a kingdom that would never be destroyed. That kingdom arrived in Christ.

JESUS DID NOT FAIL TO ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM

Jesus began His ministry announcing that something Israel had been waiting for was arriving.

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Mark 1:15

Jesus was not announcing a kingdom that would be postponed for thousands of years. He said the time was fulfilled and the kingdom was at hand.

That kingdom did not come through armies, borders or earthly political power. Jesus said:

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Luke 17:20-21

The kingdom was fundamentally different from the kingdoms of men. This means our hope should not be built around waiting for Jesus to someday establish what Scripture says He has already established. We are not waiting for Christ to become King.

Christ is King. We are not waiting for His kingdom to begin. His kingdom is here. And we are not waiting for Christ to receive authority. Jesus declared after His resurrection:

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:18

That changes the way we look at the future:

FULFILLMENT IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY

Sometimes people hear “fulfilled prophecy” and think we are saying everything is finished and there is nothing left for believers to anticipate. That is not what I believe at all.

Fulfilled does not mean finished living! Think about that.

It means God’s redemptive promises concerning the transition from the Old Covenant age into the New Covenant age reached their intended fulfillment.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 was not the destruction of God’s kingdom. It publicly and decisively marked the passing away of the old covenantal world that had centered around the temple, priesthood and sacrificial system.

The writer of Hebrews said concerning that covenant:

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 8:13

When Hebrews was written, something was already old, decaying and ready to vanish away. What was coming was not the end of planet Earth. It was the full establishment of the New Covenant order. That means we are not living on the wrong side of God’s promises. We are living on the fulfilled side of them.

OUR HOPE IS CHRIST IN US

Paul wrote something that I believe deserves far more attention in this discussion:

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:27

Notice where Paul located hope. Christ in you. Christian hope was never ultimately supposed to be reduced to watching the sky. Our hope is Jesus Christ Himself and the life we possess in Him. We have been reconciled to God. We have been brought into His kingdom. We have received eternal life.

We live under the New Covenant. We have access to the Father. The veil has been removed. The kingdom has been established. Death has lost its covenantal dominion.

The question changes from, When will Jesus come and make everything right? to What does the reign of Jesus Christ mean for the world right now? That is not less hopeful. I believe it is enormously hopeful.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE STILL WRONG?

This is where the question becomes deeply personal:

Someone may say, “I understand the theology, but I can still see suffering. Children still die. Families still hurt. Wars still happen. Disease still exists. People still experience terrible injustice. If prophecy has been fulfilled, why isn’t everything perfect?”

Fulfilled eschatology does not require us to pretend suffering no longer exists.

The kingdom being present does not mean every human being automatically submits to the King. Jesus compared His kingdom to a mustard seed that grows.

He compared it to leaven working through dough.

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed.

Matthew 13:31

Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven.

Matthew 13:33

Both pictures describe something that begins and then spreads its influence. That gives me a very different outlook on history. Instead of believing darkness must ultimately overwhelm the world before Jesus intervenes, I can believe the gospel continues doing exactly what Jesus intended it to do.

It transforms people. Transformed people transform families. Transformed families affect communities. Communities affect cultures. And generation after generation, the knowledge of Christ continues spreading.

THE KINGDOM IS NOT RETREATING

Isaiah gave an extraordinary prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

Isaiah 9:7

I used to read prophecy primarily looking for the end. Now I notice Scripture talking about increase. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.

Think about the implications of that statement:

If Christ’s government continues increasing, then believers should not live as though Christianity is merely holding on until Jesus evacuates us. We have something to build for. We have children and grandchildren to teach. We have communities to serve. We have people to love. We have enemies to forgive. We have good news to proclaim. Yes!

We have broken lives to help restore. We have generations yet unborn who can know Christ. The future does not belong to fear. It belongs to the kingdom of God.

WHAT ABOUT DEATH?

This may be one of the most important parts of Christian hope:

Fulfilled eschatology does not mean death leaves us hopeless. Quite the opposite.

Jesus said:

I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

John 11:25

Our confidence beyond this earthly life rests in Christ.

Paul could say:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

And then:

Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.

Philippians 1:23

Paul’s hope was not annihilation. His confidence was being with Christ. That means the believer does not have to fear what lies beyond this life. Our life is in Christ now, and physical death cannot separate us from Him. That is gloom and doom, that is hope.

MAYBE WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

For years many of us were taught to look upward and ask, “How much longer?”

Maybe the gospel teaches us to look outward and ask:

How far can His kingdom go? Instead of asking when Jesus will come and fix everything, perhaps we should ask what the reigning Christ intends to accomplish through His people.

Jesus said:

Ye are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14

He did not tell His disciples that darkness was stronger than light. He told them they were the light.

Then He said:

A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Matthew 5:14

Christianity was never designed merely to survive history. It was designed to transform people within history.

I UNDERSTAND THE SADNESS

I also want to acknowledge something that theological discussions sometimes ignore.

Changing your eschatology can involve genuine grief. If you spent decades expecting a particular event and drawing comfort from the thought that Jesus might return during your lifetime, discovering a different interpretation can initially feel like something precious has been taken away.

That feeling should not be mocked. You built expectations around those promises because you loved Jesus. You wanted to see Him. You wanted suffering to end. You wanted justice. You wanted everything broken to finally be made right. Those desires are not wrong.

But perhaps we misunderstood how God’s kingdom accomplishes those things:

The answer to darkness has always been light. The answer to hatred is love. The answer to bondage is freedom. The answer to deception is truth. The answer to death is life.

And all of those things are found in Jesus Christ. Those positive things lives in us.

OUR HOPE DID NOT DISAPPEAR

I no longer believe the church is waiting helplessly for Jesus to return and rescue a kingdom that is failing. I believe Jesus succeeded. I believe He accomplished redemption. I believe He established His kingdom. I believe He defeated the powers that stood against His covenant purposes. I believe He brought His people into the New Covenant.

And I believe His kingdom continues advancing through the gospel.

Compare today to the centuries before us. Things are better now rather than then.

That gives me tremendous hope for tomorrow.

Our hope is not that Jesus will someday become victorious.

Our hope flows from the fact that He already is victorious.

Our hope is not that He will someday become King.

He is King now.

Our hope is not that someday we might enter His kingdom.

Paul said:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

Colossians 1:13

We have been translated into His kingdom. That is present reality.

SO WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

Maybe that is the wrong question. Perhaps we should be asking:

What are we here for? We are here to proclaim Christ. We are here to love people. We are here to raise generations who know the Lord. We are here to preach reconciliation. We are here to demonstrate mercy. We are here to bring light into darkness. We are here to participate in a kingdom whose increase has no end.

There are still hurting people to comfort. There are still hungry people to feed. There are still broken families to help. There are still people who have never understood the grace of God. There are still generations ahead of us. There is still an enormous world in which the gospel can work. That does not sound hopeless to me it sounds like we have only begun to understand the possibilities of Christ’s kingdom.

One of the most profound statements is THE KINGDOM DOES NOT HAVE TO WORK THROUGH A CHURCH ALONE. This present reality is saturating the world now through his presence.

THE HOPE OF THE BELIEVER

Fulfilled eschatology has not left us with nothing to look forward to. It has given us something to live for.

We can look toward tomorrow without believing tomorrow must necessarily be worse than today. We can plant trees whose shade we may never sit beneath. We can build churches for generations we will never meet. We can teach our children and grandchildren a gospel of victory rather than fear.

We can work for peace, justice, mercy and reconciliation because we believe the King actually reigns. We can face death without terror because our lives are already hidden with Christ. And we can wake up every morning knowing that we are participants in something much larger than ourselves.

Jesus Christ reigns. His kingdom is here. His gospel is still changing lives. His government and peace continue to increase. And when our earthly journey is finished, we will be with the Lord.

So what is our hope in light of fulfilled eschatology?

Christ is our hope. Not Christ someday. Christ now. Not a kingdom someday. His kingdom now. Working when you don't see it. Not eternal life someday. Eternal life in Him now. We do not have to spend our lives waiting for God’s plan to begin.

If we think that way, we make our death greater than His death. We do not have to wait, we have the inheritance now.

We have been invited to live in what Christ has already accomplished and carry the good news of His kingdom into every tomorrow God gives us.

That is not the loss of hope. That is hope fulfilled