Different Eschatological Schools

Eschatology, What Is That?

Eschatology¹ is a branch of theology that investigates how 'end' time events will occur.

Why Is It Relevant To This Subject?

To examine the question of The One People of God, we have to look at a number of competing schools of eschatology which hold different views about 'end' events. This activity on our part is necessary because views about the Church, cultural Israel, their relationship and their present status before God tend to be correlated with different views about end-time events (eschatologies).

What Different Eschatological Schools Exist?

To simplify matters we could say three main groupings exist: Preterism, Historicism, and Futurism (with variations within each).

Preterism claims that most of the book of The Revelation has already been fulfilled. Some within this group would even claim that Jesus returned in the judgement upon Jerusalem in AD 70. Doubtless, many will find Preterism to be an odd² view because most evangelicals at least, are steeped in some form of Futurism (see below).

Historicism, as the name might suggest, believes that much of Revelation was fulfilled over the centuries until the present time. Jesus is yet to come (as in Rev 21). Many of these folk are post-millennialists, that is, they believe that Jesus will come after the millennium (Rev 20.2, 4, 5, 6).

Futurism is probably better known than the other two and more popular (IMO). Futurists believe (as the name suggests) that most of The Revelation is yet to happen in a time future to our own. Jesus will return before  the millennium (hence, premillennialists) to set up a millennial kingdom.

Futurism is important for our study because it contains a strong faction within the tradition who can be called classical dispensationalists.

Classical Dispensationalism

Classical³ dispensationalism gets its name from its characteristic dividing of redemptive history into seven⁴ divine administrations (or 'dispensations'). 

Within dispensationalism is the conviction that a clear, demarcation line exists between the Church and ethnic Israel, and that God is pursuing two different agendas with each of these two distinct peoples.


That God in Christ came to redeem Israel but He was rejected at the national level by the people of Israel (Acts 2.22-23; 3.12-15; 4.10-11; 7.51-53; etc).

That God then put his plans for Israel 'on hold' and took up a new redemptive undertaking with any who would receive his Son, the Lord Jesus as King. Hence, a 'church age' ensued and continues to this day. 

However, most importantly, this 'church age' does not suggest that God has finished with national Israel: He has made unconditional promises to Abram/Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12.1-3; 15. 5-6, 7-11, 12-16, 17-21) and as surely as God is true to His Word He will keep these promises. Most importantly for us, classical dispensationalism is going to occupy our attention because it has a specific eschatology that drives a wedge between the Church and Israel while calling both of them 'the people of God'. We will have to examine whether classical dispensationalism can maintain this position in the face of the biblical evidence.

1. Eschatology is defined as 'the study of the end'. Eschaton in Greek means 'end' or 'last things'.
2. To gain a better understanding of Preterism we have to imagine being disciples of Christ before the overthrown and sacking of Jerusalem and see how many scriptures we now take to be yet future might have been understood by those then living.
3. More recent types of dispensationalism include: modified, and progressive dispensationalism which are to be distinguished from the classical dispensationalism which began in the 19th century.
4. Typically listed as: Innocence (pre-Fall), Conscience (Fall to Flood), Human Government (Flood to Abraham), Promise (Abram's call to Exodus), Law (Moses to Christ), Grace (the Church era), and the Kingdom (the Millennial period of 1,000 years).