In Jeff Purswell’s message at Next 2010, “The End Times,” he made an important point about the focus of eschatology. When studying the end times, we are easily distracted from the grand purpose of it all: the revelation of Jesus Christ. Or to say it another way, eschatology is emphatically Christ-centered.

Jeff said it like this:

When the New Testament deals with eschatology, it is much more concerned with the last One than the last things. The early church looked not so much for a succession of events as they did for the arrival of a person. It was very personal for persecuted Christians. It should be very personal for us as well.

Let me put this in theological terms: eschatology is thoroughly Christological. It’s about Jesus. Christ’s return is like the hub of a wheel, and all the other stuff is like spokes coming off that wheel. And they only have meaning relative to the hub, relative to Christ’s return.

That’s not our normal tendency when it comes to this topic. Our tendency is to be fascinated with times and seasons and charts and graphs, the events of the end, the when and the how.

The Bible is primarily concerned with the Who. When the last One arrives, the succession of events will matter little.

You can download Jeff's message (“The End Times”) from the Next website.