Why does Eschatology divide the Church into 3 camps

prophesy and parables are two different forms of spoken word.

A parable is symbolic, you must find the symbolism

prophesy is to be taken literally, or we can consider the prophet to be a false prophet, and not from God.

however, prophesy can use symbols to represent literal events or people. yet those people and events literally take place.

ie, in the prophesy of daniel. Babylon and nebachandezzer were a literal kingdom and literal king represented by a head of god, and a lion.

you did not take the head of gold and symboically interpret it to mean some spiritual thing which never actually occured, You interpret who or what the symbol represents.

The same shoudl be used for revelations. which is a prophetic book, Many people classify it as the NT daniel.

Rev 14:
14I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of manbwith a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

17Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”19The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.c

Please don't wait for this event coz no one will be riding a cloud holding a sharp sickle unless you are a grape.

So you don't believe that Jesus literally ascended into heaven?

Where is heaven? and what business does He have with grapes?

After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
Acts of the Apostles 1:9‭-‬11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.1.9-11.NLT

Jesus had to go/disappear in one way or another but real heaven is in the hearts of believers right here on earth.

Heb 12:
18You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”c 21The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”d

22But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Were this people being addressed in space or right here on earth?

And Jesus told the disciples that He was coming into them:

John 14:15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will bec in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

A lot of nice people here have different views... as we often find.

I'm just going to address the issue of perspective.


Perspectives & Priorities:


1. I think hornetguy was just making the point we shouldn't be fighting over this, because there are more crucial issues to worry about.


2. I agree completely with what I believe he meant... but I think there's a need to discuss some priorities and distinctions.


3. The study of eschatology "does matter" when put into contexts where it matters:
A. It's not as important as salvation
B. It's not as important as witnessing to the lost
C. It's not as important as some of the fundamentals of the faith: like the trinity, and the virgin birth.
C. It's not as important as basic issues of character and daily living.
D. But it is important as part of learning doctrine, and we are commanded to study and teach doctrine.


4. Since eschatology is not a matter of salvation, or of our daily walk, but it IS a matter of doctrine which needs to be learned and taught... then how should we deal with differences between brethren?

Hmmm.


5. Where I would draw the lines:

A. It would seem reasonable that in matters of evangelism, rudimentary doctrines of the faith, daily living, and basic counseling, the matter of eschatology isn't much of an issue. So we should be able to have peaceable fellowship, and even do some rudimentary types of ministry, with people of different eschatological views.

B. But since eschatology IS a part of our doctrinal beliefs, then when we are dealing heavily with doctrinal issues, then these different views are going to be a problem. So in areas of ministry where we're doing deep bible study, and heavy doctrinal teaching, we aren't going to be able to work together. Since individual churches need to be unified in their beliefs, and they also need to do deep doctrinal study and teaching... it's reasonable for a church to take a hard stand on it's eschatology.

C. Personally, I do have good fellowship with believers of differing eschatologies, but it isn't possible to do certain kinds of ministry with them, such as deep study or teaching of doctrine.

So, I do find it reasonable for individual churches to divide over this... as you can't have these huge differences within your local church.

But, there is no reason we have to divide angrily, and act like enemies.


6. Plumbers and eschatology.

A. If you're a plumber, and I don't like the way you fix toilets, I may love you to death... but I don't want you working on my toilet.

B. If you're a Bible teacher and I don't like the way to teach eschatology, I may love you to death... but I don't want you teaching the bible at my particular church, to my family.

I think this is perfectly reasonable.

We can love people we disagree with.
But sometimes disagreement affects the capacity in which we can work together.
I think this is reasonable.

We don't want our toilets backed up.
And a local church with too many doctrinal disagreements under one roof... is kinda like a backed up toilet.



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again be careful, Eschatology concerns end times events, which are prophetic in nature, They should not be given symbolic interpretations.

As john said, he write revelations to show us things which was going to take place. these are literal events, while yes, symbols are used to try to convey these events, They are literal things which will happen.

The beast is a literal person, The false prophet is a literal person. he child is a literal nation, Her offspring are literal people. What we must do is determine who these people are,

Beast is a literal person is an oxymoron.
Does this literal person have seven heads with ten horns each having a crown?

What is your question?

Are you saying you don't believe Jesus literally ascended into heaven in a cloud?

Prophecy has always been that way. Even before Jesus came. How could they have possibly understood where it said Jesus was to come from three different places? And there were arguments about that. Because even in the OT, after Jesus came and was here, one teacher said - no prophet comes from Nazareth, search the scriptures for yourself!!

You KNOW one of their arguments was over which of the 3 places He would come from! And yet, He managed to come from all three! And so it happened just as the prophets said! But I can hear their arguments: no, the verse about Egypt is not concerning that future time - no the verse about Nazareth has to do with a past event - no, the verse on Bethlehem was regarding king so and so - no, you are all wrong, none of those verses have to do with Messiah. etc.

I had no question really, I was just amazed you came up with that in the passages you referenced.

Maybe you can expound further as to why you think that?

That's fine.
But they don't teach the Holy Spirit is not God. If it helps to think of them as three separate entities, fine. But to say one of them is not God, there is a problem. No one teaches that they are not God.

So, there is a verse that says God is Spirit. The Holy Spirit Jesus said He would send is the same Spirit mentioned in that previous verse.

That was different. They were being taught by someone that Jesus had already come back and they had missed Him!

And those would be the symbols used in prophecy that EG was talking about...of course no one thinks Jesus is coming because He wants grapes! But it's prophecy. The event will actually happen, it's just that the grapes are people.

It is pretty obvious that they were dominionists because they had spiritual gifts and not waiting for the new era of Christ's reign.