The Holy Spirit and Eschatology

The Holy Spirit plays an important role in unlocking the meaning of eschatology in the New Testament. Interwoven in every major eschatological theme found in the Old Testament prophecy and consequently in the New Testament, we find explicit or implicit references to the eschatological Spirit. Therefore, we cannot overlook the role the Spirit in unlocking the meaning of passages associated with the endtime.

The Spirit played a key role during the absence of Christ, i.e. the pre-parousia reign of Christ. Nothing involving the endtime could be completed without the Spirit, hence the apostles were told to wait on his presence before beginning the preaching of the gospel.

The Prophecy of Joel

And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls." (Joel 2:28-32).

This prophecy pervades the entire New Testament. Thus, every hematological event in the New Testament must see Joel 2 as it's background. Understanding this enables a more thorough and complete view of end time passages.

During his ministry, John, the Baptist, quoted from Joel to warn the Judah of their impending fate. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (Matthew 3:11)

Depending on Judah's response to John's message of repentance, their fate would experience the blessings of the Spirit promised by Joel, or the wrath to be poured out upon the completion of the Spirit's ministry. The point here is that judgment upon Judah is intertwined to Holy Spirit.

Why is this the case? Because Joel promised that the Holy Spirit would be poured out until the great and awesome day of the Lord, the day of Judah's judgment.

Isaiah prophesied of this judgment saying that God would save a remnant in Israel. (Israel is now Judah since the cutting off of the 10 northern tribes by Assyria in 722 B.C.)

"And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy--everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning." (Isaiah 4:4, 5).

There is a clear correlation between Matthew 3:11 and Isaiah 4:3-4. Both mention Israel's baptism (washing or cleansing). Israel baptism was that of water and of the Spirit. (See on John 3:3-7). Compare also Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Then I will sprinkle clear water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all you filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will keep My judgments and do them."

The purging of the blood from the midst of Jerusalem and the daughters of Zion is God's vengeance upon the nation for shedding the innocent blood of the Christ, the apostles and the saints (Matthew 23:34-37). It was this fate of which John warned in the early part of his ministry.

It is the remnant in Jerusalem who survive. According to Edward J. Young, (Isaiah vol. 1), the phrases "he that is left in Zion," and "he that remains in Jerusalem" are those who have survived the judgment upon Israel in her last days during the when the Spirit was poured out. This role of the Holy Spirit continued until the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the time of the parousia of Christ, (1 Corinthians 1:7,8).

The work would be wrought by the Holy Spirit, not the general or ordinary judgments of God's providential dealings, but in the performing of a special, particular work of judgment. It is that of the last days judgment.

Young concludes, For the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom there is needed the positive work of the Messiah, the redemption of His people, but there is also needed the work of the Spirit in convincing the world of sin and judgment.

This work of the Spirit in judgment, applied by John the Baptist, to Judah's fate in their last days, consummated in the fall of the Jewish commonwealth and establishment of the eternal kingdom of the Messiah.

Check this page in the near future for more studies on the work of the Holy Spirit in the last days.