Getting Into Macro-Eschatology
Last Sunday I introduced something I called “macro-eschatology.” Macro-eschatology is an approach to redemptive history that sees the end of things (eschatology) as fulfilling, restoring, and superseding the beginning of things (protology). At the center of this approach to reading the Bible is the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who stands at the center of God’s plan to unite all things in creation. As Ephesians 1:9–10 tell us, Christ is the one who will unite heaven and earth, as it was always planned and purposed.
Accordingly, if we are going to develop a biblical eschatology, it must begin with a biblical protology, for the new creation will be patterned after the first creation. Yet, we cannot discern that new creation without a sufficient grasp of the first creation. Pursuing that end, macro-eschatology begins by following the patterns found in Genesis 1–11 (e.g., marriage, Eden, the tree of life, etc.). Then, with those types pointing us in the right direction, we can trace the story of the Bible all the way to Christ and the new creation.
In other words, eschatology “by the Book” does more than just look at individual passages of Scripture; it also reads the Bible on its own terms and allows the whole Bible to inform our eschatology. Without denying doctrinal questions related to the return of Christ and the meaning of the millennium, this approach prioritizes themes that repeat in Scripture. Indeed, if the final goal of the world is a new creation, then it makes the most sense to start with the first creation.
Seeing the World God Made
As I shared in the Sunday School class, a good place to begin is by observing a fivefold pattern that starts with (1) God creating (2) man in his image, before Adam (3) sinned and God responded with (4) judgment and (5) salvation. In Warren Gage’s insightful book, The Gospel of Genesis, he identified these five themes in the creation story of Genesis 1–7, which repeated in a new creation story in Genesis 8–11. Following his lead, we can see more clearly the macro-structure of redemptive history, as outlined in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: The History of the World [1]
Five Worlds
Building from Warren Gage’s observations in Genesis 1–11, we can go further to see the way God created multiple worlds. That is to say, the “very good” world that God made in Genesis 1 is radically changed by sin. No longer does man have the chance to ascend the hill of the Lord by keeping the original covenant (the covenant of works or the covenant with Adam). Instead, when Adam sinned he invited death to permeate the whole of creation (see Rom. 8:20–21).
Likewise, some two millennia after Adam, the fallen world is remade again. As God destroys the first world in the flood, he creates a new world, which appears to have a place (sheol) that was not present in the first creation. Perhaps, God prepared this place after Adam’s fall, but on the basis of New Testament testimony, but there is no such record. Instead, on the basis of three New Testament texts, I am inclined to see the formation of sheol as tied to the judgement of the flood. (Even as this leaves a question as to what happened to the souls of the dead before sheol).
Here are the three key tests. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus speaks of eternal fires being prepared for Satan and his angels. The language of prepared is different than create, and the need for this place of judgment comes after Satan and his angels sinned. If, as I read Genesis 6, the angels sinned by consorting with women and God judged the world in response, it is likely that the fall of Satan and the fall of angels occurred at different times—the first in Genesis 3, the next reported in Genesis 6.
Adding weight to this reading, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 both describe the way God judged angels who sinned, by leaving their proper abode.
In both texts, there is affirmed a temporary judgment upon the angels until the final judgment comes. Likewise, Peter names the place (tartarus, not hell) and Jude affirms the chains under gloomy darkness to suggest a subterranean place of holding. This fits with doctrine of sheol in the Old Testament. Put together, we have reason to see sheol as being formed by God in response to the sin of the angels at a time coordinate with the flood.
At the same time, the world after the flood is preserved by God in a way distinct from before the flood. In Genesis 9 Noah becomes a new Adam, but also, he is given a “new” covenant. In this covenant with creation, God promised to never flood it again with water (see Gen. 9:8–17). This is the world that stood for another two millennia—from the days of Noah until the “days of Noah” returned (Matt. 24:37), as Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension remade the world again.
Indeed, the world that carries the story of redemption from Noah to Jesus is no longer with us. Rather, when Christ ascended to heaven, he purified God’s temple made without hands (Heb. 9:24–26), as he threw down Satan (Revelation 12) and a made place for his saints to dwell with him (Ps. 68:18; Heb. 12:22–24). In this way, the finished work of Christ perfected heaven, by removing everything unclean, and it “emptied” sheol by bringing all the saints dwelling in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23) into glory.
As a result, the world put under Christ’s feet (Eph. 1:22–23) is not the same as it was when Noah stepped off the ark or when John the Baptist stepped into the Jordan River. That world saw God’s righteous saints die and go to sheol, where they were “gathered to their people” (see e.g., Gen. 25:8; 35:29; 49:29, 33; Num 20:24, 26; 27:13; 31:2; Deut. 32:50) or “their fathers” (Judg. 2:10; 2 Kgs 22:20). But when Christ died for his people and brought the spirits of the righteous made perfect to heaven, the world changed—heaven was cleansed, sheol was emptied (at least, partly), and all of the conflict between the righteous and the wicked came to the earth, animated by the local presence of Satan (1 Pet. 5:8).
This fourth world is the one we inhabit. Yet, we often do not appreciate the differences between Worlds 1–3 and our own world. Most often, we know that we live in a fallen world, and we know that one day a new world is coming. But rarely, do we consider how this fallen world has been remade twice, even as it awaits one final restoration, as God in Christ regenerates all things (cf. Matthew 19:28).
Remarkably, that forthcoming new creation has already begun in this age, but it is has not been completed. That consummation of the new creation is what will commence when Christ returns and separates once-and-for-all the righteous and the wicked (see Matt. 25:41–46). After all, this was the plan from the beginning. And by studying the protology of Genesis 1–11, it helps us understand eschatology as the Bible (and the cosmos) presents it.
Therefore, take time to review Figure 2 and the five stages of world history.[2] For if we are going to understand and appreciate the new creation that is already (2 Cor. 5:17) and not yet (Rev. 21:1–22:5), then we must consider how God made the world in the first place, how he has remade it on more than one occasion, and how he is even now bringing his new creation (the age to come) into his old creation (this age).
As argued in Sunday School and as I am explaining here, this macro-eschatology gives us confidence in what God has done, is doing, and will do. And more, it shows us how our Creator is working all things in this fallen world to bring about a new world without sin, death, or evil. Truly, that is good news. And it is worth our time to study the Bible’s protology to better understand our own eschatology.
Fig. 2: The Five Stages of World History
On Sunday, we will take another step to see more of what I’m calling Macro-Eschatology. And next week, on the blog, I’ll add more, too. Lord willing.
For His Glory and your joy in Christ,
Pastor David
[1] Warren Gage, The Gospel of Genesis, 16. Everything on this chart is from the original, except the last section. Gage’s view of history only sees two worlds, maybe three (if a new world comes after the final judgment). As I will show below, it is better to see the second world as terminating at the time of Christ in his ascension, not in the final judgment, as Gage has it. Gage’s proposal gets Genesis 1–11 correct, but misses the cosmic effects of Christ’s exaltation.
[2] In Sunday School, I listed four worlds, because I did not account for the first world—the world described in Genesis 1–2.
Accordingly, if we are going to develop a biblical eschatology, it must begin with a biblical protology, for the new creation will be patterned after the first creation. Yet, we cannot discern that new creation without a sufficient grasp of the first creation. Pursuing that end, macro-eschatology begins by following the patterns found in Genesis 1–11 (e.g., marriage, Eden, the tree of life, etc.). Then, with those types pointing us in the right direction, we can trace the story of the Bible all the way to Christ and the new creation.
In other words, eschatology “by the Book” does more than just look at individual passages of Scripture; it also reads the Bible on its own terms and allows the whole Bible to inform our eschatology. Without denying doctrinal questions related to the return of Christ and the meaning of the millennium, this approach prioritizes themes that repeat in Scripture. Indeed, if the final goal of the world is a new creation, then it makes the most sense to start with the first creation.
Seeing the World God Made
As I shared in the Sunday School class, a good place to begin is by observing a fivefold pattern that starts with (1) God creating (2) man in his image, before Adam (3) sinned and God responded with (4) judgment and (5) salvation. In Warren Gage’s insightful book, The Gospel of Genesis, he identified these five themes in the creation story of Genesis 1–7, which repeated in a new creation story in Genesis 8–11. Following his lead, we can see more clearly the macro-structure of redemptive history, as outlined in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: The History of the World [1]
| GENESIS 1–7 | GENESIS 8–11 > GENESIS 12 . . . |
| CREATION 1. Waters of chaos cover the earth, Gen 1:1–2 2. Spirit hovers upon face of the waters, Gen 1:2 3. Dry land emerges, vegetation brought forth, Gen 1:12 4. Old world finished, God rests, Gen 2:2 | THE NEW CREATION 1. Waters of Noah cover the earth, Gen 7:18–19 2. Dove “hovers” upon face of the waters, Gen 8:9 3. Olive leaf betokens emergence of dry land, Gen 8:11 4. Present world finished; God receives sacrifice of rest, Gen 8:21 |
| ADAM 1. Man commissioned in God’s image, Gen 1:26 2. Man commanded to fill the earth, Gen 1:28 3. God brings animals to Adam for naming, Gen 2:19 | NOAH, THE NEW ADAM 1. Man recommissioned in God’s image, Gen 9:6 2. Man commanded to fill the earth again, Gen 9:7 3. God brings animals to Noah for delivering, Gen 7:15 |
| The World That Was — FALL 1. Adam sins in a garden, Gen 3:2 2. Adam partakes of fruit of knowledge, Gen 3:6 3. Adam shamefully naked, Gen 3:7 4. Adam’s nakedness covered by God, Gen 3:21 5. Adam’s sin brings curse upon seed, Gen 3:15 | The World That Now Is — THE FALL RENEWED 1. Noah sins in a vineyard, Gen 9:20 2. Noah partakes of fruit of vine, Gen 9:20 3. Noah shamefully naked, Gen 9:21 4. Noah’s nakedness covered by sons, Gen 9:23 5. Noah’s sin brings curse upon seed, Gen 9:25 |
| CONFLICT OF SEED 1. Cain, condemned to wander, founds wicked city of Enoch, Gen 4:17 2. Seth, with son Enosh, begins to call upon Name of LORD, Gen 4:26 3. Daughters of man taken to wife by sons of God, Gen 6:2 | SEED CONFLICT RENEWED 1. Noah’s sons, to avoid wandering, found wicked city of Babel, Gen 11:4 2. Shem’s descendant Abram begins to call upon Name of LORD, Gen 12:8 3. The harlot Babel seduces the sons of Zion throughout the ages, cf. Dan 1:1; Isa 47:1–15; Rev 17–18 |
| SALVATION THRU JUDGMENT — GENESIS 6–7 1. God raises up Noah to save his family, Gen 6:9 2. God makes a covenant with Noah to bless his offspring, Gen. 6:18 3. God floods the earth, but preserves a remnant, 1 Pet. 3:21 4. The old world passes away before a new world comes, 2 Pet 3:5–7 | SALVATION THRU JUDGMENT 1. God raises up Abraham to save the world, Gen 12:3 2. God makes a covenant with Abraham to bless his offspring, Gen 22:18 3. God begins a long history of judgments and salvations for Israel, until Christ comes 4. When Christ dies and rises to heaven, the old world passes away as a new world is founded |
Five Worlds
Building from Warren Gage’s observations in Genesis 1–11, we can go further to see the way God created multiple worlds. That is to say, the “very good” world that God made in Genesis 1 is radically changed by sin. No longer does man have the chance to ascend the hill of the Lord by keeping the original covenant (the covenant of works or the covenant with Adam). Instead, when Adam sinned he invited death to permeate the whole of creation (see Rom. 8:20–21).
Likewise, some two millennia after Adam, the fallen world is remade again. As God destroys the first world in the flood, he creates a new world, which appears to have a place (sheol) that was not present in the first creation. Perhaps, God prepared this place after Adam’s fall, but on the basis of New Testament testimony, but there is no such record. Instead, on the basis of three New Testament texts, I am inclined to see the formation of sheol as tied to the judgement of the flood. (Even as this leaves a question as to what happened to the souls of the dead before sheol).
Here are the three key tests. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus speaks of eternal fires being prepared for Satan and his angels. The language of prepared is different than create, and the need for this place of judgment comes after Satan and his angels sinned. If, as I read Genesis 6, the angels sinned by consorting with women and God judged the world in response, it is likely that the fall of Satan and the fall of angels occurred at different times—the first in Genesis 3, the next reported in Genesis 6.
Adding weight to this reading, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 both describe the way God judged angels who sinned, by leaving their proper abode.
2 Peter 2:4. “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell (tartarus) and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; . . .”
Jude 6. “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day . . .”
Jude 6. “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day . . .”
In both texts, there is affirmed a temporary judgment upon the angels until the final judgment comes. Likewise, Peter names the place (tartarus, not hell) and Jude affirms the chains under gloomy darkness to suggest a subterranean place of holding. This fits with doctrine of sheol in the Old Testament. Put together, we have reason to see sheol as being formed by God in response to the sin of the angels at a time coordinate with the flood.
At the same time, the world after the flood is preserved by God in a way distinct from before the flood. In Genesis 9 Noah becomes a new Adam, but also, he is given a “new” covenant. In this covenant with creation, God promised to never flood it again with water (see Gen. 9:8–17). This is the world that stood for another two millennia—from the days of Noah until the “days of Noah” returned (Matt. 24:37), as Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension remade the world again.
Indeed, the world that carries the story of redemption from Noah to Jesus is no longer with us. Rather, when Christ ascended to heaven, he purified God’s temple made without hands (Heb. 9:24–26), as he threw down Satan (Revelation 12) and a made place for his saints to dwell with him (Ps. 68:18; Heb. 12:22–24). In this way, the finished work of Christ perfected heaven, by removing everything unclean, and it “emptied” sheol by bringing all the saints dwelling in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23) into glory.
As a result, the world put under Christ’s feet (Eph. 1:22–23) is not the same as it was when Noah stepped off the ark or when John the Baptist stepped into the Jordan River. That world saw God’s righteous saints die and go to sheol, where they were “gathered to their people” (see e.g., Gen. 25:8; 35:29; 49:29, 33; Num 20:24, 26; 27:13; 31:2; Deut. 32:50) or “their fathers” (Judg. 2:10; 2 Kgs 22:20). But when Christ died for his people and brought the spirits of the righteous made perfect to heaven, the world changed—heaven was cleansed, sheol was emptied (at least, partly), and all of the conflict between the righteous and the wicked came to the earth, animated by the local presence of Satan (1 Pet. 5:8).
This fourth world is the one we inhabit. Yet, we often do not appreciate the differences between Worlds 1–3 and our own world. Most often, we know that we live in a fallen world, and we know that one day a new world is coming. But rarely, do we consider how this fallen world has been remade twice, even as it awaits one final restoration, as God in Christ regenerates all things (cf. Matthew 19:28).
Remarkably, that forthcoming new creation has already begun in this age, but it is has not been completed. That consummation of the new creation is what will commence when Christ returns and separates once-and-for-all the righteous and the wicked (see Matt. 25:41–46). After all, this was the plan from the beginning. And by studying the protology of Genesis 1–11, it helps us understand eschatology as the Bible (and the cosmos) presents it.
Therefore, take time to review Figure 2 and the five stages of world history.[2] For if we are going to understand and appreciate the new creation that is already (2 Cor. 5:17) and not yet (Rev. 21:1–22:5), then we must consider how God made the world in the first place, how he has remade it on more than one occasion, and how he is even now bringing his new creation (the age to come) into his old creation (this age).
As argued in Sunday School and as I am explaining here, this macro-eschatology gives us confidence in what God has done, is doing, and will do. And more, it shows us how our Creator is working all things in this fallen world to bring about a new world without sin, death, or evil. Truly, that is good news. And it is worth our time to study the Bible’s protology to better understand our own eschatology.
Fig. 2: The Five Stages of World History
| First World Genesis 1–2 | World 2 Genesis 3–7 | World 3 Genesis 8–Acts 1 | World 4 Acts 2–Revelation 21 | New World Revelation 21–22 | |
| Heaven | Holy God Holy Angels _ _ _ _ _ _ Very Good Original Man Wholly Upright | Holy + Defiled God Satan Divided Angels | Holy + Defiled God Satan Divided Angels | Holy God Holy Angels Righteous Saints | Perfect God Holy Angels United in Christ Very Good Glorified Man Wholly Upright |
| Earth | In Conflict Righteous Wicked | In Conflict Righteous Wicked | In Conflict Righteous Wicked Satan | ||
| Under the Earth | No Sheol! | Sheol?? | Sheol! Unclean Spirits Righteous Man Wicked Man | Sheol (Emptied) Unclean Spirits Wicked Man | Hell Satan Unclean Spirits Wicked Man |
On Sunday, we will take another step to see more of what I’m calling Macro-Eschatology. And next week, on the blog, I’ll add more, too. Lord willing.
For His Glory and your joy in Christ,
Pastor David
[1] Warren Gage, The Gospel of Genesis, 16. Everything on this chart is from the original, except the last section. Gage’s view of history only sees two worlds, maybe three (if a new world comes after the final judgment). As I will show below, it is better to see the second world as terminating at the time of Christ in his ascension, not in the final judgment, as Gage has it. Gage’s proposal gets Genesis 1–11 correct, but misses the cosmic effects of Christ’s exaltation.
[2] In Sunday School, I listed four worlds, because I did not account for the first world—the world described in Genesis 1–2.
Posted in Sunday school
Recent
Archive
2026
January
February
March
April
2025
January
April
August
September
November
2024
April
May
August
November
2023
February
September
2022
February
April
September
2021
August
September