What This Church Believes About the Last Things

A summary of the dominant eschatological themes from this pulpit — not speculation about timelines, but the sturdy, irreversible things the Bible keeps returning to.

The Physical Return of Christ Is Non-Negotiable

Start here, because everything else depends on it. The Statement of Faith is direct: 'Jesus Christ will return to the earth in power and glory as Judge and King; Christ's personal, physical, and visible return is the blessed hope of all who trust in him.' ^[SF] This is not one option among several. As this pulpit has said plainly, 'the most important thing that every single eschatology has to understand' is the necessity of 'the physical return of Christ and the physical resurrection of the dead.' ^[9] Different eschatological systems can debate timing. They cannot negotiate away the bodily return.

And that return is something the Christian is supposed to *want*. Philippians 3:20 says, 'our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.' ^[4] The NASB and NIV read 'eagerly await.' ^[4] One mark of genuine faith, from this pulpit, is that the Christian hears Christ described as returning and says, 'Yes — come, Lord Jesus.' ^[4] If something is dampening that desire, it is worth examining what it is. It could be a sign that we are 'not fully enjoying all the benefits of being on Christ's side.' ^[4]

The Resurrection Body Is Physical — and That Is the Point

Christianity is not a religion that escapes the body — it redeems it. As one sermon puts it, 'Christianity is unique among most of the world's religions in that it has a high view of the human body, of the human form. The flesh isn't inherently evil... When you die, when you go to heaven, when Christ returns, you're not going to cease to have a body. You're going to have a new resurrected body because the body, the physical, is good. God created it for us to glorify him.' ^[11] The Statement of Faith says the same: 'when the dead in Christ are raised, their perishable bodies will be redeemed and made like Christ's imperishable, glorious body.' ^[SF]

This is what theologians call glorification — and it is the last step in God's saving work. 'The very last step in the order of salvation is that God comes, Christ comes to us, raises us from the dead and gives us new bodies that are not only without sin, but without any limitations that the curse had previously levied.' ^[9] The practical implications reach into everything. Our feelings will be 'right — they'll just be right.' ^[7] There will 'never be a gap between facts and my feelings.' ^[7] That is the upgrade that waits on the other side of Christ's return. 'God has a commitment to physicality,' ^[5] and resurrection is its fullest expression.

Even now, 'death for the Christian has become a doorway to paradise, where our souls enter immediately into God's presence.' ^[SF] Intermediate state and final resurrection are not the same thing. The soul is with Christ at death. The body is reunited at the last day. Both matter — because God made both.

The End Is a New Creation, Not an Escape from Creation

One of the most consistent corrections from this pulpit concerns what we mean by 'heaven.' If you are picturing a disembodied existence — souls floating on clouds — 'you're just missing what the Bible actually teaches about heaven. Heaven is a new created reality. It's referred to as the new heavens and the new earth. You will have a physical body prepared explicitly for the sake of enjoying God and God's gifts forever.' ^[12] The destination Scripture actually describes is not an exit from the material world but its total renewal.

This means the earth is not being abandoned. One sermon quotes a scholar's observation that 'the word burned up in that passage of Scripture does not appear that way in the early Greek manuscripts' — the actual Greek conveys the idea of being 'uncovered or laid open for exposure.' ^[1] The conclusion: 'Peter is not talking about destroying the earth, but rather about purifying it. The basic materials of the earth's structure will not be annihilated. They will undergo tremendous processes of disintegration... Then God will once more exercise his creative power and will create and make the new heavens and the new earth.' ^[1] Renewal, not annihilation.

The theological anchor for this is the cross itself. 'When Jesus says it is finished in John 19, he means that he has done all of the work necessary to unleash the power of God into this world, so that it transforms from one degree of glory to the next, until the day will come when we stand before him in a world completely perfected by the very blood shed on the cross of Jesus Christ.' ^[3] The fruit of Good Friday 'is still blooming to this day, and it will keep blooming.' ^[3] This is not optimism manufactured from thin air — it is what the cross actually accomplished.

The New Creation Means the Presence of God — and That Changes Everything

Revelation 21 is the text this pulpit keeps returning to, and it is worth reading slowly: 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' ^[1][2][3] The new creation is not primarily defined by what is absent — sorrow, suffering, death — though all of those will be banished. ^[SF] It is defined by what is present: God himself, dwelling with his people without obstruction.

That presence is what makes the new creation safe from the corruption that wrecked the first one. Consider this: 'The presence of God will dominate the new heavens and the new earth. And there will also be food and buildings and people and treasure and sports and all sorts of other things. How will those things not consume us and become sins and idols? Because the special presence of God dominates the landscape and we never lose our bearings. Ever again. Because his glory is so undeniably there that we would never again be tempted to worship any of these lesser things.' ^[13] Unhindered communion with God is not a reward that adds one more feature. It is the structural reality that makes every other good thing finally safe to enjoy.

The Kingdom Is Already Inaugurated — the Consummation Is Still Coming

This church holds what can be called a 'last days' theology that refuses two errors simultaneously. On one side, it resists the popular prophecy-chart approach that treats all end-times language as future prediction still to be fulfilled. The early church 'did not think that they were living in the moment immediately hinged upon the final consummation, the final return of Christ. They did think they were living in the last days. Those are two different things.' ^[8] On the other side, it resists any reading that collapses the future into the present, as though the kingdom is simply what the church does with social improvement.

The better category comes from Anthony Hoekema's definition, quoted from this pulpit: 'The Kingdom of God is to be understood as the reign of God, dynamically active in human history through Jesus Christ, the purpose of which is the redemption of his people from sin and from demonic powers and the final establishment of the new heavens and the new earth... the great drama of the history of salvation has been inaugurated already, and the new age has been ushered in.' ^[14] The kingdom is not 'man's upward climb to perfection, but God's breaking into human history to establish his reign and to advance his purposes.' ^[14] Already real. Not yet complete.

And this matters for endurance. Peter's first letter is framed around Jesus's return: 'He's bringing the new heavens and the new earth as it were on his back on his return. He brings the final tabernacle into the earth, the place where God and man will dwell together forever.' ^[6] The question Jesus himself asked — 'When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith?' ^[6] — is not abstract. It is the question that puts steel in the spine of ordinary Christian living. We are between the first installment and the final one. That is where we live.

There Are Two Eternal Destinations — and the Line Is Drawn Now

The new creation is not open to everyone. Revelation 21 is luminous and terrible at the same time. 'The one who conquers will have this heritage. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.' ^[1][3] The Statement of Faith does not soften this: 'at the end of the age the just and the unjust will be raised.' ^[SF] Both raised. Different destinies.

This is why the appeal is urgent. 'If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, if Jesus has applied his righteousness to your soul, if his cross work has been your only hope for salvation, the day is coming when he will wipe every tear and every ounce of pain from your body. He will make you new.' ^[2] That promise is for the one who has come to Christ. And 'those given new life in Christ without any of their own merit through grace, they will receive a body prepared for eternal celebration and jubilation in Christ.' ^[5] Grace is the operative word. The inheritance is real — but it is received, not earned.

This page synthesizes what Chris Oswald has preached on eschatology at Providence Community Church. Every claim above traces to the cited sermons — follow any citation to read the full sermon, listen to the audio, and see the surrounding context. Minute marks are approximate, estimated from each sermon's transcript.