On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (08/26/20), Hank expresses his intent to start a series on the matter of eschatology, or as he calls it in his book The Apocalypse Code, exegetical eschatology. While this phrase may sound daunting, its meaning is easy to comprehend. Exegesis is the method by which we discover what biblical authors intended their original audiences to understand. The meaning of the word eschatology is just as simple—the study of end times. The purpose behind this series is not to entice you to embrace a particular model of eschatology, but rather to equip you to employ a proper method of biblical interpretation. Hank uses the illustration of the Left Behind series by the late Dr. Tim LaHaye to point out the error in LaHaye’s literalistic interpretation of Revelation. Hank gives another example of why it is transcendently important to rightly understand biblical eschatology—racial discrimination. A proper exegesis of biblical theology knows nothing of racism. According to Scripture, there is neither “Jew nor Greek.” Neither is there a distinction between Israel and the Church based on race. In sharp distinction, modern dispensationalism—the go-to eschatology of most evangelical Christians—divides people into two categories on the basis of race rather than relationship. The first class consists of Jews, while the second consists of Gentiles. In this view, twenty-first-century Jews will soon die in an Armageddon that will make the Nazi Holocaust pale by comparison. Far from facilitating race-based discrimination on the basis of our eschatological presuppositions, Christians must be equipped to communicate that Christianity knows nothing of dividing people on the basis of race.

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