Eschatology #1 - God of Judgment
About this sermon
In the opening eschatology class, Pastor Dean Odle establishes divine judgment as a foundational end-times doctrine. He begins with Peter’s teaching that the present creation is reserved for fire, then contrasts God’s patience with the certainty that the present age will end. Odle argues that biblical prophecy cannot be understood if God is reduced to unconditional affirmation or if judgment passages are treated as merely symbolic.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle begins the eschatology course by arguing that God’s character as judge must shape every study of the end times. Prophecy is not merely prediction; it announces a moral reckoning that requires repentance and sober preparation.
Reading 2 Peter 3, he highlights people who are willingly ignorant of creation, the flood, and the promised coming judgment. Odle says unbelief is often moral resistance to accountability rather than a simple lack of evidence.
Peter’s statement that the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire anchors Odle’s future view. He contrasts the former watery judgment with the fiery judgment expected at Christ’s return and rejects systems that dissolve the warning into metaphor.
Odle explains that God’s delay demonstrates patience and offers time to repent, not evidence that judgment will never arrive. Because the day of the Lord comes unexpectedly, believers should live in holiness rather than presumption.
The sermon reflects on humanity’s tendency to continue sinning whether punishment is immediate or delayed. Odle criticizes churches that celebrate while openly affirming conduct Scripture condemns, arguing that worship without repentance is self-deception.
From 1 Peter 4, Odle teaches that judgment begins at the house of God and that believers may suffer while doing right. The church must examine itself before announcing judgment on the wider world.
Noah’s generation illustrates prolonged warning followed by irreversible judgment. Odle emphasizes that human reasoning and ridicule did not change God’s word, and he calls modern hearers to respond before the appointed day arrives.
The flood traditions of many cultures and claimed archaeological evidence from Sodom and Gomorrah are cited as corroboration of biblical judgment. These historical and archaeological assertions reflect the speaker’s presentation and are not independently verified here.
Odle says the coming reckoning will encompass nations and the entire world, not only isolated cities. Current upheaval is placed within a longer biblical pattern in which God allows a season of rebellion before bringing it to an end.
The class closes by applying prophecy personally: humble yourself, turn from sin, and live as someone awaiting Christ. Knowledge of the end times is valuable only if it produces holiness, endurance, and readiness to meet the Judge.
Open each passage and read it in its complete biblical context.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:11
All right, good morning, everyone, and welcome our students this morning, Fire and Grace School of Ministry. We are now into our first classes of the second semester. And so this is block five, and this is eschatology class one. So eschatology class one. And hope everybody can hear, everything's going good out there. We'll give you a second, everything looks good. All right, anyway, we're gonna have, just got a couple of slides this morning, and then we're gonna get into the scriptures and go through this. This will be an introduction to eschatology. And so for those of you who may wonder what that big word is there, there it is, eschatology class one. It just means really kind of the study and the theology of final things. Here's the definition, eschatology noun. And here's the definition that says the branch of theology that is concerned with such final things as death and last judgment, heaven and hell, and the ultimate destiny of humankind or mankind. So let's read that again though, eschatology, the definition so you understand what this class is all about, branch of theology that is concerned with such final things as death, the last judgment, heaven and hell, and the ultimate destiny of mankind. So this is kind of this study of God, not only being a God of mercy and love and forgiveness, but also that He is a God of justice and judgment and that there is a final judgment to everything. There is a heaven, there is a hell, there is a final destiny of mankind. And so this class is going to touch on a little bit of everything. We're gonna mainly deal with Bible prophecy, how the end will come about, but this morning is an introduction. We're just gonna get into just the aspect of the balance of God's character, that He is both a God of love and mercy, and that He is also a God of judgment. He will not tolerate wickedness forever. So we're gonna start in a very familiar place this morning. So let's go to the Gospel of John chapter three, verse 16, John 3.16. So let's read this this morning. So there can be no doubts about how God feels about us, about mankind. He did create us in the beginning, made Adam and Eve, and then we'll get into more about that later, but He blessed them, put them in a wonderful place
- 0:03:12
in the Garden of Eden. And of course, He gave them some consequences though, if they disobeyed, if they sinned. And so again, even the Garden of Eden shows the balance. But let's read this, probably one of the most famous passages in the Bible. This is Jesus speaking. He said these words here for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I'll just read that again. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, not shall not, but should not perish, but have everlasting life. So just to point out again here, we're gonna look at the nature of God. Does God love everyone? Absolutely. He's loved every person that's ever been born. He loves the people that are alive right now, even the wicked. He loves all of us so much that He gave His only begotten Son. And of course, that whole revelation there is just mainly for us, but we know that the Bible says God became the Son. He became a man so that He could pay the price for our sins by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. So He has shown that He loves us. And so we're gonna go through a few scriptures about that. Let's go to, let's go to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five, just to establish this truth. And we'll start reading, oh, let's just start reading from verse one. So this is Romans five, verse one. It says, therefore, being justified or made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope and the glory of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory, my page turn here, we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation or trouble, trials, tests, work with patience and patience, experience and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which He has given to us. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet per adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God, verse eight there, but God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- 0:06:16
Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now, let's go over, I wanna look at another passage too. Let's go to 2 Peter, chapter three. And this is a good passage here to give the balance here. So we're gonna read, and I'll tell you what, we're just gonna read from verse one. We're just laying the foundation this morning. Again, God is a God of love, but also a God of judgment and justice or consequences, final consequences. And that's what we're talking about the word eschatology, meaning final things, final judgment. All right, so let's read this. This second epistle, beloved now, write I unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye be in mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. So there's always gonna be people who are not gonna believe that there's a final judgment, that there is an end, that there is a day of reckoning or consequences, that the God of love finally turns into the God of wrath and judgment where he is finally done with lukewarmness, sin, wickedness, lies and so forth. But let's keep going, verse five. He says, for this they willingly are ignorant that by the word of God the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. So he's talking about the judgment of Noah, that they should know. And we're gonna go back and look at that too in just a minute, but that mankind should know by the flood of Noah that happened, the judgment of God that he will not put up with unbridled wickedness in mankind forever, that he will judge. And that was one of the end things there, the flood was an ending of an era and the beginning of a new one. But anyway, he goes on, verse seven, but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition or the destruction of ungodly men. So here God says the heavens and the earth that are now are kept in store, they're being reserved and that there will be a final day of judgment and wrath
- 0:09:17
and the destruction of the ungodly men. And he particularly says it won't be by water this next time it's gonna be fire, all right? So again, the warning that there will be an end of things, eschatology, there will be a final judgment, there will be a reckoning day for the wicked. And this is what even most of Christianity wants to ignore now, the weak watered down, lukewarm, megachurch Christianity ignores this. Certainly everybody wants to talk about God being the God of love. And then you got all these fake Christians and all these United Nations people that oh, God is just love, it's all about love, it's all about social justice, it's all about helping your fellow man and blah, blah, blah and it doesn't matter what you believe about Jesus or the Bible or God, whatever God is to you and I mean there's all this stuff because mankind, and again mankind believes is believing the lie of Satan that all of this is gonna create this world peace and utopia and now because of transhumanism and the advances in microchips and biotech and all these nanotechnology and everything else that we're going to and quantum computing that we're gonna, man's gonna figure out how to have eternal life without God, that we're gonna figure that out. And so again, mankind does not want to face or believe or acknowledge that God Almighty of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our Lord Jesus Christ, the name above every name, they don't wanna believe that the day of reckoning is coming, they just don't wanna accept it. But the Bible's very clear that it's coming and that's why he says here about this, verse seven, let's read it again, we'll start from verse seven again. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long suffering, that it means patient, means he puts up with us for a long time. He is not slack though concerning his promise, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now can I pause on that for just a minute? Again, this establishes the balance in the character of Almighty God that he is not willing, he does not desire for us to perish. He doesn't want us to die and go to hell
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