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Views about Judeo Christian eschatology are often limited to the coming of the kingdom of God and the transformation or transcendence of history.

The immortality of the soul, the second advent of Christ, or Parousia, the End of the World, resurrection of the dead, Final Judgment, renewal of the creation, Heaven and Hell, the consummation of all of God's purposes, are other relevant issues of eschatology.
In the Roman Catholic church, eschatology includes, additionally, the beatific vision, purgatory, and limbo.

The distinction between transformation and transcendence reflects the difference between Old Testament messianism, which looked for the coming of the kingdom of God within a historical framework, and New Testament apocalypticism, which expected the total dissolution of the world at the last judgment).

Eschatology has been a revived theme among theologians in the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, eschatology was equated by some theologians with the doctrine of Christian hope, including not only the events of the end of time but also the hope itself and its revolutionizing influence on life in the world.

The most eloquent exponent of this eschatology is the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann. Other radical theologians have provided various interpretations of the book of Revelation and other prophetic parts of the Bible, such as the Book of Daniel, and various sayings of Jesus in the Gospels have given way to the "consistent eschatology" of Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer, the "realized eschatology" of C H Dodd and Rudolf Otto; the "dialectic eschatology" of Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann, and the "death of God" eschatology of Thomas J J Altizer.

There are various controversies concerning the order of events leading to and following the return of Jesus, and the religious significance of these events for Christians living now, which are discussed by Christians under the rubric of "eschatology".

In addition to the prophecies and other doctrines of the Bible, there are also traditional teachings, or writings of people supposed to be extraordinarily gifted with insight into spiritual things, or granted gifts of prophecy or a special visitation by messengers from heaven, such as angels, saints, or Christ. Such extra-biblical revelations have additional eschatological significance for those who believe them.
 

In fact, it is fundamental to nearly all traditions of Christianity that death and dying will not be finally removed from the earth until the second coming of Christ. Suffering, disease, injustice and war will continue until the end of the world, according to the Christian view of last things.

The Christian hope will not be realized in this lifetime, and instead has the practical purpose of instructing the Christian to pray and work for a fuller measure of those blessings now. However, there are dissenting traditions, which teach it to be an ethical or moral principle that all suffering ought to be eliminated prior to Christ's return.

Some books of the Bible appear to deny the existence of the afterlife. (The following quotes are from the new JPS translation.)

Isaiah 39:18 "For it is not Sheol that praises You, Not [the land of] Death that extols you; Nor do they who descend into the Pit hope for your grace. The living, only the living can give thanks to you."

Psalms 6:6 "For there is no praise of You among the dead; in Sheol, who can acclaim you?" and Psalms 115:17 "The dead cannot praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence."

Job 7:7–10 "Consider that my life is but wind; I shall never see happiness again....As a cloud fades away, so whoever goes down into Sheol does not come up.."
Ecclesiastes 9:4–5 "For he who is reckoned among the living has something to look forward to - even a live dog is better than a dead lion - since the living know that they will die. But the dead know nothing; they have no more recompense, for even the memory of them has died."

Christian churches such as the Roman Catholic Church that accept the Deuterocanonical books as part of the Old Testament point to the second book of Maccabees as Old Testament justification for the belief in an afterlife. 2 Maccabees 7 relates the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons:

Maccabees 7:7–11 "After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. [...] And when he was at his last breath, he said, 'You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.' After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, 'I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back


The existence of hell is generally considered a matter of fundamental Christian faith. However, as with anything else, it is not universally believed by all Christian groups or sects. Some groups, especially most Millerites, teach that the abyss of Hell is a metaphor for uncreation, or annihilation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) also denies the existence of never-ending torment. Instead, they teach (not entirely without analogy in orthodox Christianity) that there are degrees of reward that are immeasurably below the rewards of the righteous, to which the wicked are consigned, which by comparison are infinitely less desirable to the righteous than the highest heaven (which, in their teaching, entails becoming a God -- "Exaltation").