Providence, Eschatology, and Apocalyptic from M. Eugene Boring's Revelation

A fine summary and set of definitions

Providence is the overarching biblical category within which eschatological and apocalyptic thought can best be understood. Our word "providence" comes to us from the Greek by way of two Latin words, "pro," which means "before," and "video," which means "see." "Providence," therefore, has to do with seeing what is before one, looking out ahead. To believe in the providence of God is to believe that not only our individual lives but history as a whole is under the sovereignty of One who is "looking out ahead," that Someone is in the driver's seat of history. The faith expressed in the doctrine of providence might be summed up in the words "God is guiding history."

"Eschatology" can be thought of as a particular kind of thought within the doctrine of providence. All eschatological thinking is providential, but not all providential thinking is eschatological. Eschaton is simply the Greek word for "end." It can be used for the last in a series, temporal or otherwise. In a narrative it is the conclusion, not simply the end. A damaged book from which the last chapter is missing has a last page, but still has no conclusion. In a story, a person's life, or the history of the world, the eschaton is the last scene, the conclusion of the story.

In theological terms the eschaton can be thought of individually (the meaning of a person's death, what happens to an individual after death), nationally (e.g. the "golden age" of the nation that is its destiny to come), or historically and cosmically. Since biblical theology is concerned with God as the Creator of the universe and Lord of history as a whole (not merely of individual souls or particular nations), most biblical eschatological thought is expressed within this cosmic framework.

Eschatological thought goes beyond general affirmation of the doctrine of providence, "God is guiding history," to a more specific statement: "God is guiding history to a final goal." The doctrine of providence, as such, affirms that history has a Lord, but not that history has an end. Providential thinking has no necessary place for thought about the "end of the world." It is concerned with the process, not the goal, of history. Eschatological thought, on the other hand, is the counterpart to the doctrine of creation: Just as the world and history have not always existed, but came into being by the act of the Creator, so this world and its history are not eternal, but will be brought to their goal by the God who declares not only that his is the Alpha but also the Omega of all that is (Rev 1:8; these are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet). Although "end of the world" thinking is often thought of as gloomy and pessimistic, we shall see that in the Bible generally and in Revelation in particular the doctrine of the end of the world is a joyous hope to be celebrated--and that not because of any negative view of the world and its values.

It may come as a surprise to learn that there is a considerable eschatological element in the Bible
. . .
Just as eschatology is a certain kind of thinking about God's providence, so for our purposes in understanding Revelation, apocalyptic may be thought of as a certain kind of thinking about eschatology. Apocalyptic thought, as represented in Revelation, affirms that God is guiding history to a final goal which God himself will bring about in the near future, in a particular way that is already revealed. 

---(From Revelation, M. Eugene Boring, p. 36-38)