(doc) Eschatology Summary

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DOCTRINE 3: ESCHATOLOGY HOEKEMA SUMMARY From first to last, and not merely in the epilogue, Christianity is eschatology.

OLD TESTAMENT ESCHATOLOGY At the very beginning, there was an expectation of a coming redeemer who would bruise or crush the head of the serpent. As time went on, there was a growing enrichment of eschatological expectation. The various items of this expectation were certainly not all held at once, and they assumed various forms at various times. But if we may think of these concepts in a cumulative way, we may certainly say that at various times the Old Testament believer looked for the following eschatological realities in the future: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

The The The The The The The

coming redeemer (prophet, priest, king, suffering servant) kingdom of God (son of Man, son of David) new covenant (Jeremiah) restoration of Israel outpouring of the Spirit (Joel, Ezekiel) day of the Lord (Joel) new heavens and the new earth (including resurrection, Isaiah).

NEW TESTAMENT ESCHATOLOGY The nature of New Testament eschatology may be summed up under three observations: (1) the great eschatological event predicted in the Old Testament has happened; (2) what the Old Testament writers seemed to depict as one movement is now seen to involve two stages: the present age and the age of the future; and (3) the Spirit bridges these two eschatological stages and is the pledge and guarantee of greater blessings to come.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

AND

ESCHATOLOGY

1. The Holy Spirit, it is said, will prepare the way for the inbreaking of the final eschatological age by certain prophetic signs (Joel 2). 2. The Spirit is said to be the One who will rest upon the coming redeemer and equip him with the necessary gifts. 3. The Spirit appears as the source of the future new life of Israel, including both material blessings and ethical renewal. 4. The Spirit is an eschatological downpayment, as sons and therefore heirs. 5. He brings transforms us progressively into Christ's likeness. In the possession of the Spirit we who are in Christ have a foretaste of the blessings of the age to come, and a pledge and guarantee of the

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

Page 2 of 10 resurrection of the body. Yet we have only the firstfruits. We look forward to the final consummation of the kingdom of God, when we shall enjoy these blessings to the full.

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

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THE TENSION BETWEEN

THE

NOW

AND

NOT YET

1. The signs of the times occur throughout the end times between Christ's coming. 2. The church lives in tension between the two and is therefore imperfect. 3. This tension should be an incentive for responsible Christian living. 4. Our self-image should reflect this tension. We are imperfect new people. 5. This tension helps us to understand the role of suffering in the lives of believers. We still live in a fallen world. God will remove suffering, in the mean time he uses it. 6. Our attitude toward culture is related to this tension: continuity and discontinuity. Summing up what has been developed in this chapter, we conclude that our entire Christian life is to be lived in the light of the tension between what we already are in Christ and what we hope some day to be. We look back with gratitude to the finished work and decisive victory of Jesus Christ. And we look forward with eager anticipation to the Second Coming of Christ, when he shall usher in the final phase of his glorious kingdom, and shall bring to completion the good work he has begun in us.

1A. ISSUES & METHOD o o o

o

Eschatology is all about hope and its impact on the present. God is the subject and object of hope – he gives us hope for himself. Does eschatology give foundational shape to the rest of Christian thought?? YES! (Coz everything gives shape to everything else in Doctrine) Church practise and architecture – esp. Communion Purgatory – example of how eschatology effects soteriology Some issues Difference between Apoloclyptic (breaking in of future into the present) and Prophetic (an extension of the present experience into the future) literature.

1B. HOPE SHAPES LIFE o o o

Auschwitz – Psychologically without hope we die!! Hope Shape who we are, how we live. 4 Views of hope 1. Materialism (Marxist) An undoing of class structure for equal distribution of wealth 2. Western Hedonism Search for sensual experience for fully gratified experiences 3. Postmodernism

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

Page 4 of 10 No real hope, no real truth, no real justice. Self focussed. 4. Christian Hope – ours and God’s What God has planned for the future Key Verses: 1 Peter 1:3-5; Eph 1:15-23; Rev 21 Catholicism: hope = virtue (movement of our soul). Predisposes us to action.

2A. SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES o o o

AND

DEFINING THEMES

Statements of theology are recognition and confession of hat the Bible says: Thinking God’s thoughts after him. Theology is after the fact. Main themes: Consummation & Judgment Judgment means to rule: Rev 20:4.

HELL 1. The presence of God in holy love, not absence (1 Thess 1:7-10) 2. Cannot expect annihilation (as Stott) because not supported by Bible.

UNIVERSALISM? 1. Palingenesia means regeneration. Only believers will be made new creations. 2. Apokatastasis menas restoration. The universe will be restored. 3. Anakephalaiosis means recapitulation. Everything is place under Christ's headship. How universal is the work of Christ? - All Resolution is Christological. - Eph 1:10, Col 1:20. There is a realignment of the universe which takes place in Christ (things in heaven and on earth). - However, the expression of God's love and rule in Christ is not expressed in the same way toward the forgiven and the unforgiven. - That is because God's love is holy.

ESCHATOLOGY

AND

HISTORY

1. The Bible is eschatological from its beginnings (Gen 2:15). 2. It concerns the historical realities through which God brings about his kingdom.

MEDIATORIAL KINGSHIP

OF

CHRIST

3. Eschatology is all about Jesus (Rev 22:13 - I am the first and the last (Gr. prwtoj kai o` evscatoj) a. His rule (He is the ruled and the ruler (1 Cor 15) b. His mediation c. His victory Gavin Crossley, November 2007

Page 5 of 10 4. It is revealed progressively.

THE -

PAROUSIA

The last appearance of Christ will be visible, bodily, unexpected and climactic. It will bring resurrection of the dead, end of the old age. It gives hope for Christians in the present.

RESURRECTION -

Develops in the OT as an Eschatological hope/promise (Dan 12, Psalm 16, Eze 37). Is the grounds of our eschatological hope (1 Cor 15), the firstfruits of our salvation. Gives bodily content to our hope. In some sense we have already been raised with Christ (Eph 2:6, Col 3:1, Romans 6). Christian ethics consists in exhortations to live in accordance with the new shape of reality.

DOUBTS -

ABOUT THE RESURRECTION

18th C enlightenment considered it ridiculous to believe in resurrection spiritualised it. Wolfhart Pannenburg set out in the 50s with some friends set out to think about the importance of history to the Christian faith. He insists on the actually physical resurrection. Hume had said that skepticism is the right default position. But Pannenburg points out, not when the event is a one off, unique event. How should historians think about unique events? You cannot pre-judge the historicity of dissimilar events. They need to be judged on their own terms. Further, it is the dissimilar events which shape history. History is meaningless if everything that happened was the same as everything else. Further again, trans-historical criteria are needed to understand history. To understand history, you need to know where things are going – what they point to and where they are headed.

2B. LIFE SHAPED HOPE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TIME & ETERNITY (AUGUSTINE) o o

Augustine is extremely influential for both Catholic and Protestant traditions. Most influential contributions are: grace/sin, trinity, sacraments, worldview and creation of the new human consciousness (Neoplatonic Mysticism).

ESCHATOLOGY Gavin Crossley, November 2007

Page 6 of 10 o o o

o o o o

o

Key: The distinction between time and eternity Temporal and corruptible things exist in this world, but ideas exist unchangeably in the realm of eternity. 3 Perspectives on time: 1. Metaphysically: Time is created and of this age. It will finish on the last day. Eternity is changeless and incorruptible.1 2. Christologically: Jesus brought humanity into the eternal and incorruptible by his resurrection from the dead. 3. Believer’s viewpoint: ‘First resurrection’ = conversion (raised from death of sin, perhaps could be called ‘spiritual resurrection’?). Second resurrection is bodily and escorts us into the goal of eternity – eternal vision of God. (Eternity releases us from space and time) (God is the source of our creation and our goal) Millennium – the time of the church between Jesus’ 1st and 2nd comings – church reins yet struggles with militancy against sin until resurrection. Souls of the dead still belong to this age (Rev)…souls are judged when we die then await our bodily resurrection. Emphasises bodily resurrection (against the Manicheans and Platonists). Spiritual body in 1 Cor 15:44 is the incorruptibility of the risen body and perfectly subject to the human spirit – battle between inner and outer man is overcome.2 In heaven we will actively and tirelessly praise God not be passive.

RELIGIOUS NEOPLATONISM 3 Metaphysical structures borrowed from Neoplatanism (which lead to his understanding of grace): 1. Cosmology - ‘Only the intelligible really is’. - Fiercely monistic (the One or the Good). Multiplicity less than perfect. - Metaphysically hierarchical – reality extends from (in increasing complexity) and returns to the One (by means of conversion through desire and knowledge). 2. Epistemology - Distinction between temporal world of images and eternal world of forms. - Faith, like reason and knowledge, only operates on earthly realities and so is the way we apprehend Jesus in his earthly ministry. - Because Jesus is revealed to us in his earthly ministry, he drops out of view as we pass to the heavenly, direct vision of God...(although 1

How does this square with Satan and the demons becoming corrupt in eternity? This does not account for the fact that the ‘inner man’ is still sinful on earth. It's not just a war being waged between inner and outer man but between sinful nature and new creation. These both form part of the inner man…. 2

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Page 7 of 10 Augustine does say that Jesus unites the heavenly and the temporal, therefore we access the heavenly through the incarnation). 3. Doctrine of God (Theology) - Incorporeal and unknowable God. “God is known better in not being known”.

JUSTIFICATION o

‘God makes a person righteous’. Our loving obedience of God’s law is an expression of God’s righteousness in us and an integral part of justification.3 A collapsing of justification and sanctification.

NEOPLATONISM, IMMUTABILITY o o

o o

AND

ESCHATOLOGY

“Only like can know like” Rom 5:5 – objective genitive – our love towards God. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Salvation, eschatologically understood, is a process of illumination until the culmination of the final vision. Augustine tries to protect God’s immutability at the point of creation.

Eschatological salvation is the transfer from change and corruption of time to the immutability and perfection of eternity.

MEDIEVAL ESCHATOLOGY Skipped.

MARTIN LUTHER’S ESCHATOLOGY PREACHING JUDGMENT

3

It seems that Augustine is getting justification and sanctification confused or collapsing them into one thing.

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

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CHAPTER 7: CALVIN Three keys to Calvin: 1. Biblical theology. He added to the advances of the middle ages and the reformation with the tools of humanism, moving from a four-fold approach (literal, allegorical, typological, analogical) to a literal-prophetic model fulfilled in Christ. 2. Trinitarian focus. He understood Christ as the ground of theology and therefore of eschatology, and the Spirit as the one who applies Christ's benefits to us via union with him. It is reflected in the structure of the institutes. a. Book 1 - father / creator b. Book 2 - son / redeemer c. Book 3 - Spirit / unifier d. Book 4 - Church 3. Integration and application to society and the believer

CALVIN’S THREE CONTROLLING EMPHASES (1) The Kingdom of Christ and God. (2) Promise and fulfilment (3) Outpouring of the Spirit

THE -

KINGDOM OF

CHRIST

AND

GOD

The kingdom of God is Christ’s kingdom. As king, he does two things: 1. He restores righteousness in God’s people. 2. He restores right order in God’s creation. The kingdom of God is both rule and realm. In this sense Christ is epitome of both. He is perfect king and perfect subject. The kingdom of God is dynamic, unlike scholasticism, for it can be prayed in and it grows numerically. Union with Christ is the purpose of this restoration, which in turn unites us to the father.

PROMISE

AND FULFILMENT

The meaning of history is derived from the movement between promise and fulfilment. Christ's rule is the locus of eschatology. It is anticipated in the OT, but suspended until the new, then installed in the new, suspended until his return. The ultimate fulfilment of God’s promises are in suspension until that time. The now / not-yet tension The central problem in eschatology is this tension between the kingdom of God as partly realised in us now but not yet. Calvin's Solution: - He is not physically present with his people. Our location is earthly, whereas his incarnate humanity is in heaven. He is only present with us ‘in a manner’. - We receive the benefits of Christ by his Spirit. (Book 3): “All that Christ has done remains useless to us unless we are united to Christ by faith in the Spirit.” The role of the Spirit is then, to make us partakers, in real / experiential terms, of Christ. (His pneumatology was Christological).

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

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For many of the passages which speak of Christ there are other passages which say the same thing of the Spirit: for example: wisdom, justification and reconciliation. The spirit functions christologically and eschatalogically in the same way that Jesus does.

The Spirit has two roles in Calvin’s understanding of eschatology: 1. He enacts Christ’s direct and personal rule over us. 2. He bridges the now/not-yet gap.

ESCHATOLOGY APPLIED Calvin is historical and optimistic about the progress of the kingdom of God. It is advancing. Secular history runs parallel to the growth of the kingdom of God, who uses secular empires to do his bidding. Secular history is therefore to be read theologically. God is restoring order via the gospel. However, he acknowledges that this progress is hidden behind suffering. It is a modified version of Luther’s brinkmanship: brinkmanship with progress. How does eschatology touch history? Two ways: election and church history.

ELECTION Is the personal and beneficial beginning of God’s final purposes, not fuel for speculation. 1. Christ is the ‘elect one’, the chosen. He is the mirror of election. 2. Is to faith, which is itself the bridge between predestination and glory. Acts 13:48. For Calvin, election explains the miracle of anyone coming to believe. They are elected to believe in Jesus. 3. Is greater than the individual. The goal of election is the restorative reordering of the universe.

CHURCH HISTORY Eschatological restoration is tied to the course of the church by the nature of God’s rule – he rules by his Spirit and his Word. The complete rule of all becomes a metaphor for the church. The world is embraced by the eternal condition of the church. The history of the church re-enacts the death and resurrection of Christ. She dies and is resurrected over and over again. Therefore the church must be reforming and reformable.

SUPRA-HISTORY Christ rules from heaven. The ascension is important to Calvin for these reasons: 1) It keeps their hopes in suspense and therefore alive in the face of adversity. 2) It means Christ’s personal, spiritual presence with all believers to the end of the world. 3) It means Christ’s heavenly session on our behalf so that we a. Already possess heaven b. Are reconciled to the father and have access to him c. Are the beneficiaries of Christ’s victorious rule

LIVING

IN THE LAST DAYS

There are two conditions of the kingdom of God, by analogy to the two conditions of Christ’s humanity. The church's condition now is that of the manger – one of

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

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EVALUATION

OF

CALVIN

1. He heals the divide between word and spirit. He rejects the scholastic interest in God ‘as he is in himself’ in favour of God ‘as he is toward us’. 2. The nature of the kingdom of God in Christ means we can expect personal progress in the Christian life. 3. The spirit is the bridge between the two ages. 4. The dialectic between the two ages is critical to a proper understanding of eschatology. Our experience of the kingdom of God is tied to the two conditions of Christ’s humanity – one of suffering the other of glory. 5. Against Catholic mysticism, life is indeed heavenly now because we are united to Christ at the right hand of God. However, it leaves us open to thinking that the kingdom may be advanced by secular government.

MILLENNIALISM HOPE & SUFFERING ESCHATOLOGY -

AND

OTHER DOCTRINES

Revelation / Scripture (unlikely to come up) God / trinity (unlikely to come up)

ESCHATOLOGY

AND

CREATION

ESCHATOLOGY

AND

SALVATION (JUSTIFICATION / SALVATION)

ESCHATOLOGY

AND

CHURCH

ESCHATOLOGY

AND THE

STATE (KINGDOM

Gavin Crossley, November 2007

OF

GOD V. SECULAR GOVERNMENT)