The central thrust of New Testament eschatology can be summed up in one phrase: already, but not yet.
At the end of my last post, I said this idea has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life. That sounds a little over the top, doesn't it? Do I really mean that? Well, yes. When I first heard a professor focus on the already-but-not-yet character of our life in Christ, it gave me a row of hooks to hang all my hats on. It fits the biblical evidence so well, I would be so bold as to say it's the second-most important Christian idea that is only indirectly taught in the Bible, right behind the doctrine of the Trinity.
The "already" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has already come to earth. Jesus came as God in the flesh, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. He lived a perfect life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, saying and doing exactly what God the Father wanted him to say and do. He healed the sick, embraced the outcast, challenged corrupt authorities, and taught broken people about eternal life. He died for all people, making it possible for us to be reconciled with a holy God, corrupt though we are. As a result, those who embrace Christ are current participants in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit, who was only given to special individuals under special circumstances in the Old Testament, is now available to the entire community of people who follow Christ, just as the prophet Joel had promised.
The "not yet" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has not yet reached its ultimate fulfillment on earth. Jesus did not bring final judgment on the wickedness of this earth, so the good stuff remains mingled with the bad stuff. Everything is in shades of gray, the worthless so frustratingly intertwined with the worthwhile. The Old Testament expectation of the Messiah had included complete restoration and redemption - socially, politically, economically, spiritually, physically, vocationally... you name it. It had included Judgment Day, because that had to be part of the equation; if God were to usher in a golden age, he would have had to cleanse Israel from all evil. Christians continue to embrace this Old Testament hope for the consummation of the kingdom of God on earth, which we expect to occur when Jesus returns to earth (cf. Acts 1:1-11).
One way to put this is that we are currently living in an era that is an overlap of the old era (earth before the Messiah) and the new era (earth under the Messiah's rule). A visual representation of this is helpful (this is from our professor/boss/friend Craig Blomberg's Jesus and the Gospels, p. 385 - click the image for a larger view):
Thus our life in Christ is replete with the tension between the already and the not-yet. We experience it in our struggle with sin: we have the power of the Spirit living within us to make us conquerors over sin, yet we still struggle almost constantly with our enduring sinful tendencies (see Romans 7-8). We experience it in our worship and knowledge of God: "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) We experience it in our churches: the church is sometimes the most beautiful example of community the world has ever seen, yet it has known all the interpersonal ugliness one can find anywhere else in the world. We experience it in our mission in the world: the gospel continues to spread in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; William Wilberforce successfully argued for the end of the slave trade in England; the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement here in the U.S. brought an end to institutionalized racism, and we now have a biracial president... YET, the gospel has eroded in lands once populated with Christians through forces such as Islam in the 7th century and the Enlightenment in the 18th; though no longer sanctioned by our governments, there is more slavery on our globe today than at any point in human history; much of the Western world has decided it's okay to kill the most vulnerable persons in our societies for the sake of convenience. We experience it in our work: we often find satisfaction in our efforts and toils, particularly when we get to do something we enjoy or when the fruits of our labors are evident, yet we all too often find work to be a frustrating, futile endeavor, or our job brings us very little joy, or demand drops and we lose our income.
There's plenty more to say on this topic, but there's already plenty of food for thought in this post, so we'll draw the line here and save some for the next post, where we'll talk about the "already, but not yet" in spiritual formation.
In order to embark on a series of posts about eschatology, it will be helpful for us to define the term. Short answer: Eschatology refers to biblical teaching about the future. It is concerned with two big questions - "What happens when a person dies?" and "Where is world history going?"
Of course, if that were all I had to say, there wouldn't be much point in putting together a whole blog post, now would there? So let's unpack that a bit. Eschatology comes from the Greek words eschatos (last things) and logos (word/study/doctrine). Thus, Bible-believing theologians use the term eschatology to refer to biblical teaching about last things. (Profound. This is why you pay me the big bucks, to tell you that 2+2=4.) Of course, we haven't really gotten anywhere yet - what are "last things"? We don't use that kind of language in everyday conversation. So, let's build a definition that makes sense.
Starting from the bottom up, we can say that "last things" equals the future. But it's not quite that simple, because "last things" includes elements that are present and even past. Why? Well, some of the things the biblical authors spoke about as future are now present or past for us, many centuries down the road, while others still have not yet come to pass. So, let's tweak our definition - "last things" equals things that were future to the biblical authors writing about them. One natural consequence of this is that Old Testament eschatology is different than New Testament eschatology. This is because certain things that were future for Old Testament authors came to be fulfilled in the life of Christ and the birth of the Church. So, another tweaking is in order - "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors and things that were both present and future relative to the New Testament authors. If we put ourselves in the equation, we find that "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors; that were both present and future relative to the NT authors; and that are past, present, and future relative to us today. I trust you can remember the second and third parts of that by hearing the first and thinking back to this conversation, so we will pare it down for brevity's sake: Eschatology refers to biblical teaching about things that were future relative to the OT authors.
Eschatology is commonly broken into two related fields of study - personal eschatology and general eschatology. These two correspond to the two big questions mentioned above - personal eschatology is related to what happens when a person dies, and general eschatology is related to the direction of world history. Personal eschatology is considered a subset of eschatology because, hey, anytime you're on this earth writing a book about death, it's a future subject for you.
In the next post, we will talk about the central thrust of New Testament eschatology, an idea that has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life: already, but not yet.
What comes to your mind when you think of "eschatology" (the study of "last things")? Maybe your mind is a blank slate - you've never heard the word before, and the idea seems strange. Maybe you think of the Left Behind series of novels, or so-called "prophecy conferences" that many churches and ministries promote, teaching how current events in the newspaper correspond with events predicted in the Bible. That association could lead you to become fixated with these predictions: "Did you hear what happened between Russia and Iran? Read Ezekiel 38-39 - the end is near! I'd be surprised if the rapture didn't occur by 2012, at the latest." Or you might have a different reaction: "Why do people bother talking about this stuff? It's impractical and obsessive, and I don't buy it. I don't even try to read Revelation - it's hard enough understanding other parts of the Bible. Besides, what does the future have to do with my life now?"
I've sketched what are probably the three most common approaches to eschatology among Christians today: unintentional ignorance, intentional ignorance, and sensationalistic newspaper-Bible analysis. I hope many of you reading this will recognize that none of these three is particularly admirable (though one usually can't be held responsible for unintentional ignorance). So, it's my intention that this post will be the kick-off to a blog mini-series on eschatology. I'm calling it accessible eschatology, because my heart is that the average Christian reader could read these posts and be able to understand eschatology and understand its importance. This doesn't mean I will avoid all technical theological vocabulary, but I wholeheartedly intend to explain that vocabulary so its meaning is clear. If I ever offer too little explanation of a certain term, please leave a comment asking me to explain it better - you're probably not the only one wondering what the heck I'm talking about! (I'm also expecting that these posts might start a conversation here and there on a more technical level among my seminary-trained friends; don't let that scare you off - I promise, we don't bite, and it's perfectly normal to engage this subject at various levels.)
So, for my first trick, I have to try to convince you to keep reading the next few posts as they come. "Why should I care?" "What's wrong with where I'm at?" To the sensationalist, I pose a few questions: Does your current engagement of eschatology make you more like Jesus? Does it intersect with your day-to-day life? My guess is, the answer's no. Plus, I want to save you from looking and feeling stupid, like Edgar Whisenant and many others of the same ilk. To those who just don't know anything about eschatology, hear me from the top of my lungs: ESCHATOLOGY MATTERS! The Christian study of eschatology is intimately linked with a variety of topics that intersect with your daily life and relationship with God:
--hope
--the significance of your vocation
--the meaning of suffering
--your self-image
--international politics
--optimism, pessimism, and realism
--the tension between "life is good" and "life is hard"
... and more. Are you interested now? I hope so!
Next post: what is eschatology?
I was skeptical of Warren's acceptance of Obama's invitation to pray at his inauguration. An inaugural invocation can easily be perceived as an endorsement. However, after watching the prayer, I think he did many things well...
--He quoted the Shema and the Lord's Prayer, both appropriate ecumenical picks, and invoked a wide swath of biblical imagery about the nature of God.
--His prayer was decidedly Christian, not statist (in either a conservative or a liberal direction).
--He acknowledged differences of opinion.
--He called for biblical character qualities like humility, servanthood, integrity, compassion, generosity, responsibility, and civility.
--He asked for forgiveness of sins, including for "when we fail to treat our fellow human beings ... with the respect that they deserve," which sounded to me like an appropriately veiled reference to abortion.
--He acknowledged that "one day, all nations and all people will stand accountable before you."
--He called on "the name of the one who changed my life -- Yeshua, Isa, Jesús, Jesus." Missiologically awesome! For those who don't know, that's Jesus in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and English.
--By saying nothing about "traditional values," he effectively turned the other cheek to gay rights activists who had been passionately calling for his removal from the ceremony.
In short, he was ecumenical yet evangelical, biblical, missiological, deferent, appropriate, and even mildly prophetic. May God answer this prayer and use it for his glory in the lives of its hearers.
(The full text of the prayer is available here.)
