#394 Realizing the Eschaton

Andrew Perriman argues that the predictions of Jesus and Paul (and I'd add the unanimous expectation of the early church) that the then-current world order would be replaced imminently by YHWH's kingdom were proven correct when the events of later history are taken into account. Specifically he mentions Theodosius' promotion of Nicene Christianity in the empire and the declaration of Christianity as the only legitimate imperial religion in 380 AD because this, along with other events like the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and Constantine's legalization of Christianity in 313 AD were "events that that had an immense bearing on the experience and fate of the people of God." Because of this "immense bearing" these events had on the actual lives and status of Christians in the empire, there is no 'spiritualizing' of the eschaton taking place here as it is "entirely appropriate to think that the New Testament hope in the coming ‘kingdom of God’ was fulfilled in the recognition by the emperor that Jesus is Lord [by the pagan nations]... It is a simple fact of history that with the elevation of Christianity to the status of imperial religion the God of the small cantankerous nation of Israel came to be confessed as the God of the whole Greek-Roman world in place of the many gods (and man-gods) of classical paganism."

A baby, born in a feeding trough in a backwater locale of a conquered crossroads of the Roman empire warned a remnant of his countrymen, in faithfulness to his god, about the destruction and judgement by their god of the wordly powers (70 AD) and the ultimate vindication and victory of their god over the wordly powers (313 and 380 AD). Had the early church that made these predictions lived to see their unexpected fulfillment in these events, they surely wouldn't accuse anyone who applied their predictions to these events of 'spiritualizing' what they had said. Neither would the suffering church - persecuted by both Jews and pagans - of the first four centuries AD. Any first century Christian who had been "dragged before the synagogues" (Luke 21:12) would've felt a poetic justice as they watched the Roman army encircle Jerusalem within a generation of Jesus' prediction. Any pre-5th century Christian who had been "brought before governors and kings" (Matthew 10:18) would've perceived in the historic announcements of 313 and 380 AD that God was going before them and doing the work of a conqueror.

#393 One Short Sleep Past

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleepe as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

- John Donne, Holy Sonnet #10, 1633

#392 Jumping the Gun

The early church was nearly unanimous in its expectation of the imminent end of history.  From Jesus to Paul to John to the author of Hebrews to the early church fathers they all strongly and undeniably felt that the last days were upon them.  As we know, they didn't come and still haven't.  And so this 'failure' of prophecy to do what the modern mind thinks it should do is often cited to discredit the Christian herald's announcement of the good news, the gospel.  But William J. Abraham, touching on the nature of genre of apocalyptic literature, points out that these bold predictions of the end are entirely unsurprising:

"Apocalyptic literature was created to speak in a powerful way and with a dramatic seriousness that would match the sense of hopelessness and terror that can easily grip a generation in the midst of a profound crisis..."

Trouble is, this has more often led to misunderstanding, going all the way back to the earliest church. This shouldn't shock us says Abraham.  After all,

"... it is well-nigh impossible to keep the eager sense of delight and hope that correlates with the experience of the coming of God's rule here and now (in Jesus of Nazareth) from welling up into premature anticipation.  This is especially so when one sense that all of creation is in travail to realize its ultimate divine destiny and that the powers of evil are liable to break out repeatedly in a last-ditch effort to thwart the purposes of God... it would be amazing if the early church did not at times move in this direction."

Why 'amazing'?  Because as he's argued earlier in the book (relevant quotes of which I've already posted),

"The intellectual challenge posed by the events surrounding Jesus was staggering in the extreme.  On the one hand the church had the oral traditions about Jesus transmitted by disciples, who were convinced that Jesus was the supreme agent of God sent to redeem Israel and the world.  On the other hand it had the ancient tradition s of prophecy that provided the conceptual tools out of which it sought to make intelligible sense of Jesus' ministry and of the disciples' experiences of the Holy Spirit.  The traditions that articulated the hopes of Israel were varied and complex; particular patterns of divine action and promise were clearly discernible.  Yet the word of prophecy was not itself a simple blueprint for God's action in history and at the end of time.  As [Ben F.] Meyer has suggested, prophetic knowledge is not precise determinate knowledge... Hence the correlation between prophetic word and event is ambiguous."

So putting ourselves into the first-century shoes of the eyewitnesses of Jesus' miracles, power, and resurrection along with the early church experience of the outpouring and working of the Holy Spirit,

"... it would be incredible if some did not fully grasp what was going on and hastily identified the events currently happening with those that lay as yet in the mind and hands of God.  Such events as the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit would have been enough to send most minds saturated in the hopes and promises of Israel into believing that the end of the world could well be just around the next corner of history."

Abraham quotes G.B. Caird to rephrase his point:

"It is perhaps plausible that the early Christians were so deeply conscious of having experienced Christ, in his resurrection, and in the coming of the Spirit, the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises that occasionally, especially in times of apocalyptic crisis, they felt the frontiers of the future close in upon them."

The Logic of Evangelism, p. 35-37