Zusammenfassung der Ressource
REALISED ESCHATOLOGY
- the belief that entry into the Kingdom of
God is not a future event, instead it
transcends in time - it has already
happened and is not temporal
- Anyone who believes Christ will not die, instead they are
already in the Kingdom of God
- "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent
me has eternal life and will be condemned; he has crossed over from
death to life" - John 5:24
- "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and bought us
into the kingdom of the Son, he loves" - Collosians 1:13
- Greek Philosophy influence
- RUDOLF BULTMANN
- eschatological scriptures are
metaphoric for the quality of
life a person leads
- e.g. any reference to resurrection is really a call
to start living the right life
- If we live the right life, then we are living as God intends
us to live - we live in his Kingdom under his rules
- the literal interpretations of eschatological scriptures
(physical resurrection, future judgement, the physical
resurrection of Christ) are myths that need to be
demythologised (strip aways imagery language) to understand
the essential message
- DUALISM - our soul doesnt die from the moment we believe in Christ (in death we
only lose our outer shell) it automatically lives on in Christ
- We die to our previous sinful self when
we accept Christ's word - e.g. symbolism
of life, truth, light,etc
- We become alive in which we are living an
authentic life rather than slaving away under
false apprehensions that other things will
make us happy (e.g. money, luxuries,
popularities) - CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM
- Judgement is not a future event - it is immediate from the
moment we hear Christ's word as it is the choice that we
make whether to accept it, repent and believe or reject it
and continue as before (BULTMANN)
- LINKS TO AMILLENNIALISM AND PRETERISM
- "realised millennialism" - symbolic interpretation, millenium will not
last 1000 years, millenium began with Christ's birth and will end with
Parousia, Christ in already reigning in heaven and the hearts of
believers
- CH DODD
- all that has been prophesised about Christ has been achieved - nothing more we can
do other than to accept or reject God
- "Then the kingdom of God is come unto you" - Matthew 12:28
- i.e. there is a finality - the "zero hour" of
the world is the "zero hour" for the
individual - a call to believe
- JURGEN MOLTMANN DISAGREED WITH THIS
- A spiritual kingdom was introduced by
Christ in his first coming (his life), but a
literal kingdom is still a future event
- Eschatological language indicates that Christ
(King) was present but thr kingdom promises
were not yet fulfilled
- Now the Church's responsbility to pave the way towards enabling a future, physical
Kingdom of God - by living in the Kingdom now, the future based events will be
brought into present
- INAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY
- the belief that the end times were inaugurated in the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus - creates both the
"already" and "not yet" aspects to the Kingdom of God
- Therefore, we are now living in the end times
- all promises if the kingdom can be
fulfilled in the Church today
- the kingdom of God behan at Jesus' first coming and
is here now, but it will not be fully consummated
until the Second Coming
- I.E. ALREADY BUT NOT YET CONCEPT