Implications of Eschatology
I have made a point of emphasizing the main aspects of eschatology that have been affirmed since the New Testament, such as the resurrection, the return of Christ and the divine judgment. Other topics have received brief coverage, if any. However, some question may still exist as to why eschatology should be the first chapter after dealing with the reality of God. Hopefully, this will become clear in this section.
Keeping eschatology at the front of our thinking helps us to remember what is of central importance and what is only of peripheral significance. This is important because always remembering the eschatological thrust of Christian faith helps us to keep a degree of urgency in our lives, as the final events are spoken of by Jesus as coming upon us as a thief in the night and, regardless of how long it has been since Jesus promised that he was coming back, the time is indeed still coming and we would do well to remember that these events could still be fulfilled in our lifetime and we should live as if they will be, yet not be disappointed or disenchanted if they are not.
At the end of the day, we need to think about these last things in order to answer a very practical question. For any given thing or pratice, we must ask, “Will it be in the eschatological kingdom?” If the answer is yes, then it has a central place, secure from any challenge as something that will be part of God’s kingdom forever. If the answer is no, then it is inherently marginalized and thus has no place dominating discussion. For example, are our particular forms of church government going to endure and be a part of God’s final kingdom or will they be done away with? It seems that they will not endure forever but will be replaced by the direct government of the living God. If this is the case, we must not allow questions of church polity to take more than their share of our attention. Being careful about how we organize the church is very important, but is only a matter of the good functioning of the church, not a part of its very essence.
We can apply this eschatological criterion to our everyday Christian life. We can ask ourselves if our lifestyle or even particular practices within that lifestyle are compatible with what God is actually doing and will bring to pass. If the answer is no, then they must be revised and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. If the answer is yes, then we can trust that we are participating in the things of God. We must always remember, though, that there is more than one way of living that is commensurate with God’s plans, so we must not insist on a deadening uniformity of practice.
The reason why we can apply this criterion is because we have been given a glimpse into the culmination of God’s plans. We do not need to speculate unduly about what God is about. We know what the final plan of God looks like, at least in part. We should be about the things that God is about. If God’s kingdom is a kingdom of justice, we should be about making our world just, not because we think that we can achieve this on our own or because we think that God will reign through us in a postmillennial sense, but because we are the people of God and so we do what God does and we value what God values.
Even though we have been given this glimpse into the world that is to come, we need to always remember that the image we get in the book of Revelation is only partial. Our glimpse is just that, a glimpse. We do not yet have a full picture. So we must always return to the reality of Christ in our reflections about what is to come. We must look through the lens of Christ. What does the kingdom of God look like? It looks like Jesus. How can we be a part of that kingdom here and now? By doing what Jesus did.
The difficulty that we come up with is that the kingdom has drawn near and has broken into our world, but it has not completely arrived. That means that there are some aspects of God’s final kingdom that are manifest in our world here and now and other aspects that have yet to come to pass. This has been expressed in Biblical studies and theology as the “already/not yet.” The kingdom is already here and yet is still coming. God’s work is finished, and yet there is more to do. Various explanations have been made in order to ease this tension, but it seems that this tension must continue until God resolves it. Our job in the midst of the tension is to live as faithfully as possible, trusting in Christ and Christ alone for our strength and sustenance.
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