I'm wondering whether Biblical eschatology might be a bit like how in a game of Rugby the last play is allowed to play-out even after the fulltime hooter has sounded.
It's like the fulltime hooter began to sound with the ministry of John the Baptist. (Daniel's 70-weeks prophecy was running its course. Jesus annouced that the time was fulfilled. Paul said Jesus was crucified in the end of the world. He described the first-century Church as, We upon upon whom the ends of the world have come. John said, It is the last hour.) The beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel was the sounding of the fulltime hooter.
It's still being sounded. Or, it's like the last gameplay - which is the continued preaching of the same Gospel to all nations - is being allowed to play out after the fulltime hooter first began to sound.
Daniel's prophecy gave Israel a timeframe by which the fulltime hooter was to sound - but no-one knows how long this last play will be allowed to play out before play really stops. Only the Father knows. (The fulltime hooter signalled the coming of the Messiah, His being cut off, and the destruction of the Temple and city becoming inevitable - and Daniel gave Israel a timeframe for those components.) Now the final play is still being played out. And when it finishes, there shall come the resurrection, and the Kingdom, there shall be new heavens and a new earth.
The actual end comes "immediately after" the tribulations of Israel etc., in the sense that it's the last gameplay - not that it was meant to happen in the same calendar hour, day, season, year, decade, century or millennium - but in the sense that the current status of Israel, and of the nations, and the continued preaching of this Gospel of the kingdom, is the last gameplay before the end.
So that's different to classic post-millennialism which places us now well and truly AFTER the end of the world. And it's different to classic futurism which places us still BEFORE the end of the world. Instead, it sees that the end of all things was already at hand when John and Jesus first began to preach the Gospel, and acknowledges that intrinsically the entire Church age is the playing-out of that final game play.
When the fulltime hooter sounds, it's like the winning team already starts the celebrations - you can see it on their faces - even though the final game play might still be playing out.
They already know they've won. But the awarding of the trophy and the fullest celebrations are yet to come, after this final game play finishes being played out. And no official time keeper can say how long that last play might take. The length of time is not really of the essence.
There will come a final end of the end of history. The end of the world. The resurrection. The visible coming of the Kingdom. It's just that what precedes it is also eschatological in some of its character, rather than being entirely post-eschatological in its character.
It's like history is still both in the throes of the end, and already in the experience of the new. But the time will come, and is virtually already upon us, when the end of the end shall happen and Jesus Christ will literally make all things new in every sense.
It's like the fulltime hooter began to sound with the ministry of John the Baptist. (Daniel's 70-weeks prophecy was running its course. Jesus annouced that the time was fulfilled. Paul said Jesus was crucified in the end of the world. He described the first-century Church as, We upon upon whom the ends of the world have come. John said, It is the last hour.) The beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel was the sounding of the fulltime hooter.
It's still being sounded. Or, it's like the last gameplay - which is the continued preaching of the same Gospel to all nations - is being allowed to play out after the fulltime hooter first began to sound.
Daniel's prophecy gave Israel a timeframe by which the fulltime hooter was to sound - but no-one knows how long this last play will be allowed to play out before play really stops. Only the Father knows. (The fulltime hooter signalled the coming of the Messiah, His being cut off, and the destruction of the Temple and city becoming inevitable - and Daniel gave Israel a timeframe for those components.) Now the final play is still being played out. And when it finishes, there shall come the resurrection, and the Kingdom, there shall be new heavens and a new earth.
The actual end comes "immediately after" the tribulations of Israel etc., in the sense that it's the last gameplay - not that it was meant to happen in the same calendar hour, day, season, year, decade, century or millennium - but in the sense that the current status of Israel, and of the nations, and the continued preaching of this Gospel of the kingdom, is the last gameplay before the end.
So that's different to classic post-millennial
When the fulltime hooter sounds, it's like the winning team already starts the celebrations - you can see it on their faces - even though the final game play might still be playing out.
They already know they've won. But the awarding of the trophy and the fullest celebrations are yet to come, after this final game play finishes being played out. And no official time keeper can say how long that last play might take. The length of time is not really of the essence.
There will come a final end of the end of history. The end of the world. The resurrection. The visible coming of the Kingdom. It's just that what precedes it is also eschatological in some of its character, rather than being entirely post-eschatolog
It's like history is still both in the throes of the end, and already in the experience of the new. But the time will come, and is virtually already upon us, when the end of the end shall happen and Jesus Christ will literally make all things new in every sense.
The days have the same status now that they had probably since the martyrdom of Stephen.
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