Wednesday 20 July 2016

Inaugurated Eschatolgy v AD70 Preterism

Could it be that the entire Church Age (from the cross to the second coming) is an overlap of "this present world" and "the age to come"?

Compared with seeing only the period from the cross to AD70 as the overlap, as classic AD70 Preterism sees it.
In full AD70 Preterism, the eschaton is now regarded as a thing of the past, and the new heavens and earth as already-present realities.

But if instead the entire Church Age is understood as the overlap, then although there has indeed already been the inauguration of the Kingdom of God - of newness - at the cross, still the consummation of the Kingdom - the end of the world - is something to happen literally at Christ's second coming.

If so, that would mark the cross as the defining, epochal moment in history, rather than AD70.

It would mean we are still looking forward to the very same ultimate event that the Early Church were looking forward to.

And it would place every generation of the Church in-between, in the very same position as the early Church (rather than placing the present-day Church in a different category to the Early Church, on the other side of so much that the Apostles wrote about).

In other words, it would mean we're preaching precisely the same Gospel that they preached! with precisely the same present experience, power, grace - and tribulation; but also with pretty much the same future outlook and hope.

No comments:

Post a Comment