Are all people “God’s people”? — Part 2

Eschatology

I was recently asked about my view of seeing all people as God’s children. As my response became quite long, I opted to create a mini-series about it. This is Part 2. Part 1 can be found here.

Eschatology

A third element to all of this, of course, is eschatology. As you know, soteriology (the study of salvation) is tied to eschatology (the study of last things) and it plays a heavy role in my understanding of the New Testament. This is a three stage process: proclamation; inauguration; establishment. Think about it like a presidential campaign: The candidate makes promises about her presidency (proclamation); she wins the election and becomes the president-elect (inauguration, though this isn’t the best word for this example; but this is the time when there are two administrations—the current one of the existing president and the soon coming one of the new president); and then, after some time, she actually becomes president (establishment). God’s Kingdom worked the same way. Starting with the New Testament (although, we could start with the Old Testament promises), God’s Kingdom was proclaimed to be coming soon by Jesus (Mark 1.15), inaugurated or began at the resurrection (John 20), and established when the old (Jewish) age ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE by the Romans (Hebrews 8). The way Jesus tells the story (Matthew 23-25; cf., Luke 21), the Romans would be God’s “rod of anger” against Israel like Assyria before them (Isaiah 10). Maybe this quick list might be helpful:

• Israel (shadow of reality under the lordship of Christ — Hebrews 8; 10; Colossians 2) ⟶

• Christ proclaiming that God’s promised kingdom had come at last (Mark 1.15; see Luke 17.20-21) ⟶

• First day of New creation (God’s Kingdom) on Resurrection Sunday (John 20; Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God) ⟶

• Although the New Creation started with Jesus’ resurrection (see Jesus’ parables in Luke 13), it wasn’t fully established yet because the old covenantal age still existed. However, it was out of date and would soon disappear (see Hebrews 8) ⟶

• Therefore, the then “current age” (old covenantal age) ended with destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the new age was fully established (Matthew 13). There were only two ages in New Testament, “this age” and “the age to come” — Matthew 12.32; Mark 10.30 (Luke 18.30); Luke 20.34-36; Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God).

One of the key components in the last two places on this list is the “already / but not yet” of the New Testament. Over and over again they believed and taught that Jesus would (“must”; Revelation 1.1-3) come back “soon” or “shortly.” For example, Jesus said he’d return while some of his disciples were still living (Matthew 16.28). This is all tied together. And since I’ve written extensively about it before, I won’t go into it any further here.

Part 3 can be found here.

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In the Love of the Three in One,

Br. Jack+, LC

* Originally posted here.