Apocalypse When?. Jerry L. Sumney

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СКАЧАТЬ in this way of thinking is the way life in the messianic future is described: it is in accordance with God’s Law.

      In Jewish apocalypses the Law was the ethical ideal both now and in the age to come. The authors of these texts saw no antagonism between being required to keep the Law and eschatological confidence. As they saw them, both the Law and apocalyptic actions by God were expressions of God’s covenant with them and so were blessings.

      Given the emphasis on judgment found in apocalyptic thought, it is not surprising that individual accountability is important. People are accountable before God for their transgressions of God’s Law and will. The unfaithful are accountable because they have refused the ways of God. Thus, the distinctions among those who have died are based on their conduct while on earth. Again, this does not mean apocalypticists were legalists; rather, most of them recognized that the only way anyone could stand before God was if God exercised mercy.

Some interpreters argue that the apocalyptic outlook leads to a passive ethic, an ethic that encourages people simply to submit to persecution. Some apocalyptic works (e.g., the Assumption of Moses8) do recommend quietism, but this seems to be against the general trend. The Jewish uprisings throughout the Roman period show that apocalyptic is often not passive because these revolts were often tied to apocalyptic hopes. Most of these many rebellions, and there were many, expected God to intervene to overthrow the Romans. At the same time, God would establish those who instigated the uprising, who identified themselves as God’s people, in positions of power. The War Scroll of Qumran offers us a specific example of this way of thinking. Its author expects the community to be active participants in the end time battle. Thus, many apocalyptic groups clearly thought they had an active role to play in God’s plan.

      Though some have asserted that apocalyptic’s attention to the future world leads people not to be concerned about present conditions in this world, that is not necessarily the case. The Damascus Document, written for lay people who were associated with the Qumran community and so with an apocalyptic worldview, has a clear concern for social justice (see esp. ch. 1). Second Enoch also encourages social justice through its attention to issues involving money, the courts, and the poor. So apocalyptic does not entirely abandon the world to evil. The people of God are expected to act justly and to work for a more just world, even though the forces against them are overwhelming.

      The Early Church and Apocalyptic

      All of the authors of the books of the New Testament had an apocalyptic worldview. While they do not all write in the genre of apocalyptic texts, they all write from that perspective. The book of Revelation is the only New Testament book written fully in the style of apocalyptic, but other books have sections that adopt that style. We deal with some of them in this book.

      Yet, there was a difference between the apocalyptic outlook of church members and other apocalyptic thinkers. The church was built on belief in the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ vindicated Jesus’ ministry and message, but it did much more. Apocalyptic writers see the resurrection of the dead as an event of the end. It is a sign that the end has come. The earliest church understood the resurrection of Christ as the beginning of the general resurrection of the dead. It meant that the last days were upon them. The earliest believers in Christ expected that general resurrection to come very soon. Of course, it did not.

      As the church thought about the delay in the coming of the end, it also experienced the presence of God in new ways. Among the most notable was the giving of the Spirit. Acts 2 has Peter interpret the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost as a gift of the last days (2:17–21). It was clear that the fullness of the end had not come, that evil had not been defeated; the Romans were still in charge and they were still being persecuted for their faith. But still, they experienced a part—a foretaste—of that final victory of God through this experience of the Spirit. It was not the fullness of being in the very presence of God with all troubles overcome, but it was a new act of God in the world. This new presence of God is a sign that the end has begun. All of the time of the church is the end times because it comes after the resurrection of Christ that inaugurated the coming of God’s kingdom with its defeat of evil.

      There is a sense, then, in which the church possesses gifts of the end, and a sense in which it does not. There is an “already” aspect of the church’s experience of the final state of all things (the presence of the Spirit in our lives), and a “not yet” aspect (we do not yet possess all God will give at the end). The idea that we possess an “already” part of the end-times blessings is often called a partially realized eschatology. If we believed that we possessed all of God’s gifts now, we would have a fully realized eschatology. New Testament writers regularly reject versions of a fully realized eschatology. They keep that tension between experiencing a beginning of blessings of the end and looking forward to the final consummation of God’s intentions for the world.

      Our book is written with a partially realized eschatological outlook. With the New Testament writers, we think that the resurrection of Christ opened a new kind of presence of God in the world. In this time the Spirit strengthens the people of God to work for what God wants for the world. But we also hold the hope for a future act of God that will make all things conform to God’s will and character.

      Conclusion

      Hopefully, this brief introduction to apocalyptic thought will prepare the reader to understand better the texts we treat in the following parts of this book. The writings we will look at come from a variety of genres, yet they all participate in the thought world described here. These writings are all seeking ways to make sense of their belief in a good, powerful, and just God given their experience of the world as a place ruled by evil. They do this in large part by asserting that God will act soon in ways that decisively vindicate God’s nature as they understand it. At the same time, they also want to encourage their readers to remain faithful to God in very difficult circumstances.

      1. This book is found in the Apocrypha.

      2. Revelation is an exception. It seems to have been written by the person named in the greeting, John, a Jewish church member who addressed the churches and was revered as a prophet.

      3. This writing is found in the Pseudepigrapha.

      4. This writing is found in the Apocrypha.

      5. The Sadducees are the exception to this trend. They seem not to have believed in an afterlife for anyone. They were also among those who did not adopt an apocalyptic outlook.

      6 This is another work found in the Pseudepigrapha.

      7. This writing is also part of the Pseudepigrapha.

      8. Yet another writing among the Pseudepigrapha.

      Chapter 2

      The Challenges—And Opportunities—of Apocalyptic Preaching

      Leah D. Schade

      For clergy, preaching apocalyptic texts is anticipated with nearly as much enthusiasm as a dental check-up. “The end of the world . . . again,” quipped one pastor at a text study I once attended as we tackled СКАЧАТЬ