Studentenalmanak 1960 - pagina 218
of other terms. The full scope of history and the consummation
is comprehended under „this age" and „the age to come" (cf.
Mt. 12: 32; Eph. 1: 21). The resurrection of believers is the great
event in which redemptive history reaches its climax and turning
point; the resurrection state is the age of final transformation
(Mt. 22: 30; Luke 20: 35, 36; I Cor. 15: 42—58). The future age
is one oi palingenesis (Mt. 19: 28); it manifests itself in a transformed
cosmos, the new heavens and the new earth (II Peter 3: 13;
Rev. 21: 1).
It appears, therefore, that the futurist view of the fulfillment of
prophecy, for all of its tendency to be associated with vagaries in
thought and practice, captures a major BibUcal emphasis. And
more than doctrinal discernment is involved here. The deepest
issues of genuine piety are also at stake. For the Godcentered
perspective provided by the contemplation of the consummation
confronts the child of God with the overwhelming thought of the
absolute perfection of the realization of the divine purpose. Since
God is God nothing short of perfection in the manitestation of
His supremacy is tolerable or possible. And the devout Christian
believer in his prayers and worship cannot contemplate anything
less. Faith that lays hold on the promises of God regarding the
consummation is not a mere projection of one's fancy beyond a
sense of present imperfection and weakness to a vista or dream
of a better world. Rather it first ot all involves such an earnest
contemplation of the goal of history — in terms of the manifestation
of the divine supremacy, the hallowing of the divine name, and
the doing of the divine wül — that compromise of this goal by
anything short of a final and absolutely perfect consummation is
inconceivable.
At the same time, however, there is within the New Testament
a broader perspective which embraces within eschatology not only
the consummation itself and the immediately preceding events,
but also the past and present realization ot the plan ot redemption
through and in Christ. To use some modern terms, the Biblical
teaching includes realized eschatology, or eschatology in process
of realization, as well as that which remains unrealized and awaits
the telos. To use Paul's words, salvation is nearer than when we
first believed (Rom. 13: 11), but it is also an accompHshed fact
(Eph. 2: 8). If justice were to be done to the radical nature of the
transformation effected in Christ, it appears that the treasury of
specifically eschatological language had to be drawn upon. Thus
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Studentenalmanak | 350 Pagina's