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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