The Spirit as Evidence of the "Presence of the FUTURE.
(The Visitation of God through the Spirit establishes Believers as a thoroughly Eschatological People who live the life of the future in the present as they await the CONSUMMATION)
In the Light of this, Professor Gordon Fee was asked what would be his Pastoral Purpose? "I would set about with a single passion to help the local body of believers recapture the NT Understanding of itself as an eschatological Community.
[Eschatology has to do with the Time of the End) This leads to the jewish Hope that God would through the Messiah bring a dramatic End to the present Age
fig 1.
The Present Age l The Coming Age
_____________________________________________________________
Satan's time l God's Time
sin l righteousness
sickness l wholeness
death l resurrection
no Spirit l the Spirit
_____________________________________________________________
The new Testament believers because of the Coming of the Spirit believed the OT Hope had been fulfilled. It began with the work of Christ and their experience of the Promised Holy Spirit.
THE END
________________________________fig.2______________________________________________
Begun Consummate
The Present age l___________________________>l The Coming Age
a Time of the
"flesh" l Between the times l The Time of the Spirit
Note: Jesus and the Proclamation of the Kingdom. as Real in His Ministry but in the Future.
Because of the Death and resurrection of Christ and the Coming of the Holy Spirit the end times were set in motion.
They awaited the resurrection of their bodies at the Second Coming of Christ.
They lived in between the times. ALREADY the future had begun, NOT YET had it been completely fulfilled. This is the Eschatological framework which determines everything about the NT Church. - how they lived/ how they thought /how they understoodtheir place in the world, abot to disappear on out of the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment