[Index] [Previous] [Next]
1.3.4 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Origin of Christianity
Jesus - The Kingdom as a Future Reality
But Jesus thought of the kingdom of God at the same time as a future reality, existing in the midst of a new and changed environment, after the end of the present world. This appears not simply in the apocalyptic discourses gathered together in the later chapters of our Synoptic Gospels, but also in various utterances belonging apparently to different periods of his ministry. Such as the following:
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by the name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." [Matt 7:21,22]
"And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." [Matt 7:11,12 -- Luke 8:28-29].
"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels." [Luke 9:26, Matt16: 27]
Indeed, in the light of such passages a s these, it is clear that his proclamation of the coming of the kingdom, with which Jesus began his ministry, had reference not chiefly to the formation of a company of disciples, by which the kingdom was made a present reality, but to the final consummation, for which it behooved every one to prepare himself by repentance.
Jesus' conception of the future kingdom was doubtless due in part to Jewish influence, but in still larger part to his own experience. His all-controlling consciousness of the fatherly love of God, not simply for Israel as a nation, but for himself and his brethren as individuals, and his conviction of man's divine sonship, must have invested with a new and profound significance the common belief in personal immortality.
He must have found the chief value of the future life in the fact that it was to open to the individual the perfect knowledge of his divine father's will and the privilege of intimate and unbroken communion with him. But when at the time of he baptism and temptation Jesus reached the conviction that in the realization of man's divine sonship consists the essence of the Messianic kingdom, he must have reached the farther conviction that in the complete and perfect and eternal realization of that sonship, which was to be the characteristic mark of the future life with God, the Messianic kingdom would also find its complete and perfect and eternal realization.
Thus he was led to look forward to a time of consummation, and thus he was able to do it without involving himself in the material and sensuous ideas of his countrymen. How widely Jesus' idea of the future kingdom differed from that of most of his countrymen appears in the significant answer which he gave the Sadducees: "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven" [Matt 22:30]. In the light of such an utterance as this, and also of the general tendency of Jesus' teaching, it seems necessary to interpret the passages in which eating and drinking in the kingdom of the future eon are spoken of [Luke 8:29, 22:30; Mark 14:25] in a figurative sense.
But it is conceivable that Jesus might have looked forward to the complete and perfect realization of the kingdom in the future life with God without picturing a crisis separating the future from the present, such as was expected by the Jews in general. It is possible, indeed, that in the earlier days of his ministry that crisis was not in his mind. But however that may be, he cannot have preached long without discovering that there were many of his countrymen who would not repent in response to his appeals and live the life of God's sons, and who therefore could not share in the eternal blessedness of the kingdom which he proclaimed.
When he was convinced of this, the necessity of a judgment, by which should be determined man's fitness for the Messianic kingdom, was of course apparent. Jesus cannot have preached long, moreover, without realizing that the hostility of the authorities, so early manifested, would result in his speedy execution. Whether Jesus foresaw his execution from the beginning, or whether the realization of it grew upon him gradually, we cannot certainly tee. But when he saw that he was to die before the nation was won, and consequently before the time was ripe for the consummation, it was inevitable, unless he were to give up his belief in his own Messiahship, as of course he could not do, that he should think of himself as coming again to announce the consummated kingdom and to fulfil in preparation therefor the office of Messianic judge.
The imagery of a return upon the clouds of heaven is taken from the Book of Daniel; but though that book may have colored Jesus' thought upon the subject, and though his belief in his own return and in his exercise of judgment may have found confirmation in Scripture and tradition, that belief had its ultimate basis in his own Messianic consciousness. [The Messiah is represented as judge in Enoch, c 45, 55, 61, 69; and John the Baptist also thought of him as such, so that there can be no doubt that the idea was common. At the same time the belief that God was himself to act as judge was also widespread. (Cf. IV, Esdras 6:1, 7:33; Enoch 40:20, and the Assumptio Mosis, Chapt 10)].
Jesus distinctly disavows, in reply to his disciples' questions, a knowledge of the date of his return, informing them that God alone is cognizant of it. [Mark 8:32]. And yet he apparently expected it to take place at an early day. It is true that there are some utterances which apparently imply the lapse of a considerable interval before the consummation; as, for instance, the parables concerning the growth of the kingdom, and especially Mark 13:10, where it is said, "the gospel must first be preached unto all the nations." But such utterances are not absolutely irreconcilable with Jesus' expectation of a speedy return, and our sources contain so many indications of that expectation that it is difficult to question it.
There are some passages, indeed, which, taken as they stand, represent him as prophesying that the consummation would come even before the death of those to whom he spoke. [Matt 16:28, 24:34, Mark 9:1, 13:30; Luke 9:27, 21:32] But it is difficult from such passages to determine with assurance exactly what he thought and said; for the extended apocalyptic discourses, which contain most of his declarations upon the subject, are made up of numerous detached sayings, very likely uttered on different occasions and referring perhaps to various events. The Evangelists bring them together in such a way that they seem to have been spoken at one time, and to refer to the same event.
We cannot be certain, therefore, that Jesus declared that the Son of Man would return within the lifetime of some of those whom he addressed. But the Evangelists, and with them the early Christians in general, believed that he did; and thought they may have misunderstood him, they could hardly have done so unless he had given expression to his expectation at least of an early consummation, an expectation which was entirely in line with all we know of his conception of the kingdom. [See also, Mark 14:25; Luke 18:8].
Used by permission of the publisher.
[Index] [Previous] [Next]