Inaugurated eschatology is the belief in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...

that the end times were inaugurated in the

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

, and thus there are both "already" and "not yet" aspects to the

Kingdom of God The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" ...

George Eldon Ladd George Eldon Ladd (July 31, 1911 – October 5, 1982) was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, known in Christian eschatology for his promotion of inaugura ...

suggests that the Kingdom of God is "not only an eschatological gift belonging to the Age to Come; it is also a gift to be received in the old aeon."

, ''A Theology of the New Testament'' (1993)
page 70
This approach was first developed by

Geerhardus Vos Geerhardus Johannes Vos (March 14, 1862 – August 13, 1949) was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theolog ...

, especially in his 1930 work, ''The Pauline Eschatology''. Later, Oscar Cullmann sought to combine the "thorough-going eschatology" of Albert Schweitzer with the " realized eschatology" of C. H. Dodd. Cullmann suggested the analogy of D Day and V Day to illustrate the relationship between Jesus' death and resurrection on the one hand, and his

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messia ...

on the other. Inaugurated eschatology was popularized by

, especially among American evangelicals. Stephen Um notes that as evangelicals "began to explore the meaning of inaugurated eschatology for evangelical theology, they were almost always either explicitly or implicitly in conversation with Ladd's work." D. A. Carson sees

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

5:24 ("whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life", NIV) as giving the "strongest affirmation of inaugurated eschatology in the Fourth Gospel": it is not necessary for the believer to "wait until the last day to experience something of resurrection life." D. A. Carson, ''The Gospel According to John'' (Apollos, 1991), p. 256. Some view Inaugurated Eschatology as a Kingdom theology that goes against a literal reading of Kingdom passages in the New Testament. They point to passages such as Acts 1:6 where the Apostles are seen awaiting the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel immediately prior to the ascension of Jesus as demonstrating that the Kingdom has not been established in any way. George N. H. Peters writes extensively on the future-Kingdom approach in his three-volume classic, "The Theocratic Kingdom." Alternatively, this could be interpreted as the Apostles awaiting for the earthly establishment of Jesus's kingdom in its full glory.

References

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External links

Is the Kingdom Present or Future?
by John Piper Christian terminology Christian eschatology

See also

References

External links