Inaugurated eschatology is the belief in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Ch ...

that the end times were inaugurated in the

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

and resurrection of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, 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 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." George Eldon Ladd, ''A Theology of the New Testament'' (1993)
page 70
This approach was first developed by Geerhardus Vos, especially in his 1930 work, ''The Pauline Eschatology''. Later, Oscar Cullmann sought to combine the " thorough-going eschatology" of

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and French polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, ...

with the " realized eschatology" of C. H. Dodd. Cullmann suggested the analogy of

D Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

and V Day to illustrate the relationship between Jesus's death and resurrection on the one hand, and his

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

on the other. Inaugurated eschatology was popularized by Ladd, 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 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