Realised Eschatology

Clement Dodd wrote on realised eschatology, as did others like him. They make many good points. Most of what Dodd says is correct, in seeing that the kingdom of Christ came when Jesus came 2,000 years ago. The critical truth to see is that Jesus is our eschaton. In Him all God’s promises are realised and He lives in us. This is what Paul taught in Gal 2:20. We are already at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

In Luke 11:20 Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God then is the kingdom come to you.”. The kingdom is present in the person of Jesus, the King. But then Jesus said at the Last Supper that the kingdom would come before He would next drink wine, meaning it was coming very soon (Luke 22:18). This is Christ coming to live in us at Pentecost. He is the kingdom and He has come to His church.

Dodd showed from the New Testament, especially from John's Gospel, that that apocalyptic kingdom is already present in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Dodd claimed that the apocalyptic prophecies of the kingdom have already been fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus.

There is no doubt that the early disciples believed that the kingdom came at Pentecost. Pentecost was definitely a parousia of Christ. However, over-realised eschatology does not recognize the resurrection at the end of this world as the final consummation of the kingdom and is contrary to scripture and the main church creeds.

Summary

This chapter has reviewed three themes:

1. The term last-days should be understood in its Hebrew biblical context and not in a 21st Century mindset. The term end-times does not describe the Second Coming of Christ but the transition from the Old to New Covenants.

2. Matthew 24 should be interpreted according to the same texts and phrases found in the Old Testament and not by a Hellenized mindset foreign to the disciples at the time.

3. The terms New Heaven and New Earth speak of the gospel era which now is, climaxing at the end of this age with the Second Coming of Christ and eternity.