“Last Things”

We have seen that Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God—God’s loving and righteous rule in the world. Jesus taught that the kingdom was already present in him and in his followers but that its full realization lay in the future.

The Letter to the Hebrews, for example, describes Christians as “those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:4). Similarly, Paul’s letters speak of world-transforming events that had already occurred, such as the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon his followers, but they also look forward to events that would take place at the end of the age. Greek-speaking Christians called these events ta eschata, “the last things.” They include eschatological events such as the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment, and the glorious consummation of the kingdom of God.

Most early Christians assumed that the end of their age was not far off. As time passed, however, many came to believe that the consummation of the kingdom would occur within a spiritual context rather than in an earthly kingdom. There is a biblical basis for this view in the Gospel of John, whose “realized eschatology” holds that events such as judgment and resurrection into eternal life have already been realized in the interior lives of believers. Both points of view are still very much alive today, and so it is fair to say that Christians hold a wide range of opinions with respect to the time and nature of the fulfillment of God’s purposes in the world.