Unmasking the Eschatology of Christians and other Faiths: A Source of Fear, Paranoia, Hostility or Hope

Abstract This paper seeks to compare and contrast the early church and thecontemporary Christians grasp of the eschaton: Is it a source of fear, paranoia, hostility or hope? The early Church largely expected an imminent return of Christ. However, since then this imminent returned has been protracted. Thus the debate on whethereschatology is a source of fear, paranoid, hostility or hope has been raging for centuries. This concern will not disappear, particularly as African Christians and the entire global community face the various problems of social existence— corruption, social injustice, poverty, violence, terrorism, instability1 and so on—which are in all respects the byproducts of the paradox of man. As contemporary Christians face these apparently insurmountable challenges, it is critical and necessary to bring Christian eschatology to the fore. Two or morefundamental reasons necessitate this: First, if you take way the eschaton in Christian worldview and morality the Christian present or future life will be empty and incredibly miserable. The idea of the end of time and space will be a source of crippling fear, paranoia and hostility, instead of hope. Second, with secularism and naturalistic humanism lethally colonizing public sphere in the West and North America, eschatological perspectives which sustained and stabilized Christian ethics and hopes are being eroded. Third, this chapter argues that eschatology is extremely important in forming Christian beliefs, ethics and morality. Therefore, we need to ascertain contemporary Christian view of it. We need to re-examine whether Christian eschatology is a source of paranoia, fear, hostility orhope by comparing and contrasting periods of Christian faith as well as comparing Christian eschatology with those of other major

1 Emmanuel M. Katongoel, A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination (Chicago: The University of Scranton Press, 2005), xi.

faiths in African and the globe. To do so this chapter situates the biblical language of eschatology within the different discourses and beliefs about this life, death, judgment, the ‘after life’ and the ushering in of a new heaven and new earth. The primary goal is to see how their beliefs in the eschaton sustained the faith of the different epochs of the persecuted generation of the redeemed community.

INTRODUCTION

And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in theworld.—Apostle Paul.

It can also be said the other way round, if our hope is only forthe eschaton, we will not see the possibility of change in aworld infested with human hostilities. The Good News is,Christian eschatology sets the moral and ethical agendas forhuman comprehensive and wholistic worldview. Eschatologydetermines the shape of Christian current cultural, economic,social and moral life. This is illustrated by the followingeschatological poem, which helped the early Christians to standfirm in the face of very dehumanizing treatment and gruesomedestruction of human life:

If we [Christians] die with Him, we will also live with Him;If we endure hardship, we will reign with HimIf we deny Him, He will deny us.If we are unfaithful, He remain faithful, for He cannot denywho He is (2Timothy 2:11-13)

This “trustworthy saying,” as Paul calls, shows that eschatology,for the Christian, is complex. It can inspire fear, paranoia and hope, but not hostility. It also confirms that “God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: ‘The LORD knows those who are His,’ and ‘All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil’” (2 Tim. 2:19, cf 19a with Numbers 6:5;and 19b with Isaiah 52:11). This poem was central to the way the early Christians lived and endured their situation of persecution, suffering, pain and death.

However, during Paul’s day the delay in the imminent return of Christ led some Christians to create a situation of fear, paranoia and hostility by “claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith” (2 Tim. 2:18). That led Paul to argue: And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. So Paul intensified his exhortations. He argued that in order for Christians to experience the eschaton they needto live a life of constant resistance to all forms of evil. They were, to specifically, “Pursue righteousness living, faithfulness, love and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts” (2 Tim. 2:22). They must remember that: “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patience with difficult people” ([italics mine,] 2 Timothy 2:24). Christian eschatology inspires hope in changing the present situation of life: “Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s heart, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have bene held captive by him to do whatever he wants” (2 Timothy 2:26).

This picture of the expectation of a glorious eschaton which setsthe moral and ethical agendas for Christian life in the present is being eclipsed. As such we are witnessing increasing human corruptions, social injustices and hostilities. In the West, it has gradually been replaced with retirement plans. This situationfits a general phenomenon across cultures whereby men and women are looking for change, for a better or different tomorrow, yet it does not occur to them that the idea of a glorious futures impacts and influences the present way of life.2 Some scholars

2 Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 26.

have mistakenly argued that eschatology is a reflection about eternal things— the end of the present world, death, judgment andthe afterlife. Every living human being has to face the reality of death, judgment and reward. But we argue in this chapter that eschatological thinking provides a mental template on which to build a fundamental and comprehensive worldview which impacts ourpresent ethics and morality. Suffice it to note that this chapterundertakes a reexamination of contemporary Christian’s view of eschatology and how it shapes their beliefs and practices in the contemporary world;3 a world steeped in numerous problems of socio-political existence—corruption, injustice, terrorism, persecution, power over instead of power with, impoverishment, dehumanization, instability, poverty, ethnic and religious rivalries, and so on. Beyond the question of whether eschatologyis a source of fear, paranoid or hope, we need to examine the salient role eschatological dream plays in the formation of some of these social, political and religious problems. To gain a richer grasp of the matter, an integrative approach is preferred.

A Potent Challenge to the Eschatology of Contemporary Christianity

The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.—Napoleon Hill.

Contemporary Christianity seems to suffer from a catastrophic eschatological anesthesia. Secularism and humanism have succeededin colonizing the public sphere in that Christians are gradually losing grip of their eschatological worldview. This development

3 Matthew A. Ojo, “Eschatology and the African Society: The Critical Point of Disjunction” Ogbomosho Journal of Theology, vol. XI, 2006,” 94.

is grievously dangerous at a time when radicalized Islam is radicalizing Christianity in the global South. By and large, the contemporary global community is under siege. Money and sex have undercut all other vital moral values to the extent that corruption and social injustices have taken center stage in our politics: Many of our elites only love themselves and their money. As a result, youths across the globe are being radicalizedby religious enthusiasts and opportunists. For example, youths across the global community are rising up against their politicalleaders. They are protesting the increasing problems of unemployment, humiliation and dehumanization, which they blame onthe corruption and social injustices of the elites. They see whatis going on as the elite’s lack of political will to change the status quo. No longer willing to wait, they are demanding immediate change to the status quo so that concrete democratic cultures which ensure human flourishing will be enthroned. They are saying “No social justice no peace!” That is, they want to experience peace and justice, free press, rule of law and so on. They want to be allowed to participate as stakeholders of the affairs of their nations and do so as dignified human beings. With such highly charged social milieu, any situation of unemployment spells doom to these youths and dashes their hope for a future. Therefore, unemployment is unacceptable because they see it as a symptom of a systemic structure of social injustices produced by obsessive corruption, which the elites perpetuate. As such the youth want to revenge social injustice so that they will see an end to it. They do not want it to continue to destroy their hope for a future. That is partly why youths in the Middle-East, in Europe and Asia want an end to misrule and the establishment of democratic civilization. In northern Nigeria, the Boko Haram sect wants an end to corrupt political leadership. “Instability across the Sahel region,” saidformer president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, “is driven by exclusion and marginalization of parts of the population and the

failure of governments to pay heed and to provide basis services.That leads to frustration, agitation and, left unaddressed, to violence and is extreme form, terrorism.”4 We are under the siegeof those who love only themselves and their money.

Suffice it to say that in the midst of this siege there is opportunity: Authentic Christian eschatology holds hope, not fearand paranoid for the true believer. It has the idea of the “final[re]solution” of all the unresolvable problems of human hostilities, sufferings and pains. This development should make eschatological discourse very potent and poignant. This was what happened in the 1950s and 1960s, when civil unrest threatened democratic societies, apocalyptic visions were increasingly promoted. It was around this time that Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: “Man is the kind of animal who cannot merely live. If he lives atall he is bound to seek the realization of his true nature; and to his true nature, belongs his fulfillment in the lives of others. The will to live is thus transmuted into the will to self-realization; and self-realization involves self-giving in relation to others.”5 Any situation that tampers with this human reality, which Niebuhr described, will create tension and chain of violent reactions. It will exacerbate fear of the unknown and the desire for an end of undesirable elements in human society. The current wave of global and politically motivated moral and ethical crises threatens the future of humanity and may raise apocalyptic vision high. In sum, the achievement of universal peace and justice eludes humanity and creates the desire for change.6 The critical matter in apocalyptic movements is a human desire for universal peace and justice, which is the goal of life. Hence, “Christian universalism” was born in the atmosphere

4 “Nigeria Ex-President Obasanjo: Advance Africa’s Democracy with Exit Ramp for Leaders” published: April 24, 2015 by United State Institute for Peace. Retrieved on April 29, 2015, www.usip.org 5 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Light (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960), 19.6 Niebuhr, The Children of Light, 156.

of this (Hebraic) apocalyptic movement, proclaiming to the world the end of an era of racial and ethnic difference: “In Christ,” Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3: 28)

Eschatology is rooted in the essence of Christian quest for transformation in this life. Thus it requires turning away from alife of wickedness to a life of right living, which is characterized by a way of life that honours and respects God’s revealed truth.7 The nature and scope of the study of eschatologyfalls under the rubric of human worldviews.8 To this we now turn.

The Nature and Scope of Christian Eschatology

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.—John F. Kennedy

Christian eschatological orientation is often expected to producemoral and ethical templates that guide its adherents in any givengeneration. Eschatology requires us to know who are now and what will be in the future. It inspires hope for the present and the hereafter. For example, St. John writes: “Dear children, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him forwe shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him

7 John writes: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim tohave fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). He further said, “We know thatwe have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). See also 2 John 4-5 NIV.8 Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 71.

purifies himself, just as he is pure.”9 Eschatology is the beliefabout the final outcome of human life, belief and practice—good or bad—and the rest of God’s creation. It is about the link between the present and the future, particularly what the future holds in store for all humans and all of God’s creation.10 Christian eschatology is generally defined as the doctrine of thelast things, the end of the present world of time and space.

Some proponents of this perspective have tended to see eschatology as independent from the Christian doctrine of creation. Eschatology is both and individual and a corporate idea. It is both cosmic (universal) and particular. Its major theoretical and ideological concerns are not only about the end of times and space but also about the present. It is a belief that is rooted in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures which gives a positive picture of the end of this present earth and the galaxies and the ushering in of a new heaven and new earth. From the vintage point of humanity the present body will be translatedinto a celestial body, mortality to immortality, the end of suffering and death and the experience of permanent joy, peace, security and freedom. In the Christian Scripture there are beliefs known as ‘the millennial beliefs,’ which, as Matthew A. Ojo observed, are generally sustained by four major factors:

1. Firstly, there is a dualistic worldview in which the world is seen as a battleground between good and evil, and we the faithful often side with God.

2. Secondly, events are interpreted in time perspectives and very often, particular dates can be set, i.e. the entry points into a millennium, as had happened in 2000.11 9 1 John 3:2-3.10 Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 45.11Jesus said regarding the time of His Return, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mt. 24:36 cf 25:19). Yet, Christians across the centuries havetried to predict the following dates: 1248, 1306, 1689, 1792, 1836, 1844, 1914, 1936, 1960, 1974, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, and 2011 (“Rethinking the Second Coming of Christ” Pew Research Forum, accessed July

3. Thirdly, certain sensational events have fuelled apocalypticprophecies, particularly when they are interpreted as historical events leading towards the consummation of the end. A revelatory understanding of world social and political events or the power to attempt allegorical or symbolical interpretations all that are needed in selecting,interpreting and applying certain events to human lives.

4. Lastly, millennial groups often conceive salvation within the collective realm. The individual functions only within the group expectation, and the millennialist vision often looks towards the end time when all the faithful will be redeemed. Consequently preparations for the millennial end are done collectively. Within this context, charismatic leaders with messianic beliefs often thrive well. The salvation hoped for could be interpreted culturally, politically or religiously. 12

Ojo is addressing only one group of people whose understanding ofeschatology shapes their worldview and impacts their ethics and praxis. Millennialists are not the only group of Christian peoplewho belief in eschatology, as Brian E. Daley demonstrates below. In his extensive study of the eschatological faith of the early Church, Daley noted that eschatological faith finds expression indifferent dimensions.

1. For people living under oppression or persecution, eschatological hope has often meant simply the overriding, radically optimistic sense that the present intolerable order of things is about to end. This sense of crisis, of challenge and promise, has usually been expressed by Christians in apocalyptic images: dramatic expectations of cosmic violence that will destroy the world and its institutions completely and let God begin again, powerfully saving his own.

2. For people living in times of social or economic strain, eschatological hope has meant a similarly strong

7, 2013).12 Ojo, “Eschatology and the African Society…”, 95.

conviction that the world is “growing old,” running out of resources, facing depletion from within, and a similartrust that the end of its natural processes will mean thebeginning of a new world, and for humanity a fresh start.

3. For others, living in periods of great public security and of individual freedom and competitiveness, eschatological hope has often been something quite difficult: an ordered doctrine of the “last things,” personal expectation of final justice and retribution, personal longing for rest and satisfaction in a new life that will begin at death.

4. For the philosophical cultivate believer, eschatology canbe the expression in future terms of underlying assumptions about the true nature of the mind, the personand the material world.

5. For the intensely religious person—the ascetic or the mystic—it can mean a trust that union with God in knowledge and love, which has already begun in this present life of faith, will someday be consummated in an existence free from all the limits and shadows.13

Daley’s analysis underscores the fact that eschatology is fundamentally a doctrine that touches all cultures and contexts of human existence. His analysis lends credence to the claim thatChristian eschatology is not uniquely a Christian innovation. Allhumans have some sense of eschatology in their worldviews. This leads to the question, what is “hope” as it pertains to humankindin the midst of suffering? What are the implications of our Hopebeing an omnipotent God who promises to be with us always? Most importantly, “Is Christian eschatology a source of fear, paranoid, hostility or hope?” To answer these questions one needsto acknowledge that every human being born into this world has perception of the end of life. The desire for happiness, security, peace and freedom from a life of suffering or pain causes us to look forward to a time when these human desires and needs could be perfectly realized.

13 Brian Edward Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1991, 1993), 15-16.

The Christian doctrine of eschatology fits this desire to see theend of a broken and decaying world, which brings with it all forms of hardship and disappointments. It also has the idea of the last judgment and final punishment that will send people to their eternal destinations: hell or paradise. A true believer in Christ knows that he or she will not be condemned to hell becauseJesus Christ has paid the price for his or her sins. But those who have no hope in the salvation of Christ have no other choice than to face the fear of the last punishment. “The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” In the next section we discuss how the eschatological belief functions across religious cultures.

The Role of Eschatological Beliefs across Cultures

When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared towhat?’”—Sydney Harris

All eschatological hopes have shared understanding. They center on how the present life has implication to the life to come: the end of life, the afterlife and the judgment that results. This judgment is specifically on what one has done with the body whilein this life.

1. The eschatology of ancient Paganism

The ancient pagan world believed in the end of life. The belief is about the end of things and life after death. Since pagan societies do not have special revelation, only general revelation, when they talk about life after death, their perception is limited to what is possible in this life. They use their present worldview to interpret what the future might look like. They carry their understanding of this life into the imagined future. Their eschatological beliefs are “very much this-worldly features: peace and security, social stability,

crops and harvests, large families and good fortunes.”14 In the ancient world, “Many believed, despite evidence to the contrary, that a strong central ruler would guarantee freedom, peace, and future security.” 15 In ancient paganism, ‘the last things’ include the intermediate state of existence: The Persian term “Paradise” was employed, not necessarily for the final destination of resurrection, but sometimes at least (e.g. 1 Enoch37-70) for the peaceful garden where people rested before their new bodily life began.” 16 Given that most pagan societies operatewithin the confines of general revelation their eschatological beliefs are often eclipsed and beclouded by uncertainties. Their eschatological thoughts and hopes are likely to be a source of fear, paranoid and hostility. This is not to say that all Christians who hold eschatological belief do not face this same temptation.

2. The Eschatology of ancient Judaism

As the chosen people of God, the Jews received God’s special revelation. When the think of the future they are likely to go back to the biblical text to study what their prophets have told them about what God has said will happen. But there are times that they still have to face the challenge of living in a world of human limitation and doubt. Therefore, to give them a future with hope, they employ the concept of resurrection as one of the beliefs that encourages them to go on in spite of lack of certainty. N.T. Wright observed, “The Jewish hope burst the bounds of ancient paganism altogether by speaking of resurrection.” 17 According to Wright, the second temple Judaism had developed a concept of resurrection to help it figure out theeschatological incentives that were needed to survive the

14 N.T. Wright, “Sketches: Jesus’ Resurrection & Christian Origins” in Stimulus Vol. 16, No. 1, February 2008, p.41.15 Wright, “Sketches: Jesus’ Resurrection & Christian Origins,” 42.16 Wright, “Sketches,”42.17 Wright, “Sketches,”42.

occupation of their land by the Romans. Wright says that the term‘resurrection’ in both paganism and Judaism refers to the reversal, the undoing, the conquest of death and its effects.18 Resurrection, in other words, means being given back one’s body, or perhaps God creating a new similar body, sometime after death.19 In the Jewish socio-cultural and socioreligious contexts, it is not everybody that agrees with the conception of resurrection after death.20

3. The Eschatology of the Early Christians

In the Early Church, eschatological language was ingrained in thoughts of a contrast between imminence and transcendence. Because of the presence of evil in the world, there is always a quest for paradise which produced disillusionment, fear, paranoidand despair. 21 The first century Christians saw their era as “thelast hour.” In his writings St. John categorically asserts, “Thisis the last hour.”22 He further said, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever…. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” 23 Inshort, for the first century Christian eschatology entails the facing out of the old world of human passion and desires which are not in line with God’s purposes. They believed that Jesus wasgoing to return immediately.24 They needed such a strong dosage

18 Wright, “Sketches,”42.19 Wright, “Sketches,”42.20 Wright, “Sketches,” 42.21 Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 16. Lincoln points out that “the issue of a transcendent dimension still plays a major role in the cultural andreligious scene, is integral to contemporary theological debate and is crucial for determining the life-style of both the Church and the individual Christian” (p. 18).22 1 John 2:18 NIV.23 1 John 2:17, 28 NIV. 24 Daley, The Hope of the Early Church, 17.

of conviction and belief to sustain them through the turbulence years of persecution.

Their expectation was delayed. The delay was good, though frustrating. It gave them time to re-conceptualize and re-express“the community’s conviction that it was called to share in the divine life and power that had been bestowed on the risen Lord.”25 Of course, the development of the early Christian faith was complex and cyclical than some theologians tend to assume.26 The social and ecclesia challenges they faced necessitated a cyclical and complex approach to their eschatological faith.27 Yet, Wright tells us that the early Christian belief in the resurrection has a more coherent currency than what was obtainable in Judaism. He states, “In early Christianity, obviously in Paul but not only there, resurrection will be an actof new creation, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, and the body which is to be is already planned by God.” 28 The terminologies they used were not ambiguous as is the case today. He writes, “When the early Christians speak of a new body in heaven, or an inheritance in heaven, they mean what St. John the Divine means in Rev. 21: “The new identity which at present is kept safe in heaven will be brought from heaven to earth at the great moment of renewal.” 29 Wright argues that “Mainstream early Christianity did indeed hope for resurrection....” 30 The language of resurrection is an eschatological incentive in all of the New Testament and much of the apocalyptic genres of the Old Testament. For Paul, “The age to come has been opened up already in its initial stages by the resurrection of Christ and can be

25 Daley, The Hope of the Early Church, 17.26 Matthew Ojo’s thesis that African Christians’ have not eschatologicalhope because African worldview is cyclical presupposes that it is the only cyclical worldview. (See his article, “Eschatology and the African Society”, Ogbomosho Journal of Theology, 97).27 Daley, The Hope of the Early Church, 17.28 Wright, “Sketches,” 43.29 Wright, “Sketches,” 43.30 Wright, “Sketches,” 43-44.

seen to exist at present in heaven, but not until the consummation will this directly affect the believer’s body. It isonly at the Parousia of Christ from heaven that the believer willreceive his or her heavenly body. Union with Christ is determinative for both stages of experience of the age to come (2Cor. 4:14).” 31 Indeed it is evident that in Paul’s eschatologicallanguage, “Heaven is the place where Christ rules as Lord from God’s right hand (cf. Col. 3:1f; Eph. 1:20f) and so naturally thestate which governs the believer’s life is to be found where his or her Lord is.” 32 The language of eschatology… involves both vertical and horizontal referent, spatial and temporal categories.

The Eschaton helped Primitive Christians to endure Persecution

Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.—James Buckham.

If we will adequately answer the question of whether eschatology is a source of fear, paranoia or hope we have to look at the early Christians of the first and second centuries. We catch a glim of what their take on eschatology was from the writings of the Apostles. In talking with his son in the Lord, Timothy, Paul states,

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, butof power, love and self-discipline…. By the appearing of Christ, our Savior…. He broke the power death and illuminated the way of life and immortality through the GoodNews. And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News. That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know thee One

31 Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 129.32 Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 129.

in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard whatI have entrusted to Him until the day of His return.33

In this text, there is a firm belief in the Trinitarian theology—theology, Christology and pneumatology—which inherently and coherently connects the past, the present and the future together. The interplay of the past, present and future have a huge influence on the present: ethics and morality is created: power with, love and self-discipline. These ethical and moral traits play a significant role in our perspectives on present experiences of sufferings and disgraces. In the past, God broke the power of death. God called and chose people to be preachers, apostles and teachers of the Good News: The appearing of Christ, our Savior. In the future our Savior Jesus Christ will return. Soas we live in this present life, nothing can intimidate us, humiliate us, threatens us.

Beyond Paul’s and the other apostles’ generation, we have evidences of the early Christians continuing to count their livesworth nothing than to suffer for Christ’s sake. “Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Josiah W. Leeds tells of how because of Christ’s salvific act on the cross, eschatologicalperspective was not just a hope for the future but hope for what is possible now. Leeds paints a picture of how the early believers did not see eschatology as something that has to do with the future only but as a concept that keeps faith alive and well even in the present. In their genuine portrayal of hope for a future we see a thread: the eschaton gives hopes for present possibilities of change. This hope makes it much easier for the Christians to endure persecution. They saw themselves as a profound witness to the truth that God has called us to be the

33 2 Timothy 1:8-12 NLT.

true light that shines in the darkness that stands between the present age and the new heaven and the new earth that we are asked to ‘wait, watch and hasten.’34 Leeds draws from the writings of the early fathers. For example, in the writings of Justin Martyr this revelation is very poignant. ‘Justin Martyr was born at Neapolis, of Samaria—the modern Nablouse—about A. D. 114. He was diligent in studying the various philosophies, especially those of Stoics, Platonists and Pythagoreans; but finally, having discovered the emptiness of them all, was converted to Christianity. He travelled much, and hence was well-informed as to that whereof he wrote. At Rome, in the year 165, and in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, he suffered martyrdom.’35 Before his martyrdom however, Just Martyr wrote twosignificant apologies.

The first Apology was addressed to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and the people; the second Apology, to the Roman Senate. Theextracts which follow are from those writings. These extracts arevery revealing. The extracts illustrate the significant role eschatology played in the life of the early Christians. Justin Martyr writes:

‘And when you hear that we look for a kingdom, you suppose, without making any inquiry, that we speak of a human kingdom; whereas, we speak of that which is with God, as appears also from the confession of their faith made by those who are charged with being Christians, though they know that death is the punishment awarded to him who so confesses. For if we looked for a human kingdom, we should also deny our Christ, that we might not be slain; and we should strive to escape detection, that we might obtain what we expect. But, since our thoughts are not fixed on the present, we are

34 Jürgen Moltmann, Ethics of Hope (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 6-8.35 Josiah W. Leeds, The Primitive Christian Estimate of War and Self-Defense, (New Vienna, Ohio: Peace Association of Friends in America, 1908), 5.

not concerned when men cut us off: since also death is a debt which must at all events be paid. 36

Justin’s writing illustrates how the coming of Christ created a Biblical Christianity which provides its adherents with a richer worldview. This worldview enables hope for a transforming presentand a peaceful future. This hope enables Christ’s adherents to collapse the present with the future. That is, ‘In hope we link far-off goals with goals within reach.’ 37 This worldview is comparably different from a non-Christian worldview, which is characterized by the idea of a future with fear and paranoid. To some extent, fear and paranoia are not necessary evil. But like Moltmann argues, they “are early warning systems of possible dangers and are necessary for living. As long as potential dangers can be discerned and named, they give rise to fears whichimpel us to do what is necessary in good time, and so to avert the dangers.’38 However, the Christian fear and paranoia are different from those of unbelievers or pagans. The hope that eschatology inspires comes from a radical transformation that hastaken place. Justin Martyr alludes to that went he argues:

We who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavorto persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a rewardfrom God, the ruler of all.

And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks in this way: ‘For outof Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord

36 Josiah W. Leeds, The Primitive Christian Estimate of War and Self-Defense, (New Vienna, Ohio: Peace Association of Friends in America, 1908), 5.37 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 3.38 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 3.

from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and hey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nationshall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’ And that it did so come to pass we can convince you. For from Jerusalem there went out into the world men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimedto every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God; and we who formerly used to murder one another, do not only now refrain from a king war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie or deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ. but if the soldiers enrolled by you, and who have taken the military oath, prefers their allegiance to their own life, and parents, and country and all kindred, though you can offer them nothing incorruptible, it were verily ridiculous if we,who earnestly long for incorruption, should not endure all things, in order to obtain what we desire from Him who is able to grant it. 39

The forgoing quote infers that what is happening now heralds God’s future, ‘So that Christian action, inspired by hope, becomethe anticipation of the coming kingdom in which righteousness andpeace kissed each other.’40 The period between Jesus Christ’s incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and the second coming or returning to earth is intrinsically linked. In other words, ‘God’s coming unfolds a transforming power in the present.’41 Thus Justin Martyr writes:

And we who we filled with war and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike 39 Josiah W. Leeds, The Primitive Christian Estimate of War and Self-Defense, (New Vienna, Ohio: Peace Association of Friends in America, 1908), 5.40 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 4.41 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 7.

weapons—our swords into plowshares, and our spears into implements of tillage—and we cultivate piety, righteousness,philanthropy, faith and hope, which we have from the Father himself, through him who was crucified. Now, it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world, … but the more such things happen [persecutions and deaths], the more do others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus.’ 42

It is instructive note that Justin Martyr reads the Isaiah prophecy not as something that is going to happen only in the future but also as a reality that is already happening in the Christian community across the globe. Our past life was a life offear, paranoia, hostility and even war. We were afraid of something as simple as human differences. We hated those who weredifferent from us. We were headhunters but now, in view of what Christ has done on the cross and what we hope for ahead; we have turned our swords to plowshares and our spears into pruning-hooks. That is our minds have been renewed and transformed. We are even enabled to absorb pains, sufferings and death because wehave incredible hope in an “incorruption.”

For the early Christians therefore, there was nothing like eschatology causing paranoia or fear. For like Moltmann observes,‘Christian hope is founded on Christ’s resurrection and opens up a life in the light of God’s new world.’ 43 An eschatology that inspires fear and paranoia is one that is overwhelmed by present crises to the extent of not seeing the chances and opportunities and possibilities in the crises. 44 As Martin Luther King Jr. profoundly puts it, ‘Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.’

42 Leeds, The Primitive Christian Estimate of War and Self-Defense, 6-7.43 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 5.44 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 4.

Fear, paranoia and hostility are intrinsically connected to this life and its morality and ethics. For example, when Prophet Isaiah wrote, ‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked,’45 that have eschatological implication. First of all, from a philosophical standpoint, both the noun ‘peace’ and the noun ‘wicked’ have moral values attached to them. On the one hand, “The moral includes people’s conceptions of righteousness and sin and their primary allegiances—their gods.” 46 On the otherhand, moral values are what God revealed in the Christian Scriptures as righteousness. These include, among other things, love, justice, righteousness, peace, compassion and so on.

In the early Church eschatology, there is an intrinsic connectionbetween the Gospel and the Gospel Giver, God. Thus, in Christian eschatology, God as well as the Gospel is the source of the explanation of what the future entails for humanity. So there is no how God and the Gospel can be at the periphery. For instance, in the light of the Christian message, Hang makes it abundantly clear

(i) that God is perceived as real in the reality of the world, since he discloses himself. The hidden God has the initiative: it is possible to know God because God makes himself known. Encounter with God, wherever and however it takes places, is God’s gift.

(ii) that what is expected from man is not a neutral reaction, but a recognition in trust of the truth of God as it discloses itself to him. In this sense any believing trust on man’s part, wherever and however it appears, is an effect produced by God operating in the reality of the world and this always means for man a kind of conversion: turning away from his own selfishness, turning to the wholly Other.

45 Isaiah 48:22; 57:21 NIV.46 Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 26.

(iii) that the Gospel will remain the decisive criterion. It does not simply provide an answer to our human questions, but even transforms this human, all-too-human questioning. It is an answer to these questions in their new form. In this sense it is a criticism, purification and deepening of human requirements. Hence Christian theology is in any case more than a theology adapted to these requirements. 47

With these basic guiding principles, Küng has laid down the procedure for analyzing the issue at stake: Is eschatology a source of fear, paranoid or hope? This question borders on eschatological orientation as we shall see below. To stress the centrality of God and the Gospel in theological eschatology is a belief that falls under the title of Christian doctrine and theology. Christian theology is not only the study of God, as some theologians presuppose, but also a study of how he interactswith his entire creation. Any encounter with the wholly Other through faith in Christ produces a positive effective: It restores humans back to the original purpose of God in creating humanity in His image and likeness. Christian theology of the eschaton is a belief in how God’s interaction with his creation is historically moving towards the ultimate fulfillment of God’s original purpose and intention for creation: “To bring all thingsin heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”48 That is, all events in history are moving toward fulfilling God’splan of collapsing the division between the heavens and the earthor between the Jews and the Gentiles; uniting all things under Christ’s headship. Jesus Christ is already the head of all thingsin heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18-20). So Christians, His disciples, live with the tension known as: “the already” and “thenot yet.” That is why today, faith in the finished work of Christis destroying the devil’s work, which is the source of fear and

47 Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, translated by Edward Quinn (New York: Doubleday & Company, INC, 1976), 84-85.48 Ephesians 1:6 NIV.

paranoid in this life and even in the imagined life after death. According to the Gospel, any person who places saving faith in Christ, instead of eschatology becoming the source of fear and paranoid, it is supposed to be a source of hope and peace.

4. The Eschatology of the Patristic Period

The early Church continued to face challenges, particularly during the patristic period. Patristic eschatology contains some philosophical influences. Western Christianity has largely been influenced by Greek philosophies. Its eschatological perspectivesare ingrained in Hellenistic philosophies. So we need to have some general philosophical perspective on eschatology. For example, a dualistic understanding of eschatology has its origin in the platonic worldview which sees matter as sinful and the soul as spiritual. Thus Platonic philosophy with its separation of matter from the soul believed the end times will be a time of separating the body from the soul. Platonic philosophical idea ofthe end of time is simply that time when the soul which has been imprisoned by the body will gain its freedom. 49 Andrew T. Lincolnstates that “For Plato’s cosmological dualism persists in the Hellenistic world. For him Osiris50 was far from the earth and unpolluted by matter, while the souls of people in bodies subjectto death can have only a dim vision of the heavenly world. Only souls set free from the confines of bodily existence can have contact with this god and find their home in the heavenly realms.Such salvation is achieved through reason and in conjunction withparticipation in the mysteries and sacred rites.”51 Thus

49 Wright, “Sketches,”43.50 This, in Egyptian mythology, is a god. He is believed to be the husband of Isis and father of Horus, known chiefly through his death at the hands of his brother Seth and his restoration to a new life as rulerof the afterlife (The Oxford American College Dictionary).51 Andrew T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet: Studies in the Role of the Heavenly Dimension in Paul’s Thoughts with Special Reference to his Eschatology (Cambridge:

patristic eschatology got a heavy dose of philosophical eschatology.

The philosophical understanding of eschatology has produced several strands of eschatology. Mark Edwards (1995) identified two types of eschatology. He calls the first type of eschatology,dualistic eschatology. The proponents of this view lived in the second century. They believed then that “the just would live in eternal bliss and the unjust in eternal damnation.”52 The actual time when this separation will take place was not clear. Some envisaged this will take place at the Parousia while others thought of “the idea of a judgment after death or a double judgment.” 53

The theologians and apologists of the patristic era had one concern: combating Platonist ideas of the inherent immortality ofthe soul and its superiority over the body. They therefore stressed the God-given unity of man as soul and body together andassert that the resurrection was of the whole person and came about only through God’s grace. Millennarians believed the blissful life on earth for the just before the final judgment, which also forcefully emphasized the goodness of God’s material creation. 54

For good or ill, philosophical perspective helped some of the patristic apologists to shape the Christian perspectives on the various social and religious problems of their times. For example, Irenaeus inherited the dualistic schema and the emphasis

Cambridge University Press, 1981), 129.52 Mark Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 46/2 (1995), 45.53 Mark Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” 45.54 Mark Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,”46.

on the goodness of creation and developed them in reaction to Gnostic beliefs. He taught that after death the soul will be temporarily separated from one’s body and will descend to the deal. At Christ’s Parousia there will be a resurrection for the just and the unjust alike: because of the resurrection of Christ it is emphatically the resurrection of body and the just will enjoy for one thousand years the kingdom of God on earth, the whole of creation being renewed for their use. The resurrection is very clearly a progression to a new state of fulfilment and perfection, which, if we are receptive to God’s Spirit here on earth, is a process which starts now. This period will be followed by universal judgment, after which the good enjoy communion with God and he unjust are doomed to eternal separationfrom God (death), because they lack the divine Spirit. Irenaeus stresses that this fate, though harsh, is freely chosen and is aninevitable consequence of departure from God. 55

He calls the second type of eschatology, cosmic eschatology. Clement of Alexandria reacted differently to Platonism and Gnosticism. He sees the eschaton as he culmination of the “true Gnostic’s efforts: an eternal contemplation of full understanding. Although he did not see the material world as eviland did assert the resurrection of the body, he viewed death as awelcome release from the earthly body. Perhaps most influential was his doctrine of punishment which he saw as medicinal and pedagogical, vindictive punishment being alien to God’s perfectlygood nature.56 Clement was the first Christian writer who believed that even the just will face some punishment, albeit as purgatorial kind.57

55 Mark Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” 46.56 Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” 47.57 Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” 47.

Origen developed Clément’s eschatology in a specifically universalistic direction and is the most influential exponent of patristic eschatology. His basic view of the Last Things is set out in De Principiis. He argued that upon death the individual’s earthly body will be transformed into a spiritual body and the whole person will be judged and punished immediately. The kingdomof God consists of a gradual accumulation of those individuals who have been purified in their life and through medicinal punishment after their death. He also speaks on a cosmic level ofthe restoration of the whole humanity to its original state. For Origen, ‘the end’ means returning to ‘the beginning.’ This view has been attacked by scholars because it seems to suggest that there is possibility of humanity falling again in the future as it did in the past.58

5. Islamic Eschatology

Islam was founded during the turbulent era of Christianity and the catastrophic influenced of Zoroastrianism. So as Christianityand Judaism, Islam places premium on eschatology. As a matter of fact there is no way one can become a true Muslim without belief in the Last Day.59 That is to say, belief in the Last Day is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith. To be a genuine Muslim one must believe in Allah, the Last Day, Angels, Scripture, and Allah’s Prophets. In Islam, the signs of the Last Day are divided into two: Major and minor signs. The minor signs are those signs which precede the major signs. They are like what Jesus called “the beginning of birth pang” in the Gospels.

58 Edwards, “Origen’s Two Resurrections,” 50.59 From the Quran we read: ‘It is not righteousness that ye turn yourfaces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth inAllah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and theprophets…’-Surah 2:177 (Pickthall)

Muslims—Sunnis and Shiites—are divided in their belief about the Last Day. What I have here is specifically on the belief of SunniMuslims who are the largest Muslim group in the world. For lack of space, I will state one of the things that Sunni Muslims believe about the Last Day: Crossing the Bridge.60 Sunni Muslims believe that after the appearance of the Antichrist and the terrible suffering that will ensue, Jesus Christ will defeat the Antichrist and then proclaim Islam as the true religion and all Christians will convert to Islam, while all other faiths will be condemned. ‘The Hour’ or the Judgment Day will take place after the resurrection. After the judgment, to enter paradise everyone has to cross a bridge that spans the gulf of Hell. Mohammed will be the first person to cross. Those who are condemned will fall from the bridge into Hell. The faithful will be able to cross to the other side. But there is no guarantee that they will not fallinto Hell. This is because Allah is an arbitrary god. Therefore, even the faithful will cross in fear, hoping He does not change His mind.61 This kind of eschatological belief is a source of fear and paranoid. One of the fearful things in Islamic eschatology is crossing the bridge. If there was anything one could do to avoid crossing the bridge that would have been great.The Islamic teaching on jihad, martyrdom meets this crucial need.It provides this eschatological incentive. Jihad is generally a war fought by Muslim faithful to promote the religion of Islam. David Bukay observed that in Islamic beliefs and practices, the martyr is one killed in jihad. He is entitled to special status in paradise and on the Day of Judgment.62

60 For further details on Islamic eschatology see David B. Cook, “Nearing the End? In The Day Morning News, April 17, 2005, p.4p; Warren F. Larson, “Islamic Eschatology: Implication for Christian Witness.” www.ciu.edu/articles/Islamic-eschatology, 12/26/2005.61 David R. Reagan, “Islamic Eschatology: What are the End-time Prophecies of Islam?” retrieved from www.lamblion.com/about-staff-reagan.php on December 11, 2013.62 David Bukay, “The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings: Islamic Ideology” in Middle East Quarterly Fall 2006, p.27-36.

Young Muslims are often given a fair dose of Islamic eschatology so that they will not even dream of leaving Islam. They often live in constant fear and paranoid. The only way they can alleviates their fear and paranoid is to participate in jihad. Their Koranic teachers always inform them that when they die while fighting for the religion of Allah to reign in the world, they will not have to cross the dreadful bridge. Instead they will have all the goodies of paradise, including having access toseven beautiful virgins. Anonymous Muslim who got converted to Christianity share this testimony:

I lived my younger years wanting only one thing: martyrdom. I wanted to die in battle, in the name of Allah…. I was conditioned from a very young age to think like this. My father believed that there was nothing nobler than to fight and be killed in jihad…. Talking about the suffering and torment that awaits the unbelievers in the afterlife made melive in complete terror of losing my faith.63

From this story we can deduce that in Islam, as in other religious faiths, eschatology is a subject that brings fear and paranoid because it concerns what will happen in the afterlife. But there is also an element of incentive that gives an element of hope. In Islamic beliefs and practices, the concept of a holy war, jihad, meets this need. The picture of a terrible world of sin and evil which will have to face severe judgment and condemnation in hell, in contrast to paradise, a world of blissfulness, peace and security, make jihad a welcome theme in Islam; and it provides eschatological incentive and hope. Both the Koran and the Hadith have something to say that provides eschatological incentives. For example, Harun Yahya tells of Surat al-Kahf which contains the signs of the end of time. This surat speaks of hell and what one should do when he or she found

63 David Bukay, “The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings: Islamic Ideology” in Middle East Quarterly Fall 2006, p.27-36.

himself or herself in hell. Yahya notes, “Many prophetic hadiths connect Surat al-kahf with the End Times. In one of them our Prophet (saas) said: ‘Whoever enters his (the Dajjah’s) hell, lethim seek refuge with Allah and recite the opening verse of Surat al-kahf, and will become cool and peaceful for him, as the fire become cool and peaceful for Abraham.” (Ibn Kathir).64 The teachings of the Koran and the Hadith are tremendous sources and fuels of hostilities across the Islamic World.

6. The Eschatology of African Traditional Religions

In African worldviews human beings are the center of creation. Unlike the Jews who believed in the resurrection, Africans beliefin reincarnation. Matthew Ojo explains, “Africans generally conceive the world and life as cyclic—being born, living, dying, and being re-born.” 65 That is to say, there is no end per se. The idea of an abrupt end to human history and ushering complete new heaven and earth is foreign to the African mindset. Of course, Africans have the idea of death and punishment and after life. But this is not the same with the biblical view of afterlife. “The cyclic view of the world by Africans sees their world as good, where everyone desires to live and return to. Thisconcept calls for living well with people in the society, fulfilling one’s responsibility to the society within the communal bonds and seeking to die in a ripe old age and then be transformed as an ancestor.” 66 The fact that life is cyclical

64 Harun Yahya, Signs of the End Times in Surat al-Kahf ( New Delhi: Goodwork Books, 2003), 10.65 Ojo, “Eschatology and the African Society…”, 97.66 Ojo, “Eschatology and the African Society…”, 97. In most African societies burial rituals are performed for the dead with the intention of facilitating their process of transition “into the ancestral world and… veneration.” There is a deep sense of collective responsibility ofmaintaining the society. This sense is due to the fact that the dead arestill regarded as part and parcel of the living. They are the living dead. There is therefore connection between the world of the ancestors

means that there is no finality to human existence. This is underscored by the names Africans give their children. Among the Moro’a ethnic group of southern Kaduna, the name Bobai, literary means ‘he died and came back to life again.’ It is a name that isusually given to a child who was born preceding the death of a child. Similarly, in many Nigerian cultures, the idea of the ancestor not going away but often returning leads to names such as Nnenna, among the Igbo, Babatunde, Yetunded, Akintunde, etc., among the Yoruba.67

7. The Effect of the Enlightenment on Christian Eschatology

Our analysis above has revealed that Islamic eschatology is intrinsically rooted in the Muslim faith and practice to the extent that there is no way one can deny it and still be a true Muslim. This is not so with Christianity. The subject has been ignored by some Christian groups and denominations. For example,the way Christian eschatology featured in theological discourse in the 1950s and 1980s is not the same way it is featuring today.Could it be that the fear and paranoid such discourses create is causing postmodern Christians to ignore the subject? What has changed? We have already noted that the early church faced the same challenge and had to re-conceptualize and reorient their eschatological perspectives when it got delayed. In the present circumstance, what has changed is the continuous effect of the Enlightenment on Christianity. Given the effect of the Enlightenment, particularly its rejection of tradition, religion and its doctrine of relativism, many Christians no longer pay attention to eschatology. But one may argue, why do eschatological discourses thrived in the 1950s and the 1980s but not now? The reason is because the fifties and the eighties were

and the world of the living. The dead are “playing a form of guardianship role to the living.”67 Ojo, “Eschatology and the African Society…”, 98.

periods very close to World War I and II and the Cold War. Such events created an atmosphere of global fear, pain and distress. They gave raise to prophets of doom; some with the goal of encouraging the church to prepare for the coming King of kings. Others displayed their naivety of biblical apocalyptic literature. In 1983 Wolfhart Pennenberg wrote an article entitled, “Constructive and Critical Functions of Christian Eschatology.” In it Wolfhart Pennenberg outlined some of the reasons why eschatology was given much attention in the 1950s andthe 1970s.68

Three decades later, in 1992, Karl Barth wrote in the second edition of his commentary on Romans that “A Christianity that does thoroughly and without reminder consist of eschatology wouldbe thoroughly and totally devoid of Christ.”69 These are very strong words indeed. And yet it proved difficult to reappropriateto modern theology the new exegetical insight concerning the basic importance of eschatology within the framework of Jesus’ message and teaching. The primary reason was that “There was too deep a chasm separating the evolutionary outlook of the modern mind from the otherworldliness of apocalyptic expectations that focused on the imminent and catastrophic end of the present

68 Johannes Weiss, Die Predigt Jesu vom Reich Gottes (1892; 3d ed. F. Hahn: Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964), esp. 69ff, 84ff, 96ff. He wrote: “The last two decades witnessed a boom of eschatology in theological discussions. It emerged mainly from the impact of Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of hope. But a recovery of the eschatological concern in systematic theology has been due for some time, since Johannes Weiss’ successful thesis of 1892 that Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God was not primarily a program for moral or social action, but had its roots in Jewish apocalypticism and envisaged a cosmic catastrophe that would occur when God in the imminent future would replace this present world by the new creation of his own kingdom without any human ado.”69 Karl Barth, Der Romerbrief, 2d ed.; (Mǚnchen: Kaiser, 1992), 298.

world.”70 The same problem of failing to make the connection between contemporary and future events applies to the current situation where Christian eschatology is not featuring in national and international discourses as one would expect. Christians are losing the connection between current events and the larger plan of God for his world. Some Christians respond to the issues of climate change, economic meltdown, terrorism, and youth restiveness as if they have no connection to God’s lager plan for his creation. It does not occur to them that the effect of the Fall is the reason why the present world is groaning and expecting deliverance from God, its Creator.

The Kingdom of God: Eschatology’s central viewpoint

Christian eschatology is not man made. It is God’s divine revelation of what he is orchestrating in humanity and in all of creation and its history. Over the years, theologians have tried to address the inherent confusion in the matter of Christian eschatology. The eschatological views and definition of two of these theologians are worth re-examining.

(1) Jürgen Moltmann’s Eschatological View

Jürgen Moltmann and many other scholars have explained that the primary basis of the biblical discourse on eschatology is apocalyptic material. Moltmann, who is one of the survivors of World War II, has wrestled with the idea of Christian eschatologyand arrived at two different views which reveal an inherent

70 Wolfhart Pennenberg, “Constructive and Critical Functions of Christian Eschatology” The Ingersoll Lectures on Immortality, delivered at the Divinity School, Harvard University, 13 October 1963, published in The Harvard Theological Review Journal Divinity School, vol. 77, No.2 April 1984), 119-139.

tension. According to Moltmann this tension is nothing but “the antithesis between futurist eschatology and presentative eschatology.”71 These views are presented as formal solution to the impasse. However, they done really provide the needed solution.72 Moltmann identified the following ways the two viewpoints of Christian eschatological perspective functions.

(A) The apocalyptic approachThis approach is a futurist eschatological approach. Its concern is the final of all the finalities that are there. Most of the discussion and definition of eschatology falls within this framework: “Eschatology is generally held to be the doctrine of “the Last Things,” or “the end of all things.”73 Moltmann observes that to think this way is to think in good apocalyptic terms, but it does not understand eschatology in the Christian sense. 74 Eschatology seems to search for the ‘final solution’ of all the insoluble problems of the present world.75 This kind of approach to the study of Christian eschatology leaves its proponents in enormous confusion, which eventually prompts despair, paranoia and fear. The problem, as Moltmann identified it, is: “Eschatology is always thought to deal with the end, the last day, the last word, the last act: God has the last word.” 76 Moltmann argued, “But if eschatology were that and only that, it would be better to turn one’s back on it altogether; for ‘the last things’ spoil one’s taste for the penultimate ones, and the dreamed of, or hoped for, end of history robs us of our freedom among history’s many possibilities, and our tolerance for all thethings in history that are unfinished and provisional.” 77

71 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 6.72 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 6.73 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x.74 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x.75 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x.76 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x-xi.77 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x-xi.

Consequently, Christians will discover that they can no longer put up with earthly, limited and vulnerable life, and in their eschatological finality they will destroy life’s fragile beauty.78 The irony is, “The person who presses forward to the end of life misses life itself. If eschatology were no more than religion’s ‘final solution’ to all the questions, a solution allowing it to have the last word, it would undoubtedly be a particularly unpleasant form of theological dogmatism, if not psychological terrorism.” 79 Perhaps Moltmann sees this kind of reasoning as a way of thinking that can easily lead to nihilism.80 But when Christians talk about the end it ought to include theidea of going back to the original purpose of God in creating theworld. In that case, what this approach calls the end is not the end per se. Christian eschatology will give hope only if it is seen as the doctrine of both the end and the beginning of life asGod originally intended it.

(B) The Christian Approach and interpretation

This approach argues that biblical eschatology does not give a picture of annihilation of all things. Rather, the end is the beginning of new life. Thus for Moltmann, the Christian approach is more in line with the vision of God for creation where, “the eternal kingdom and the eternal creation draw together to a single focus: the cosmic Shekinah of God. God desires to come to his ‘dwelling’ in his creation, the home of his identity in the world, and in it to his ‘rest’, his perfect, eternal joy.” 81 Thisis “the goal of God’s eschatological Shekinah, in which the wholecreation will be new and eternally living, and every created

78 Moltmann, The Coming of God, x-xi.79 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xi.80 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xi. Moltmann’s classic work raised very important questions for Christians living in an age of Islamic insurgencies. After World War II, the survivors spent their energies debating. Among themselves instead of trying to help the church grasp the present and future reality of eschatological faith and hope. 81 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xiii.

thing will with unveiled face arrive at its own self.” 82 In saying this Moltmann left out the idea of hell, which is part of the issue of eschatology. Perhaps the reason why he did is what he believes in Christian eschatological hope. He argues: “None ofus are given hope just for ourselves. The hope of Christians is always hope for Israel too; the hope of Jews and Christians is always hope for the peoples of the world as well; the hope of thepeoples of the world is also hope for this earth and everything that lives in it. And hope for the whole community of creation isultimately hope that its Creator and Redeemer will arrive at his goal, and may find in creation his home.” 83 This approach or definition of eschatology demonstrates that Christian eschatological hope is not an individual hope alone. It is hope for both the human community and the rest of creation. This is why Moltmann observes that it is a grievous mistake to make the individual soul the center of eschatological concern or discourse. This will create despair, fear and paranoia instead ofhope.

In sum, to escape the mistake of the traditional definition of eschatology, God and his kingdom must be the center of the discourse. The question of whether Christian eschatology is a source of fear, despair, paranoia or hope is based on two approaches to the discussion of eschatology: individual versus universal eschatology. Discussion of eschatology that focuses on the individual soul only as the center of the concern leads to fear, despair and paranoia. But universal eschatology, the approach that centers on God and his kingdom, gives hope. Moltmann concludes: “We shall only be able to overcome the unfruitful and paralyzing confrontation between the personal and the cosmic hope, individual and universal eschatology, if we neither piestistically put the soul at the centre, nor secularistically the world. The centre has to be God, God’s kingdom and God’s glory.” 84 Moltmann draws this conclusion as he reflects on the Lord’s Prayer, whose main point is “Thy Kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” ThereforeChristian hope is “for the kingdom of God. That is first and

82 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xiii.83 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xiii, 21.84 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xiv.

foremost a hope for God, the hope that God will arrive at his rights in his creation, at his peace in his Sabbath, and at his eternal joy in his image, human beings. The fundamental question of biblical eschatology is: when will God show himself in his divinity to heaven and earth? And therein is to be found in the promise of the coming God: ‘the whole earth is full of his glory’(Isaiah 6:3).” 85 Christian eschatological doctrine is intrinsically connected to the idea of a situation when God enjoys the monopoly of praise, honour, adoration, worship and glory. Thus Moltmann argued, “The glorifying of God in the world embraces the salvation and eternal life of human beings, the deliverance of all created things, and the peace of the new creation.” 86 Therefore, Moltmann identifies four horizons of Christian eschatology:

a) It is hope in God for God’s gloryb) It is hope in God for the new creation of the world.c) It is hope in God for the history of human beings on

earth.d) It is hope in God for the resurrection and eternal life

of human beings. 87

Moltmann realizes that a reordering of the above list may help usunderstand the subject better. The most helpful ordering begins with personal hope, advances logically to historical hope, passeson to cosmic hope, and thereby ends with God’s glory for God’s sake.88 The premise is: the first effect of eschatology is personal faith. New life in this world follows. And out of that springs hope for the redemption of the body and the expectation of the transformation of this whole world into God’s kingdom. 89 Therefore, Moltmann’s analysis brings fresh and helpful insights into the subject.

(II) Richards Hays’ View or Interpretation of Eschatology

85 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xvi.86 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xvi.87 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xvi.88 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xvi.89 Moltmann, The Coming of God, xvi.

Christian eschatology will be a total disaster if its primary focus is otherworldly, “the endgame.” The Hebraic apocalyptic movement makes sense only when read with the lens of the New Testament eschatological perspective. Richard Hays (1996) has contributed to a richer and clearer understanding of the present significance of the doctrine of Christian eschatology. His careful analysis of the matter shows the centrality of this subject to all Christian beliefs and practices. Hays pays considerable attention to the synergy between the present Christian experience of salvation and the future consummation of salvation which is generally known as eschatological hope. Hays is one of the biblical theologians and ethicists whose hermeneutical interpretation of eschatology has brought fresh insight into an understanding of the nature and character of Christian eschatology. He convincingly argues that there are three important elements that give a richer sense of hope ingrained in Christian eschatology.

(A) The redeemed community

Christian eschatology shapes the worldview of contemporary Christians. It gives us ample reasons why we should remain dedicated and committed to walking in love that respects and honors the truth in the presence life. This involves daily turning away from sin, serving the true and living God and humanity, and eagerly waiting for his coming.

According to Hays, all materials on Christian eschatology must beread through focal lenses of community. Only when that happens will Christians recognize the significance of the church in a broken and decaying world. He writes: “The church as a whole is called to live the way of discipleship and to exemplify the love of enemies.”90 This shifts the concept of Christian eschatology to the present concern: love, justice, forgiveness, peace and reconciliation. Christian belief in the end of the world does notin any way invalidate the present relevance of eschatological ideas. There is an intrinsic connection between the already and the not yet. This is why Jesus through the Gospel writers and the

90 Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics, (New York: HarperSan Francisco, 1996), 337.

writers of the epistles urge the church to pay considerable attention to its present vocation: “Matthew’s call to be the light of the world, Paul’s call to embody the ministry of reconciliation, Revelation’s call to the saints to overcome the dragon through the word of their testimony.” 91 Therefore as a redeemed community, whose calling is to exemplify eschatological reality in the present scheme of things, “The church is called tolive as a city set on a hill, a city that lives in light of wisdom, as a sign of God’s coming kingdom.” 92

This focus does not negate the present reality of suffering and pain. Rather this redeemed community is called “to the work of reconciliation and—as a part of that vocation—suffering even in the face of great injustice” 93 which is part and parcel of the eschatological package. Saint James connects the Christian idea of eschatology with the Christian present experience of sufferingand pain. For James, instead of eschatology becoming a source of fear and paranoia, it is a source of undefiled joy and hope. It is such an important matter that whoever lacks wisdom on how to connect Christians’ present suffering and pain into eschatological hope and joy should ask God to give him or her wisdom. James writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that thetesting of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will begiven him.”94 James makes a concrete connection between Christianpresent suffering and pain with eschatological hope: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood thetest, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”95 James expects this revelation to give his readers every sense of hope instead of fear and paranoia. It should points to the greatest hope ever which can enable Christians to absorb the impact of any form of hostility because

91 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 337. 92 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 337. 93 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 337. 94 James 1:2-5 NIV95 James 1:12

the power that raised Christ from the dead is a present reality that Christians are experiencing. Furthermore, all genuine Christians have a hope that destabilizes all present circumstances. Such an eschatological hope makes it absolutely possible for the Church to participate fully in the kind of transformation which is capable to birth an alternative communitywhere love, justice, peace and joy roll like a river! It is this sort of hope that helped Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela not only to survive in a hostile society but also to “provide credible alternatives to the reigning secular ideologies.”96

(B) The CrossHays gives Christian readers a second element that can help them arrive at a definitive answer to the main question posed in theselater days. Hays points out that the cross is a very vital elementin the Christian concept of eschatology; it gives a healthy and hopeful view of eschatology (1 Cor. 1:18-2:5). Here Hays explainsthat the cross presents the community with a roadmap, a redemptive model of how to successfully portray the eschatological vision in the present world, regardless of corruption and social injustices and all forms of human excesses.Hays states that in the cross, God revealed “the other wisdom in light of which the community lives, [which] is the paradoxical wisdom of the cross…. The passion narrative becomes the fundamental paradigm for the Christian life.”97 It is a costly vision, as, “the community is likely to pay severe price for its witness: persecution, scorn, the charge of being ineffective and irrelevant.”98 In his analysis of the cross as an important element in Christian eschatology, Hays is able to illustrate the point that Christian morality and ethics are central to biblical view of eschatology.99

(C) The New Creation

96 Emmanuel M. Katongole, A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination, (Chicago: The University of Scranton Press, 2005), 153.97 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 337.98 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.99 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338

The third element is the new creation. Christian eschatological hope is rooted in the idea of a new creation. This hope does not makeChristians fearful, paranoid or full of despair. Instead, behind the idea of a new creation is the belief that “the nonviolent, enemy loving community is to be vindicated by the resurrection ofthe dead.” 100 In that perspective of the world, “Death does not have the final word; in the resurrection of Jesus the power of God has triumphed over the power of violence and prefigured the redemption of all creation. The church lives in the present time as a sign of the new order that God has promised. All the New Testament texts, dealing with violence, must therefore be read inthis eschatological perspective.”101

The idea of a new creation presents a hopeful picture instead of a despairing, fearful and paranoiac present or future. For example, Jesus’ teaching on “turn the other cheek” which has generally been misread and misinterpreted can only make sense if it is “read through the lenses of the image of a new creation.”102

Without such an approach, Christian eschatology cannot avoid beena source of despair, fear, and paranoia. Hays argues that if thatwere not the case, “Jesus’ directive in Matthew 5:38-48, to “turnthe other cheek” will only become a mundane proverb for how to cope with conflict. But this will be ridiculous. For if the worldis always to go on as it does now, if the logic that ultimately governs the world is the immanent logic of the rulers of this age, then the meek are the losers and their cheek-turning only invites more senseless abuse. As a mundane proverb, “Turn the other cheek” is simply bad advice.”103 The only way such action can make sense is “if the God and Father of Jesus Christ is actually the ultimate judge of the world and if his will for his people is definitely revealed in Jesus.”104 Christian eschatology that holds out hope for the present-life-experience is the language of Matthew’s Gospel; “turning the other cheek makes sense if and only if it is really true that the meek will inheritthe earth, if and only if it is really true that those who act on

100 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.101 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.102 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.103 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.104 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.

Jesus’ words have built their house on a rock so that it will stand in the day of judgment. Turning the other cheek makes senseif and only if all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.”105 It makes sense only if Christ eschatology is not just a source of fear, paranoid but also of hope in a God that is capable of doing what he says he will do and carrying outall his eternal purposes and plans.

Additionally, Hays observes that Paul’s exhortation “that we should bless our persecutors, eschew vengeance, and give food anddrink to our enemies” makes sense if and only if it really is true that ‘the night is far gone, the day is near’ (Romans 13:12)—the day when all creation will be set free from bondage (Romans 8:18-25).”106 The whole point is that eschatology is critical to the Christian present way of life, belief and moral values. The New Testament concept of eschatology means that the church is called to stand as a sign of God’s promised future hope and gloryeven in the present reality of a dark world. Once Christians grasp this truth, their way, however difficult, will be brightened and result in pure joy. “The Apocalypse” compares thishope with the imagery of the marriage of the Lamb, depicting the eschatological consummation of all things (Revelation 19:6-9).107

In sum, Moltmann and Hays recognize the paradoxical, contemporaneous, and universal nature of the concept of Christianeschatology. Both Moltmann and Hays believe that there is contemporaneous partial fulfillment of the eschatological dream. Their provocative analyses challenge long-established notions of Christian eschatology which have generally led to fear and paranoia. Specifically, Moltmann argues, “When Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is ‘at hand’, he is not looking into the future in the temporal sense; he is looking into the heaven of the present. The kingdom does not ‘come’ out of the future into the present. It comes from heaven to earth, as the Lord’s Prayer tells us.”108 Moltmann therefore concludes: “The eschaton is

105 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.106 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338.107 Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 338, 364.108 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 16.

neither the future of time nor timeless eternity. It is God’s coming and his arrival.”109 Revelation 10:6 describes the mystery of time, which as Moltmann explains, “[I]s ‘the realization and extension of God’s rule over the whole world’. It is the completion of history and creation, its perfecting into the kingdom of glory in which God himself ‘indwells’ his creation.”110

Consequently, he concludes, “The eschatological moment itself must be thought of, beyond the end and consummation of history, as the consummation of creation-in-the-beginning and therefore asthe exit from time into eternity….”111 One resonates with Moltmannbecause God’s purpose is to dwell in his creation, and in it to be ‘all in all.’112 Moltmann’s theory of eschatology fits the incarnational principle: Emmanuel, God with us.

Christ’s Incarnation and Christian Eschatology

Christian eschatology is based on God’s larger purpose for creation. It is a doctrine that realizes the reason why God strategically placed Jesus Christ at the center of his interaction with his creation; Christ is the all in all of creation. Christian eschatological hope begins with the incarnation. Through Christ’s incarnation, God is working towardsaccomplishing his purpose for creating humanity and the entire creation. That is why the Bible itself emphasizes a Christo-centric idea of creation. All human beings are created by God’s Word. God has given Christians his divine power (Holy Spirit), not for them to destroy themselves, but to redeem them, transformthem into his likeness, so that they can participate in the divine nature and thereby be in communion with God. By Christ becoming human (the Incarnation), he shows his willingness to be called their brother.113 This perspective helps Christians to grasp Christian eschatology in all its truths.

109 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 22.110 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 280.111 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 294.112 Moltmann, The Coming of God, 294.113 Hebrews 2:11.

Paul tells believers that everything that has ever been made has been made through Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. Eschatology looks with refreshing hope at both the present and the future realities of our world: God indwelling all of his creation. Paul sees this metaphor as culminating in Christ; the Holy Spirit transforms Christians ‘into his likeness,’ as he puts it in his second letter to the Corinthians. Jesus is called the ‘visible image of the invisible God,’ assuming bodily form to give a unique revelation of God’s purpose for humanity. This idea is intrinsically rooted in the package of Christian faith and practice. For instance, people often believe in Jesus Christ because he offers them hope for the present and the future life and reality. Paul describes the Thessalonian Christians: “[Y]ou turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and towait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus,who rescues us from the coming wrath.”114 Indeed, any savvy readerof the writings of the Apostles of the New Testament will realizethat the God who promised (vowed) to be with Christians till the end of the age is not a liar. 115 Events in the world are not outside his eternal plan for humanity and all of creation. The big picture of God’s unfolding drama of salvation includes the transformation of all created things to their original intent. Grasping this big picture, Paul explains that in times of human hardship— suffering, pain and even death—the essence of Christianeschatological hope is to strengthen “the faith of God’s elect” and enhance their “knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to lightthrough the preaching entrusted to me (Paul) by the command of

114 1 Thessalonians 1: 9-10 NIV.115 Hebrews 7: says “It is impossible for God to lie.”

God our Savior.”116 Christian eschatology is rooted in “the hope for eternal life, which God …” 117 promised all those who truly believe in Christ. It will seem logical to say that the idea of God promising eternal life ought to give Christians hope and not paranoia or fear. If God does not lie nor die then he can be trusted to fulfill his promises to Christians. The idea of God not lying is an immense truth. It shows that God cannot promise what he cannot give. It is also rooted in the hope of a time of perfect peace and security, when no one will make Christians afraid any longer.118

Conclusion

Throughout human history, one can catalogue different reactions to human sufferings and pains. In apocalyptic expectation, both the Old and New Testament paint a picture of grand events of a violent world whose end will usher in a new heaven and a new earth. In the effort to fast-track eschatological hope, apocalyptic reading of the Bible has led to a distortion of the concept of Christian eschatology, thereby causing trepidation. Regardless of this, eschatological beliefs are fundamental to Christian faith, belief and practice. As we have noted in this essay, the biblical language of eschatology is rooted in the whole spectrum of creation, especially of human life from conception, birth, life, death, judgment, the ‘after life’ and the ushering in of a new heaven and new earth. However, misinterpretation of these ideas leaves the hearers with different psychological responses and reactions—fear, paranoid, or hope. The psychological response that results in fear and paranoid is caused by a so-called Christian eschatological perspective that has tended to see the world running its course

116 Titus 1:1-3117 Titus 1:2118 Jeremiah 46:27

without God. It eliminates the goal of Christian faith: Living asif tomorrow is today; a future with hope. It is caused by failureto recognize that it is God who has brought about this universe in the hope of realizing a specific purpose, which is the doctrine of creation. His intent is to guide the universe towardsthis realization, i.e. the doctrine of eschatology. If one graspsthe doctrine of Christian eschatology, one will realize that creation is not just about what happened in Genesis, about origins; which is deism. Rather, it is about God continuing to interact with his creation even after the Fall of humankind. Hopecomes when one recognizes that every moment of the universe implies a creative act by God. God upholds His innovative creation throughout time, and his decision to sustain the universe at each moment is one of creativity. Similarly, eschatology is not only concerned with the end, but with the realization of God’s purpose in each moment of creation. Genuine Christians live the eschatological event now! ‘people who expect God’s justice and righteousness no longer accept the so-called normative force of what is fact, because they know that a better world is possible and that changes in the present are necessary.’119

Christian Eschatology is critical to Christian present way of life, belief and moral values. In a hostile world with diverse threats and their enslaving fear, the hermeneutical interpretation of Christian eschatology is inseparable from the idea of Christian sufferings and pains: martyrdom. But unlike Islam, Christianity does not encourage us to fight a holy war, jihad. Rather it encourages Christian resilience, to absorb the impact of hostility and endure hardship out of love for the enemyand for God. Thus Christian eschatology cannot afford to continueto encourage a situation of paranoia and fear. But how can we not

119 Moltmann, Ethics of Hope, 7.

fear when we face the challenge of terrorism and aggression? Loveis the way of the cross that we are called to bear. Love is stronger than death. That is why Jesus said, “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray” (John 16:1). To avoid straying from the faith, Paul proposes that we overcome evil withgood (Romans 12:21). Earlier on he said: “[B]e… patient in affliction, faithful in prayer…. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…..do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of God” (Romans 12:12). Jesus stresses love as the language of the Christian community. Love language is difficult to come by in times of crisis. But this is what Christian discipleship demands. Love never fails; itdoes not give up on God; it perseveres. For this to happen, Paulsays that Christian “love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).

God’s will in Christian suffering and pain cannot be determined if love is not genuine. Christian suffering and pain are sometimes part of God’s will for his children. St. Peter tells Christians:

Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, sothat you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If youare insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed,for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you…. If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.120

It was because Paul understood the intrinsic connection between eschatological hope with the secret of Christian suffering and pain that he prayed and sought the privilege of participating in them. He prayed, “I want to know Christ and the power of his

120 1 Peter 4:12-16 NIV.

resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.”121 Many Christians want to know Christ. They may even resonate with Paul in this prayer. But theyare not willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. How can Christians have the privilege of enjoying the fellowship of sharing in his suffering if their attitude to suffering and pain is completely negative? This attitude will not help them appreciate the fact that God is capable of using even terrorism to accomplish his eternal purposes. Jeremy Taylor rightly says, “Whatsoever we beg of God, let us also work for it.” Therefore, if we pray like Paul we should be willing to experience sufferingand pain. Suffering and pain are God’s will for his children. Peter concludes: “So then, who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”122

121 Philippians 3:10-11.122 1 Peter 4:19.