The Last Things

Enjoy this excerpt from The Last Things by David A Höhne:

While there is no shortage of books on ‘the end times’, too few combine systematic theology with a theological interpretation of Scripture and Christian living. Regrettably, many books on the subject arise out of incoherent or superficial readings of the Bible that detract from, or even ignore, the ‘once and for all’ achievements of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The cost to the church is an eschatology that is insufficiently Christian despite its claim to be ‘biblical’. Alternatively, many books on this subject fail to consider how God reveals himself through the Lord Jesus and by the power of his Spirit and are therefore not genuinely Christian, despite the claim to be ‘theological’. Sadly, too many books on this subject fail to distinguish between the hope provided by the gospel and the superficial aspirations of a culture that is shaped by the tenets of free-market capitalism and Western political liberalism.

Down through the ages Christian theologians have organized their accounts of eschatology according to a list of topics linked to the end of time. These events may include the kingdom of God, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment with its (usually) twofold outcomes of heaven and hell. In addition, some attention may be given to issues arising from millennialism and various other speculative questions like an intermediate state and/or purgatory. Their eschatology is systematic to the extent that the topics are expounded in the order with which one might die and come back to life again, depending on whether the Lord Jesus has returned or not. In contrast, this book adopts a pre-existing system, or integrated collection of theological themes, that can be found within the Bible itself, the Lord’s Prayer. Using the Lord’s Prayer as a biblical system of theology, and of eschatology in particular, has a number of advantages.

The first advantage of adopting the Prayer as the guiding system for expounding eschatology is simply that its eschatological tone is well recognized and, as a coherent collection of theological themes, it is not alien to the Scriptures themselves. Attempts at systematizing theology, even theology that is heavily dependent upon the exegesis of Scripture, invariably run up against the charge of forcing the Christian Bible to ignore contradiction by ignoring parts of Scripture that do not fit neatly within an alien framework.

A second and immediately related advantage of expounding eschatology through the Prayer is that, as a biblical system, it is embedded within the apostolic reflection on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that we can expect the themes represented in the various petitions to align perfectly with the apostolic (dominical even) practice of rereading the Old Testament in the light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. When the Lord gathered his disciples after his resurrection he ‘opened their minds to understand the Scriptures’. The immediate result was that they were able to perceive ‘that everything written . . . in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled’ in the risen Jesus Christ (Luke 24:44–45). Each of the books in the New Testament is a theological interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures and this book follows that pattern through the framework of the Lord’s Prayer.

A third advantage of the Prayer for establishing a biblical system of theology is the fact that, taken together, the various requests outline the Lord’s expectations for the fatherhood of God on the earth to correspond to what it is in heaven. From this perspective, the Prayer is intensely theological because each invocation gives us insight into the being and act of God in the economy of salvation. The Lord Jesus expects us to grow in our knowledge and love of God as our Father as a consequence of praying in this manner.

A final advantage, therefore, of shaping our theological description of eschatology via the Lord’s Prayer is that it locates our theological reflection on the Scriptures in the context of discipleship at its most basic level – responding to God’s word in prayer. Not only have Christians always looked to the Lord’s Prayer to shape their theological enquiries; they have at Christ Jesus’ command, incorporated these requests into their basic piety both corporately and individually. For Christians, prayer is an eschatological experience to the extent that they pray on the basis of what they have/know now in anticipation of the Lord’s answers that are not-yet a part of their lives with him. Therefore I shall proceed on the assumption that our theological description of eschatology will be experiential in accordance with the word of the Lord in holy Scripture.

Discussion & Reflection Questions: 

1)      What do you think are the most important promises that God makes to us?

2)      What is the difference between hope and faith?

3)      When no one else is looking, what might your prayers actually reveal about your thoughts of the future?