Eschatology: Later Development
With the death of Jesus it seemed that the new world had not yet arrived in the way people had been expecting. Expectations about the end times were therefore given new content.
Expectations Set Aside
The idea that the end times had begun with Jesus had to be set aside after his death. End-time expectations remained central to Christian doctrine, but Jesus now had a new role: with his appearance on earth the end times had indeed begun, but had not been completed. When the end times would break in definitively, Jesus would return to earth from heaven.
Jesus as Son of Man
The Christian idea of the end times is related to the Jewish tradition of a heavenly envoy who will carry out God’s judgement. Jesus is sometimes called “Son of Man
The heavenly Jesus is certainly conceived of as:
- judge of the world;
- the one who will defeat the powers of evil;
- the saviour of Christians: they will escape judgement.
Now but not Yet
The Christian end-time expectation is characterised by a tension between “now” and “not yet”:
- With Jesus’ earthly ministry the end times have begun; thus Christians are already living in the end times.
- But it is only in the future, when Jesus returns to the earth, that the end times will be definitively manifested.
In the New Testament writings this expectation almost constantly plays an important role.
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