Sometimes there is an idea that is known to the Biblical and theological scholarly world. It can be an acceptable idea and even an idea that is generally agreed upon by a significant percentage of the guild without there being a foundation or standard expression of that idea to which all wishing to understand may turn. I think the Already/Not Yet nature of the salvation and the eschatological nature of reality introduced in Christ’s death and resurrection was one of those ideas, until now. I am yet finished and long from thoroughly digesting G. K. Beale’s A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New but I think he may have finally produced the comprehensive and standard work on the inaugurated eschatology nature of New Testament theology. I think Beale has comprehensively completed the task of Gerhardus Vos. The following sentence from the introduction is simply brilliant:
“Therefore, the apostles understood eschatology not merely as fututology but as a mind-set for understanding the present within the climaxing context of the redemptive history. That is, the apostles understood that they were already living in the end times, and that they were to understand their present salvation in Christ to be already an end-time reality. Every aspect of their salvation was to be conceived of as eschatological in nature. To put this another way, the major doctrines of the christian faith are charged with eschatological electricity. Just as when you put on green sunglasses, everything you see is green, so Christ through the Spirit had placed eschaological sunglasses on his disciples so that everything they looked at in the Christian faith had an end-time tint. This means that the doctrine of eschatology in NT theology textbooks should not merely be one among many doctrines that are addressed but should be the through which all the doctrines are best understood. Furthermore, eschatology should not be placed at the end of NT theology textbooks or at the end of chapters dealing with all the different NT corpuses because it purportedly describes only the very end of the world as we know it. Rather, the doctrine of eschatology could be part of the title of such a textbook because every major theological concept breathes the air of a latter-day atmosphere.” (18).
This eschatological viewpoint for Beale finds its goal in the new creation kingdom that the entire Biblical storyline and reality of history has been pressing toward since the first promise of salvation recorded in Gen 3.15. The following video of Beale gives a great introduction and snippet of what this book is all about.
