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BIBLE STUDY II

 

As it was yesterday, our lecture / sharing is supposed to relate our biblical religion with the challenge of today. Today's world is challenging and asking questions that pertain to history, society, poverty, injustice — the concrete human situation. Our concern is both for the spiritual good of people and for their physical good as well, in other words, the total good, especially of the poor and the oppressed.

Yesterday, we have studied what might be considered as the main core or part of the biblical ethic of the Old Testament. This morning, we shall do something on the New Testament we shall concentrate on its main message. Again, this will be a re-reading of the Bible to try to establish the original meaning of this religion in the context of the socio-political, historical, and cultural events during the New Testament era in consonance with the Israelitic religion.

We have as the core of the Israelitic religion, the focus on the saving actions of Yahweh in human history, or in the case of Israel, the national history of the people. These saving actions were, as for example, the call of the children of God, the deliverance from slavery, etc., which constituted the core of this religion.

Then, we come to the next stage when hope arose among the people, not only for the saving actions of God, but for the final, de­finitive, and saving actions of God. This be­gan around the time of the prophets, circa 700 B.C. onwards. This religion, whose focus is the saving actions of God, inverted to a hope for a final, living action of God. And so, the prophets began to speak about the day that would come, one which would bring about final intervention, final salvation. And, they saw this in terms of God coming and so intervening that there would be perpetual peace and prosperity. When Isaiah, for example, spoke of this time of prosperity, he used the image of wild animals living together in peace and har­mony, of the turning of swords into plough­shares, in other words, of instruments of war being turned into instruments of peace; There were prophets who spoke of prosperity. Amos spoke of the time when mountains would be flowing with wine. He also

 

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spoke of a time for renewal. Jeremiah spoke of the period about new hearts, new spirit.

The next stage — about 200 years before the coming of Christ - this developed into a hope, again, for the final, saving action of God. But, now, under the influence of prophets, there emerged a certain group of Jewish preachers called the apocalyptics. This is a very important period because without it, the message of Jesus our Lord and the New Testament tradition cannot be properly understood. This is the main link with the tradition of the past!

So far, we have been trying to establish cul­turally and philosophically the presupposi­tions of the New Testament age. What we should do now is to look into the apocalyp­tics. What is Apocalytic theory?

Apoclayptics means the catastrophe of nature coming into full terms with itself, the sun colliding with the moon, etc. These are all apocalyptic imagery. But, beyond and behind it is a message: namely, the faith in the final, saving action of God will persist here in this world as we know it.

What was their view of the universe? It was an inverted pole, which is made up of the sky, heaven, and earth. They said that this heaven and earth was full of evil, corruption, death, sin, Satan, catastrophe, famine, sorrow, despair. This world, as we know of it, was full of evil and the final, saving action of God would mean that this evil world would end and history would end, and there will come about a new heaven and a new earth. It will be a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more mourning, no sorrow, no tears, no suffering, no pains. There would be a resurrection of the dead, and people will live in glory and God will be all in all.

So in this particular period of this religious Edition, we have the Judeo – Christian beginnings which developed in the apocalyptics in the form of a new hope for the final salvation to dawn upon the world. Apocalyptics understood it as a coming about of an entirely new world where everything will be made new. In terms of blessings, they saw it not only in terms of peace and renewal and prosperity for Israel, but a totally new world for the whole of mankind. By this is meant the whole of creation, the cosmos!

Now, we come to the New Testament. Basi­cally, the message of Jesus and the early Church cannot be understood until and un­less we put it against the background of the Apocalyptics. This happens to be something new. This message was developed by a Pro­testant pastor, Albert Schweitzer, who rediscovered the background for the under­standing of the teaching and message of Jesus Christ within the apocalyptic background. It is only now that we are taking seriously this particular apocalyptic tradi­tion.

What is meant by apocalypsis? Books of the Bible like Daniel and Revelations belong to this grouping. For example, Chapter 13 of Mark is classified as apocalyptic writing. There are many apocalyptic writings in the biblical tradition, but not all were included in the canon. Apocalyptic is sup­posed to be a revelation, that is to say the author uses a literary form by which he sees himself as a visionary. He sees something in a vision, a dream, which he now uncovers, or discloses. This means, to remove, to uncover a certain secret, a knowledge which he now discloses to mankind.

Here the author sees history still to come, but actually he sees it from hindsight. The book of Daniel uses a literary form — and he sees history from the Babylonian captivity onwards, the Persian times, the Greek times, as if he is looking at the future, but actually looking at it from the vantage point of    the past. This God of ours, who has seen us through different stages of history, Babylonians, Persians, will now exercise his final saving deed. This is part of a literary form.

But, as I have said, over and beyond this literary exegesis is a message of the final salvation of God which for the apocalyptics

 

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consisted in the coming of a transformed world where there will be no more sin, death, or sorrow. This writing, first of all, is this worldly paradise, and second, this is confined to Israel. There is a period of peace and prosperity where Israel will rule.

Basically, I would say, the basic confession of the early Church is something like this: First, we believe in the final intervention of Yahweh, and second, that the final inter­vention is perceived in the way apocalyptists did — the coming in of an entirely new world where there will be no more sin, pov­erty, wars, no more oppression; and third, this new world will dawn with the second coming of Jesus the Messiah. In that second coming will dawn the new heaven and the new earth where there will be no more worries, no more tears, no more pain, for God will be all in all. This is associated with the second coming of Christ. Jesus as Son of Man, this is an apocalyptic title, will exercise judgment. With the coming of a new heaven and a new earth will be the transformation of all things.

Meanwhile, the early Christians said that the total redemption of all creation which is promised in the second coming of Christ has already been inaugurated in his first coming — Incarnation. So that, just as the apocalyptics said that sin would be destroy­ed, Jesus went about forgiving sin, and his death was an atoning death for all sins of men. Just as the apocalyptists said that death will be destroyed, they confessed that Jesus raised people from the dead and that the meaning of the resurrection is that seeds of immortality is already at work in the hearts of men. Just as the apocalyptists said that Satan will be destroyed, Jesus went about exorcising the evil one so that you recall the saying of Jesus, "If it is by the power of God that I cast out demons, then know that the reign of God has come upon you."

He went about curing diseases. This is understood as a manifestation of the power of God in its final manifestation. As Matt­hew would put it, the blind see, the lame walk, the leper are cleansed, the beggar raised, the deaf hear, good news of salvation and liberation preached to the poor. Within the background of the apocalypsis, this new world has set in, which new world will be complete at the second coming of Christ.

We can say that according to the faith of the early Christians who believed in this God who is active in the history of Israel and the world, they believe that this final intervention has dawned upon them in the first coming of Christ. The fact that they were waiting for the second coming which will be realized soon, because they said that this new world has somehow begun to be inaugurated and set in, what is keeping God from completing it? Besides, one of the elements of apocalyptic teaching is to say that this intervention of realized Yahweh would be soon, the realization of the salva­tion of God.

Therefore, when the early Christians confess­ed that the final coming, which was inaugura­ted with the first coming, soon will be complete, so this expectation of the second coming was alive. It was an expectation of the coming of total redemption. So, we can say that for the early Christians, what the apocalyptists spoke about will be fully realized in the second coming of the Lord but already partly done in Christ's earthly ministry, healing the slick, forgiving sinners, etc. they already saw the inauguration of his total salvation.

We go now to some basic questions. What will be the focus of the New Testament faith? World it be metaphysics, or would it be the events of history? Some teachings of the New Testament deal on metaphysical essences like God, reality. Church, sacra­ments, or is basically a confession on the faith in the events of history? Is it a perfec­tion of faith in the last events of history — the first coming of the Lord, and his second coming? In which is seen the mani­festation of Yahweh as they understood it. So, again here, there is an appreciation of the eschatological stage of history.

 

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They were looking for the manifestation of God's final salvation and this was the claim of the early Christians in what they relieved to be the actions of the Messiah, therefore in the messianic actions of Jesus. as Jesus said, "If you don't believe me, at least believe in my works". What is being said, is that in the works of the Messiah, in Jesus of Nazareth, you see messianic expectations fulfilled.

The messianic expectation, apocalyptically understood, the coming about of the agent of Yahweh, who will bring about total redemption, which for the early Christians would mean an expectation of the early return of Christ.

Were the early Christians oriented merely to the hereafter, eternal life, life after death? Or were they oriented to this world, to the here-and-now as the Israelites were? The answer would be something like this — that they were oriented first of all to the world to come, the new heaven and the new earth, to the future, possibly of the near future, a totally transformed world. Second, they also spoke of the earth here, in the sense that at the time of Christ they already believed in a life after death. When people died, they went either to the bosom of Abraham or to Gehena. But, they did not think of the blessings of salvation as confined merely to the world to come but already in this world, there is salvation. That is to say that total salvation of God is already present in his ministry.

For the New Testament age, the presence of salvation is already experienced in the ministry of Jesus as far as the early Church was concerned already experienced the presence of the Spirit, healing, sanctifying, and so forth. So that in the New testament age, it was not only the hereafter that they are concerned with, but the here – and – now.

Now, what is this concern? Is it individual, or does it have a societal dimension? Did Jesus die to save men and bring them to eternal life as individual? Yes, he did naturally! But, we must look at this from the back­ ground of the apocalyptics. Before we come to .the New Testament age itself, apocalyp­tics believe that God acts and intervenes — but not only for individuals but for socie­ties also. The intervention of Christ will renew societies, the whole of creation. Therefore, apocalyptic confession has socie­tal and cosmic dimensions - God will inter­vene, — and death, corruption, sin, all these will be wiped away. Therefore, this is not merely individual salvation.

From the standpoint of the second .coming of Christ, this is not just individual salva­tion, but it has societal dimension, it in­cludes the transformation of mankind and societies, liberation from all oppression, poverty, etc. Also, it is to be understood that Christ's actions on individuals were precisely individual actions, and were not, let us say like God's act in the Exodus. However, such acts are not merely in­dividual, they have societal dimension. The early Christians would say that they believe in the God who will not only save in­dividuals but renew society, nations, the entire universe.

Man is not looked upon, as soul and body, but as man. I was saying something along this line yesterday. Our Lord would not say, I am saving your soul but not your body - he heals the total person. Also, the word "spiritual" was used naturally in the Scriptures, not as meaning the soul, but rather the whole man as transformed by the spirit of God.

Finally, salvation, then, for the New Testa­ment would not just be for the soul but for the whole man. Christ's ministry certainly was for the whole person — he forgave sin, the lame walk, people were delivered from evil, from death, evils, sins. The Spirit has given also others blessing. In the second coming of Christ, his power will also be so­cietal in dimension as God will be all in all.

In brief, the early Church confessed some­thing like this: We believe that Christ is at work in history, in his final intervention in the world, which has been accomplished

 

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in his first coming (messianic oriented), the salvation he gives is for the here – and – now, it has a societal dimension, it is concerned with men (people), and not only part of man, and this understanding of salvation is total. This is the first part.

The second part, the ethics part, the ethic of love. The basic message of Christianity may be summarized in this way: An announcement of God's act of salvation. It is also a morality, an ethics. Jesus came into Galilee and announced that God's royal interven­tion is at hand; we must repent, believe in the Gospel. Those of us who follow him even now must know that we are in the in–between times. We believe in a religion, which celebrates God's great salvific acts in the world, that our God is interested and in­volved.