Re: Christ and Eschatology (1)

Sorry, I got distracted by events taking place on a different planet - I mean website; then I was distracted by Foucault and some radio programmes celebrating 1968 40 years on; then I got drawn into a discussion about animal husbandry and chicken farming; and then - life is so confusing really.

How was the history of Israel reaching a climax in Jesus as a person?

I described the climactic fulfilment Jesus brought to Israel’s destiny as the destiny of creation - a theme which always underlay Israel’s history. This is closely connected with God’s plans for the covenant, and with the climax of God’s representation of himself to his people (Christ & Eschatology 2.).

I described the climactic fulfilment Jesus brought to the history of Israel in providing for Israel the ‘end of the age’ - each stage of his history - past, present and future - being described in eschatological language (Christ & Esxchatology 3.).

I looked at how eschatological language focused on Jesus as a person as much as introducing a time-period, and how the varied and disparate OT promises which focus on an ‘end’ (or which focus on Israel’s historic destiny) find unique coherence in Jesus as a person (Christ & Eschatology 4.).

Finally I summed all this up in paragraphs 3,4,5,6,7 and 8 of the final post (Christ & Eschatology 5.).

So your question points to the main theme which I was developing through all the posts.

Incidentally, a review of a recent translation of Augustine’s interpretation of Genesis and the creation accounts on the aforementioned planet sheds interesting light on the discussion taking place elsewhere on this website, with Augustine in particular commenting that theology must take account of the best thinking in what, in those days, corresponded to the natural sciences. Augustine took a far from literal view of Genesis 1, it would appear. Perhaps he has something to teach us.