The Last Things (Contours of Christian Theology)
Overview
There is no shortage of books on eschatology—the study of the last things and the end-times. Many arise out of incoherent or superficial readings of the Bible that detract from the “once and for all” achievements of God through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Others fail to consider the manner in which God reveals himself through the Lord Jesus and by the power of his Spirit. Too many fail to distinguish sufficiently between the genuine hope provided by the gospel and the superficial aspirations of culture.
In this final Contours of Christian Theology volume, David Höhne offers a trinitarian theological description of eschatology that is at once systematic, generated from the theological interpretation of Scripture, and yet sensitive to essential elements for Christian practice. His reading of the Bible is shaped by the gospel, informed by the history of Christian thought, and dedicated to serving the church in a world that is frustrated by sin, death, and evil, yet longing for the return of our Lord and Messiah.
Contours of Christian Theology, edited by Gerald Bray, is a series of concise introductory textbooks focused on the main themes of Christian theology. The authors introduce the perennial questions and their time-tested solutions while moving forward to explore contemporary issues and rework evangelical formulations of the faith.
- Offers a trinitarian theological description of eschatology
- Uses the Lord’s Prayer as a guiding system for discussing theological themes
- Combines systematic theology with a theological interpretation of Scripture
- Life in the Middle?
- Praying for the perfection of life in the Middle
- The name above all names
- God’s kingdom all in all
- The Father’s will for one and all
- Good Lord, preserve us
- Good Lord, forgive us
- Good Lord, deliver us
Top Highlights
“How God makes promises and then fulfils them is the key to understanding eschatology in the context of life in the Middle. Barth suggested that we should consider two key biblical promises: God’s promise to be present in creation and his covenantal promise to perfect a people for himself. We shall start with these two fundamental promises because an eschatology derived from the whole Bible will be more ‘holistic’ than just a list of things to expect at the return of Christ.31 To be theological, our eschatology must be a product of weaving together the actions of the Father through the Son and in the Spirit from creation to new creation.” (Page 9)
“In contrast to this, I shall adopt 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. These will be discussed more fully in chapter 2, but by way of introduction I offer the following.” (Page xv)
“Paul informs the Philippians that the name of the Lord is, and will at some future point be, vindicated on earth and hence be hallowed as it is in heaven, when it is recognized to belong to the risen Messiah Jesus. What these verses imply is that the Father’s name is, and will be, hallowed on earth as it is in heaven when the risen and ascended Messiah is acclaimed and proclaimed on earth as he is in heaven to be YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As Barth remarked on the Philippian passage, ‘What is revealed is that in His [Jesus of Nazareth’s] identity with the Son of God this man was the Lord.’9 This, writes Paul, will be ‘to the glory of God the Father’, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Page 60)
- Title: The Last Things
- Author: David Höhne
- Editor: Gerald Bray
- Series: Contours of Christian Theology
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 344
- Resource Type: Systematic Theology
- Topic: Eschatology