Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God
Overview
In this bold sequel to Paul the Apostle, celebrated New Testament scholar J. Christiaan Beker reclaimed the apocalyptic center of Paul’s proclamation for the life of the contemporary church.
Logos Bible Software dramatically improves the value of Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God by enabling you to find what you’re looking for with unparalleled speed and precision. The Logos edition is fully searchable and easily accessible. Scripture passages link directly to your preferred English translation and to the original language texts, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of resources in your digital library.
Top Highlights
“Jewish apocalyptic is a literary phenomenon that arose in Judaism in the second century b. c. The period within which Jewish apocalyptic flourished was a period of martyrdom for the Jewish people. The central question that occupies the apocalypticist is how to overcome the discrepancy between what is and what should be. Why is faithfulness to the God of the Law rewarded by persecution and suffering? Questions like this come to expression in a literature that uses a variety of literary forms: dreams, visions, surveys of world events, descriptions of coming woes and of a final redemption.” (Page 30)
“I propose that Paul’s apocalyptic not only provides the content of the gospel but also stipulates the mode of its preaching. This means that the mode of its preaching is dictated by a cruciform life in accordance with God’s redemptive act in the death and resurrection of Christ.” (Page 15)
“(2) Moreover, the death and resurrection of Christ mark the incursion of the future new age into the present old age.” (Page 40)
“These four motifs are vindication, universalism, dualism, and imminence” (Page 15)
“Paul’s interpretation of the gospel is an interpretation in the mode of hope because he believes in the God of Israel whose self-vindication and faithfulness to his promises have been inaugurated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and will shortly be fully actualized in his creation.” (Page 34)
J. Christiaan Beker faces a major question: can the genuine power of Paul’s truly responsible apocalyptic be recovered in our time—so that we are actually addressed by the gospel of God’s coming cosmic triumph—without falling victim to readily available forms of sheer speculation, paranoid polarization, and romantic futurism? Beker responds to this question with uncommon honesty and insight as he shows that the passion for God’s coming triumph can serve—and in fact does serve—as the generating source of our compassion for our needy world.
—J. Louis Martyn, Edward Robinson Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary
The great Christian word hope has fallen on hard times: existential theologians have redefined it as openness to a vague future; Apocalyptic sensationalists have reduced it to a time table of escapism. In his study of Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel, Beker has recaptured the meaning of hope. To a church fettered to her past or consumed by her present, no perspective is more helpful than Beker’s conclusion that the Gospel embraces the future and that the future’s clearest feature is the victory of God. Preaching will come to life and Bible study take on new vigor for all who walk through Paul’s letters with Beker as a guide.
—David Allan Hubbard, former president, Fuller Theological Seminary
- Title: Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God
- Author: J. Christiaan Beker
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 1982
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 127
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Eschatology › Biblical teaching; Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Theology; Apocalyptic literature › History and criticism
- Resource ID: LLS:PLSPCLYPTCGSPLC
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T05:06:55Z
Reviews
1 rating
Erich Javier Astudillo Acevedo
10/13/2020
This was a hard book to read for me. I am from a dispensationalist background and to endure the constant treatment of it as a sect composed of the unthoughtful masses is hard. But overcoming this obstacle I appreciate the author’s overcoming of his. I specially appreciate statements such as “Rather, the ethical demand of Christian life is embraced by two acts of God, that is, by both his past act in Jesus Christ and his future act when the final theophany will usher in the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment.” (p. 87). And “The natural sciences have promulgated a widespread notion that has become axiomatic for our dominant culture: that the question of the end of the world by divine intervention is naive and obsolete, or at best a primitive myth of some moral value. Plato’s conviction about an enduring world that has a beginning but no end or that of Aristotle that posits neither a beginning nor an end for the world has, as it were, become normative for modern theological interpretations of New Testament apocalyptic.” (pp. 99–100). These, among others have widened my view and helped me to reflect on my heritage and where I stand now.
