Identity: Eschatological (Part 1)

The autumn restlessness—there is something in the autumn air that stirs. We know winter is coming, winter for what we are not made for—the winter that set into Narnia, the winter that sets into our culture. Our culture’s story ends in winter. Life ends in death. Naturalism says there is nothing afterward. Consumerism says now is as good as it gets. The winter of death will come, and autumn nags. A reminder that we are pilgrims. But pilgrims to where? Where are we at in the journey, that is, when are we at? Our culture drifts like the fallen leaf.

But we Christians, we know when we are. When? The autumn gives away not to winter but to spring. Winter will come, but spring will have the last word. The spring of new life, spring of resurrection, spring of new creation, spring of eschatology.

In Trevin Wax’s insightful book Eschatological Discipleship (read my full review here) he shows how discipleship is shaped by our sense of eschatology (what time it is, and time’s destiny). Thus, I frame it: When are you? To understand our identity and who we are, we must ask “When am I?” not just “Who am I?”

We are people of spring in a world of fall. Who we are is eschatological. Eschatological? Yes, for eschatology is more broadly our concept and vision of the future, where the world is going on a personal, collective, and cosmic level (1). It is seeing the grand story, and knowing our place in it. That we are not just repeating history, but that God is guiding history toward a unique end, and we are part of that story.

~ The Biblical Story ~

The Old Testament is thus an eschatological story. In Genesis 1:1 God created the world with an end in mind: Adam and Eve were to fill the earth for the glory of God (Gen. 1:28). Genesis 3:15 and the promise of the Seed who would crush the Serpent, gave a story with an end vision in sight, however, blurry. Abraham was given a promise of a time when all nations would bow to the Almighty, either in blessing or curse, through his seed (Gen. 12:1-3).  

The Chronicler notes, “These are the numbers of the divisions of the armed troops who came to David in Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him, according to the word of the Lord….. Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:23, 32). They had the wisdom to know what time it was—time to crown David. When things were unstable, when Saul had just been killed, when David had been living in the wilderness and caves and among the enemy Philistines, they still saw with the eyes of faith that this was the true king. Would we have seen David as king? Would we have the eyes of faith? And today, do we know what time it is? (Trevin Wax includes a helpful discussion on this passage [2].)

Isaiah knew he was a man of eschatology, a man of a future kingdom. He saw the King on the throne. He knew that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz were not the true kings. He knew that the injustice of the unfaithful, rebellious city was not who they were, but they would become the faithful city.

“How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers…. And I [the Lord] will restore your judges as at the first…. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city” (Isa. 1:21, 26).

He called the Israelites to live as those among whom the lion would lie down with the lamb (Isa. 11:6; 65:25). Living before the exile and before the restoration, he spoke to the future-exiled and to the future-returnees, reminding them of the future God was bringing their story to. His illustrating of God’s promised story was to shape how they endured and lived in the exile, how they set up the return to Israel. Knowing their time and place in the story and the promised end shaped how they were to live faithfully. He gave them an eschatological picture to help them live. Although it felt like they dwelt in the death of winter, spring would come.

Mordecai asked “What time is it?” When Esther was yet a wee child, he knew what story he was a part of and he knew the end—vindication and restoration. This shaped his faithfulness even in exile. The narrator introduces him as a “Jew,” even before his name (Est. 2:5). He was a Jew for his people would be Jews in the land once again. He asked, “What time is it?” when Haman threatened destruction. He looked forward to God’s promise in the past to Abraham and David of a Messiah, and he looked forward to the future of the promise of restoration and a remnant. Thus, he knew in his time it was not time for annihilation. He echoed the psalmist’s confidence, “But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever… You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come” (Psa. 102:12a, 13). So he urged Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14). He was an eschatological man—he knew what time it was in light of where the story was going by faith, by God’s promises. He saw the blossoms of promise even in the hailstorm of Haman’s threats.

Daniel was an eschatological disciple. His prayer recorded in chapter 9 is cognizant of the Lord’s promise of the end of the exile through Jeremiah. He knew the evil culture he lived in, but knew that Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar would both pass away (Dan. chs.2, 4, 5). He knew that there was a God who “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan. 2:21). He knew that the fiercest kingdoms of this world would be replaced by one like the Son of Man whose “kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Dan. 7:27; cf. chs. 7-12). This, this allowed Daniel to remain faithful. God intentionally gave King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel the dreams and visions and ability to interpret them to instill that eschatological mindset, to let them know the end of the story so that they would remain faithful and hope-filled in an evil culture. The remnant were eschatological disciples; they knew the time. The kingdoms of this world would fade like snow in the hot burning sun of God’s forever summer, and the righteous would “shine like the brightness of the sky above” forever (Dan. 12:3).

~ Jesus’s Story ~

Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith (Heb. 12:2), knew his time. He was born in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), and it appears that at age twelve he was even aware of it, filled with the wise urgency of the time. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:49). He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat. 3:2). In other words, “The time has come! It is here! I am bringing it!” He healed the man born blind knowing “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). He told us there was a new time when he explains, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mat. 11:11). That is, John the Baptist was the greatest of the old order, but a new time has come.

Jesus’ knowledge of the time is reflected in his choosing twelve disciples, indicating a new Israel, a true remnant. His cursing of the fig tree that proclaimed judgment on the temple (Mk. 11:12-25), his promise of building a new temple (that is, his body; Jn. 2:21) make sense in Jesus’ understanding of the time—the in-breaking of the future, the last days. His baptism and resurrection are described in language that speaks of new creation: Spirit hovering, waters, Father’s blessing, a garden, commissioning. Fulfilled was the Song of Song’s words:

“Arise, my love…. for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” (Sg. 2:10-12).

While we have to ask, “What time is it?” “When am I?” to define our identity, Jesus was eschatological in another sense—he was the time. He was the turning point of history. Our place in the story, our identity of time, is rooted in his historical act. We are situated now, in the last days. That fact inherently changes the way we live faithfully today.

Jesus did not just die to save our souls; he died to change the time. Thus we must, we must live as children of the new age! We must live with our eyes on the coming future and our hands deep in the dirt of this earth. Let us live as our Lord, knowing the time in light of the time. Anything less is to reduce Jesus to a mere past historical fact, or a personal genie, or a timeless moral idea. He died for a new creation, a new age!

A second aspect, apart from the wonder of the new, is Jesus’s wisdom. This is our perfect Savior! He understood the time, the invisible eschatological priorities, the deep true reality. And in wisdom, he spoke and acted decisively, with authority, confidence in his Father. His teaching still resounds today, yet it was apt for this culture and his audience. He looked to his Father for what to say, when to say, when to do, what to do (John 5:19). Jesus is still preaching today, through us. Let us love him for his wisdom! And let his wisdom be ours (Jas. 1:5; 2 Cor. 10:4-5).

Who are we? We are eschatological. We are people of the last days, people of the future kingdom that Jesus has brought in. We know our time. We know we are children of the spring in a world of fall. 

*How does knowing your "when" in God's story shape your sense of self?
*If someone looked at your life, would they see you more as a child of the autumn, or as a child of spring's Resurrected One?

NOTES

(1) Trevin Wax, Eschatological Discipleship: Leading Christians to Understand Their Historical and Cultural Context (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 27.

(2) Ibid, 45-46.