Benjamin L. Gladd - Making All Things New: Inaugurated Eschatology for the Life of the Church

This is not your ordinary book on eschatology. Usually when people hear that term, they think of the events connected to the future return of Jesus Christ and the very end of history. As a result, topics such as the rapture, the tribulation, and the millennium take center stage. Such an approach is often reinforced by systematic theology textbooks, which usually treat eschatology as a separate chapter focusing on these issues. But we believe that this understanding of eschatology is too narrow when it comes to what the Bible teaches.

Our English term eschatology comes from two Greek words: eschatos (last) and logos (word). So, eschatology is the study of the last things. But as we will try to demonstrate, eschatology is not limited to the events connected to the return of Jesus Christ. According to the NT, the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus have ushered in the latter days, as promised in the OT. Therefore, the latter days encompass the entire time period between the first and second comings of Christ. As a result, eschatology is not limited to the last chapter of what God will do in this world but rather frames all that God has done and will do in Jesus Christ.

Among biblical scholars and theologians this understanding has come to be known as inaugurated eschatology. The word inaugurated reflects the observation that while the latter-day new-creational kingdom has begun with the work of Jesus, it has not yet been consummated in all its fullness. Another way of referring to this phenomenon is to use the expression alreadynot yet. Gods kingdom has already found its initial fulfillment in and through Jesus Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the formation of the eschatological people of God. But the kingdom has not yet been realized in all its fullness. Stated differently, Gods promises have found their initial fulfillment while still awaiting their complete and final consummation.

This understanding of eschatology has been widely recognized and embraced within the academic study of the NT, but it has yet to make a significant and widespread impact on the life of the church. In the pages that follow, we attempt to explain how the alreadynot yet framework informs our understanding of the life and ministry of the church. While we believe that all Christians can benefit from this book, our focus is on pastors and those aspiring to be in the pastorate. As leaders of the church, they set the tone for how the congregation should live as the people of God. We have not tried to provide a complete picture of pastoral ministry or interact with the many helpful books on the subject. Instead, our goal is to explain how understanding and applying the alreadynot yet perspective significantly enriches several key aspects of the life and ministry of the church. It is not our intention to provide all the answers (not that we have them!) but to start a conversation about how inaugurated eschatology enhances pastoral ministry.