CHAPTER TEN
MATTHEW’S VERSION
Emphasis on the application of the Olivet Discourse is introduced by the parable of the fig tree, an illustration from nature. (Walvoord 1972, 22) We observe the tree and expect summer. In the same way, we see all these things and expect Christ. The time of his Advent is near, and therefore we have to “keep watch.” (Mt 24:42) Though the time is near, no-one knows the exact hour, not even Christ himself but only the Father. The hour will come unexpectedly just as in the days of Noah. (Mt 24:37-41) Reasonably, Jesus warns the people to “keep watch “like an owner of a house who is ready whenever the thief comes, and to be busy like the faithful and wise servant who is expecting his master at any time. (Mt 24:43-51).
Jesus provides further material for admonition. In his parable about the Ten Virgins he again warns the people to be prepared for the bridegroom. (Mt 25:1-13). The foolish virgins had not prepared enough oil for their lamps and were for this reason excluded from the wedding feast. Likewise, we will be rejected by Christ if we are not prepared for his Coming. (Carson 1984, 511ff.) His next parable about the Talents teaches us faithfulness. (Mt 25:14-30) The Lord gave us talents, and he will come back to see and to judge about what we have done with these. We have noted that, despite the diverse theological heritage of early Pentecostalism, the emphasis on the charismatic dimensions of the Spirit in Pentecostal worship and theology was of utmost importance. Tongues was a sign of the latter rain outpouring of the Spirit in preparation for the coming of the Lord. Seymour's prophetic message of social reconciliation envisioned a world where the personal and social prejudices of racism and gender division would be conquered through tongues and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's outpour at Pentecost was a focus for the envisioned unity, reconciliation and justice in the church and the world. Seymour's vision was ultimately frustrated. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the transformative vision of Seymour (Tinney J, 1976). Contemporary Pentecostal theologians, such as Steven Land, Eldin Viafane, Miroslav Volf and Frank Macchia, have revisioned Pentecostal eschatology to recover the more prophetic, social, critical elements of the early movement. They reject fundamentalist eschatology, interpreting the Spirit of the last days as God's gracious presence and action to transform the person, society and creation itself into the eschatological new creation, a transformation that is already here through the person of Jesus Christ and the event of Pentecost, but awaiting the "not yet" of the eschaton. This eschatological re-visioning is better positioned to encourage contemporary Pentecostals to engage the world in a socially responsible manner.
Moltmann's theology is thoroughly eschatological, driven fundamentally by such biblical concepts as the kingdom of God, the new creation, the millenarian reign and the apocalyptic separation of good f3om evil. The kingdom of God breaks into the present to transform history and mate anticipatory hop for the future. His work is also thoroughly Pneumatological. His eschatology is integrated with Christological pneumatology, in which the resurrection of the crucified Christ grounds Christian hope for the future resurrection of the dead and the transformation of creation. At the same time, the apocalyptic suffering of Christ on the cross is The point of Gods solidarity with the suffering of the poor and oppressed and the misery of ail creation. Moltmann's theology is also thoroughly political. The powers of the status quo are cutinized as contrary to God. We are called to live in solidarity with the poor and oppressed and to resist the social political powers of evil. Finally Moltmann has developed a cosmic eschatology that envisions the future indwelling of God in creation and creation in God, which will be the Sabbath rest of all creation. Important in Moltmann's eschatology is the belief that God will not destroy the world in the eschaton, but will bring creation to its final end. Moltmann's eschatology is therefore thoroughly transformational. AU four Pentecostals reveal varying degrees of influence by Moltmann's Pneumatological eschatology. In their own unique ways, each Pentecosta1 theologian has been in dialogue with Moltmann's theology to develop an authentic Pentecostal theology that not only recovers the neglected socio-critical elements of early Pentecostalism, but also seeks to broaden the scope of Pentecostal eschatology to include the social and the cosmic as well as the personal in eschatological transformation. Land articulates an apocalyptic spirituality that emphasizes orthodoxy, orthopraxy and osteopathy that are correlative with the Trinitarian being of God. Wafaie develops a Pneumatological social ethic that hinges upon the future reign of God, which has important implications for opposing the dehumanizing and oppressing "powers-that-be." Villafaie, as a Hispanic American liberationist, is partially influenced by Moltmann's theology of the cross, in that Christ's crucifixion functions as the point of God's solidarity with the poor in humanity thereby instilling resistance to dominating political powers. However, the relationship is more one of resemblance than of innocence. Volf constructs a political theology of human work and embrace that has its root in the eschatological new creation. Of the four Pentecostais, Volf is most influenced by Moltmann. Maccbia argues for an eschatology rooted in Blumhardt Pietism, in which the kingdom of God is nascent present in history through the Incarnation, the event of Pentecost and ultimately in the future parousia This eschatology draws Macchia to argue that a Pentecostal theology of tongues is sacramental, theophoric (divine appearance that is perceived by the human senses) and eschatological. Although MoItmann uses the "epiphanic" rather than theophoric to describe the appearance of the divine in the present, he rejects epiphanic theology because it confuses the presence of God for the eschatological promise. Macchia is thus partly influenced by, but is quite distinct from, Moltmann. The dialogue partners have one important point in common. They all argue for transformational eschatologist and thereby reject the fundamentalist vision of world destruction and passive resignation, Throughout this dissertation I have affirmed that a revisioning of Pentecostal eschatology is necessary to recover prophetic elements of the early movement that will allow Pentecostais to engage the world in a socially responsible mer. 1 have also argued that Pentecostais need to be critical of fundamentalist assumptions that have materialized within the Pentecostal movement, because passive resignation in the face of world destruction is dangerous, both theologically and politically. As well, the fundamentalist separation of the dispensation of Israel from the church is inconsistent with the Pentecostal emphasis upon the continuation of charismatic gifts of the Spirit from the of the Old Testament prophets to the present age. All four Pentecostal theologians, in dialogue with Moltmann, offer a Pentecostal eschatology that seeks to transform the world in the power of the Spirit of God.
These contemporary Pentecostal theologians' are significant because they not only draw upon their early heritage for inspiration to plot a course for the Pentecostal movement in the early 21st century. In dialogue with Moltrnann, they gain a theology that is open to history and creation as an integral part of salvation, and consequently envision a Pentecostal ethic that is personal and social in breadth. Through theological engagement, they have moved Pentecostal theology from isolation to inclusion, from separate on to ecumenism and from other worldly preoccupation to transformation.
This claim asserts that the incarnate Jesus Christ who died and rose again is the foundation of redemption and creation; in his bodily person and through the events of his death and resurrection God accomplishes and reveals his redemption. Such things requires explication in five areas: (1). How is one to understand that God works "through Jesus Christ? That God works through him suggests a mediatorial work. How mediator ship is rightly construed? (2) What is the significance of the personhood of Jesus Christ? (3) What is the significance of the cross? (4) What is the significance of the resurrection? (5) Why must this Christological understanding take priority over other understandings, particularly that of the pre-incarnational Logos- Christology?
Obviously such questions properly require extensive Christological description; however. Each of these issues has been raised earlier in this study. And here 1 will simply point them in directions that 1 believe are helpful. The first two issues are best taken together: a specific person serves as the mediator between the triune God and his creatures.
Describing Jesus Christ in this way requires careful qualification. The terms 'person' and 'mediator are not prior abstractions awaiting the Incarnation to be filled with concrete content. Rather, the history of the creation reveals many anticipations of God’s work in Jesus Christ. According to this account of progressive revelation the later neo- Calvinist ontology of creation law within whose frame one understands the person and work of Jesus Christ is to be rejected, but attempts to posit an ontology of the personal or an ontology of the relational derived £rom the Incarnation are equally problematic for similar reasons.' The starting point is not an abstraction into which a concrete reality named Jesus Christ is poured Bavinckfs assertion that the person and work of Jesus Christ are fundamental is helpful, as is his spelling out of the implications of this assertion: that the believer's primary response is one of adoration, that al1 roles which one perceives Jesus Christ to fulfil are secondary to and derivative of his person and work, and that any concepts which one uses to describe him are never more than 'the best one can do for now.' To develop an ontology rooted in abstract concepts as 'the personal' and 'relationality is to violate the priority of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
This first thesis declares that ontological primacy properly belongs to the incarnate Jesus Christ, the character of the relation between God and his creation is revealed and the goal of its redemption is accomplished. On the basis of this fundamental claim one can articulate implications of this claim, and these implications include the mediatorial work of Christ which is focused on relation (i.e., as mediator Jesus Christ establishes and reconciles the relation between God and the creation), and the personhood of Christ. Construing aspects of these implications as ontological truth claims not only succumbs to the error of describing Jesus Christ through abstract categories defined outside of him, but also blinds one to the fact that these implications are often contextual; that is, the implications which one emphasizes are to a large extent dependent on the needs of context. It is the immeasurable wonder of the person and work of Jesus Christ that admits a variety of specific implications differing contexts; to grant ontological status to abstractions derived from such descriptions is to grasp for that which is beyond human reach, deny the provisional character of theological articulations and diminish the significance of the concrete person and work of Jesus Christ.
One cannot understand the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation of the relationship between God and the creation and of the goal of redemption unless one sees within it the love of the Father for his cosmos in giving the Son, the love of the Father for the Son, the love of the Son for the Father in his obedience unto death, and the love of the Father and the risen Son in the sending of the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian frame for the person and work of Jesus Christ reveals that the three person God as a community of love shares that love with the creation and is personally involved within the history of this creation.