some thoughts

version 1 (version 2)

A little diagram, based on the one found in Geerhardus Vos’s Pauline Theology. The top one showing what was expected: a single, final coming of the Messiah, the middle point between “this age” and “the age to come.” The bottom shows the biblical view; two comings of the King, and a period of overlap between this age and the age to come. (Kline is saturated with this stuff.) We’re now in the yellow part, btw, in the “already, but not yet”, walking about as citizens under the rule of the Coming Kingdom, awaiting the appearance of the realm of the Kingdom, which will, with Christ, break out all over the earth from heaven. Better yet, heaven will flood over and consume the earth: earth will, in a sense, be heaven’d. We’re pilgrims living as strangers in a land that will soon be ours, as were the patriarchs before they heard the command to “take it.” We’re Rahab: in Jericho but not of Jericho because we’re of Joshua’s kingdom but not yet in it. The ebbing tide of its border-realm advances with each foot-step of the approaching King, who will, when he comes, tear Jericho down around us, leaving us draped in, no–marinated with–the New Creation Order. Let’s have no talk of a rescue by extraction out of Jericho; let’s hear of the triumphant King’s utter dessimation of Jericho, which leaves us standing as we were, the whole city knocked to dust round about us… Now that’s deliverance!

“Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”