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Imminency and Restorationism in Early Christianity

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Imminency and Restorationism in Early Christianity Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research 1997 Imminency And Restorationism In Early Christianity Timothy E. Crosby Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin Part of the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Crosby, Timothy E., "Imminency And Restorationism In Early Christianity" (1997). Dissertation Projects DMin. 331. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/331 This Project Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertation Projects DMin by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT IMMINENCY AND RESTORATIONISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY by Timothy E. Crosby Adviser: Robert M. Johnston ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: IMMINENCY AND RESTORATIONISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Name of researcher: Timothy E. Crosby Name and degree of faculty adviser: Robert M. Johnston, Ph.D. Date completed: May 1997 Problem The problem of the delay of the Parousia is one of the central problems of the Christian faith. In the Seventh-day Adventist Church it usually takes the form of a short delay (100+ years), whereas among New Testament scholars it takes the form of a long delay (1900+ years). This study seeks to shed light on the problem as perceived by New Testament scholars. Method In order to delve deeply into the meaning of a handful of cruxes in the New Testament having to do with the imminence of the Parousia, the study attempted to examine all of the eschatology-related material in the Old and New Testaments and in Jewish and Christian literature between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. This required an examination of over 2,000 passages. This study focused primarily on the original sources, and only secondarily on secondary literature. Conclusion In the course of this research some forgotten trajectories were uncovered in early Christianity that enable us to make better sense of difficult passages such as Matt 24, 2 Thess 2, and even Rom 11. There is evidence of widespread belief around the turn of the era that the messianic kingdom was about to come. This belief was based on the timetables of Dan 7 and 9. Jesus tapped into this expectation with His proclamation that "the time has come; the kingdom of God is near" (Mark 1:15), a probable allusion to Dan 7:22, "the time had come for the saints to receive the kingdom." It appears that the earliest Christians were expecting a heavenly kingdom on earth as promised in the OT, and that this restorationist theology never died out of the church until the third century. The failure of the kingdom to appear in its fullness at the end of the seventy weeks can be explained by reference to numerous Old Testament parallels involving conditional prophecies that remained unfulfilled in the light of disobedience on the part of God’s people. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary IMMINENCY AND RESTORATIONISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by Timothy E. Crosby May 1997 IMMINENCY AND RESTORATIONISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by Timothy E. Crosby APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE: Adviser, V Director of D.Min. Program Robert M. Johnston Bruce L. Bauer / c t l u x x - / C . J^OUjlZAJ Bruce L. Bauer Dean^SAAi3^ok|gical Seminary Wemer"lCVyhmeister 2 - r , i ‘ï ‘> 7 Larry Richards Date apph^ved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 II. FIRST-CENTURY HOPES OF AN IMMINENT ESCHATON................ 7 The Literary Background: First-Century Expectation of Daniel’s Kingdom 7 The Historical Background: First-Century Messianic Movements .............. 16 III. IMMINENCY STATEMENTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT................... 29 Imminency Statements on the Lips of Jesus ................................................. 29 Matt 1 0 :2 3 .................................................................................................. 29 Matt 1 6 :2 8 .................................................................................................. 37 Matt 24:34 .................................................................................................. 42 The "You’ll See Me Again Soon" Statements ......................................... 56 Lukan Redaction of the Olivet Discourse................................................. 59 The Vow of Abstinence ............................................................................ 68 Imminency Material Outside the Gospels....................................................... 70 Early Christian Communalism as an Imminency Phenomenon .............. 71 Imminency in the Epistles ....................................................................... 74 Later Imminency Statements .................................................................... 77 IV. OLD TESTAMENT ESCHATOLOGYIN THE NEW TESTAMENT . 81 Daniel’s Abomination of Desolation in the NT ............................................ 81 The Olivet Discourse Reconsidered ......................................................... 81 The Man of Sin in 2 Thess 2 .................................................................... 90 The Seventy Weeks of Dan 9 in the N T...................................................... 95 Jesus and the Seventy W ee k s.................................................................... 95 Stephen and Paul and the Seventy Weeks .............................................. 101 The Jubilee and the Seventy Weeks ......................................................... 105 Intertestamental Allusions to the Seventy Weeks ................................... I l l The Restoration of Israel in the NT ............................................................ 116 Restorationism in the Preaching of John the Baptist................................. 116 in Restorationism in Acts and the Epistles ................................................. 123 Restorationism (Chiliasm) in the Second C entury................................... 130 Restorationism in the Teachings of J e s u................................................. s 136 Evidence for an Earthly Kingdom...................................................... 137 The Gathering of Israel ....................................................................... 144 The Rebuilding of Jerusalem ............................................................... 148 The Conversion of the J e w s................................................................. 153 Problem Passages for a Restorationist Scenario ...................................... 156 Heaven in the Gospels .......................................................................... 156 Heaven in the Epistles .......................................................................... 161 V. THE DELAY AS AN EXAMPLE OF CONDITIONAL PROPHECY . 169 The Delay of the Kingdom in the N T ............................................................ 169 The Delay of the Kingdom in the O T ............................................................ 182 The Principle of Conditional Prophecy ....................................................... 189 The Kingdom that Might Have Been ............................................................ 204 The Limits of G ra c e ....................................................................................... 209 Appendix A. THE HYPOTHESIS OF MARKAN PRIORITY ...................................... 218 B. THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF HELL .................................................... 230 C. OLD TESTAMENT PAROUSIA PASSAGES ............................................ 236 D. IMMINENCY STATEMENTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY ................... 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 249 IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APOT R. H. Charles, Apocryphy and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers B. Babylonian Talmud DSS Theodore H. Gaster, The Dead Sea Scriptures; Florentino Garcia Martinez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English. ECF Early Christian Fathers NTA New Testament Apocrypha OTP The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Str-B H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar Zum Neuen Testament SDABC Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , Kittel and Friedrich, eds. Yonge The Works of Philo, C. D. Yonge, trans. v CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The problem of the apparent delay of Jesus’ Second Coming, or Parousia (Greek for "presence, arrival, coming"), has occupied believers for centuries. While various theories have been put forward to explain the delay, no one theory has carried the day. My purpose in this study is not to champion any one of these theories. It is my conviction that before we can come to any satisfactory resolution, we must first realize the immensity of the problem. Seventh-day Adventists tend to wonder why Jesus did not come back in the nineteenth century. Careful analysis of the New Testament suggests
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