What Is Eschatology?

Dr. C. H. Dodd

A Welsh New Testament scholar and Congregational minister by the name of Charles Harold Dodd  (1884-1973) taught Biblical criticism and exegesis in England at The Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge. His name is connected with a twentieth century view of the end times called realized eschatology. In Dodd's view Christianity is an historical religion unlike all others. However, history should be considered in its religious sense—that is mythological or symbolical, not literal or scientific. There was no literal series of events as described in the Bible.

We must understand what the term eschatology means in order to grapple with Dodd's claims. Eschatology is the study of the eschaton (the day at the end of time when God will judge all mankind). In the Greek language the word is eschotos - the last, as in Jesus' parable:

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' - Mat 20:8 ESV

Implied in most studies of eschatology is the view that history has meaning: as our world had a beginning so it will have an end, a purpose. All events in human history are moving forward with purpose and meaning.  In Dodd's view eschatology's meaning is now rather than in the future, hence the term realized. In his view God's purpose has already been realized. And what is God's purpose? His purpose is to realize the kingdom of God on earth. To that end Dodd quotes Jesus in Matthew,

Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. - Mat 12:25-28 ESV

The phrase the kingdom of God has come upon you, says Dodd, means that God's kingdom has absolutely arrived. The Spirit of God is present and Satan's kingdom is being torn down. This is going on now. There is no future kingdom coming. God's purposes are being realized in various degrees in what is happening in the here and now. The Day of the Lord has come.

Realized eschatology continues to have strong influence in liberal churches that deny Christ's atoning death, his resurrection and his imminent return at the end of history as we know it. To them the purpose of Christianity and the church is to do good deeds, especially by working in the realm of politics and power to bring about societal change and equality. They have a different Gospel altogether. Their Gospel is basically that Christ died because he taught men to love one another. We are to follow in his path. As we do so, the kingdom of God is being realized now.

The young church in ancient Thessalonica also had a problem with the day of the Lord, but it was not Dodd's problem. Paul writes,

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. - 2Th 2:1-4 ESV

I'll take up their concern and Paul's response next time. Meanwhile know with certainty that the Scriptures do indeed teach that history has meaning and is moving toward the eschaton, the Last Day and Christ's return.