The conception of history in the Bible can be described as linear, not cyclical. Things come to a conclusion. History does not repeat itself. Here is the difference between the conception of nature, life and history from the immanence point of view and the conception that goes forth from the belief in God and from the revelation of God. From our human point of view within history, we can never transcend our human, i.e., historical limits. No ballistic instrument can bring us beyond the borders of history and time. Therefore the human philosophy of history is always bound to history itself. It seeks the absolute in the relative, eternity in time, God in man. And only in a very modest way can it succeed. Centuries of history are only waves in the sea of eternity, human life is only an infinite little lake of foam in the breaking waves. But all is involved in the eternal motion of going and returning. Nothing seems really to hold its place, nothing comes to a definite end and goal; there is an eternal change, and the change is eternal.
The Biblical Contrast
In the Bible, the conception of history is a different one. The biblical viewpoint is not closed up in history itself but surpasses the waves of time. It sees history and the world in their relation to God. In the Bible, therefore, history has not lost its beginning, nor does it lack its end. The pattern in which the Bible describes history is not that of a circle or circumference without; it is rather that of a path of time which God has made and still is making, from the point when he created the world towards the ends and goals he is leading it.
This conception of the Bible means on the one hand an infinite relativity of world and history. There is not even a spark of the eternal light within the boundaries of nature. All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass (Isa. 40:6). It is God who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16).
But on the other hand, nowhere does such a brilliant perspective for man and the world and history appear as in the biblical conception of the future. This perishable nature, it is said, must put on the imperishable; this mortal nature must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). It does not have this naturally. It is not the wave of eternity which moves it toward the coasts of immortality. But it will receive it as a gift from out of the hands of the eternal and immortal God. It will bear the clothes of immortality in God’s final triumph and in his eternal Kingdom, not because of its own nature, but because of the glory of his holy Name.
Let God Be God
The final triumph, the eternal Kingdom, in the biblical representation is an undeniable certainty because God is God.
When the Sadducees, who said that there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with their unbelieving questions, Jesus answered them: “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God … have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:29–32 RSV).
“He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” This is the biblical proof of resurrection and of God’s final triumph. It is not the conception of man and nature; it is the conception of God which forms the formation of the Christian belief in eternal life. Because God has created the world and because he has redeemed men out of the power of sin and death, the Bible displays a great and mighty light shining at the end of all God’s ways in history. Belief in the eternal Kingdom is belief in God. You cannot believe in God without believing in the final immortality of the world and man. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living.
Therefore in his eternal Kingdom there is not only place for heavens but also for the earth; not only for angels, but also for men; not only is there eternal life for soul and spirit, but also for the body.
The Bible contains not the slightest trace of spiritualism, either in the description of the end or in that of the beginning. Therefore, the Bible can depict the glory of eternal life in the colors of the earthly. For the triumph of God in all the works of his hands fills his eternal Kingdom with glory. God does not save the heavens and leave the earth in the power of his enemy; nor does he save the soul alone from the horror of death. The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven upon earth and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and the honor of nations into it. And “Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For thy dew is a dew of light, and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall” (Isa. 26:19). This all-embracing glorification forms the content of the biblical conception of the kingdom of God. The Gospel of the Kingdom, as it has found provisional realization in the first coming of Christ, is the Gospel of the redemption of the earth. The Kingdom of heaven consists for the poor in spirit in the inheritance of the earth (Matt. 5:3, 5). And the signs of the Kingdom are in the blind men who receive sight, in the lame that walk, in the lepers that are cleansed, in the deaf that hear, and in the dead who are raised up (Matt. 11:5). Yea, the storms become still and the towering seas lay calm and flat and waveless before his feet, as a sign and guarantee of the new world of God. Therefore, the New Testament speaks of the reconciliation of all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by the blood of the Cross. For Christ brings the kingdom of God in its full and cosmic sense. He, the first-born of all creation, is not only the head of the body, the Church; but in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col. 1:15–19). For God has put all things in subjection and he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor. 15:25).
In this conception of God and of the kingdom of God lies the nature and the strength of the biblical belief in immortal life and the eternal world to come. This faith is not built upon human imagination. It is no mere projection of a perfect future in an imperfect world, for the biblical belief is not under the delusion of human dignity. It does not underrate the power of sin and death, neither does it borrow its strength from spiritual dreams. It is belief in the future only because and insofar as it is belief in God and in his Kingdom.
The same holds good for the content of this belief. The picture of the future world is only a picture of the glory of God. It is not this world of sin and death, it is not this flesh and blood, that can inherit immortality. All things will be saved, but only as through fire. In this sense the holy Scripture says that heaven and earth will pass away (Matt. 5:18; 24:35); that they will perish and grow old like a garment (Ps. 102:26; Heb. 1:11); that the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10). (It is not certain that these words “burned up” express the original meaning of the text. Some manuscripts say “will be found,” or “will not be found,” or “will vanish.” The original text cannot be fixed with certainty.)
This all means the judgment of the holy God on a sinful and unholy world. But it does not mean an annihilation of the world. The apostle Paul says very clearly that the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:31). The same creation that now is subjected to futility, in the final triumph will be set free from its bondage to decay unto the liberty and glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21). It is a passing away of the world of sin and iniquity; it is the appearance of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13). For God “will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3–4). All the figures and pictures in the Bible stress in principle only one thing: the glory of God will be the salvation of men and the salvation of men will consist in the glorification of God.
That does not mean an eternal standstill. Revealed in these symbols and figures is the new and great rule of life, the order of the new world. Revelation enables us to turn our hearts to the future. Biblical apocalypse has another scope than to feed our fantasy: its scope and purpose are to strengthen our faith, and hope and love. God will be glorified in all the works of his hands; that is the final triumph. And all men, who in their waiting for the unveiled revelation of all his virtues have received the Spirit of sonship, will enter into the 12 gates of the new and imperishable city of God, to live the life of men in the light of God. That is the eternal Kingdom.
Herman N. Ridderbos has been Professor of New Testament at Kampen Seminary in The Netherlands since 1942. He received the Th.D. degree from Free University, Amsterdam, in 1936, and served as a minister of the Reformed Church before his seminary appointment. He is Editor-in-chief of Gereformeerd Weekblad and is author of numerous books.