(Part III will appear in the next issue)
Whenever people from other lands visit Palestine they are always deeply moved by historic places familiar to us from the New Testament: Nazareth, Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Golgotha, and Jerusalem. Palestine has indeed been called the “Fifth Gospel.” The expression is really unacceptable, since it elevates seeing the Holy Land (a privilege given to relatively few) to the same level with the Gospels which have come to all. But the intention of this expression is certainly clear; here in Palestine it becomes plain that God has not dealt with us in the form of an idea, but in the events of history. The dealing of God is not a disclosure of lovely thoughts unconnected with historical circumstances, but is a revelation in history.
This has a different meaning for Christians than it has for Jews, who still, with enthusiasm, repeat and sing the words of Psalm 137:5, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem.…” Among the Jews this is a religious homesickness. When in the history of Zionism the idea of establishing the state of Israel in Ugandi in Africa was put forth, and the fatigued Herzl seemed satisfied with this, then the future president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, protested fiercely and made his choice for Jerusalem (Psalm 137).
The Place Of Holy Events
Although our thoughts of Jerusalem are different than those of the Jewish people, and even though we may never be able to visit Palestine and live our lives far from the “Holy Land,” this Oriental land still remains the place of holy events. Here history was fulfilled in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4): God was revealed in the flesh. Here God comes; all the lines of the purposeful dealing of God are drawn together here. All the ways of God’s doings cross each other in the historical revelation of God. From here the message of the Gospel goes out to all the world through disciples and preachers. Salvation here becomes historically visible—for the faith!—and Gospels appear in which everything has been written: names of people and places, and the missionary journeys of the apostles.
The revelation of God is just as real as the historical fact of sin and the disturbance of all of life, even to the secrets of the heart and to the ends of the world. Palestine is not the Fifth Gospel, but this land which lies on the border between East and West is involved in the message that goes around the world.
When the Church speaks of its salvation, it thinks back on this record of history. It protests every concept that would make salvation unreal and fleeting. In a life-and-death struggle, it withstood the temptation of Docetism, which did not do justice to the reality of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. It refused to allow this revelation to become blurred in the idea, for it had knowledge of a manger and a cross, of Augustus and Caiaphas, and of Pontius Pilate. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate”—so the early Church confessed its anti-Docetism and embraced the message of the Cross and the Resurrection over against every denial.
Bultmann’S Fallacy
This brings us in our day to the stand against the de-mythologizing of Bultmann, who also assigns the Resurrection to mythical portions of the Gospels which no longer have normative authority for us. The Church stands with Paul who not only points to the Resurrection, but testifies thereto, by calling attention to the many witnesses who had seen the risen Lord (1 Cor. 15). Bultmann has called this “fatal argumentation,” but the whole original community is unanimous in viewing exactly this historical fact: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life … that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with … the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1–3).
The fullness of time!
God revealed in the flesh!
Whenever Paul speaks about the great mystery, then he speaks of “the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25). Paul is not asserting that prophecy was nonexistent under the old covenant, but he uses this strong expression (kept secret) rather to point out that now for the first time in history it is revealed in its full reality: “But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26). This is the time of fulfillment of which Christ had already spoken in the synagogue: “This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
And when Paul speaks to the Greeks on Areopagus hill concerning the salvation of God, he proclaims the reality of divine revelation, that God now has passed by the times of ignorance and “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
The revelation of the mystery …
Decisive Historical Character
The Epistle to the Hebrews once more brings us into contact with this historical, decisive character of divine revelation. Throughout the entire Old Testament, the sacrificial offerings of the old covenant were aimed at the great offering which had now appeared: “now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26). The “once” signifies not so much once in distinction from many times, but the finality of the offering. It is not accidental that the Reformation again emphasized this “once” over against the idea of repetition in the Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass.
When this climax has been reached, when the Messianic work on earth has been completed, when God “was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19), then with this has come “the end of the world.” That does not mean that the Scriptures do not reckon with a further course of history. But it is certainly clear that the time has run full, that the definitive dealing of God on earth has now been completed, and that everything that can still come to pass in the history of the world is necessarily made clear in terms of what has already occurred. The divine revelation in history forever rules out a look only toward the future, forgetful of what already has happened. When the Church looks forward to him who shall come (Rev. 1:8), then it can do this only because he once has come (John 1:11).
And when the Lord rose from the dead, when the kingdom of God was come, and the spirit was poured forth in the congregation—in the last days—then the apostles, as witnesses of the risen Lord, acquired dynamic to preach the Gospel even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) and to all peoples (Matt. 28:19). The entire reality of salvation is gathered in the definitive word of the crucified Christ: “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Ever since the time of Pentecost all of history has a status of final and definitive responsibility. Still, the end of the ways of God has not been reached. Now also there is an outlook toward the future—toward a future concerning which Paul writes: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:54, 55).
There is one “not yet.” When the Thessalonians viewed the ordinary earthly life about them with disdain, then Paul warned them “not to be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (2 Thess. 2:2), and he says that first there must still come the falling away, the great falling away and the “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3).
Many times the New Testament revelation has been interpreted so that no concept of history as continuing is allowable after the time of the New Testament. The history of the Church in the early centuries is then regarded as an attempt to come to a reconciliation with the delay of the Parousia. In Switzerland especially, the theory of “consistent eschatology” has been put forward by Martin Werner and Fritz Buri, to the effect that dogma, office, and church had come into being in the place of the disappointed expectation. It is well to remember in this connection that in the Second Epistle of Peter the delay of the Parousia is mentioned. But there it is not the congregation that speaks thereof, but the mockers: “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:4). Peter then recalls that they have forgotten one thing: the flood, the judgment of God in history, and that there is no reason for their mockery: “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).
And since, despite all these conclusive events (Cross and Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost), history still goes on, Peter explains the purpose of this continuance in the words: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Repentance: that is the word for the last days. When all decisions have been made, then man is still before the great decision: “Blessed is he who is not offended in me” Matt. 11:6).
CONCLUDED IN NEXT ISSUE
G. C. Berkouwer is Professor of Systematic Theology in Free University, Amsterdam, and author of many significant books. He is one of 24 evangelical scholars contributing to the important symposium on Revelation and the Bible to be published in the latter part of this year by Baker Book House.
