Revelation 22

I am the Alpha and the Omega, world origin and world fulfillment, the first and the last. (Rev 22,3)
When is the end-time? At the time of the founding of The Christian Community this was a topic of debate among theologians: did Jesus preach an imminent end of days, or is it still to come? Were Jesus’ prophecies fulfilled by the Church? If Jesus literally meant that the end of time would be ushered in by his death, then his promises were not fulfilled. If we look at our world as the fulfillment of the end times, then we can despair: nothing that has already become earthly reality corresponds to what Jesus promises.
Oscar Culmann (1902-1999) coined the term “inaugurated eschatology”. This means that the end time has already begun in the present, but will only be fully developed. We know that a bed in our garden in which we have sown flowers is different and needs to be treated differently than the neighbouring bed into which nothing has been sown, even though we can see nothing of the changes that have happened. Looking at our world like this changes things: we will deal with things differently when we know that their fulfillment has already begun.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top