Time&Eternity

78 chapter 2
sus’ cry on the cross was an eternally valid act of love upon which our entire
time/age depends. 123 It seems that this statement about Jesus’ cry sheds light
on Fuchs’s claim that “His word was then word-of-time, nothing else.” 124
The very condensed way in which I have presented some of Linnemann’s
and Fuchs’s thoughts may create confusion, but in fact, the arguments
themselves are at times opaque and appear to take place on several
levels at once. The lack of clarity about what is meant by “time” whenever
the term is used makes it difficult to grasp the content of the discussion.
The various emphases and characteristics of the New Testament writings
cause additional problems for a comprehensive account of Jesus’ understanding
of time.
Time and Eschatology
Because of the problems just discussed, I would like to describe some of
the nuances of New Testament concepts of time in light of various eschatological
concepts.
Mark conceives of Jesus’ proclamation of the nearness of the reign of
God in such a way that, in spite of its eschatological character, this reign already
begins to be realized in the work of Jesus. “The future determines the
present, but in a way that that which is consummated in the future can be
partially experienced in the present.” 125 Things are indeed judged in light of
the end, but the emphasis is on the Christian way of coping with the present.
126 Mark narrates his story for this purpose. 127
The connection between eschatology and ecclesiology is primarily
found in Matthew. 128 Jesus’ lifetime on earth, “obviously in the state of still
ambiguous lowliness,” and the time of the Holy Spirit, which dawns with
Jesus’ exaltation, as the time of decision, belong to this eon. 129 The time between
the Resurrection and Jesus’ parousia is the time of the Church, which
exists as corpus mixtum until the separation at the Last Judgment. The coming
eon then begins with the Last Judgment. The strength of this concept is
its account of the paradoxical presence of salvation under the conditions of
time, as a dynamic interlocking of kairos and chronos.
In Luke, the end of the world is energetically pushed into the distance.
Luke deals more with the past than with the future. In Luke’s conception of
salvation history, the Una sancta apostolica 130 conclusively replaces the eschaton
for an indefinite period. Jesus’ absence is the normal state; proclamation
is remembering the history of Jesus as the central epoch of salvation history.
This is no longer about the two eons, but rather about a plan of salvation in
two phases (age of promise and age of fulfillment) or three phases (age of Israel,
age of Jesus, and age of the Church). 131 Entrance into eternal life is depicted
as an individual event. 132 Eyewitnesses and apostolic succession guar-