Risen Indeed by Gary R. Habermas

Author:Gary R. Habermas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jesus Christ--Historicity., Jesus Christ--Resurrection.
ISBN: 9781683595502
Publisher: Bellingham, WA
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

B. WOLFHART PANNENBERG’S ARGUMENT AND A CRITIQUE

To put Pannenberg in proper perspective, it should be mentioned that the theology of hope stresses eschatological theology and the coming Kingdom of God in particular. The coming of the Kingdom has political and ethical repercussions, as well as theological ones. Also stressed is the death and resurrection of Jesus as historical events which set the stage for this eschatology, as will be perceived below.14

One of Pannenberg’s chief aims is to restore to contemporary theology the concept of a functionally imminent Kingdom of God.15 Most of contemporary theology is perceived to have failed in its approach to the Kingdom in that the eschatological centrality of this concept has been lost. But for Pannenberg, the teaching about the Kingdom must be the central message in Christian theology.16

The future Kingdom of God holds a special interest for Pannenberg with regard to God’s existence. God is identified with the coming Kingdom in such a way that, in a certain sense, God does not exist as yet. It is only with the arrival of the future Kingdom that the existence of God is shown to be a definite reality.17

But this by no means signifies that God is not now present in this age or that He was not present in the past. The idea that God’s existence is fully revealed in the future therefore does not disqualify Him from present existence. From His future existence God dominates both the past and the present.18

At first this concept of the existence of God appears contradictory. The key for understanding it lies in Pannenberg’s ideas about the retroactive power of history and the ability of the future to reach backward into the past. God exists at present (and in antiquity) in the sense that His future is reaching back into the past. He thus exists at present as the partial arrival of the future.19

According to Pannenberg’s concept of theology, it is God who will usher the Kingdom into human society. God thus works in the future as well as in the present. This Kingdom is not synonymous with the church, and neither will it arrive by man’s power. He is quite emphatic that it will become part of history by the future actions of God Himself, even though there are present ramifications of the Kingdom as well.20

But it is not only the existence of God which reaches into the present from the future. In fact, all occurrences eventuate from the future.21 As Neuhaus explains, we therefore cannot only refer to the future of an event simply as something which will happen, but rather as something which reaches back into the present and which is now in existence. Although one can perceive the final state of something only in the future, the affects are present.22

For instance, the authority of God was retroactively present in the teachings of Jesus.23 This is shown to be the case especially by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.24 In a similar way the Kingdom has also reached back into this present time, although it has not arrived in its fullness.

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