(4'- ") to which they refer, and in Christ's applica- tion of that passage (Mt IT"'"). So regarded, the restoration of which Peter speaks becomes eithei the moral renewal of Israel, as some explain it, or the renovation of the world, as others think. It is in any case a restoration, not of persons, but of conditions. Peter's eschatology, therefore, is in general concord \vitli that which has so far been recognized in NT. The points in which it has been supposed to be different yet remain doubtful.
The writings associated with John's name have a distinct and peculiar character in their doctrine of the end as in all things else. There is a marked difference, too, between the Apocalypse and the Epistles. The former is an eschatological writing, following the order of the Jewish Apocalyptic. In the latter eschatological truths also appear, but in a subordinate place. The Epistles of John, with their ideal teaching, find the future in the present. As in the version of Christ's teaching which is given in the Fourth Gospel, their great conception IS life, and that as opposed to death and perdition. As in the one, so, too, in the other, this life is in the first instance a present thing (1 Jn 5''^- "). But it is also a thing of the future (I Jn 2**), and it is an eternal life, life after the divine order, life with the ethical quality of real, perfect life. But it is none the less a life that looks to a future — to a manifestation yet to be made of what the children of God shall he (1 Jn 3^). In these Epistles the eschatological relations are not lost m the ideal. They speak of the 'last hour' (1 Jn 2'*); of an ' antichrist ' that ' cometh ' as well as of antichrists that already are (1 Jn '2}^- '»■ ^- 4', 2 Jn ') ; of a future 'full reward' (2Jn*); of a vision of Christ and a conformity to Him which are not of the present (1 Jn 3^-'); of a manifestation of Christ yet to be made, of His expected Parousia (1 Jn 2*). The use of the term Parousia, which elsewhere, and especially in the Pauline writings, has a very definite sense, indicates that, while to John Christ's Return was in one sense a spiritual advent, a present act of grace or judgment, it was in another sense an objective event of the future. While in John's writings, too, the Resurrection and the Judgment are for the most part spiritual pro- cesses and present conditions, they are also events of the future associated, as they are elsewhere, with the Parousia. That it is so ^vith regard to the former is implied in what is said of the judgment and the manifestation of the children of God. That it is so with the judgment itself appears especially in 1 Jn 2" 4".
In the Apocalypse of St. John we have a large and impressive eschatology, in which Christian truth appears in the garb of Jewish ideas and Jewish terms. "This book is beyond all others the book of the future. That future is near, and it is filled with the figure of the returning Christ. Its whole doctrine of the end has its centre in the event of the Parousia, and that doctrine is con- veyed in a form which bears the stamp both of the visions of OT prophets (especially Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel) and the symbolism of the Jewish Apocalyptic books. The Parousia appears occasionally as a spiritual advent taking efiect in history (2' 3™), but usually as the objective return which belongs to the end of things. It is regarded as near (2" 3" 22"'- ™) ; it is to be an event of glory, and to have judgment for its object ( 1'). The Judge is God Himself (20'^) ; but Christ also appears as Judge (I'^e"- "22"). Like the non-canonical books of the same class, it speaks much of the signs of the end, and of the prelusive events, but avoids the trivialities and tlie gross im.aginings, the fanci- ful and long-drawn-out calculations, which are characteristic of the ordinary Jewish Apocalyptio (e.g. Enoch 10" 91"" 93, Assump. Moses 10*', Sibyll
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Or. 4", 2E8 14"" etc.). At times it seemB to combine different ideas which prevailed in Judaism of the things of the end. In one paragraph ('20'"'°), of dillicult interpretation, it appears to follow a view of the linal events which differs from tlie general doctrine of the NT, but is given in certain of the .Jewish books — the idea of a millennial reign of Clirist on earth, to be followed tirst by a finh.1 burst of Satanic power, and then b-jr Christ's judicial advent. Tlie paragraph, which will not fit a purely fiMrative interpretation, represents the Da3' of the Lord as consisting of two divisions, with a double resurrection and a double judgment — a first resurrection, which is only of the saints, and more particularly the martyred saints, and a second, which is for ' the rest of the dead ' ; a first judgment taking effect in the overthrow of Satan, and a second, which is in forensic form, and for all classes of the dead. The l)ook is also under- stood to express two \iew8 of the lot of the right- eous dead : one in which tliey are presented as having immediate entrance into lieaven (13"), an- other in which they are presented as in the under- world, in consciousness and rest, waiting for their complete reward (0""). In tlie latter ease, how- ever, the martyrs alune are in view, and in both cases the language is that of the imagination. The Apocalypse, however, has a pronounced doc- trine of the final awards. The reward of the righteous is conveyed in a varied imagery of tlie OT order — ' hidden manna,' a ' new name,' the ' crown of life,' ' riglit to the tree of life,' the place of a 'pillar' in tlie temple, a reign witli Christ, a position before the throne, entrance into the city, the vision of God's face, the heirship of all things (27.10.17 31U1 711.217 2-2'"). The penalty of the unrighteous is described as ' great tribulation,' being ' without,' killing with death, burning with fire (2^ » 18«- • 22") ; but above all by two terms, * tlie second death ' (2" 20«- " 21») and ' the lake of tire ' (19'-" 20'" 21"), which are peculiar to this book among the NT writings, but which occur in one form or other in the Rabbinical and Apocalyptic literature (e.g. Enoch 18" 21'-"' 90"). In this book they appear to denote a lasting retribution. Further, the Apoc. expresses the doctrine of a perfected world as well as that of a perfected society. It has the vision of a new heaven and a new earth (21'"') as well as that of a perfected city of God (21 '-22").