1. The Gospels. — Besides words and phrases, the Synoptic Gospels contain long passages of alleged discourses of Jesus — notably, e.g., Mk 13,| — which are entirely in the apocalyptic style. In view of the fact that Jesus, when before Caiaphas, de- clared Himself the Messiah in words that were virtually a quotation of Dn 7^^ (Mk 14''^||), it can- not be said to be impossible that He spoke the contents of Mk 13|| substantially as they are re- ported. On the whole, however, it is probable that the Evangelists incorporated in their texts a Jewish-Christian apocalypse which gave the sub- stance of our Lord's utterance in a form adapted to the case of the Christians in Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish-Roman war (A.D. 66-70). It may surely be said with truth and reverence that our Lord Himself was the best example of a speak- ing apocalyptist, or of the union between apoca- lypse and prophecy. The saying recorded in Lk 10^ would alone be sufficient to prove the point.
In the Gospel of John matters lie in a different
80
APOCALYPSE
APOCALYPSE
perspective. The heavenly has come rather than is coming. That does not mean, however, that there is no room for apocalypse. It means that all is apocalypse. The Gospel is an account of the manifestation in the flesh of the Word that was God (11-").
2. The Acts of the Apostles. — Just as to John (the Evangelist) the appearance and action of Jesus in the world are themselves an apocalypse, so to Luke in the Acts the events that mark the
f)rogress of the gospel are largely sensible apoca- ypses of the Divine favour or power. Ch. 2 (wind, and tongues of fire), 3 (healing), 4 (earth- quake), 5 (strokes of judgment, death by a word), 7 (transfiguration, 6'* ; cf . 7^'), 10 (coincident visions), 12 (deliverance through an angel) are conspicuous instances.
3. The Epistles. — (a) In general, the expecta- tion of the Lord's coming, and coming soon, is dominant in all these writings, except (for wliolly accidental reasons) Philemon and 2 and 3 John. Even in the later writings, where the colour of the expectation may be supposed to be more sober, the sense of the imminence of the coming glory is not lost. Even John is confident that it is the ' last time ' ( I Jn 2^^). The diflerence between earlier and later appears chiefly in the choice in the later writings of phrases indicating the mani- festation of a Divine reality already existing rather than the coming from heaven of something new (Col 31^- ; cf. Eph 58- ", 1 Jn 3'ff). The apocalyptic element, even in the literary sense, in 2 Peter — perhaps the latest writing in the NT — is sufficiently obvious (2 P 3^-'3).
(b) Oi special interest are the earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1 and 2 Cor., Gal., and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The passages 1 Co 7^^^- IS^^^f- have already been referred to. Those in 1 Co 12ia'- and U^^^ff. (,„ ^j,g tests of prophecy (cf. Did. 11) and on its value for edification and conversion are of peculiar interest to the student of Christian prophecy as manifested in the Apostolic Age (142-i- "«. 3iff.)_ jj^ ^i^g ^^^^ meration in 14-'', the prophet is clearly the person who ' has an a.TroKd\v\pLs.' Prophecy and 'tongues' might be alike in respect of irapermanence (13^), but prophecy, while it lasted, was by far the more valuable gift (W^). St. Paul probably believed that prophecy, exercised under proper self-control, would last until the Advent, whereas the rational- istic spirit, however little it deserved to be en- couraged, would quench the inspiration of the tongues (cf. U-»«- with IS^'- and 1 Th Si"'-)- In our study of the Apocalypse we have seen some- thing of the difficulty or even impossibility of find- ing an esciiatological scheme of perfect consistency in detail even in so purely apocalyptical a writer as 'John.' The eschatology of St.' Paul is beyond the range of this article. Yet it is pertinent to make two remarks. The one is that St. Paul is as certain of the need and value of prophesying and of the reality of the supernatural happenings with which propliecy is concerned as any apocalyptical writer could be. We propliesy, indeed, in part ; still we must prophesy so long as we believe. The other is that, where St. Paul enters, so to speak, upon the sphere of the apocalyptist, as he does so markedly in tlie Corinthian and Thessalonian Epistles,* his practical motives are clear and cogent. They are the same as the motives of ' John,' viz. to encourage believers to continue in patience and hope. The proposition will bear examination that in practically every case where believers are addressed in the NT regarding the final glory that is to come soon — presumably with- in their own life-time — a leading motive of the utterance is to insist that other important things
• Loec. citt. In 1 Cor., also 2 Co 5iff- 12iff-. 1 Th 4i3ff.. 2 Th 2iff..
must happen first.* This is a paradox, but it is true — as true as the more comprehensive paradox that the Bible is the most esciiatological book in the world and, at the same time, the most ethical.
i. In Christianity. — May we extend the paradox to Christianity itself as the spirit and power of the religion of the 20th century? Or are those 'modernists' right who say that the Christianity of the future must be stripped of ' eschatological delusions'? The question, perhaps, cannot be answered with perfect satisfaction to the mind without the aid of psychology and metaphysics ; and possibly the new ' intuitionalism ' of our day, associated with the name of Bergson, may help some religious men, whom mental training has fitted to desire and receive such aid. We could hardly be satisfied with the impossibility of search- ing out God to perfection unless it were permis- sible, or, for some, even necessary, to attempt the task. Yet, on the whole, the moral and spiritual life of mankind goes its own way independently of philosophy. But it does not proceed independ- ently of God. He ' is and was and is to come,' and He ' reveals ' Himself to those who trust and obey Him. Our situation in reference to Him is para- doxical. We rest in Him, yet cannot rest, for His promise leads us forward to horizons that vanish and enlarge as we approach. VVe sutler, yet we hope. We are disappointed, yet we are comforted ; for the fulfilment is greater than the hope. Life is an experiment, not a theorj', and the object of the experiment is God. Those who thus think will look rather to history and to personal and social religious experience than to philosophy for a solution of the eschatological question.