Outline of Chapter 7

PART 2: The Story of the Inaugurated End-Time Tribulation

The Eschatological Great Tribulation Commencing in Jesus and the Church

I. Purpose of the remainder of the book

A. The point is to trace out the major eschatological and biblical-theological notions mapped out in chapters 2–3.
B. Tribulation is typically portrayed in the OT and Judaism as happening directly before the other multifaceted aspects of the prophesied new creation ad kingdom being fulfillment (189).

II. The End-Time Tribulation in the Old Testament

A. Consider the end-time trial of Daniel 7-12

1. Period of the end-time enemy’s deception, distorting God’s truth, influencing false teachers to arise and infiltrate covenant communities and fostering covenant disloyalty
2. the enemy’s persecution of the saints
3. his desecration of the temple
4. his opposition to God, and
5. his subsequent final judgment.

III. The End-Time Tribulation in Early Judaism

1. Judaism anticipated an increase in doctrinal error and false teaching during the latter days that lead up to the final judgment of evil and consummation of God’s kingdom.

IV. The Already-Not Yet End-Time Tribulation in the New Testament
A. The Son of Man and the Great Tribulation

1. Identification of the Son of Man in Daniel 7
2. The Son of Man in Daniel 7 is the saints of Israel. He represents the collective people and the individual messianic-like figure.
3. The Son of Man, the Saints, and the Tribulation in Dan 7
4. Daniel 7:17-18 imply that the saints will suffer oppression to be followed by their reception of the kingdom. If, as Beale argues, the saints of Israel are the primary interpretative identification that verses 15-18 give to the Son of Man in verses 13-14, then verses 15-28 are portraying that Israel as the Son of Man must go through the end-time trial before receiving the kingdom.
5.  The Son of Man’s Trial and Kingdom in the Gospels

References to Jesus’ precrucifixion ministry

1. Beale gives attention to the passages within the Gospels that refer to the Son of Man’s suffering or apparantly ignoble life. There are two types of sayings, Jesus’ 1) percrucifixion ministry and 2) his death on the cross.
2. Jesus’ present suffering in his ministry and his imminent death would being to fulfill the Daniel prophecy.
3. We should give attention to the Danielic nature of Mark 10:45.
4. The wisdom saying in Luke 7:35 fits well in this. Jesus is one of God’s wise children, God’s wisdom in turning the world’s values on their head is illustrated.
5. “The ignoble treatment is a part of the end-time tribulation that Jesus began to suffer during his ministry in partial fulfillment of Daniel, recalling again that the Son of Man is identified with the saints of Israel, who were prophesied to suffer.” (198)

References to Jesus’ death on the cross

1. Jesus represented and embodied the saints of Israel as the Son of Man, and his death on the cross was a fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the great end-time trial in which the eschatological fiend would oppress the faithful Israelites and kill many of them (a prophecy implicitly including the individual Son of Man). In fact, the Messiah himself is likely to be included among those who would die in this latter-day persecution, since “the abomination of desolation,” directly linked in Dan. 9:26-27 with the Messiah’s death, takes place elsewhere in Daniel during the time of the final tribulation, when the evil opponent persecutes and kills the saints (Dan. 11:30-25; 12:10-11; cf. 7:25).

2 Thessalonians 2 and the Great Tribulation

1. The false teachers were claiming that Christ’s future advent has already happened.
2. Paul counters this false teaching by speaking of two things that are to precede the future advent of Jesus:
3. Christ will not come back until there is an apostasy and major falling away from the faith within the worldwide community of the church, and the unbelieving world will also be affected.
4. In addition to this apostasy, the eschatological appearance of the antichrist must precede the Messiah’s last advent.
5. Moreover, Paul shows that the tribulation has begun and is evidenced in the false teaching within the churches. The antichrist prophecy is being fulfilled in an enigmatic manner not clearly foreseen by Daniel.

Daniel predicted three telltale marks of the great tribulation:

1. persecution
2. desecration of the temple
3. deception through false teachers within the covenant community
4. “Therefore, the end-time tribulation has been going on throughout the age of the church (for persecutions in Thessalonica, see Acts 17:5-8; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2:!4; 3:3-4). To be sure, this tribulation has not yet reached its climax.” (203).

1 John and the Great Tribulation

1. As in John’s Gospel, the use of “hour” is an allusion to Daniel’s prophecy
2. The Relation of 1 John 2-3 and 2 Thessalonians 2
3. The same eschatological expectation is in mind
4. both eschatological in context
5. deception portrayed with respect to truth
6. antichrist figure opposing God
7. the word “coming” is used with reference both to Christ’s and the lawless one’s future coming.
8. at which time Christ will destroy him, perhaps alluding in part to Dan 11:45.
9. The Idea of the Great Tribulation in the Book of Revelation

Revelation 1

1. “the reign in this kingdom begins and continues only as one faithfully endures tribulation. This is the formula for kingship; faithful endurance through tribulation is the means presently to reign with Jesus. Believers are not mere subjects in Christ’s kingdom. That John uses the word “fellow partaker” underscores the active involvement of saints, not only in enduring tribulation but also in reigning in the mists of it” (208).
2. “This corporate identity is the basis for the trials that confront them, as well as for their ability to endure such trials and to participate in the kingdom as kings. If Christ went through the end-time tribulation, so much those who identify with him.” (208).

Revelation 2

1. On the Jezebel party of false teaching (vv. 20-23).

Revelation 3:10

1. Another important reference to perseverance.

Revelation 7

1. Most known passage about the “great tribulation.”

Other References to Tribulation in the New Testament

1. The Eschatological discourse of Jesus (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21)
2. saturated with references to Daniel 7-12
3. Other passages alluding to an inaugurated eschatological tribulation
4. How is the already-not yet latter-day tribulation different from the tribulation that the OT saints experienced?
5. “It must be remembered that Christ’s death was the culmination of the great tribulation for him as representative Israel, suffering the great tribulation prophesied in Daniel 7-12. The inaugurated tribulation for the church is comparable to the tribulation that was commenced during Jesus’ ministry, before the severe trial of this death.” (215)
6. “The basic answer [to the question posed above] is that the redemptive-historical context of Jesus’s and the church’s inaugurated suffering makes this trial qualitatively worse.” (215)

V. Concluding Biblical-Theological Reflection on the Inauguration of the Latter-Day Tribulation

A. “Jesus experienced selective tribulation throughout his ministry, which climaxed with the absolute tribulation of death at the cross, after which he rose from the dead.” (218)
B. “Thus, the great tribulation has been inaugurated with Jesus and the church” (218).
C. Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve is typologically reproduced so that Satan’s primal deception comes to characterize the end of history, the age of the last Adam…
D. Note how Paul recaps Satanic deception in Romans 16:17-20.
E. What difference does it make for Christian living that the latter-day tribulation has begun?

1. Again, he asks, “what was the sinful conduct in Eden that is beneifical for the church today to contemplate?” Beale gives seven points of the implication this has for Christian living (221).
2. Jesus is the better Adam! (222)
3. “The heart of the matter is this: do Christians know God’s word, do they believe it, and do they do it?” (223) . . .
4. “… Although is may not always appear that the church is presently suffering the great tribulation, at any given time there are some sectors of it that are indeed doing so, and other sectors are always under the threat.” (224)

Summary of Chapter 7

Beale shows how the concept of Daniel is recapitulated through the New Testament in light of the eschatological tribulation, which has already begun in tribulation of Jesus and his church

Outline of Chapter 8

PART 3: The Story of the Inaugurated End-Time Resurrection and New-Creational Kingdom as a Framework for New Testament Theology

The Old Testament-Jewish View of Resurrection and Resurrection as Inaugurated End-Time New Creation and Kingdom in the Gospels and Acts

I. Resurrection Equals New Creation

A. “Resurrection is conceptually equivalent to new creation because the way redeemed humans participate in the new creation is through having transformed, newly created bodies.” (227)

II. The Latter-Day Hope of Resurrection and New Creation in the OT

A. The clothing of Adam and Eve: “This clothing not only symbolizes a beginning restoration to God but also probably has to do with a reflection of God’s glory, all of which must entail a living relationship with God and will come fully at some future point.” (229).

B. Consider Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 36:26-27.

III. The Eschatological Hope of Resurrection and New-Creational Kingdom in Judaism

A. There is a clear hope in the resurrection in Judaism as a development of the OT idea. It will occur at the last day or the end time.

IV. The Already-Not Yet Latter-Day Resurrection and New-Creational Kingdom in the Gospels

A. The Gospel of John in particular links the resurrection with the end of the age.

B. References to hour

1. “Jesus refers to the last ‘hour’ of Dan. 12:1-2, one of the well-known resurrection passages of the OT, and that he sees it to have begun fulfillment in a spiritual manner in his ministry and a culminating fulfillment at the very end of time in the physical resurrection of all people.” (235)
2. “Jesus links his coming resurrection and ascent into heaven with those who believe in him and thus are identified with him and consequently share in his ‘eternal life,’ a phrase we have already seen to refer to the resurrection life prophesied in Dan 12:2.” (237).

IV. The Already-Not Yet Latter-Day Resurrection and New-Creational Kingdom in Acts

A. Resurrection in the Book of Acts

1. The mention of the kingdom is directly linked with Jesus’ resurrection ministry.
2. The resurrection and ascension of Christ indicate at least two things:

• God has put an end to the agony of death, overcoming the condition of de-creation in bodily decay.
• Resurrection fulfills the promise to David. Christ has begun to sit on the end-time throne of the kingdom (cf. Acts 2:30-36).

1. “The main point is that Jesus’ resurrection and ascension are the beginning of an even more escalated kingship that was commencing in the midst of his ministry. He has now begun to fulfill the messianic prophecy of Psalm 110:1…” (239).
2. 30 reference to the resurrection in the Book of Acts

B. The Damascus Road Christophany as a Resurrection Appearance

1. Paul’s conversion and call is very similar to that of Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (241).
2. Christ and Paul are leading the second, new exodus and return from exile prophesied in Isa. 40-66.
3. New-creational light allusions: Isa. 60:1-3; Gen 1:2-4; 2 Cor. 4:6

C. The Reflection of OT Theophanic Visions in the Three Damascus Road Christophany Reports

1. Note the comparison to Exod 3:2-10

• double vocative
• man’s response
• self-presentation of the one appearing
• the mission

D. The Significance of Heaven in the Damscus Road Conversion Narratives

1. The eschatological center of gravity has moved from the earthly realm (in the Gospels) to the heavenly realm (Acts and Paul). (246)

E. Conclusion to the Discussion of the Damascus Road Christophany

1. Christ was revealed as the eschatological king (247)

V. Conclusion

A. First of New Creation

1. Jesus’ resurrection made him the first to become part of this new creation, or he is the beginning of the end-time new creation.
2. “I also propose that Christ’s resurrection as the beginning of the new-creational kingdom is not only the goal of the Gospels and Acts but also the dominant theological framework within which the other major theological concepts of these NT books are to be understood. To put it another way: the resurrection as the expression of the already-not yet new-creational kingdom is the crucial strand of the thread of the Bible’s redemptive-historical storyline as it is being woven into the NT witness.” (248).

Summary of Chapter 8

Precisely what Beale has explained in his conclusion: “Christ’s resurrection as the beginning of the new-creational kingdom is not only the goal of the Gospels and Acts but also the dominant theological framework within which the other major theological concepts of these NT books are to be understood.”