Part One: Jesus and the Kingdom of God
The Dominant Critical-Scholarly View: Jesus as Apocalyptic Prophet
The majority critical position, associated with Bart Ehrman, E.P. Sanders, Paula Fredriksen, Dale Allison, and Albert Schweitzer before them, is that Jesus preached the Kingdom of God as an imminent, earthly, divine intervention — not a purely spiritual or interior reality.
Ehrman argues that almost all scholars today would agree that when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he is not referring to “heaven” in the sense of where your soul goes — he appears to refer principally to something here on earth, where God will at some point begin to rule as he already does rule above. Stfrancistairua
The key scriptures scholars point to fall into two categories:
The Kingdom as Future and Imminent:
- “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15, NRSV). This text is cited by scholars as demonstrating the “already and not yet” character of Jesus’ proclamation — the kingdom is so near that its presence is now being felt, demanding repentance. Bart Ehrman Blog
- “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1, NRSV). Ehrman and Sanders treat this as among the most authentically Jesuanic sayings because it is the kind of embarrassing prediction — that the end would come within a generation — that later Christians would not have invented.
- “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, NRSV). Scholars note this line from the Lord’s Prayer implies God’s kingdom is not yet present but is something that will come in the future — it echoes first-century Jewish prayers for the coming of God’s reign on earth. Stfrancistairua
- The entire Olivet Discourse (Mark 13; Matthew 24–25), in which Jesus warns of cosmic upheaval and the coming of the Son of Man, is central to the apocalyptic reading. A strong consensus in modern scholarship argues that the expectation of a second coming did not come from Jesus but only emerged after Easter — scholars such as Crossan, Allison, Ehrman, Dunn, and Wright all hold this position, though for different reasons. Redeeming Family
The Kingdom as Present Already:
- “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20, NRSV). This text is central to scholars like G.E. Ladd, who developed the concept of “inaugurated eschatology” — arguing that the kingdom is genuinely present in Jesus’ ministry and not yet fully present, thus “already and not yet.” Bart Ehrman Blog
- “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20–21, NRSV). Marcus Borg and the Jesus Seminar scholars lean heavily on this text to argue against an apocalyptic Jesus, reading the kingdom as a present spiritual or social reality rather than an imminent cosmic event.
The Minority View: A Non-Apocalyptic Jesus
Marcus Borg argued that Jesus may have made eschatological statements about a future apocalypse, but it was not central to his message, and he did not believe it to be coming in his lifetime or that of his listeners. John Dominic Crossan similarly portrayed Jesus as a Mediterranean peasant philosopher advocating for a “brokerless Kingdom” — a present social and egalitarian vision rather than an imminent cosmic catastrophe. Bible Doctrine
Most critical scholars, however, find the apocalyptic reading more persuasive because the imminence sayings survive multiple layers of independent tradition and pass the criterion of embarrassment.
Part Two: Paul and the Cross/Resurrection Inaugurating the New Age
Paul’s “Already–Not Yet” Framework
The scholarly consensus on Paul is that he developed what theologians call inaugurated eschatology — the idea that the resurrection of Jesus had already initiated the new age, though its consummation remained future. Geerhardus Vos (1930) is credited with naming this framework, and it has been widely accepted across critical and conservative scholarship.
Paul faced a serious challenge to traditional Jewish eschatology. He knew Jesus was Israel’s Messiah but also knew Jesus had not brought the world to a climactic end as Israel had expected. Paul answered this by modifying traditional Jewish eschatology: the transition from this age to the age to come was not a simple shift but involved a period of overlap when both ages occurred simultaneously. The age to come had been inaugurated through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Stfrancistairua
Paul’s apocalyptic message had four key components: Jesus is the Messiah; his death and resurrection inaugurated the new age; salvation is entered into by faith, not obedience to the law; and the Gentiles are called to salvation. Bible Doctrine
The key Pauline scriptures scholars cite:
The Resurrection as the Turning Point of History:
- “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died” (1 Corinthians 15:20, NRSV). Paul envisions the resurrection occurring in two stages: the first is the resurrection of Jesus as “firstfruits,” and through the lens of his resurrection Paul retrospectively understands that Jesus bore the curse of sin and death and triumphed over the principalities that ruled the fallen world. The subsequent stage is when all the dead will be made alive. Redeeming Family
- “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV). Scholars note this text — along with Galatians 4:4 and 2 Corinthians 6:2 — as evidence that for Paul the old age is already in the process of passing away while the new one is now breaking in. God’s people therefore live “between the times.” Redeeming Family
- “For our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:20–21, NRSV).
The Imminence of the Parousia in Paul:
- “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NRSV). Scholars Ehrman and Rowland argue that Paul believed Jesus’ return was imminent, though unspecific about times. Paul believed at the time of writing 1 Thessalonians that he himself would be among the living who would experience the Second Coming. Wikipedia
- “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near” (Romans 13:11–12, NRSV). This text is widely cited as evidence of Paul’s urgent eschatological expectation.
- “We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52, NRSV). N.T. Wright argues that Paul’s eschatology was not static, developing in his later epistles toward the idea that he would probably not see the Second Coming in his lifetime — a shift of perspective, Wright argues, not of belief. Wikipedia
The Core Scholarly Tension
The critical debate between Jesus and Paul on this topic comes down to a structural difference that scholars like Ehrman articulate clearly: Jesus proclaimed that God was about to break into history through a coming Son of Man; Paul proclaimed that God had already broken in through the cross and resurrection. As Herman Ridderbos summarizes: “Paul’s eschatology is ‘Christ-eschatology.'” For Paul, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus were themselves the eschatological events — they brought “the age to come” into “this age,” rather than pointing forward to its arrival. Stfrancistairua That is a significant reframing of Jesus’ own announcement, even if both share the underlying conviction that divine rule was decisively breaking into human history.
