It was the prophetic vision of an ideal age that facilitated the emergence of Christianity. Jesus was clearly familiar with the messianic vision of the prophets. He lived at a time when the people of Judaea had to accept the presence of the Romans as manifest maintainers of the peace. Apart from the brief 100-year interlude of political independence under the Maccabees, the Jewish people at the time of Jesus had endured for almost 6 centuries the foreign rule of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Egyptians, the Syrians, and the Romans. The vision of a messianic future world, as it was understood and characterized by the prophets, seemed to most Judaeans of the 1st century CE to be an unattainable ideal. They did not anticipate that the perfect, peaceful, universal, and eternal kingdom announced by the prophets would be realized in their lifetime.
Jesus apparently expected that God would enable him to make the prophetic vision of the kingdom of God a reality. Conceivably he envisioned his own role to be somewhat comparable to that ascribed to the son of Man in both 1 Enoch and Daniel. In 1 Enoch, he was sent by God to earth in order to act as God’s regent in administering the eternal kingdom. In Daniel, he presented himself to God and was given divine authority to establish a kingdom that would never pass away, with a kingship that would never be destroyed. Jesus allegedly identified himself with this mysterious divine figure in both his Olivet discourse and at his trial before the Judean leaders. In both cases the Gospels claim that he announced to those in his immediate audience that they would see the son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. Supposedly he thought that he would be God’s representative in setting up and maintaining the everlasting government in the name of the Lord.
The prophets who had envisioned a messianic kingdom were certain that the process of attaining a perfect world would not be straightforward or simple. On the contrary, it would come only at the end of a bitter struggle between the forces of good and those of evil. There would be battles and wars involving all of humanity, and even cosmic conflict between the heavenly powers of good and evil, to the extent that everyone on earth would be impacted. Many humans would become victims of this universal combat and the earth itself would suffer irreparable damage so that it would become uninhabitable. Only at the end of unimaginable suffering would good finally become decisively victorious over evil so that the messianic age could become reality without being impeded any longer by obstacles that might hinder or prevent its implementation. The transition from a state of worldwide destruction to universal peace would require passage through the birth pangs of total anarchy before the perfect new age could come into being.
It was taken for granted throughout the bible that the eschatological vision of a glorious future could not be fulfilled without divine intervention. The miracles of the bible supposedly gave concrete evidence that God’s ultimate purpose would be achieved. If God could lead the Israelites safely through the sea of reeds, provide all their needs while they wandered in the wilderness, and give them the ability to conquer Canaan, then the people could be confident that the Lord would be able to lead them into a new earthly paradise. Likewise, if the prophets could feed the hungry, heal the sick, and raise the dead, then God must be able to create conditions whereby humans could live without pain, suffering, or grief. Jesus followed in this prophetic tradition when he cast out demons, healed the sick, walked on water, calmed a storm, and fed 5000 families with one boy’s lunch.
The resurrection of Jesus was ostensibly the final confirmation of Jesus’ closeness to God. Throughout most of the Hebrew bible, the Israelites did not consider life after death to be an important part of their culture. If the whole nation actually lived in Egypt for more than 400 years, it seems strange that they did not adopt the Egyptian belief that the body would be resurrected and become functional again when the souls of the dead were judged. The earliest 2nd century BCE Jewish belief in the resurrection of the body was probably influenced by the Greek idea of the immortality of the soul. It became a popular idea among a minority of Judaeans, including especially the Maccabean warriors, in order to justify the death of martyrs during the Maccabean revolt. The only concrete evidence for a belief in the resurrection of the body within the Old Testament period occurs in Daniel. Nonetheless, according to Paul, Jesus’ resurrection was unequivocal divine confirmation that he was truly the son of God.
The story of salvation that is proclaimed throughout the bible makes both the beginning and end of time critically important to both Jews and Christians. They began to believe that it is because humans were initially exiled from paradise that they had to endure so many calamities in their lives. The fall of humanity, however, would be reversed when the day of the Lord occurred. All humans, accordingly, could look forward to a day when the present age was replaced with the perfect age to come. It is this vision that motivated the prophets to proclaim that an ideal existence on earth would become reality in the imminent future. This ideal age, nonetheless, could not begin until all inhabitants passed through a time of troubles. This is the essential message of salvation that is proclaimed throughout the bible from the beginning to the end. The prophets and apostles were influential in making the message known, but many contemporary evangelists do not realize the extent to which they have missed the most important aspect. It is necessary, accordingly, to explain how many modern interpreters have distorted the essence of the messianic ideal.