The Distortion of the Jewish Narrative: How the Role of the Messiah Has Been Misinterpreted

Introduction

As we explore the significance of post-apocalyptic Christology, we must return to the foundational question that the early church grappled with: Who is Christ? Post-apocalyptic Christology refers to the theological understanding of Christ's role and identity after the culmination of apocalyptic events as described in the Bible, particularly the Second Coming, the final judgment, and the renewal of creation. It involves examining how Christ is understood in light of his messianic mission—both his first coming, where he suffered and bore sin, and his anticipated return, where he will bring salvation, judge the world, and restore all things.

In today's world, the term "Christ" has often become a piece of Christian jargon, detached from its original meaning and weight. However, in the early church, belief in Jesus as the Messiah shaped a believer’s entire identity and worldview. This lesson will delve into the profound implications of confessing Jesus as the Christ and how various distortions—ranging from Gnosticism to dispensationalism—have altered our understanding of his messianic role. By revisiting the messianic hope rooted in Scripture, we can recover a clearer vision of Christ's mission and our role as his followers.

Post-Apocalyptic Christology

The term "Christ" is often understood simply as Jesus' proper name in contemporary culture, yet within the early church, the term held profound significance. A believer's identity was deeply rooted in their faith and confession that Jesus was the Christ. As the apostle John states, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God" (1 John 5:1). When the expectation of the Messiah is distorted, it strips believers of their true identity as children of God. Furthermore, it undermines the boldness that should accompany the Christian name. Peter encourages believers, saying, "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name" (1 Peter 4:16, CSB). Thus, the name "Christian" is not merely a label but a declaration of our messianic hope in Jesus.

In modern times, the term "Christ" has often been reduced to a piece of Christian jargon, but this shift does not indicate that Christians have completely lost their sense of messianic expectation. Instead, their hopes have become distorted and misplaced. As Christianity began to accommodate Hellenistic thought in the centuries following the New Testament, its messianic expectation started to align with the salvation hopes found in Greek mythology and philosophy.

Escapist Christoplatonism and Gnosticism

In Hellenism, salvation is typically understood as an escape from material existence into eternal immateriality, and as a result, Jesus was increasingly viewed as a figure facilitating this escape. Christ became perceived as a divine agent of transcendence, resembling the beliefs found in Gnosticism. George Ladd, a New Testament scholar, clearly explained the connection between Platonism and gnostic Christology, noting that both philosophies share a cosmological dualism of two worlds: the visible, material world and the invisible, spiritual world. In this framework, humanity is caught between these two realms. Platonism, much like Gnosticism, views the soul as having originated in the spiritual world, only to have fallen into the physical world, which is seen as a burden or even a tomb for the soul. Salvation, in this context, is about freeing the soul from the material world and returning to the heavenly realm.

However, Gnosticism introduces additional elements not found in Platonism, such as the belief that matter itself is inherently evil and that redemption is brought about by a heavenly redeemer who descends to earth to rescue fallen souls and lead them back to heaven.

During New Testament times, Gnosticism was still in its infancy, yet it was met with strong opposition from early Christian leaders. Toward the end of his life, Paul warned Timothy to "Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called 'knowledge' [Gk. gnosis], for by professing it some have swerved from the faith" (1 Tim. 6:20-21; cf. 2 Tim. 2:18). John also addressed the issue in relation to Christology, labeling anti-corporeal views as "the spirit of the antichrist." He emphasized that "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (1 John 4:2-3). Gnosticism's destructive impact on the faith, identity, and behavior of believers was so severe that Jesus himself gave a stern condemnation of the Gnostics when addressing the Nicolaitans, declaring that he "hates" both their "works" and "teachings" (Rev. 2:6, 15), and threatened to "war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16).

Irenaeus, a prominent early church authority on Gnosticism, explained that the Nicolaitans were followers of Nicolas of Antioch (cf. Acts 6:5), who deviated from the faith and became associated with "that 'knowledge' falsely so called." Similarly, the church in Thyatira is believed to have harbored Gnostics, following what they called "deeper truths," which are referred to in Revelation as the "depths of Satan" (Rev. 2:24, NLT). The Gnostic approach to scripture, propagated by the Alexandrian school of thought, gradually corrupted the simple Jewish messianic faith in Jesus. Although Gnostics believed they held superior truth, their faith had been ruined, as Paul noted (cf. 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Tim. 2:14).

The Gnostic vision of Christ as a divine agent of escapism portrays him as one who leads believers to an immaterial heaven through death and annihilates materiality at his return. This belief system also promotes "gnostic martyrdom," encouraging followers to forsake the physical world and the body. Clement of Alexandria, a prominent early theologian, equated asceticism with martyrdom and praised the Gnostic approach to life, where one willingly gives up their body, possessions, and worldly connections to lead a life free from passion. In doing so, the Gnostic believer, according to Clement, secures immortality and demonstrates their faithfulness to God.

The Gnostic call, derived from Gnostic Christology, significantly influenced the monastic movement that began in the deserts of Egypt and later spread throughout the church, dominating Christian life for over a thousand years. This movement continues to attract people even today. While not entirely erroneous—since the Spirit and the Scriptures are inherently sanctifying, and many monastic individuals have accomplished great good throughout church history—monasticism represents a significant distortion of the gospel. The gospel and a theology of the cross call men and women to embrace the goodness of creation, hope for its apocalyptic restoration, and lay down their lives in love amid an ungodly world for the salvation of the lost.

Dominionistic Constantinianism

On the other hand, as Constantinianism developed, Jesus began to be viewed as an agent of dominionism. In this framework, "Christ Dominionist" calls his followers to act as agents of divine sovereignty on earth. The church itself was seen as the "kingdom of God," and its leaders as "little Christs," functioning as auxiliary agents of dominionistic salvation. Jürgen Moltmann describes how such Christology developed, particularly after the Council of Nicaea in 325. Convened by Emperor Constantine, who was welcomed by the bishops as "the thirteenth apostle," Nicaea's Christology did not portray Christ merely as the head of the church, but also as the king of heaven and the pantocrator, thereby legitimizing the Christian emperor and his empire. As "the anointed of the Lord," the Orthodox emperor had a messianic charge to spread God's kingdom on earth, thus aligning both the Christian church and state toward the fulfillment of God's kingdom on earth. Moltmann refers to this as "imperial theology," in which the emperor was accepted as the sacred representative of God's rule over the world.

It seems almost absurd to picture the twelve apostles welcoming Constantine as the "thirteenth apostle," primarily because they had fundamentally different worldviews and understandings of redemptive history. By the end of the third century, however, the church had drifted so far from its original Jewish apocalyptic roots that it allowed for such a strange relationship between the church and the state to develop. Augustine later attempted to synthesize Christoplatonism and Constantinianism, combining the messianic roles of dominionism for the church militant and escapism for the church triumphant. Although these two roles often conflicted in practice, they were expressed in the church through "popery and monkery," as Luther criticized it, and this twofold messianic function remained largely unchanged for the next millennium.

Dualistic Dispensationalism

The dispensationalist movement, while restoring a Jewish eschatological emphasis to Christology, retained the Hellenistic concept of a heavenly destiny. As a result, Jesus' role as "king of the Jews" was generally disconnected from his heavenly mission to the Gentiles, leading to a divided view of the Messiah's mission: Christos ton ethnon (Christ of the Gentiles) versus Christos tön Loudaion (Christ of the Jews). This division gave rise to the dispensationalist idea of a pretribulational rapture, where the Messiah comes twice at the end of the age—first, secretly, to take the Gentile church to an immaterial heaven, and second, openly, to reign over the Jewish kingdom on earth. Lewis Sperry Chafer articulated this distinction, explaining that Christ’s coming to take his Bride, the Church, into the air is entirely separate from his later return to earth in power and glory, where he will judge Israel and the nations and reign from David’s throne in Jerusalem. The first event is not connected to the second, serving instead as Christ’s way of delivering his people from the world before divine judgments fall upon it.

Chafer concluded that Christ's first event involves an upward movement from earth to heaven, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, while the second advent involves a downward movement from heaven to earth, as in Revelation 19:11-16. This reflects dualistic messianic functions that align with dualistic plans of salvation.

Conflationary Inaugurationalism

Within inaugurationalism, there is a strong similarity to its dominionistic predecessor, differing primarily in its eschatological conclusion. In Christendom, Christ's dominionistic mission is seen as fully fulfilled through the church in this age. In contrast, inaugurationalism views Christ’s dominionistic mission as only partially fulfilled in this age, with ultimate fulfillment reserved for the second coming. George Ladd, a proponent of evangelical inaugurationalism, explains this tension between the "already" and the "not yet" by comparing it to World War II, where D-Day marked the turning point in battle, but V-Day was needed to secure final victory. Similarly, Christ’s first coming initiated God’s conquest over evil, while his second coming will complete it.

However, this analogy does not fully align with New Testament Christology, which clearly differentiates between the purposes of Christ’s first and second comings. The first coming was to bear sin (cf. John 12:47; 1 Peter 3:18), and the second is to bring salvation (cf. 1 Thess. 1:10; Heb. 9:28). Although Christ has been given all authority in this age (cf. Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:21) and sits at God's right hand (cf. Acts 2:33; 1 Peter 3:22), he rules over creation with mercy (cf. Rom. 2:4-5; Eph. 2:4-7), awaiting the time when his enemies will be made his footstool (cf. Acts 3:19-21; Heb. 10:13). Inaugurationalism distorts and conflates the distinct purposes of Christ's two comings into one continuous dominionistic mission. This homogenization of the Messiah's role undermines the New Testament gospel, leaving the church with a message that is neither cruciform nor apocalyptic in nature.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our faith in Christ Jesus and his return is the very source of our hope—referred to as "the blessed hope" (Titus 2:13)—which drives the church forward in its race of faith until the day of Christ. Living in a world that is "without hope and without God" (Eph. 2:12, CSB), the church urgently needs a restoration of true biblical hope. When people become consumed by various worldly distortions, they are left with a weak and temporary hope, often placing trust in the strength of fallen humanity, which deludes itself with a messianic complex. This hope fades, however, when confronted with the horrors of the last century—two world wars, diabolical dictators, genocides, rampant corporate greed, famine, overpopulation, terrorism, nuclear threats, and a host of other crises, including the breakdown of the family.

Without our true messianic hope, we have no real solutions for a world lost in confusion and despair. Worse still, when we place our hope in this life alone, we align ourselves with a misguided world and fall under the curse Paul warns of: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!" (1 Cor. 16:22). In other words, love for Christ is fundamentally expressed through a longing for his return—Maranatha! As Paul concluded, "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). Therefore, our hope must remain steadfast in the promise of Christ’s return and the restoration he will bring.

The early church’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah calls us to reclaim a full understanding of our faith. By examining the distortions that have crept into Christian theology—whether through Gnostic escapism or dominionistic views of power—we see how far we've strayed from the true gospel. Our hope in Christ must remain centered on his role as both the crucified and risen Savior, who will return to complete God's redemptive plan. May we hold fast to this messianic hope as we navigate the complexities of our modern world, bearing witness to Christ in truth and love.

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