W S Smith

The End of Evil W S Smith

From a twelfth-century abbey in what became East-central France, Bernard of Cluny pronounced his memorable assessment of reality: "This world is very evil." That Bernard's assessment is the Bible's is clearly set forth in the teachings of Jesus and those who gave us the writings of the New Testament. To believe what the Bible tells us is to believe that God in Christ forgives sin. But why do so many people fail to get another message that is also prominent in the New Testament, namely, that God in Christ is bringing to an end a reality that is larger than human sin, that is, the evil that pervades all of creation. Both messages are good news. Failing to grasp the New Testament's view of the world into which God came in the person and work of Jesus Christ cannot but result in a deficient understanding of both God and humanity, and a failure to appreciate a large part of the work of Christ-past, present, and future. The goal of the author has been to make this neglected part of the biblical hope come alive for the whole body of Christ. Though it pervades the New Testament, and though theologians have over the last seventy-five years made great strides in understanding it, the subject of this book, apocalyptic eschatology, gets short shrift in the seminaries and, consequently, in the churches. This book was written in the hope of changing that. The author, who received a Th. D. from The Free University of Amsterdam, writes out of his experience of twelve years of teaching in Brazil, in both seminary and Bible School, in both residential and extension settings, and also his serving as well as pastor in Presbyterian(USA) congregations in the States. Anyone who has sung Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" has sung apocalyptic eschatology. A bonus that comes with this book is its inclusion of a large number of references to the churches' hymns that give expression to the New Testament's presentation of apocalyptic eschatology's view of reality-and some that betray it. The author's wide-ranging knowledge in the area of hymnology is impressive.