Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

*I.

Brief Summary of Each Apostolic Father *

The following are only meant to be a brief overview of the main eschatological teaching found in each Father.

*A. 1 Clement*

    Daley summarizes the eschatological significance of 1 Clement well:

*“The main eschatological section of the work, cc.

23-28, seems to be, like the New Testament’s II Peter, a kind of apology for the Church’s traditional expectations of resurrection and judgment in the face of the delay being experienced by believers.

The traditional themes of New Testament eschatology that he does preserve- the imminent coming of the kingdom, for instance (42.3; 50.3), or the suddenness of the Lord’s return (23.3-5) and the universal certainty of judgment (28)- are presented as being in continuity with creation, the expected culmination of the orderly process of history rather than a crisis that has suddenly come upon us…The doubters are reminded that crops take time to ripen, and grow to maturity (23.3-4),

The illustrations of the cycle of day and night, life from a lifeless seed (24) and the legend of the phoenix (25) are used to prove the resurrection all within the created order of God.

The believers are then exhorted to live a godly and holy life and to fear the coming judgment (28.1-29.1).

The aim of this section…..may be to counteract an exaggeratedly ‘realized’ eschatology that may have been current in the Corinthian community.”*[1]**

Walter Bauer suggests that the ones causing division among the Corinthian Church, to whom Clement wrote, were Gnostics,[2] and 23.3 would be another reference to the problem of the delay of the Parousia.

Talbert makes a great case for associating the issues in 2 Peter to the same concerns found in 1 Clement.[3]

He states his case by tying the heretical issues which Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians to that of 1 Clement.

He points out that the issues of special knowledge (41.4; 40.1; cf. 1 Cor 8:1ff), special wisdom (13.1; 38.2; cf. 1 Cor 1-2) and the emphasis on rhetorical skill (21.5; 57.2) produced such problems as division (1 Cor 3), libertine ethics (38.2; 28.1-30; 33.1ff; 35; 37.1ff; cf. 1 Cor.

5-6), */and a denial of the resurrection-judgment/* (24.1f; 26.1f; cf. 1 Cor.

4, 15).[4]

The following sub-points can also be seen:

1.

There is a future punishment for the wicked and the rewards for the faithful are grounded in God’s faithfulness to His promises (11.1; 34.3,7; 35.2-3).

2.

The martyrs already enjoy a place of glory (5.4,7; 6.2; 44.5), while the faithful saints will have to wait for Christ’s Kingdom to come when they will be raised from their graves (50.3-4).

3.

The number of the elect already fixed (2.4; 59.2) but one must keep the commandments to be enrolled into that number (58.2).

* *

*B. 2 Clement*

     To my surprise I found 2 Clement to team with eschatological references, and interesting ones at that.

“The Second letter of Clement presents, in contrast to Ignatius’ letters or 1 Clement, the expectation of an unambiguously apocalyptic transformation of the world in the near future.”[5]

The basic message of this epistle is to live a holy and godly life.

which is motivated by the fact that “our stay in this world of the flesh is insignificant and transitory” in contrast to the “great and marvelous rest in the coming kingdom” (5.5; cf.

5.1; 7.1; 8.1-3).

No one knows when the kingdom will come so we must wait “hour by hour” (12.1).

The reader is given a clue as to when the kingdom will come in 12.2-6, and there appears to be a delay until the believers arrive at a certain point of maturation.

The kingdom is said to come when “the two shall be one, and the outside like the inside, and the male with the female, neither male nor female” (12.2-6).

While the kingdom is being delayed, believers are being trained for righteousness (20). 

     2 Clement also frequently mentions the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked.

The delay in the receiving of rewards is supposed to motivate the believer to continual godliness  (20.2-4).

One must “serve the Lord with his whole heart” (17.7) and “practice righteousness” in order to “gather the immortal fruit of the resurrection.”

(19.3).

Those who enter the kingdom and receive his promises are those who “do what is right in God’s sight” (11.7).

The believer is encouraged to endure the present sufferings and not be grieved in this present life since there is a future “blessedness” and an “eternity untouched by sorrow” (20.4).

The judgment is coming as a “blazing fire” when men’s deeds will be manifested (16.3) and the unbelievers will see “his glory” (17.4-5).

At this point some of the “heavens will dissolve” and the earth will be like “lead melting in a fire” (16.3).

The righteous will see the unrighteous being “punished with dreadful torments in unquenchable fire” (17.7; 6.7; 7.6).

Chapter 9 is an attempt by the writer to offer an apologetic as to the possibility of a resurrection of the flesh.

His basic argument is as follows: God saved you while you were in the flesh (9.1-3), the flesh is the Temple of God (9.4) and just as we were called in the flesh ‘we will come in the flesh” (9.5).

[6]Christ, who was originally in the Spirit, took on human flesh, we too shall receive our reward in the flesh (9.5).

The writer also makes the point in 14.5 that the flesh is able to share in immortality since the “Holy Spirit is closely joined with it.”

“His apology rests on the experience of the Holy Spirit in the present life of Christians, which confers a dignity on the human constitution that is incompatible with annihilation.”[7]

*B.

The Didache*

     Didache 16 is the main eschatological section of the book which is dealt with in detail on pages ------.

The Eucharistic prayers form the other section which relates to the last days when twice it asks for the Church to be gathered (9.4; 10.5) into the Kingdom which God has prepared for her.

The phrase “may grace come” in 10.6 has been interpreted by some to be a reference to Jesus.

The faithful are urged to watchfulness in the final days (16.1,3), since no one knows the hour when the Lord will come (16.2).

The believer also need to gather frequently since there is the possibility of not being found perfect in the last time (16.2).

The last days is characterized by false prophets, a falling away and a final world-deceiver, disguised as God’s Son, who will control the earth and persecute the faithful (16.4).

The fiery test will come upon the world and many will apostatize, but some will be saved by the “cursed one.”

Three signs will precede Christ’s final victory (the opening in heaven, the sound of the trumpet and the resurrection of the dead) as described in 16.6.

*C.

The Shepherd of Hermas*

     The primary emphasis of this work is an impassioned exhortation to repentance to the Church at Rome.

The book takes on the form of an Apocalypse (five allegorical visions, twelve mandates and ten parables or similitudes); but, it does not appear to make exact predictions of the eschatological future or of the eternal realm.

“This allegorical tract, then is more of a call for the reform of the present Church than a proclamation of the future God is about to bring; still, the Church of its vision is clearly an eschatological as well as a historical reality.”[8]

This work speaks more in generalities as evidenced in the angle’s reply to Hermas when he asks about the time of the end: “You foolish man, can’t you see that the tower is still being built?

When the tower is finished being built, then the end comes.

But it will be built up quickly” (Vis 3.8.9).

Hermas understands the eschaton or the “last days of the consummation” to have began when Christ came as a man (Sim.

9.12.3);

but, there has been a delay in the building of the tower (Sim.

9.5.1) to allow for more to repent (Sim.

9.14.2;

10.4.4).

The main eschatological portion is contained in the Fourth Vision which speaks of the great tribulation that is about to come (qliyis h ercouenh mellousa h megalh).

This topic is also briefly described in the Second Vision (6.7-8).

For an analysis of the great tribulation in Hermas see pages-------The great tribulation is a time of suffering and persecution which will be a test for the Church.

It is described as a test “through the fire” which will be the means of purification in order to become useful for the building of the tower” (Vis.

4.24.2-4).

“The temporal dualism here is apparent; the end of the present age is at hand, and the beginning of the New World is already set in motion.”[9]

The Church is pictured as the first of God’s creatures (Vis.

2.4.1), which grows younger through the godliness of the its members, until the point she appears as a virgin bride (Vis.

4.2.1-2).

The radiant Church will be oppressed by the “beast” (a foreshadowing of the great tribulation which is coming), but the elect can escape this through repentance (Vis.

4.2.3-5).

The reward of the righteous is not spelled out in a concrete manner, nor is the resurrection of the believer specifically mentioned.

He does mention that those who are persecuted will be able to sit on the right side of the Lord while the left side is left “belongs to the rest” (Vis.

3.1.9).

There will be a future judgment for those who do not repent, they will be thrown away and “fall into the fire” (Vis.

3.2.7,9;

3.7.1-2)

or be “burned as firewood” (Sim.

4.2-4).

The sinner needs to repent “quickly” or they will “condemn themselves to death” (Sim.

6.2.4; 8.7.3; 8.8.2-5; 8.11.3).

Those who repent will dwell within the tower (Sim.

6.2.4; 8.7.3; 8.8.2-5; 8.11.3),  will be “enrolled in the book of life” (Vis 2.2.3) and experience “eternal life” (Sim.

4.3.5),

they will have the privilege to live with the Son of God (Sim.

9.24.4) and with the angels (Sim.

9.27.3;

9.25.2;

Vis.

2.2.7).

* *

*D.

Papias*

     Papias collected teachings from Jesus and his apostles from oral sources and compiled them into five books entitled, /Explanations of the Words of the Lord/.

Jerome attributes another work to him entitled, /The Second Coming of Our Lord or Millennium/.[10]

Unfortunately, we only have fragments which remain of his work and much of what we possess is primarily from Irenaeus and Eusebius.

He is most famous for his description in book 4, of a coming millennium in which the fruitfulness of the earth will abound to unimaginable abundance on behalf of the saints.[11]

According to Irenaeus, Papias received this teaching directly from John the apostle, who received it directly from the Lord.

Papias was the primary authority which Irenaeus based his own millennial teaching upon.[12]

The idea of literal millennium on the earth has its roots in Isaiah 11:6-9.[13]

Thus in Papias, what we purportedly have is “the early Christian tradition drawing on its Jewish heritage, as well as the tradition of Jesus’ teaching and the Apocalypse of John, as an integral part of its portrayal of the glorious future to come.”[14]

The aspect which causes Papias to exercise such authority in the early Church, and even today, is his claim to be a disciple of John.

The historian Eusebius complains that “it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man.”[15]

The chief support for this claim is the fact Irenaeus refers to him as “the hearer of John and the companion of Polycarp”[16] This statement is confirmed by Eusebius when he records Papias’ own testimony that he had direct contact with the apostles.[17]

When scholarship accepts these claims, their conclusions are generally that he held to a premillennial eschatology.

This can be seen in Schoedel’s words: “Papias ignores Paul, seeks out sayings of the Lord, reflects upon the fulfillment of Old Testament promises, shows contact with Rabbinic exegesis, and sets all this within the framework of a vigorous chiliasm.”[18]

It is important to point out here that Eusebius himself did not particularly care for Papias as seen in the fact he referred to him as “a man of very little intelligence.”[19]

This comment was made in relationship to the perspective that Papias wrongly understood the words about the millennium in a literalistic fashion.

See pages -----for a more detailed analysis of Papias’ premillennialism and some objections raised to this position.