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(Dent. xxxii. 29; I Sam. ii. 6). This hope centered in national rather than in individual blessedness, which is to be explained by the fact that their evolution had not proceeded far enough for them to draw the consequences of separating the individual from the collective unit of the nation (cf. Ezek. xxxiii.). The Messianic kingdom was to be ushered in by the Day of Yahweh (see DAY or THE LO1iD)-a day of judgment directed against all evil-doers. This kingdom was destined primarily for the righteous who might then be living on the earth; the relation of the Gentiles to this kingdom was variously conceived (Hoe. Sri. 2; Isa. xxv. 8' Ezek. xxxvii.). For the pious Hebrews who had died, participation in it was possible only through resurrection, which is clearly presented in two passages (Isa. xxvi. 19; Dan, aii. 2). In the first, communion with God is uninterrupted between death and the advent of the Messianic kingdom; in the second, resurrection of the righteous and the wicked is by an omnipotent act of God. In the Old Testament, however, one looks in vain for anything like a completed doctrine of resurrection (cf. the frequent laments of the Psalms concerning death). The entire eschatological hope reflects the progressive stages of culture attained by the Hebrews, as affected by their developing ethical consciousness and by the spiritual disclosure of God in their history. Growing out of this advancing idea of God as absolute Creator and Lord of all, to whom at length no region of life or of the unseen was closed, was the notion of the worth of those to whom he had given life: they must ultimately share in his blessedness. The strength of this hope, embodied in a crass supernaturalism indeed, was disclosed in the many apocalypses which sprang up from 200 s.c. to 100 A.D. A special development of this hope arose among the Pharisees as they looked forward to a restoration of the theocracy (II Mace.), or as they were influenced by Greek philosophy (Wisdom).

The synoptic teaching deals with the Messianic kingdom. For Jesus the central point of interest certainly lay in this kingdom as eseen-

(see DAY OF THE LORD) in the Old Testament (see JUDGMENT, DIVINE), now as present and continuous; the principle of it is the light one has received, and one's humane or inhumane treatment of others in whom Christ is immanent. Eternal felicity and communion with God are assured to his followers in the future kingdom. Paul's ddctrine of the future, which bears many traces of his former Pharisaic beliefs, with reminders of the Book of Daniel (chap. vii.), centers in the second advent of Christ (I Theas. iv. 13-18; II Thess. i. 7, 8). The Lord, accompanied by angels in flaming power, shall make a glorious and terrible descent from heaven, when the dead in Christ shall rise first, the living be transformed, and all together be rapt into the air to meet the Lord, ever thereafter to be with him. The other New Testament writers share the apostle's expectation of the impending advent. Later Paul appears to have experienced a change of view both as to its outer and inner character and as to the time of its occurrence. Before the advent, however, the apostle anticipated three events. (1) The culmination of the power of evil which should be disclosed and overthrown. This included an apostasy, the unveiling of the " man of sin," " the eon of perdition," the " lawless one " (II Thess. ii. 3, 4, 8; of. Satan or Behar, II Cor. vi. 15, and Antichrist, I John ii. 18, 22), and the removal of that which now hindered the full development of the godless one-either Elijah or the existing Roman authority. (2) The Gentiles and finally the Jews are to be converted (Rom. xi. 13-27). (3) Believers must suffer violent persecution. With the advent occurs the resurrection of believers, of which the resurrection of Christ was the pledge; all will then be raised, or if only believers, then later perhaps the wicked also (cf. I Cor. xv. 23, 24). The Revelation decides for a double resurrection (chap. xx. 4-6). Concerning the condition of the dead before the resurrection, we discern an earlier and a later view: according to the first, believers were to be after death as if asleep; according to the second, death ushered them at once into a fuller communion with their glorified Lord. When Christ comes, his followers shall stand before his judgment seat, the wicked be destroyed external nature already redeemed shall be glorified, and he who was the Redeemer surrender his Lordship to the Father, that God may be all things in all men (II Cor. v. 10; II Thess. ii. 7-10; Rom. viii. 19-22; I Cor. xv. 24-28).

Eschatological hopes have profoundly affected the Christian Church in nearly all periods of her history. As 8chleiermacher pointed

;. Signifi- out, these hopes are a witness to the cance of Es-principle of teleology implanted in the