In the scope of my current preaching series: 1
Corinthians, Let the Church Be the Church,
it is important, especially at this point of the study (1 Corinthians 11ff) to
be aware of what probably[1]
was the prevailing thinking that gave rise to some of the problems that Paul
had to address. Theologians refer to the
prevailing paradigm as an over-realized
eschatology. Another term this goes
by is premature triumphalism." What that means in everyday language is that
these Christians were making an assumption that much, if not all, of the
promises of God's coming Kingdom had arrived in its fullness. The broad idea is that
the Corinthians were behaving as though they could lay claim to arrival of the
endtime culmination. They needed to
return to the current reality of "already-but not yet"!
Fee writes, "Finally, and probably very closely
related to the former, is the likelihood that they had a considerably
“overrealized” eschatological view of their present existence, for which I have coined the inelegant expression, “spiritualized eschatology.”
This would follow directly from their view of being pneumatikoi (people of the Spirit, whose present existence is to be
understood in strictly spiritual terms). The coming of the Spirit belongs to
the Eschaton, and they are already experiencing the Spirit in full measure."[2]
They were already experiencing post-resurrection life
when marriages would cease to exist. Of
course marriage belongs to this life not the future age. Sexual celibacy was then honored as part of
the future eschatological existence.
Some things like tongue-speaking[3]
affirmed to them that they were speaking as angels. "This attitude toward
corporeal existence is at least in part responsible for such things as the
denial of a future bodily resurrection (15:12) and the otherwise contradictory
nature of both the affirmation of sexual immorality and the denial of sexual
relations within marriage (6:12–20 and 7:1–6)."[4]
"In his landmark article, Thiselton lays
out the evidence for an over-realised eschatology in Corinth by showing that it
provides a ‘single common factor which helps to explain an otherwise diverse
array of apparently independent problems at Corinth’.6 Thus, he detects in
chapters 1-4 a Corinthian party challenging the need for spiritual leadership
now that all believers have the Spirit;7 an anti-nomian party in chapters 5-10;8 the Lord’s Supper interpreted as an
eschatological banquet in chapter 11;9 eschatologically driven pneumatic enthusiasts
in chapters 12-14;10 and a denial of a future bodily resurrection
in chapter 15."[5]
It was Paul task to bring this erroneous thinkers back
to earth and back to reality. "Thus for Paul, believers are thoroughly
eschatological people, determined and conditioned by the reality of the future
that has already begun, but still awaiting the final glory. We are therefore
both “already” and “not yet.”[6]
[1] I say "probably" because not all agree. Principally, in my research Dr. Gordon Fee
and Dr. Anthony Thiselton promote this view with enthusiasm. Dr. D. Garland is somewhat favorable to it
but not entirely.
30 On this matter see esp. A. C. Thiselton,
“Realized Eschatology at Corinth,” NTS
24 (1977/78), 510–26.
[2] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., pp. 12–13). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[3] If tongues is
understood as the “language of angels,” then their experience of glossolalia is
evidence for them that they have already arrived (already they speak the
language of heaven) - Fee, G.
D. (2014). The First Epistle to the
Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green,
Eds.) (Revised Edition., pp. 12–13). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[4] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 12). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[6] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 17). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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