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Contemporary images of the end of the world may be apocalyptic, but they are not therefore soundly Christian. Because the resurrection of the dead Christ is the ground and starting point of Christian hope, the end is also the beginning of new life. In Christ's resurrection we recognize the presence of God's promised future and our new beginning. Through Christ's resurrection the powers of death-oppression, exploitation, sickness, and alienation-are already being overcome. Resurrection hope enlivens our senses and opens us to the beauty of life. Loving life, we are filled with compassion and incensed by evil and injustice. Resurrection spirituality allows us to discover that our heaven lies on a new earth, the resurrection of the whole groaning creation.
The End and the Beginning
When people ask whether our world has an end, they are asking a typically apocalyptic question. Some talk about "the end of all things" (Kant), some about "the end of the world," or (in more modern terms) about "the end of history" (Fukuyama). Why do we ask about "the end" at all? Do we feel alienated from this world? Can't we endure the state of affairs as they are any longer? Are we tortured by a bad conscience, having destroyed already so much of the beauty of this world? Are we excluded from the wealth and health of public life?
The images and ideas we use to anticipate the end of history or of this world-religious, secular, or political-are certainly soundly apocalyptic, but are they Christian? No, they are not. The original and authentic Christian expectation of the future has nothing to do with the final destruction of the world God has created and loves. Its focus is not the end, the end of life, the end of history, the end of all things. It is, rather, the beginning, the beginning of true life, the beginning of God's kingdom, the beginning of the new creation of all things. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken to the gallows on April 9, 1945, he took leave of his fellow prisoners with the words: "This is the end, for me the beginning of life." Over against old and new apocalyptic end-time scenarios we look forward with hope in Christ and say with T....