Thursday, 29 October 2015

The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Reception of Faith,
Andrew F. Walls, T&T Clark, 2002, page 74

Andrew Walls summarises the temporal nature of the kingdom again in other words:

Salvation is complete only when all the generations of G-d's people are gathered together, for only then is Christ's humanity complete. By the same token, the church has to be viewed across time. No one single segment of time encapsulates it; the segments belong together. The work of salvation is cross-generational.

Yeshua came - intervened, as it were - in one particular historical setting anc context. Walls again:

The fact that Christ continues to be formed in local Christian communities whose ways of life are quite different from the one in which the ncarnation took place means that for Christians, "sacred time" is not confined to the period of the incarnation, but extends to the whole historical process in which the work of salvation goes on, Christ's presence being demonstrated as he is received by faith.

Even if this is painful, Walls suggests, or some representations may not be as faithful as others,

genuine manifestations of Christ cannot be separated from specific segments of social reality that iccur in time.