Future Salvation Research Articles

Anticipation and Consummation

THESIS: The idea that present and future salvation ore conditionally related is to be criticized as fostering legalism and otherworldliness, and as misrepresenting God's eschatological judgment and mercy. Their true relationship is one of anticipation and consummation, which is defined in terms of identity, the character of future salvation as destiny and as decisive, and non-conditionality. The doctrine of justification is to be expounded under the category of anticipation, and the issues of assurance of salvation and universalism must be considered in this context. The doctrine of judgment is freed from some restrictions, but it also raises the problem of conditionality most sharply. The finished work of Christ must also be viewed under the category of anticipation if the freedom of God is to be adequately expounded.