What is God's future for humanity and the earth?

This is the question Moltmann seeks to answer in his book ::Sun of Righteousness, Arise!::

::Sun of Righteousness, Arise!:: (SRA from here on) is one Moltmann's most accessible works and one that contains his mature eschatology.

It is made up of 17 chapters totaling a mere 223 pages ( my edition at least). Ch 13 deals with the "gospel of the judgement of God."

Moltmann manages to brilliantly summarize his 500 page eschatology ::The Coming of God:: to a mere 22 pages.

SRA basically argues that our understanding of the justice/righteousness of God is what ultimately determines our thoughts on eschatology.

He believes the bible reflects the fact that Israel "took over Babylonian, and later Egyptian, ideas about justice" and then "reshaped them

in the power of its belief in God."

The Mesopotamian view on the justice of God: "Here, *judging*, has the positive meaning of raising up, of giving life, and of healing."

The Egyptian ideas about judgement is one where it takes place after death.

Here " a human being is the sum of everything he does."

Doesn't this sound familiar?

Moltmann: "what is really Christian in our traditional ideas of judgment? Is it not highest time to Christianize notions

about the last judgement and to evangelize their effect on the present-day life,

so that we can cry joyfully, 'Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come soon' (Rev. 2.20)?"

Traditional views on eschatology are riddled with unsolvable contradictions: God loves everyone, forgives only some, damns in hell the rest.

Jesus too becomes a contradiction: in his earthly life he loves and dies for sinners; in his exalted state he judges us retributively.

Moltmann will have none of this:

But free will! People are not saved because they reject God!! If it were up to God everyone would be saved!!!

Moltmann: If you believe in free will in such a manner and with such catastrophic results, you do not truly believe in God.

Such a God becomes merely the executor of our own fallen wills.

How then shall we think about the final judgement?

Answer: judgement must be based on the suffering of the sufferers.

Being a Universalist, Moltmann of course ultimately sees even perpetrators of violence and extreme evil as victims of their own sins

who need healing as much as the victims.

He's fully aware that victims often go on to become perpetrators.

Thus, sometimes dividing perpetrators from the victims would result in dividing the very same person.

This is how Moltmann envisions judgement day:

God is not the enemy of unbelievers, nor is he the executioner of the godless. #Moltmann

Why should we take the different belief, disbelief or superstition of other people more seriously than God's mercy on them? #Moltmann

End of thread /