When the Time Had Fully Come: Studies in New Testament Theology
Overview
The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, is one of the most central concepts in the history of revelation. Prepared in the Old Testament, notable in the so-called enthronement Psalms and in the prophecies, it makes its appearance in the overture of the New Testament as the contents of the great proclamation of salvation, first of the herald, John the Baptist, then of Christ himself: “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). Especially in the Synoptic Gospels, it remains in the foreground. It constitutes the nucleus of Christ’s parables; indeed, of his entire mission and message.
In John and Paul, however, it seems to withdraw. But this is only seemingly so, as Herman Ridderbos shows in detail in When the Time Had Fully Come.
Save more when you purchase this book as part of the Herman Ridderbos Collection.
- Explores the Kingdom of God in the New Testament
- Focuses on the works of John and Paul
- Highlights the impact Ridderbos had on New Testament theology
- The Kingdom of God According to the Witness of the Synoptic Gospels
- The Significance of the Sermon on the Mount
- The Redemptive-Historical Character of Paul’s Preaching
- The Law of God in Paul’s Doctrine of Salvation
- History of Redemption and the Scriptures of the New Testament
Top Highlights
“So it can be established that the New Testament as a whole is the book of the revelation of the Kingdom of God.” (Page 9)
“The humble and unobtrusive figure of the Sower covers the hidden greatness of Christ’s Messiahship. That is the real mystery of the Kingdom. This hidden greatness of Jesus Christ is, strictly speaking, the subject of the Gospels, and it is this greatness which determines the nature of the Kingdom.” (Page 16)
“Nowhere is the mystery of the Kingdom more profound than in the Cross of Jesus. The Sower becomes, Himself, the seed.” (Page 17)
“The resurrection of Christ is casting its light in two directions. It is the proof of what has happened, and the guarantee or pledge of what will happen.” (Page 20)
“Paul does nothing but explain the eschatological reality which in Christ’s teachings is called the Kingdom” (Pages 48–49)
Herman Ridderbos (1909–2007) was professor emeritus of New Testament at the Theological School of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands at Kampen, where he served for over 40 years. The author of many scholarly publications, Ridderbos was the editor of the Reformed Weekly (Kampen), one of the Netherlands’ leading ecclesiastical periodicals. He became well-known in America through his volume on Galatians in the New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament.
