Resurrection, Apocalypse, and the Kingdom of Christ. Stanley S. MacLean
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even though they have had great difficulty finding agreement on their function, interrelation, and even their number. Given the neglect of the ascension in modern Christologies, it is no surprise that the offices of Christ fell into desuetude with it. Torrance did, however, find inspiration for the recovery of the offices in Barth’s Credo. For a good general survey of the offices of Christ, see Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 356–66; 406–11; also Emil Brunner, Dogmatics, vol. 3, 271–307.
75. Torrance, The Doctrine of Jesus Christ, 194.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. Ibid., 196.
80. Ibid., 197.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid., 196.
83. Ibid., 197.
84. Ibid., 197.
85. Ibid., 192.
86. Torrance, The Doctrine of Jesus Christ, 198.
87. A number of years later, Torrance would write an article in refutation of J. A. T Robinson’s case for universalism. See “Universalism or Election ?” 310–18.
88. Torrance, The Doctrine of Jesus Christ, 199.
89. Ibid., 198.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid., 198.
2 / Practical Eschatology
Alyth, Scotland 1940–1943
We must look to Torrance’s sermons if we wish to learn about his eschatology in the 1940s. The Apocalypse Today (1960), one of his most eschatological works, is actually a collection of sermons from this period. Torrance published a number of papers in this decade, but they contain relatively little in the way of eschatology. He probably did not intend on expatiating on the subject, but historical and pastoral circumstances dictated otherwise. The principles of it—Christ’s resurrection and ascension—were certainly in place at Auburn. Yet his eschatology flowers as he engages with the events of his time and the spiritual needs of his parish members. His sermons, he recalls, “seemed to reflect themselves in answer to concerns in the congregation.”1 This eschatology is not only deeply theological; it is also practical and pastoral. McGrath wisely observes that Alyth and Beechgrove were to Torrance what Safenwil was to Karl Barth.2
Although this eschatology comes from Torrance’s sermons, that does not mean we can discount it. If anything, reading his sermons brings us to the heart of his eschatology. For Torrance, the sermon was the supreme test for theology. He learned this point from his great teachers. Mackintosh had insisted that true theology is theology that can be preached. Barth had stated that “in conformity with its object, the fundamental form of theology is the prayer and the sermon.”3 It seems that years in the pulpit drove home these truths to Torrance. While lecturing on Reformation eschatology in 1952, he insists that “Grace today is the mighty Word of God, not a verbum (statio) but the sermo (active).”4
A. Resurrection
1. “The Personal Touch of the Risen Lord”
On March 20, 1940, Thomas Torrance realized his goal of becoming a minister for the Church of Scotland. He was ordained and inducted into the vacant charge at Alyth Barony Parish Church.5 Alyth is located about forty miles from Edinburgh on the north side of the Forth estuary, between Perth and Angus. Torrance remembers it as “a lovely old town,” with about 3,000 souls and a “distinguished church history.”6
He began his ministry of the Word at about the point he left off in his Auburn lectures, on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His very first sermon was on Easter evening, and contains words taken straight from those lectures: “The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead dynamited the whole world.”7 Torrance could not have begun his ministry on a more fitting day on the church calendar. His preaching was essentially kerygmatic, and Christ’s resurrection is the ground of the kerygma. Luke 24, the basis for his first sermon, was one of his favorite chapters in the Bible. He would preach from it seven times.8 The essence of the kerygma should always remain the same, yet—as every minister knows—it has to be adapted to constantly changing socio-historical circumstances. Ideally, it should always come across as timely and new. And on March 20, 1940, when Britain was bracing itself for Hitler’s aerial onslaught, Torrance’s message must have come across just that way. “The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead dynamited the whole world; that is the only light in which to understand the gospel properly, and the light that shines on Easter day. It was the resurrection of the crucified Messiah that constituted the power of God that created the church; it was the resurrection that burst like a flash of lighting plumb down from above, that transformed the disciples and opened their eyes.”9
The dynamiting of the world begins at the personal, spiritual level. This happens through the “personal touch of the risen Lord” that “transforms everything into living reality,” that “turns the world upside down, that dispels darkness.”10 The touch of the risen Lord reveals among other things that our relationship to God is highly personal, “far, far more personal than our relations with one another can ever be.”11 Christ’s resurrection is really about the “acute personalization of all our relations with God and all his relations with us.”12
What accounts for this personal touch? The manhood of the risen Christ. So “what ever happened in the relations of man and God between the incarnation and resurrection” is not invalidated by Easter but, rather, “deepened and extended.”13 A “diffused spirit or ideal projection” could never give us a personal touch.14 We can have that touch only because Christ Jesus is sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
For Easter 1941, Torrance would preach two sermons on the resurrection; the first based on 1 Cor 15:17–18, the second on 15:20.15 In these sermons, Christ’s resurrection is the sine qua non of Christianity. “If Christ is not risen then you have nothing left worth calling a gospel.”16 “On the fact of the resurrection everything is suspended.”17 “Strike it out” and you have nothing left really, he adds.18 In response to those who believe they can cling to the cross for salvation, he answers: “you must have the resurrection to explain the cross.”19 Without the resurrection, Christ on the cross is, in his view, “dead being alone,” and to look for him there is to “seek the living among the dead.”20
“But now Christ is risen . . .” The Easter story “is essentially the great Christian message.”21 With these words, Torrance launches into his second sermon. It seems that he felt the men and women at Alyth had embraced a truncated version of Christianity, one that did not take seriously that “but” from 1 Cor 15:20. It is not enough for a Christian,