When is the End Not the End? The Fate of Earth in Biblical Theology (Mark 13)

Dyer, Keith (2002) When is the End Not the End? The Fate of Earth in Biblical Theology (Mark 13). In: The Earth Story in the New Testament. Sheffield Academic Press, pp. 44-56. ISBN 9780826460608

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Abstract

It is the aim of this paper to retrieve some of the Gospel texts of cosmic terror from the grip of both fanatical and scholarly apocalypticism, to re-evaluate them in light of Earth Bible principles, and to wrestle with those texts that seem to persist as words against Earth. The focus will be on the synoptic Gospel eschatological texts and Mark 13 in particular, but since they are dependent on the prophetic literature and in turn influential for the later New Testament texts, the question of the fate of Earth in Biblical eschatology is the ultimate topic addressed.2 It is the author's contention that we should not burden these texts with the full scope of our relatively recent apocalyptic imaginations, nor excuse our own responsibility for human and environmental calamities by appealing to divine necessity (dei genesthai, „this must take place‟, Mk 13:7).
In this context,

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