Prediking: eskatologiese transformator en alarmsinjaal

Abstract

Due to the interlocking of the old and the new aeon, preaching contains an eschatological tension and it projects an eschatological prefiguration in the existing old dispensation. Preaching the kingdom of God in its eschatological perspective is consequently not simply a matter of supplying interesting data about the last locus of dogmatics and what will happen at the end of times. Proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Eschatos constitutes preaching as an eschatological maturing process. The remembrance of the perfecta fulfilled by Christ invokes the futura which is yet to come. Eschatology offers to preaching an actuality and an existential moment in the timespan of every day. With regard to this, preaching the Word - Dabar - of God, which has an eschatological preference and which is critically associated with the proton as the yet incomplete world, opens a vision on the novum of the kingdom of God. Eschatology also projects an alignment with and a praeludium to the eternal judgement of God. Henceforth, preaching is an act of God’s clarion call to "prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). Proclaiming the eschatological judgement, preaching transforms the viva vox of the Deus loquens to the language and environment of the target audience. The preacher is God's interpreter in the language zones of man.