From the Lord’s Supper to Parousia: Resisting the Tendencies of Over—Realized Eschatology Among Corinthian Believers

Seminary Room N335

The early Christian church had a plethora of views in regards to eschatology. Some believed that they already lived in the eschatological age. Others rejected the eschatological perspective altogether. This ambivalence is seen in the first letter to the Corinthians. Paul’s stress on the future event of parousia caused some commentators to believe that he was addressing the issue of “over-realized eschatology” in Corinthian churches. This paper proposes that the Lord’s Supper played a crucial role in the development of this, so-called, “over-realized” eschatology. Therefore, this study demonstrates how the eschatological realization of the church in Corinth was based on their misunderstanding of the Lord’s Supper as one of the major characteristics of the eschaton.