THE INNER KINGDOM

THE INNER KINGDOM

I am waiting for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the Age to come.

Oriented towards the future, the [Christian] Creed ends upon a note of expectation. But, although the Last Things should form our point of constant reference throughout this earthly life, it is not possible for us to speak in any detail about the realities of the Age to come.

"Beloved," writes St. John, "now we are children of God, but it has not yet been made clear what we shall be" (1 John 3:2). Through our faith in Christ, we possess here and now a living, personal relationship with God; and we know, not as a hypothesis but as a present fact of experience, that this relationship already contains within itself the seeds of eternity. But what it is like to live not within the time sequence but in the eternal NOW, not under the conditions of the fall but in a universe where God is "all in all" - of this we have only partial glimpses but no clear conception; and so we should speak always with caution, respecting the need for silence.

There are, however, at least three things that we are entitled to affirm without ambiguity: that Christ will come again in glory; that at His coming we shall be raised from the dead and judged; and that of His kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:33).


Archimandrite (now Bishop) Kallistos Ware
The Orthodox Way, pages 133-134
St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, New York
1st Paperback Edition 1979 (Revised since this edition in 1995)