Reformed Forum

The beatific vision (1 John 3:2) is the consummation of God’s relationship with his people. While Christians of all traditions acknowledge this blessed future to some degree, there are significant differences as to how it all works out. The Reformed tradition has understood this future and its genesis in terms of a covenantal relationship between God and Adam. If you have listened much to our podcasts or courses at Reformed Forum, you likely have heard us discuss “the deeper Protestant conception.” This is a phrase first used by Geerhardus Vos in his Reformed Dogmatics. It involves the notion that man originally was created good yet with an eschatological purpose. Even before the fall into sin, Adam was intended to advance to a higher, more glorious, eschatological life with God in heavenly places. Elsewhere, this is captured in the phrase, “eschatology precedes soteriology.” Yet developments in Roman Catholic theology throughout the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century gave rise to a