Wherever else eternity is thought of in light of (the consummation of) time, it is threatened by a quantifying definition presenting it as a magnified projection of time. "The eschatological crisis is thus already decided in faith."135 This, of course, does not end the discussion about the future but if eternal life has already been realized in this manner, then at least the delay of the parousia is no longer a problem. "His eschato-logical confession of faith is the unique and tremendous protest against the trivialization and emptying of the present, that is qualified as eschatological by the coming of Jesus."134 What elsewhere is expected as future fulfillment is here already present, as individual appropriation of salvation. In John, the eschatological crisis occurs as a present event. Only in this way can the salvation situated in the past become the center of time.133 Thus, of all of the evangelists, Luke has the most chronological concept of time. This is no longer about the two eons, but rather about a plan of salvation in two phases (age of promise and age of fulfillment) or three phases (age of Israel, age of Jesus, and age of the Church).131 Entrance into eternal life is depicted as an individual event.132 Eyewitnesses and apostolic succession guar antee the truth of Jesus' history in the present. Jesus' absence is the normal state proclamation is remembering the history of Jesus as the central epoch of salvation history. In Luke's conception of salvation history, the Una sancta apostolica130 conclusively replaces the escha-ton for an indefinite period. Luke deals more with the past than with the future. In Luke, the end of the world is energetically pushed into the distance. The strength of this concept is its account of the paradoxical presence of salvation under the conditions of time, as a dynamic interlocking of kairos and chronos. The coming eon then begins with the Last Judgment. The connection between eschatology and ecclesiology is primarily found in Matthew.128 Jesus' lifetime on earth, "obviously in the state of still ambiguous lowliness," and the time of the Holy Spirit, which dawns with Jesus' exaltation, as the time of decision, belong to this eon.129 The time between the Resurrection and Jesus' parousia is the time of the Church, which exists as corpus mixtum until the separation at the Last Judgment.
"The future determines the present, but in a way that that which is consummated in the future can be partially experienced in the present."125 Things are indeed judged in light of the end, but the emphasis is on the Christian way of coping with the present.126 Mark narrates his story for this purpose.127 Mark conceives of Jesus' proclamation of the nearness of the reign of God in such a way that, in spite of its eschatological character, this reign already begins to be realized in the work of Jesus. Because of the problems just discussed, I would like to describe some of the nuances of New Testament concepts of time in light of various eschato-logical concepts.
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