Early Christian writings share an understanding that believers live in the end-times. This leads to the common expectation, the common hope, that God would one day achieve final and ultimate victory in the coming of Jesus. This book traces the origins of this understanding in the Old Testament, in prophetic literature, in Jewish apocalyptic writings, and in the New Testament. The resulting map informs the church of today that still lives between the times.

This monograph of under 200 pages emerged from my 1982 Ph.D. dissertation which was submitted to the University of Nottingham (U. K.) and entitled “Eschatological Delay in Jewish and Early Christian Apocalyptic Literature.” The research was supervised by my esteemed mentor, Prof. James D. G. Dunn, now Professor of New Testament at the University of Durham.

The research followed my personal interest for the balance of my professional life regarding the theological tension between imminent expectation of the End (or Second Coming of Christ) in biblical eschatology and the many centuries which have obviously intervened till our present time. However, this was a biblical study (primarily New Testament), but with much recourse to relevant non-canonical Jewish documents which reflected a tension between eschatological expectation and delay in fulfillment.

My book is an abridgement of my dissertation, but also an elaboration in adding more Old Testament background, updating the research, and attempting to make the discussion more pastorally relevant for the church today.

I have received interesting if mixed reviews. The most encouraging reviews have appeared in the Journal of Evangelical Theology (June, 1999), 334f. and for the Web page of the Society of Biblical Literature (5/24/99). The latter says the book “should become a standard treatment of the subject of apocalypticism.

It is my prayer that this book will help Christians be people of hope, while at the same time reckoning with the mystery of God’s own timing in the unfolding and climax of salvation history.

". . . Charles L. Holman tackles a complicated and difficult subject with commendable insight and skill. With careful analysis he traces a "dynamic tension" between 'imminence' and 'delay' in the eschatological hope expressed in the biblical books of Old and New Testaments and in the Jewish apocalyptic writings . . .

"At a time of increasing interest in and speculation on 'the End', this timely and balanced book is to be both welcomed and commended." S. Russell, Former Principal of Rawdon College and Joint Principal of the Northern Baptist College, Manchester

"The tension between expectation and delay in earliest Christian parousia hope is one which has puzzled generations of NT scholars. Was Jesus wrong about the future? Did the first Christians hope in vain for an imminent second coming? What seems to have been largely ignored in such discussions is the fact that this was a familiar problem in earlier Jewish eschatology, that Jesus and the first Christians were part of that ongoing tradition, and that the earilier experience of handling the tension was likely to have provided a resource for contemporary handling of the same tension in the NT period. This was an insight developed by Charles Holman . . . And I am delighted that at long last it is to see the light of day. In its updated version it promises to be a voice of sober and sound biblical proportions in a period when issues of expectation and delay will once again come to the fore."
—James D. G. Dunn, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham

About the Author
Charles L. Holman is Professor of Biblical Interpretation and New Testament at Regent Univeristy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in 1982.

 

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

Till Jesus Comes: Origins of Christian Apocalyptic Expectation. By Charles L. Holman. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, xli + 181 pp., $12.95 paper.

Far from joining the virtual scholarly flight from the apocalyptic, Holman has convincingly argued for the importance of apocalyptic eschatology in early church preaching and for the Biblical perspective of a dialectical tension between expectation and delay being part of Jesus' own outlook (p. 136). While he may have shared certain eschatological ideas with his contemporaries, "No other person saw himself at the center of the great event to come as did Jesus" (p. 137). And this book has a special interest in explaining how it was possible to maintain a living tension between expectation and ongoing delay.


The growing edge of apocalyptic eschatology in the NT milieu seems to be the concept of two ages with a supporting collage of motifs: woes, an anti-god figure, apostasy and extreme persecution (p. 40). The source of apocalyptic is not in Persia or Zoroastrianism (cf. Norman Cohn) nor in the Hebrew wisdom movement (cf. G. von Rad) but in the prophetic tradition (Paul D. Hanson).

Nevertheless, as Holman recognizes (Part One), the roots of Israel's hope are to be traced to its premonarchical covenants. In the literature of the two centuries preceding the Christian era (Part Two), the Daniel tradition set the place where expectation becomes a way of reckoning with delay (p. 82). With the Jewish material roughly contemporary to the time of the origins of Christianity delay comes even more into focus with the recurrent "how long?" question. Answers come in appeals to divine sovereignty, encouragement of expectation so that "the theme of an imminent end is basically a way of coping with delay" (p. 98).

The fundamental and distinctive aspect of Christian apocalyptic is that hope has been and is yet to be realized in Jesus (Part Three). With the Christ event transforming and explaining hope-rather than being the mother of Christianity (Kasemann)-apocalypticism was a useful vehicle through which to express eschatological expectation (pp. 157-158). Furthermore, the nonfulfillment of the parousia did not present any more of a theological crisis than it did for Judaism; both reinterpreted their traditions in the face of new challenge.

Holman notes (Part Four) that, for us, the time has grown "very long" (p. 160). Following Ladd, we could claim that the parousia has always been "imminent" in that within any generation it could come (p. 161). The linking of mission and eschatology means that "the time of the grand triumph of God in history is both within his sovereign ordering of history and within the contingency of human obedience to the commission" (pp. 165-166).

This balanced book is written for a wide spectrum of readers who are being introduced to the breadth of material needed to deal with this theme. At times, one wished for a more obvious line of argument so that it was clearer what place particular arguments and material had in the larger argument.

Graham H. Twelftree

North Eastern Vineyard Church, Adelaide, South Australia

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Jun 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

About the Late Dr. Charles L. Holman
(March 30, 1935 — January 18, 2006)
Dr. Charles L. Holman was born in 1935 in Santa Barbara, California. A gifted musician, during his early life he trained for a career as a concert violinist. Following a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, his vocational vision changed, allowing him to pursue a life of Christian ecclesial ministry, seminary teaching, and scholarly research and writing.

Dr. Holman’s formal studies achievements include a B.A, in Psychology from Westmont College; a B. D. from Fuller Theological Seminary; a Th.M. from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, England, with the dissertation topic: “Eschatological Delay in Jewish and Early Christian Apocalyptic.”

Dr. Holman’s service in Christian educational institutions began at Jamaica Theological Seminary, Jamaica, West Indies, where he met his wife, Rose. Later he served as dean and instructor with Trinity Christian Training Institute in Gulf Coast, Mississippi, followed by his position as assistant, associate and then full Professor of Biblical Interpretation and New Testament from 1982 to January, 2006 for the Regent University School of Divinity. His published works include Till Jesus Comes: Origins of Christian Apocalyptic Expectation and additional scholarly articles and papers. He was a member of the Society of Biblical Literature; the Society for Pentecostal Studies; the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research, and The Institute for Biblical Research.

Charles Holman served throughout his adult life in pastoral and teaching ministries. First, as an associate pastor of the Marquette Michigan Missionary Church and then as founding pastor of the Upland Indiana Evangelical Church. He was later ordained with the Missionary Church and participated as an active member of First Baptist Church of Norfolk where he taught the Berean Sunday School Class and played violin in the church orchestra.

Dr. Charles and Mrs. Rose Holman, married over 39 years, are the parents of two daughters: Annette Holman, now deceased, and Mrs. Emily Holman Morris, wife of Bruce Morris and mother to Stephen and Katherine Rose Morris.

Dr. Holman was often described by colleagues and students as a “scholar’s scholar” and as “the conscience of the Divinity faculty”; a man of profound, abiding, and deeply loving faith in God; a man known for the grace, substance and passion of his prayer life. His joyful commitment to his beloved wife Rose, to his daughters, grandchildren, son-in-law, church family, and neighbors was well-known. He was appreciated by the Regent community as a model for those serving in Christian academic life. He gave generously of his time and substance to the people and needs of the Regent and the wider community, always vitally concerned with the mission of the gospel and the furtherance of excellent standards in Christian scholarship. Perhaps his own words, which appeared on his web site, so clearly explain the heart, the mission, and passion of Charles Holman:

I am growing in the grace of God. I am more impressed than ever with the wonder of God’s glory, love, sovereignty, and presence. Surely the mystery of His providential ways will never be fathomed by humankind. I am grateful beyond words for His grace in my life. What more can we do than cry ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ as we are caught up with love and wonder in His Presence.