The Resurrection of Christ and the Eschatological Vision of the Kingdom of God as the Platform for Evangelistic Practice: The Challenges and Possibilities of the Evangelical Commission

The article investigates the possibilities and challenges to Evangelical evangelistic practice in the framework of the unbroken historical continuty between the resurrection of Christ and the eschatological realization of the kingdom of God on earth. This continutiy is conceived as a dynamic conclusion of the history of salvation and relies on the theological formula of the "inaugurated kingdom" which "is but is not yet" realized. The resurrection of Christ is, in this way, recognized as the realized segment of the kingdom, i.e. it takes over the "is" part of the formula and so defines the key message of the gospel because it guarantees and fulfills the full realization of the kingdom. This future realization is recognized as Christ\u27s return in glory and the universal resurrection, and thus absorbs the "not yet" part of the aforementioned theological formula. This construct operates as a historical paradigm, and evangelism is conceived and actualized within this framework. Certain ahistorical elements of Evangelical identity and strategies of evangelism are investigated against this background, for example: the intuitive indentification of the message of the gospel with the manner of salvation by faith alone, or assigning primacy to the personal experience of God\u27s immanent presence at the expense of the public, and the collective and inclusive direction of the message of the gospel. In the conclusion, the article touches on several advantages of Evangelical Christianity in the proposed paradigm and possibilities for evangelism, particularly in the Croatian context