The other key factor in Johnn Christoph Blumhardt's legacy is his unshakable conviction in 'realised eschatology', that the promises of scripture for the end times are meant for the Church now. His influences here were twofold:
1. He was acquainted with the prophecy of Johann Albrecht Bengel, who had calculated from bible numerology that the Millennium (a period of one thousand years referred to in Book of Revelation, 20:1-10, in which Christ's followers would rule the earth spiritually) would begin in 1836. This had heightened expectancy in some church circles for new outbreaks of the miraculous.
2. From Bible College onwards, he had had dealings with missionaries, doctors and exorcists, who had first hand experience of the power of the risen Christ to free those enslaved by evil.
So when the young woman in Möttlingen was delivered from evil after eighteen months of prayer and spiritual warfare, Blumhardt was convinced of two things: Jesus is victor and His kingdom has come on earth.
Blumhardt's experiences of healings at the sanatorium of Bad Boll caused him to interpret this in-breaking of God's kingdom in an individual way. Jesus was doing for precious people what He did as He walked the earth: making the blind see, opening the prison door and releasing the bound (see Luke 4:16-21).
It would be his son who would take the interpretation of the kingdom deeper and wider, as we shall see.
Interested in the bit about Johann Albrecht Bengel - sound somewhat loony fringe? But clearly bore some good fruit. How do you see this working, Trevor?
ReplyDeleteIt's a little-researched phenomenon: how seasons of heightened millennarian speculation breed plenty of religious nuttiness but also act as a stimulus for good things in more balanced church circles. From my own doctorate I recall the wave of millennial speculation as the year 1666 drew near (the dreaded '666'). A lot of plainly daft things were printed, but when a possible messiah arose among the Jews, Sabbatai Sevi, the Protestants of the Low Countries saw it as a call to repentance and heart-preparation (just in case...?).
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