Article on Vos and eschatology

Here's a great article on Vos and eschatology.

Vos contends that God set before Adam in the garden of Eden, an eschatological goal. He points out (a fact often missed entirely) that the garden was not heaven, it was not the dwelling place of God. You know this from the text that tells us that God would come and visit Adam in the garden and would then depart. The garden was not heaven but rather an earthly anteroom, a place of entrance into heaven, a gateway to heaven if you will.16 In other words, Genesis reveals to us that Adam was first to have an earthly/natural existence and then after his earthly task was completed, he would enter heaven and into a heavenly/spiritual existence. This is the divine plan for Adam even apart from the entrance of sin. God's intent is to bring Adam from the lower sphere of the earth, to the higher sphere of heaven. Vos and others see this original scheme of things confirmed in the mind of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 where in speaking of the natural body and the spiritual body, Paul says that Christ as second Adam has brought his people to the possession of the spiritual existence intended all along. God ordained the natural first to be followed by the spiritual.

In the garden, Adam is created in a changeable condition. He is created righteous but he can sin. He is created with life but he can die. A higher state is set before him as a goal to attain. This higher state is represented in the tree of life. In association with it the confirmed state of eternal life would be given. Vos writes: "The tree was associated with the higher, the unchangeable, the eternal life to be secured by obedience throughout his probation."

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We are here upon the earth, but our home country is heaven and our king is Christ. During our temporary stay on earth (1 Pet. 1:17), we are to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). To proclaim our King and his excellencies, we are to keep our behavior excellent while we sojourn in this world. Our religion and our ethic and conduct are to conform to our home country. We are ambassadors of Christ through which God entreats the world to be reconciled to him.