JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
32
evil, truth and lie, light and darkness, and points to God’s victory, be-
cause the death of the Ebed Yahweh (the Suffering Servant) will be a vic-
torious death (Isa 53). The results of this spiritual warfare will be deci-
sive and lasting, because God fights only with moral power (and not
physical strength), i.e., with a pure arsenal of love, truth, justice, and
freedom. For deeper insights into the cosmic conflict or spiritual warfare
from an Old Testament perspective, one needs to study passages like Job
1–2; Gen 1–3; Isa 14:12–15; and Ezek 28:11–19.
34
God will prevail, He
is the Victor, and He will establish His kingdom at the end of human his-
tory (Isa 24:23; Dan 2:44; 7:27).
7. Eschatological. The message of the Old Testament people is es-
chatological in scope. The eschatological nature of the message of the
Old Testament time believers is well attested because the hope in the
coming of the Promised Seed, the Messiah, is introduced in the midst of
the darkness of the first apostasy of Adam and Eve: “And I will put en-
mity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15). This
text is rightly called a protoevangelium.
35
This eschatological hope per-
meates the Old Testament from the Pentateuch to the end.
36
The Old Tes-
tament Church was an eschatological community: the Messiah was ex-
pected and with Him also God’s kingdom (Isa 24–27; 65–66).
34
See Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View: Pacific Press,
1950); idem, The Story of Redemption (Washington: Review and Herald, 1947); Ber-
toluci, “The Son of the Morning and the Guardian Cherub in the Context of the Contro-
versy Between Good and Evil”; Gregory A. Boyd, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual
Conflict (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1997); idem, Satan and the Problem of Evil:
Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2001); Jir¥ˆí
Moskala, “Issues in the Cosmic Controversy Between God and Satan According to the
Prologue of the Book of Job,” in The Cosmic Battle for Planet Earth: Essays in Honor of
Norman R. Gulley, ed. Ron du Preez and Jir¥ˆí Moskala (Berrien Springs: Old Testament
Department, SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University, 2003), 47–67; Tremper
Longman III and Daniel G. Reid, God is a Warrior. Studies in Old Testament Biblical
Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
35
Kaiser, The Messiah, 37; see also Ojewole, 4.
36
For the eschatological focus of the Pentateuch, see, Gerald Klingbeil, “Studying
the Eschatological Concepts in the Pentateuch,” Journal of the Adventist Theological
Society 11 (2000): 174–187; for the eschatological scope of the Old Testament, see Rich-
ard M. Davidson, “The Eschatological Literary Structure of the Old Testament,” in Crea-
tion, Life, and Hope: Essays in Honor of Jacques B. Doukhan, ed. Jir¥ˆí Moskala (Berrien
Springs: Old Testament Department, SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University,
2000), 349–366. See also, Geerhardus Vos, The Eschatology of the Old Testament, ed.
James T. Dennison, Jr. (Phillipsburg: P & R, 2001).