The apocalyptic Luther:

Abstract

"In defining apocalypticism in the period of the European reformations R. B. Barnes suggests that its main element, its most salient feature, is the expectancy of the imminent end of history. On the basis of that teaching apocalypticism seeks to offer insight into “the crucial role of the present in a cosmic struggle.” 1 He suggests also that apocalyptic thinking is prophetic. It is so because “it undertakes to warn evildoers and to console the righteous, and it seeks definite insight into God’s plan for the world.” 2 And of course, in a sense, this has to be true of such an eschatological framework of thought. In many ways, apocalypticism becomes prophetic as a necessary corollary to its own belief in the imminence of the end time, it is that which gives its urgency and which impels its search for divine perspective. Similarly, Heiko Oberman singles out three elements of the traditional apocalypticism of the period, namely, the belief in the approaching end time, the struggle between God and the devil, and the appearance of antichrist. 3"