The kingdom of God is the final and saving work of God with this world. ``Vanuit zijn toekomst, waarin hij op ons toekomt vanuit het einde en de voleinding van alle dingen, dringt de levende God in ons heden op en breekt hij er in door en poneert hij zichzelf en zijn rijk in onze existentie.''2.22 God posits himself in our existence and sets up his kingdom, and based on the confession that God is king now, there arises the expectation that he will become king in an intensified and eschatological sense.2.23 This expectation makes existence historical.2.24 The circle of nature is broken and reality is directed at its future.2.25
God appears in our reality and sets up his kingdom and thus makes existence historical. Thus history is to be understood in terms of God's work with this world, namely the saving of this world to his kingdom. Now according to the Bible, and as we have seen in Van Ruler's definition, the kingdom of God is the final work of God with this world, in other words the kingdom is eschatological, that is: transcendent. God comes upon us from his eschatological essence, from his future and thus creates history.2.26 Therefore history is to be understood from the transcendence of the kingdom of God.
In order to see the connection of events and the organic unity in a specific stage of history, we need to stand at a distance. This distance is the transcendence of the kingdom of God. History, or that which is happening in the world is to be seen and understood, not from a distance in space or from a distance in time. The kingdom of God is not transcendent in a static-ontological sense as another place, sphere or world next to or above our temporal-spacial world but in the sense of God's concealed victory over all resistance.2.27 Thus the idea that history is to be understood from the perspective of the kingdom of God means that God is busy doing something with this world - He is saving it to his kingdom, and this salvation is present as a concealed victory over his enemies. This does not mean that history has become transparent. The kingdom remains transcendent, this transcendence is being put into effect in our present reality but it will only be fully revealed at the end.2.28 But this does not detract from the fact that from the biblical proclamation of the kingdom of God we know God is busy doing his work in this visible and tangible reality in which we live. Thus Van Ruler understands history in terms of the biblical proclamation of the kingdom of God as God's final work with this world. We stand directed at the future, at the kingdom, as it comes upon us from the future.
With this we come to the kernel idea of Van Ruler in connection with history, namely that the concept of history is in essence a biblical concept.2.29 Revelation creates history and makes existence historical.2.30 We have already seen that the presence of salvation causes the eschatological expectation and thus gives rise to history but in order to clarify this idea we can note the following: In the first place the kernel of the biblical doctrine of God, which also separates the biblical understanding of God from all paganism, is that the living God is not to be understood in his essence as Being that rests eternally in itself, but rather as Will. The God of the Bible is the God of history. He appears in the field of reality as Lord and makes existence historical.2.31 God himself appears with his revelation and salvation. God is not a determined form, but The Concealed who is met in the concealment of the reality of life, as it occurs, in a concealed manner. ``Man cannot say: this or that is God; also not: everything is God; even less: God is nothing. Man can only actually meet him.''2.32 The fact that God is God in this manner means that reality does not have its own `essence' but is ```de werkelijkheid': het al of niet ontmoeten van God; de reidans der daden Gods; zijn verkiezend en verwerpend handelen.''2.33This gives existence its historical character: ``zij geschiedt en zij staat in de geschiedenis en er geschiedt ook iets in.''2.34
In the second place the historical character of revelation itself is to be noted. Revelation is not to be understood as information about `divine things' which may or may not have saving consequences. ``The history of revelation and the history of salvation are the same history. Revelation can be received only in the presence of salvation, and salvation can occur only within a correlation of revelation.'' Even the condemning function of revelation is a basic part of the process of salvation.2.35Revelation is identical to salvation and the kingdom of God is present as salvation in Christ. Thus revelation, understood as the reconciliation of guilt,2.36 as the beneficial and concealed presence of God in the flesh is not only something that happens in history but is the essence of history. The eschatological expectation makes existence historical and this expectation is based on the saving presence of God. This saving presence is the reconciliation of guilt, therefore revelation itself is history par excellence and the actual mystery of history must be acknowledged as the reconciliation of guilt.2.37 From this it can be seen that history is the putting into effect of the sacrifice of reconciliation in all existence, it is a ``permanente syntaxis van schuld en verzoening.''2.38
In the third place we must note the historical character of the kingdom of God. The definition of the kingdom as God's saving and final work with this world conveys the idea that the eschatological kingdom of God has already come from out of the future, so that the kingdom must be understood as an act of God from out of the end with this world. The presence of this eschatological reality creates history by producing the eschatological expectation. God is doing something in the present (erecting his kingdom) and will do something completely new in the future (consummate his kingdom). Precisely this makes existence historical. ``In the light of the eschaton we can see that all existence and all reality exists in the acts of God.''2.39This implies that existence is indeed historical and does not have its own ontological character. Existence is what God does to it.2.40
In the fourth place we must note the distinction between the messianic and pneumatic moments in salvation. The distinction consists of the fact that the work of the Holy Spirit is more inclusive than the work of the Messiah, in the sense that the Spirit gives expression to and spreads the sacrifice of reconciliation in existence.2.41 The gift of the Spirit and his work is an historical act of God, a fact of salvation that must be understood from the standpoint of the end, from the coming kingdom of God. The specifically historical character of this work consists of the fact that from the coming kingdom the Spirit creates history in the chaos of existence, that is: He allows history to spread around the sacrifice of Christ. Therefore the Spirit is not a moment in history but the origin of history. ``History is the form, called up by the Spirit, created out of the nothing of the fallen world and lost existence .....History is the predicate of the Spirit.''2.42
Before we continue it must be noted that the outpouring of the Spirit is not a fact of salvation that occurred in the middle of history, but rather in the last days (Acts 2:17), thus from the kingdom that is coming upon us. Therefore it goes back to the beginning; it also includes the history of Israel under the Old Covenant; the fulfillment of the Old Testament is to be understood as a fulfillment in the Messiah through the Holy Spirit; history cannot be divided into a period before and a period after Pentecost; and that which is specifically new in the New Testament cannot be seen in the saving fact of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.2.43 With the claim that God's presence in the Spirit creates history, history receives the character of particularity and stands in the closest connection with election. Therefore, if history is spoken of, the nation Israel and the Old Testament come immediately to the foreground.2.44 In Israel God elected a time and a place and a nation for His presence on earth. So Israel alone, in the midst of the heathen nations, had history in the proper sense of the word. But because election is always pars pro toto, the election of Israel must also be seen as a token and a seal and a guarantee of God's purpose with the world. Election and mission are the two fundamental components of the concept of history.2.45 From Israel God comes to the nations of the earth. The fact that salvation makes existence historical means that the entire concept of history originates from the gospel and its proclamation, from God's revelation in Israel and in Jesus Christ. Thus world history must be understood in its essence as mission history.2.46
With this we have anticipated the next topic.