In comparing the theology of liberal modernism, which pushed a social gospel, with the theology that strongly asserts that nothing can be “set to rights” until our Lord returns and repairs and restores all things, N.T. Wright makes this powerful statement:
“The universal early Christian belief was that Jesus had already been demonstrated publicly to be Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true Lord through his resurrection. That, as we’ve seen, is part of the whole point of the Christian story. And if we believe it and pray, as he taught us, for God’s kingdom to come on earth as in heaven, there is no way we can rest content with major injustice in the world. We must recognize, as the second view does, that the final putting to rights of everything does indeed wait for the last day. We must therefore avoid the arrogance or triumphalism of the first view, imagining that we can build the kingdom by our own efforts without the need for a further great divine act of new creation. But we must agree with the first view that doing justice in the world is part of the Christian task, and we must therefore reject the defeatism of the second view, which says there is no point in even trying.”
N.T. Wright
“Surprised by Hope”
page 216