Cees & Anneke Noordzij — Eschatology
Introduction
In “Bread and Wine” Noordzij deals primarily with Passover typology and the transformation of the old covenant into the new. Though the work is chiefly sacramental in nature, it contains implicit eschatological themes centered on spiritual resurrection and future heavenly inheritance. The emphasis on the “Kingdom of Heaven” (Heb. 10:19-23) as a spiritual reality exhibits apocalyptic character: the fulfilment of the Promised Land not as an earthly state but as heavenly reality.
Spiritual Resurrection and Eternal Life
Noordzij explains that eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood is directly connected to spiritual resurrection.
Jesus said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:53-56).
Noordzij states that:
“whoever eats Him is raised from the deathly sphere of the ‘flesh’” (Rom. 7:24).
This is not a future physical resurrection but a present spiritual transformation. The “deathly sphere of the flesh” is presented as a current eschatological condition — a state of spiritual death from which the believer is rescued by Christ’s sacrifice.
At the same time, this teaching points to continued resurrection as linked to eternal life: “and I will raise him up”. This gestures toward eschatological completion — the final resolution in which the believer stands in complete and permanent continuity of life with Christ.
The Kingdom of Heaven as Spiritual Inheritance
Speaking of the new covenant, Noordzij states:
“the Way to the true Promised Land, the Kingdom of Heaven” (Heb. 10:19-23).
The transformation of Passover — from Egyptian deliverance to Christian redemption — is rendered as liberation from “the slavery of the flesh”.
God “now desires our redemption, our liberation from the power of the ‘flesh’, to serve Him in spirit and truth”.
Yet this future Kingdom is not a material territory but a condition of perfect spiritual freedom. The “Promised Land” to which Israel was meant to go is fulfilled in Christ as the heavenly inheritance itself — access to the Holy of Holies, direct presence of God. The eschatological hope is therefore not national-geographical but personal-transcendent: liberation from all fleshly-soulish disposition and permanent union with God.
Newness and the Transformation of All Things
Noordzij repeatedly emphasizes the contrast between “old” and “new”. He quotes Paul:
“Jesus makes all the ‘old’ radically ‘new’, including laws and rites” (1Cor. 15:46, 2Cor. 4:18, Rev. 21:5).
This reference to Revelation 21:5 — “Behold, I make all things new” — is explicitly eschatological: it speaks of God’s end-time cosmic renovation.
For Noordzij, however, this “newness” is not future but presently realizable.
“Jesus gave spiritual reality in place of the shadow.”
The “old” order (rites, traditions, visible signs) is a foreshadowing of the “new” — the spiritual reality of the Body of Christ community. This transformation can now be experientially realized by those who “learn to live in newness” (Rom. 6:4).
The Eschaton as Present Spiritual Liberation
Noordzij concludes with a future promise yet frames it as present possibility:
“To His own He says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me” (cf. Rev. 3:20).
This moment of inner revelation and communion is the personal realization of the eschatological condition. The future “eating with Him” becomes a present experience for those who open themselves.
Noordzij’s eschatology in this passage is thus directed toward the individual, present transformation of the believer — liberation from “the slavery of the flesh” now, not in a future end-time epoch. The heavenly inheritance is not deferred to a future but realized in the present life in the Spirit.