An Egalitarian Vision: Reading Backwards from the Eschaton

Ministry with the end in mind

There are plenty of people out there doing the good work of biblical exegesis, diving into the Greek, and rummaging through the cultural contexts of the 1st century Roman world. See the the great work of people like Bobby Gilles in this article about why women must preach and teach, Marg Mowczko in this article about mutual submission, Nijay K. Gupta in this article, Nick O'Brien in this article about Paul’s silencing of complementarianism, Beth Felker Jones in this article about Jesus ending Patriarchy, and I could go on and on. I want to address the complementarian/egalitarian divide from a different angle. There’s a weird divide between those that do Biblical studies vs those who do Theology. I find myself in the latter camp. Like in a prior post where I reflected on the nature of sin to see how it relates to this conversation, I’d like to reflect on the eschatological vision (the end goal) to see if it has any indication for how we function in ministry in the here and now.

Eschatological Frameworks

First, I’d like to briefly sketch out some frameworks about how to understand the Eschaton (the last things). There’s been a lot of work with various views over the past two-thousand years so I’ll do my best to address the main ideas of the major views out there. Although understanding the importance of the millenial reign of Christ is central to eschatology, I’m more interested in humanity’s purpose in bringing about or looking forward to the Eschaton. Though there’s overlap, the major approaches don’t necessarily fit neatly into Pre-, Post-, or Amillenial frameworks.

1. Inaugurated Eschatology (Now, but not yet)

2. New Creation Eschatology (Transformational)

3. Recapitulation Eschatology (Back to Eden, sort of)

All of these frameworks hinge on three ideas: What the Old Testament envisions, what Jesus brings, and what’s yet to come.

Inaugurated Eschatology holds that the OT anticipates a coming glory that will flood the Earth (Hab. 2:14) at the Messiah’s arrival. Jesus gives us a foretaste of that glory in his life, death, and resurrection. This is what Paul calls the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20), a prelude to our own. For now, we inhabit the overlapping realities of the kingdom breaking into history, commissioned via the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19) to make disciples as we await the Second Coming that fully realizes that glory.

New Creation Eschatology reads the OT as foreshadowing something new: “Behold, I am doing a new thing” (Is. 43:19). Sin hasn’t reversed creation so much as perverted it, so the focus isn’t reversal but renewal. Christ gives us a foretaste of that renewal and invites us into the project, handing off the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-20). NT Wright popularized this through the metaphor of a master stone mason: we’re part of the building project without necessarily knowing the final blueprint until the master arrives to bring it to completion.

Recapitulation Eschatology takes sin’s reversal of created order more seriously. The OT trajectory is fundamentally about undoing that reversal — God’s promises to Abraham of land, seed, and blessing (Gen. 12) deliberately paralleling the curses of Genesis 3. Isaiah 65:17-25 envisions this further, addressing mortality, futile labor, and the anguish of childbearing. Christ is the pivot point: his miracles, healings, and resurrection are the curse being unwound. The Eschaton doesn’t merely restore Eden. It glorifies it (Rev. 21-22), just as Christ’s resurrection body wasn’t merely resuscitated but transformed.

A Common Goal

What all of these frameworks have in common is that they’re headed for Revelation 21 & 22. This is the Eschatological vision that will come to fruition at Christ’s return. One of the ways the OT looks to the Eschaton is by critique and judgment of the shepherds. These were the ones that were to look after the people of God, but many of them have failed. Because of their failure to take care of them, God proclaims the following:

I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken. Ezekiel 34:22-24

1 Peter 5:1-4 picks up on this motif.

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

Note that the crown doesn’t imply that their ministerial role will forever be enshrined. It’s questionable whether that will even be needed anymore. What would an Ecclesial structure even look like if when Christ reigns within our midst? But there is co-reigning going on in the Eschaton. The nature of this is not ecclesial but political. It’s as if the rights of the divine counsel in the OT are transferred to humanity when Christ returns. John the Revelator says,

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 22:3-5).

Although one could make a case for the existence of hierarchical structures in a governing role, no passages imply a hierarchy of ministerial roles among humanity in the Eschaton. The scope of hierarchy moves away from a human-centered one toward a creation-centered one. This new role of a cosmic vice-regency is given to any and all who are servants of God (Rev. 22:3). Whatever the Ecclesia may look like in the age to come, it certainly will have no hierarchy among its people.

Egalitarian in the Eschaton

The three eschatological frameworks mentioned all converge in Revelation 21 and 22. All find their culmination in the reign of Christ, the only Shepherd, who invites us to co-reign with him over the Earth and all other creatures. Inaugurated Eschatology sees Christ as the foretaste of these realities. As Paul reflects in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” From this perspective, we are already seeing such hierarchical frameworks dissolve. How much more within the body of Christ! New Creation Eschatology encourages us to work to bring the Eschaton to a reality in the here and now. Christ commissions us to reconcile all things to Him. As co-creators of our own afterlife, we are to be actively working towards the reality of Revelation 21 and 22. What is implied in an Inaugural framework is explicit in a New Creation one.

Our final framework may be the biggest hangup. Though many complementarian traditions (Catholic and Reformers) find themselves adhering to an Inaugural approach, the Recapitulation perspective is perhaps the more challenging one to this thesis. Complementarians who hold to an Inaugural view typically see the Great Commission as central over the general reconciliatory approach. But I believe this misses the forest for the trees. Of course we are obligated to make disciples, but this isn’t the end goal. Disciple-making is the means by which we can communally realize God’s eschatological vision. The main challenge comes in thinking that hierarchy is a pre-fall invention (supralapsarian for all you theology nerds out there). In thinking this, a Recapitulation framework comes to the forefront.

Without trying to dismantle the entire theological perspective, the choosing of some elements over others is seemingly arbitrary. The Recapitulation view sees a mostly returning to Eden. But how do we know what elements we are to strive toward? It could get really awkward real quick when we reflect on ALL of the narrative concerning Eden. Are we returning to Vegetarianism? Are we doing away with clothing? Will we still be married and have children but it will be devoid of pain? How do we make sense of this in light of Jesus saying marriage will cease to exist (Mt. 22:30)?

There’s a reason neither Aquinas nor Luther articulated hierarchy in the pre-fallen state of Genesis 2-3 as it relates to some theological treatise. Aquinas did believe woman to be subject to man, but it’s only because he was an Aristotelian who believed that “woman is defective and misbegotten” and men are more reasonable.¹ Nothing explicit is mentioned concerning hierarchy between Adam and Eve. Even Luther said that Adam and Eve would have been equals prior to their deception.² Regardless, it must be inferred from those who want to read it into the text in passages that either mention Eve as a helper or some vague notion of primogeniture (a system of inheritance regarding the firstborn) somehow applied to Adam and Eve. There’s a reason Recapitulation Eschatology isn’t a full returning to Eden. It’s a returning to Eden in the sense that we will be what Adam and Eve were meant to be: in right relationship with God.

Conclusion

If we begin with the end in mind, I believe the Eschaton invites us to fully realize an Egalitarian model in the here and now. The Eden story, along with the rest of the OT, anticipates co-creation and co-regency as the model by which the glory and knowledge of God would fill the whole Earth. In Christ, we are given a foretaste with both men and women disciples proclaiming the resurrection and given the ministry of reconciliation. As the ultimate vision of the Eschaton is portrayed in the concluding chapters of scripture, all will be servants of the one and only shepherd. Ministerial hierarchical structures will dissolve. Men and Women will become cosmic vice-regents to govern all of creation, together as they more fully reflect the image of God. Our invitation from Scripture is to begin to realize this vision in the here and now, and that looks like more women behind pulpits.

1. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 92, a. 1, reply to obj. 1, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd ed. (1920), accessed May 29, 2026, https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1092.htm.

2. Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1–5, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, trans. George V. Schick, vol. 1 of Luther's Works (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 87.