📖 Biblical Definition
Already / Not Yet is the modern theological coinage for the New Testament's eschatological tension: Christ's kingdom has already arrived in His ministry, death, resurrection, and Spirit-pouring; it has not yet been consummated. The saint lives in the overlap of the ages. Justified already, glorified not yet. Saved already, finally saved not yet. The framework prevents both over-realized eschatology (claiming consummation now) and under-realized (treating the kingdom as wholly future).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Theological framework.) The New Testament's tension between the kingdom inaugurated in Christ and the kingdom consummated at His return.
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Major proponents: Geerhardus Vos (The Pauline Eschatology, 1930), Oscar Cullmann (Christ and Time, 1946), George Eldon Ladd (The Presence of the Future, 1974).
Texts: Christ's ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’ (Mk 1:15) versus ‘not yet’ texts (Heb 2:8: now we see not yet all things put under him); justified already (Rom 5:1) versus glorified not yet (Rom 8:23); saved already (Eph 2:8) versus saved not yet (Rom 13:11).
📖 Key Scripture
Mark 1:15 — "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand."
Hebrews 2:8 — "But now we see not yet all things put under him."
Romans 8:23 — "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
1 John 3:2 — "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Two errors flank the framework: over-realized (charismatic excess, prosperity teaching, claiming the consummation now) and under-realized (escapist Christianity, treating the kingdom as purely future). Scripture commands both halves.
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1 John 3:2 is the perfect already-not-yet verse: now are we the sons of God (already) and it doth not yet appear what we shall be (not yet). The same saint, both descriptions, simultaneously true.
The household lives in the tension. Prayer, sacrament, and worship taste the age to come; suffering, sin, and death taste this age still around. The two-ages overlap shapes the saint's expectations: real foretaste, real waiting, real hope.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Theological coinage based on the two-ages framework.
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English compound; the corresponding Greek is the contrast between nun (now) and oupō (not yet) in passages like Heb 2:8.
Note: George Eldon Ladd's The Presence of the Future popularized the framework in evangelicalism.
Usage
"Justified already, glorified not yet."
"Now are we the sons of God; it doth not yet appear what we shall be."
"Real foretaste, real waiting, real hope."