What was holding back the kingdom was the dark power, the force of evil itself. On the cross, that force, that power was defeated. All it can now do is shout and scream and flail about in its death throes. True, that can still be terrible and destructive. We all know this, in our own lives and in the wider world. But the early Christians – who themselves knew only too well that the world had not turned into Utopia overnight and that they still faced suffering, prison, and death – firmly believed that what had happened on the cross was the Messianic victory.
