Classic Liberal Eschatology Classic liberalism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, represented by theologians such as Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), totally rejected the eschatology of the Gospels. It was said that eschatology did not belong to the authentic teaching of Jesus but was the product of the fervent atmosphere of the first-century church. “The kernel of [Jesus’] real message,” from which the husk of such things as apocalyptic must be separated, “consisted of a few universal