Paul, part of the problem here again is that we are looking backwards with hindsight rather than forwards with uncertainty and faith. The issue for the early church was whether they could confront the seemingly absolute might of Roman imperialism and get away with it. The prophetic announcement at the heart of New Testament eschatology was that as they proclaimed throughout the pagan world that Jesus rather than Caesar was king over God’s people, nothing could overcome them. Not even death could destroy the integrity of the community that was inaugurated with Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ. This was the crucial assurance for the early believers - that the love of God in Christ Jesus was more powerful than anything that the world could throw at them.

But it is also part and parcel of the self-understanding of the people of God that subjugation to any other power was a sign of judgment and alienation from YHWH. If Israel was forgiven, sooner or later that would have to mean that any power that made war against the community of the Son of man (this is Daniel’s language) would be concretely overome. Going right back to Abraham God brings into existence a new humanity, a new creation - but this new humanity is fundamentally compromised if in any sense it is subject to the powers that rule the old creation. If Jesus has genuinely and fully rescued the creational microcosm from destruction, it must mean that the people of God as a community (and not just as privately spiritual individuals) are concretely set free from persecution and oppression. Yes, it took a long time, but the journey to the promised land took 40 years, and Daniel was warned that the restoration of Israel following the exile would take seven times 70 years. Political narratives are told much more slowly than personal narratives.