In this chapter, I develop the idea of messianic critique, a form rooted in the expectation of radical emancipation beyond historical time. Drawing primarily from Walter Benjamin and his Theses on the Concept of History, I argue that messianic critique resists both the progressive optimism of Enlightenment thought and the historical determinism of Hegelian dialectic. Instead, it invokes a redemptive temporality—what Benjamin calls Jetztzeit—where critique becomes an interruption of the continuous flow of time and a call to justice for the defeated. I explore how this critique is not only present in theological traditions but also in secularized forms, including Adorno’s reflections on redemption and utopia. Messianic critique confronts the false promises of progress by re-centering the ethical imperative to respond to past injustices rather than idealizing future victories. Though it risks detachment from concrete action, I suggest it can be reinterpreted as a transcendental impulse within history—a demand for justice that grounds critique in lived time without surrendering to despair.