This all has to do with the relationship between eschatology and sin (as corruption, guilt, social, personal, structural, whatever). The creation was not born at rest. I don’t think that a new heaven and earth (which replaces the first heaven and earth in the imagery of Rev. 22) are necessary merely because of our failing to follow the playful patterns of God in God’s creation. A new heavens and earth also seem necessary because this creation is, how shall we say, probationary. The images of the serpent’s presence, the need of a command for Adam and Eve, the loneliness of Adam before Eve, the whole possibility of disobedience even after command – all of these point to the need for a completed, recasted creation even before we danced into deafness. So, when we say “build the kingdom” or “cultivate the kingdom” (I prefer the latter, I’d say), I’m a little nervous. We’ll tend to expect too much of ourselves, fool ourselves about the strength of our accomplishments or the depth of our unrest, and, conversely, we’ll not expect enough of God’s Spirit in the renewal.
We have yet to taste the tree of life. We have yet to become by grace what Jesus was by nature. We need to become divinized.
kstarkenburg
Dec 08 2002
08:50 am
This all has to do with the relationship between eschatology and sin (as corruption, guilt, social, personal, structural, whatever). The creation was not born at rest. I don’t think that a new heaven and earth (which replaces the first heaven and earth in the imagery of Rev. 22) are necessary merely because of our failing to follow the playful patterns of God in God’s creation. A new heavens and earth also seem necessary because this creation is, how shall we say, probationary. The images of the serpent’s presence, the need of a command for Adam and Eve, the loneliness of Adam before Eve, the whole possibility of disobedience even after command – all of these point to the need for a completed, recasted creation even before we danced into deafness. So, when we say “build the kingdom” or “cultivate the kingdom” (I prefer the latter, I’d say), I’m a little nervous. We’ll tend to expect too much of ourselves, fool ourselves about the strength of our accomplishments or the depth of our unrest, and, conversely, we’ll not expect enough of God’s Spirit in the renewal.
We have yet to taste the tree of life. We have yet to become by grace what Jesus was by nature. We need to become divinized.