Re: Eschatology and The Beginning

David Opderbeck wrote:

> Still, my "spiritual DNA" is unsettled by many TE ideas in particular,
> not so much for how they interact with various creeds and confessions
> (being raised in an independent dispensational church, we didn't deal
> much in confessional statements), but for how they interact with the
> "big picture."  The "creation-fall-restoration" paradigm seems like
> the right broad outline, however one envisions the timing and details
> of the restoration.  But what is being "restored" if Adam was pretty
> much just a regular neolithic guy living a regular neolithic life?

I am not a theologian and have had no theological training, so my
comments need to be taken in that context. I don't see a future
"restoration" of a past state. Rather, what God is and will do is a
"new" thing. The history of God's interaction with his creation, and
with us as individuals, means something. It makes the future
different than it would have been had not those particular events
occurred. Our own sin will make that future different. Jesus still
bears the marks of the cross.

Responding to another issue discussed earlier, I believe that it is
important theologically that the resurrection is a physical bodily
resurrection. It may by more than physical, but it is not less. The
physical resurrection, as well as the incarnation of the Christ,
validate the eternal value of the physical creation. God embraced the
physical creation that he made and took it upon himself. We are
physical beings. We are not merely spiritual beings temporarily
dressed in bodies. This issue is also tied with the future of the
non-human creation -- which also has the promise of future redemption.
Creation yearns for our redemption in which it will participate. There
will be a new heavens and a new Earth.

Keith
Received on Wed Apr 19 11:56:12 2006