A presentation of an eschatology of hope can
begin with the text of Scripture itself. One of the clearest statements about
God’s future for creation is in Romans
8: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children
of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by
the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be
set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of
the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor
pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption
of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait
for it with patience.” (Romans
8:19-25)
Here Paul depicts the entire creation groaning
in agony, subject to futility, and literally rotting in the results of sin. But
Paul also says the same creation also lives in hope, “hope that the creation
itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the
glory of the children of God.”
We all live together in this hope of redemption,
not just of our spirits or souls, but of our bodies. The entire physical
creation is being redeemed and renewed by God and this is our hope. The Spirit
of God is the down payment on this future redemption. So, we, along with the
creation, wait in patience.
In contrast to an eschatology of escape or annihilation,
the Bible pictures not so much a new earth as a renewed earth. God is renewing His
creation. One of the factors that contributes to this confusion is the passage
from 2
Peter 3:10 quoted above. What we often forget to consider is the different
ways that fire functions. Fire is useful in purification, not just
annihilation. (As a matter of fact, pur is the Greek for “fire.”) We often see the destructive role of fire
rather than the purifying role of fire. But consider this passage from the same
Bible author: “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which
perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1
Peter 1:7)
Here, the fire of God purifies and cleanses
rather than destroys. Dross is burned up, the pure gold remains. This is more
consistent with the whole narrative of God’s work to reconcile all creation to
Himself.
The important point to notice is that this
vision of the future—this eschatology of hope—still involves a power outside of
ourselves. It is God’s fire. The question is not whether or not God will
intervene in human history to fully accomplish His purpose. The question is what
kind of action will God take in human affairs? The answer that Scripture
presents is one of restoration, reconciliation, repair and healing. These
concepts are the opposite of wanton destruction and annihilation. Nevertheless,
some things are consumed by the fire. The part that is not gold, the part that
is not consistent with God’s good and peaceful kingdom, will perish in order
that God’s good creation can be restored.
The practical result of this is two-fold. On the
one hand, we cannot disregard the world as something disposable, something that
will perish anyway. Keeping our eye on the beginning of the story we remember
that God created a good world. His good creation has been corrupted and abused
and, according to Paul’s statement above, held in “bondage to decay.” But it is
good nonetheless and God is intent on restoring it. On the other hand, we
cannot fix what is wrong with God’s creation ourselves. It will take power
outside of human effort to accomplish God’s redemption. It is this tension that
is the heart of Adventist eschatology. The world is not disposable, like a used-up
bag from which the important contents have been removed. But neither is the
human race ultimately capable of a final solution to sin and decay. We act
today in harmony with that which we believe, our hope. We act in hope now,
knowing that God will complete God’s work of healing His creation. From a human
perspective then, we neither take ourselves too seriously (reasoning that we
are the answer and that ours is the moment in history) nor do we disregard our role
in God’s work (reasoning that God will do whatever God will do, and we are free
to pursue our own selfish gain). Instead, we are enlisted, as citizens of God’s
kingdom, to do now what we anticipate. We are invited to act now in hope,
witnessing to the world that will one day be here in fullness.
This tension is sometimes expressed as the “now
and not yet” nature of God’s kingdom. This language—“now and not yet”—arises
from the fact that some Scripture speaks as though the kingdom is present now.
Other passages speak of God’s kingdom as something off in the future. One
helpful way of looking at this apparent paradox while doing justice to the
whole narrative is that Jesus, particularly by His resurrection, inaugurated a new
age that has yet to come fully to fruition. Jesus’ resurrection, in other
words, marks the beginning of the end (goal, purpose toward which history is
moving) but we still look forward to the end of the end. So we see signs of God’s
kingdom all around us. The Bible writers are careful to say that the kingdom is
“at hand,” never “in hand.” We don’t have the kingdom. Nor can we “bring in the
kingdom” by our own strength or organizational abilities. Rather we are called
to enter and serve God’s kingdom and in so doing bear witness to the way the
whole world will one day be.
To close this section on the eschatology of
escape vs. the eschatology of hope, we should note one very important point,
which highlights why the subject of eschatology is so important. It is this: if we get the end of the story mixed up, we won’t know how to live
in the story now. How we enter the narrative of God’s redemption today depends
on where we think this story is going. Eschatology
is a conversation about understanding the end of the story. So, even though
eschatology is the study of end times, it is really a matter of first
importance.
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