Today we begin a new class on Restitutio on the Kingdom of God. Jesus said the kingdom was like a treasure hidden in a field—it’s so valuable it’s worth selling everything to purchase. He said to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness above what we eat or wear. In this class we’ll spend a great deal of time exploring what the bible teaches about the kingdom, including hope, gospel, and way. We will also work through the main reasons why Christianity lost the kingdom before looking at how some Christians recovered it. This class will not only provide a panoramic and nuanced view of the kingdom, but it will also offer a cohesive proleptic ethic to aid navigating our complex world while remaining true to Jesus, the king of the coming kingdom.
In this first lecture we look at the bookends of the bible: Genesis and Revelation. By developing a robust creation theology we’ll have a better grasp on what the end will be like. In addition to looking at Genesis, we’ll consider some of the marvels of God’s creation, including relativity, quantum theory, the hydrologic cycle, and bees. In the end my goal is to convince you that God did a good job making our world so it makes sense that he would want to restore it in the end.
This is lecture 1 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College. To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.
Notes:
eschatology = study of the end
two key restoration texts
- Matthew 19.28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
- ἡ παλιγγενεσία: (1) state of being renewed with focus on a cosmic experience, renewal, (2) experience of complete change of life, rebirth
- NASB: regeneration
- Acts 3.21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
- ἡ ἀποκατάστασις: restoration
- this is what the whole bible is about!
creation theology
- close your eyes and picture earth
- ever since 1972 when an astronaut took this picture, called “The Blue Marble” during the Apollo 17 lunar mission, this is how we think of earth
- if I asked an ancient Israelite to picture earth, they would think of soil, land, crops
- so, we have to be very careful about reading our own assumptions into what the bible says
- we need to adjust our thinking to the bible rather than the other way around
- the first book of the bible begins with a poem, detailing God’s creation of universe
- Genesis 1
- what repeats?
- And God said
- let there be
- and God saw that it was good
- and there was evening and there was morning—the ?? day
- every stanza begins with, “And God said” and “let there be”
- every stanza ends with, “and God saw that it was good” and “it was evening and morning”
- more patterns
- God creates heavens on day 1
- God populates heavens on day 4
- God creates the waters on day 2
- God populates waters on day 5
- God creates the land on day 3
- God populates the land on day 6
- orderliness of creation!
- billions of stars, galaxies, and quasars and they move in totally predictable ways
- millions of plant and animal species w/ highly specialized niches determined by insanely detai
