Reflection Paper

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In the past, I have talked about two prominent views in Christianity concerning the restorative effect of the cross and resurrection.

One of these views claim that the world is fallen and only mankind is being restored. People with this view of the gospel tend to look at the world, culture and this life as a thing to escape because it is beyond hope. This makes heaven the place we are escaping to. This approach is called Dualistic Christianity.

The other outlook states that everything is being restored and that God is indeed at work here in our world, culture and life to bring about a vision of “Eden” on the earth now. In this view, earth isn’t something to escape, it’s something to be involved in and bring about the reality of heaven in the here and now. This is called Wholistic Christianity.

The key to understanding the Christian story lies in viewing the Biblical narrative in its “cosmic-ness.” We need to see just what original Creation consisted of in order to understand the Fall and Redemption properly. When someone says “Cosmic Creation” he/she is emphasizing the grandness and large-scale interrelatedness of all that Creation “IS.” It is cosmic; it is more than just “two people in a Garden.” Imagine for one moment that the Fall had never occurred, it is easy to see this multi-faceted interrelatedness. It is obvious that we would still be doing much of what we are doing now. We would be building streets, laying pipelines, doing science experiments, practicing our various trades, reading, learning, growing, working, etc. The only difference is that we would do these things without sin/fallenness being a factor.
Everything would have been done to the glory of God and always in a sense of worship. The doctrine to ...

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...ed yet, is being redeemed presently. “By grace through faith in Christ”, all of the man is being redeemed. All of the places of Creation are being redeemed. All of the things of Creation are being redeemed. All of the inherent institutions and great ideas of Creation, that is, the very intangible infrastructure that is built into Creation are being redeemed. And lastly, all of the activities carried out in Creation are being redeemed. The redemption is “cosmic” because it is proportional to the Fall and affects all of Creation. Christ’s redemption/restoration is something much bigger than “God saving humans.”

What about you? Our very creative God has given you numerous talents and creative ways of bringing about “good” things in this life. Do you view this life as a place to escape from, or as a place redeemed that you can bring about the realities of “Eden” to?

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