Our God is a Consuming Fire

This paragraph is from the introduction to a short book I've just finished writing:

I believe the church has done God and the world a grave disservice. “Hell”, as we shall see, does not exist in the Bible. Eternal punishment, yes. A consuming fire, yes. But “hell” in the popularly understand form of everlasting torment has more in common with medieval scaremongering than biblical exegesis. What I find in the Scriptures is something far more awe-inspiring: that what some commentators call “hell” is none other than an element of the LORD God himself, for our God is a Consuming Fire.

Michael

Creation and New Creation

One of the drawbacks of living in an apartment is that we don’t have a garden. In a garden we see creation at work. You plant a seed and given some sunshine and rain a flower will grow. God is creating and re-creating all the time. He didn’t do a once-and-for-all act of creation at the beginning of time, and then leave things to tick on for themselves. By creating self-replicating plants and animals he is continuously involved in acts of new creation. Acts of new creation which are part of the present creation.

What about the New Creation, the new heavens and new earth that God promises? The Greek word for 'new' here is kainos, not neos. Neos means ‘new’ in the sense of ‘not previously existent’ or ‘brand new’, while kainos is more qualitative and could be translated ‘renewed’ – for example the new (kainos) covenant which is derived from the first covenant.

There is both continuity and discontinuity between the present creation and the new creation of the age to come. Obviously we have not yet experienced the new creation of the age to come, and so a level of conjecture is needed as we consider what it might be like. However, we have two big clues:

There will be no sin, and there will be no effects of sin. All that is sinful in this creation will not be present in the new creation.

There is one instance where the new creation burst through into the present age. That is, the resurrected Jesus. His was a new creation body. It was the same yet different. The disciples recognized him but failed to recognize him. To use fancy language, there was both continuity and discontinuity with his former body. His new body was derived from the old, but also transcended it. Travel was not a problem.

By looking at Jesus’ new creation body we get an idea of what our new creation bodies will be like. But I believe the principle is more widely applicable. We also get a glimpse of what the whole of the new creation will be like. Plants, animals – they too will experience a level of continuity and discontinuity between their present creation form and their new creation form. They too will be the same, yet different. For them, too, the new will be derived from the old. Not a brand new, never-existed-before kind of new, but a renewed kind of new: the ‘old creation’ form is the basis for the new creation form.

Given the continuity between this present creation and the new creation of the age to come, the way we treat the environment in the here and now will have visible repercussions in the new creation. This is because the new creation isn’t brand spanking new but is derived from this creation. The ‘derived’ bit gives the continuity. The ‘renewed’ bit gives the discontinuity.

Every good Lutheran sermon mentions Martin Luther. This is neither Lutheran nor a sermon but still… Luther once said that even if he believed there was no tomorrow he would still plant his apple tree today. We too can plant our trees today and care for all of what God has made, not simply because we love the Creator but also because we will see the fruits of it in the age to come, in the New Creation.