Compare the texts of Gen. 2:8-14 and Rev. 22:1-5...
Is what we find in Revelation a mere restoration of Eden? Or is it something more? Does the whole metanarrative of Scripture take us back to the way things were? Or does it take us further?
Could the idea be that the creation narrative is the world in infant stage, sabotaged by the Fall, then through the Redeemer it is regenerated into the glorious maturity of Revelation 22.
(I should reference that I heard bits of the infant stage idea from Carl Sanders at ETS in the paper that he presented, although I don't have a copy of the paper).
Jonathan, great question! I've been wondering the same thing for some time now. I remember discussing the topic with a few friends in Raleigh, and we had been talking about what place the Christian "turns your eyes to see Jesus" at? The cross? Heaven? I think we often talk about the cross as focal point of history, but doesn't the Bible move us beyond the cross to what you referenced in Rev 22? Not to take away from the cross - trust me. But, wasn't the cross the means, not the end? Maybe the two should be held up equally? I think we may err holding one higher than the other...
ReplyDeleteThe end is the restoration of all things, but I think you are right - it seems that there will be more in that Final City than what was there in the Garden. There is the Lamb - in all his glory - whom we still only know a shadow about; there is the healing of the nations, there is nothing more accursed, there is no more night, and there is finally an eternal reign. Though there will finally be a realization of God's original purpose and design for mankind in the Final City, we will have arrived there only after a long journey - where have been privileged to grow in the knowledge of our God in ways unimaginable without the arduous and often painful road. I think restoration may shine more gloriously in the eyes of men who have seen far less glorious things.