The Preservation and Restoration of Creation with a Special Reference to Romans 8:18-23
Abstract
The topic dealt with in this dissertation is "The Preservation and Restoration of Creation." In dealing with this topic there is "A Special Reference to Rom. 8:18-23" since this passage, if any, is the "sedes doctrinae" of such a topic. To deal with this passage of Scripture in connection with the "Restoration of Creation" is not at all exotic or peripheral to the Gospel message. R. C. H. Lenski sees the teaching of this pericope as "the final result of justification by faith as it is depicted by Paul. This is the great consolation section ofRomans."1If the human body is truly an integral part of God's physical Creation, then, the physical Creation -- along with man's body -- shares the same fate. The question is one of the extent of God's gracious salvation. Shall He resurrect and transform the human body, but not the rest of His material Creation -- as if the body of man were somehow categorically distinct from it? Or is it that God shall restore and transform the whole of His Creation -- in His own order? The answer to these questions, of course, can be known only by God's revelation concerning the matter, and this is why Rom. 8:18-23 and other pertinent passages will be examined.
