The early Church was utterly romanced by the Good News that in Christ God’s primary goals were the restoration, reconciliation, renewal, redemption, repair, recovery, and rescue of all. For our sake and the current moment, the word “restore” can be a helpful summary of all of those concepts.
I rather enjoy these overlooked words from the apostle Peter,
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” – Acts 3:20-21
It was a massive paradigm shift for me to understand that God is infinitely far more interested in restoring creation than punishing it. The passage from the day of Pentecost says nothing about the doom and gloom that some preachers fixate upon. Peter, the chief apostle, doesn’t even get into that tone of preaching!
It has been a journey, but I believe that no part of God relishes punishing. Many figures have helped me come to trust that God is love, but Peter secured that for me when he also said, “as promised long ago through his holy prophets.” For Peter, as he looks at all the writings of the Prophets, the overall message is about restoration.
The general idea held by the early, pre-Constantinian church was that God would destroy that which is evil and heal that which is broken.
Are you evil itself?
No.
Are you implicitly a child of God, made in God’s image to grow in Christlikeness?
You bet.
Have you been seduced and broken by evil?
Yep.
Have others been affected by and acted upon that same deception?
Absolutely.
Again, God will destroy that which is evil and heal that which is broken. The heart of God always was, is, and will be interested in restoration.
What if Christian spirituality exists to help us experience complete restoration rather than to live under the worry or unresolvable possibility of being punished infinitely and eternally? What would that kind of faith look like?
(This is an excerpt from my free book, Breadcrumbs: Reflections on a Reconstructed Faith eBook, which you can get for free when you sign up for the 5 on Friday Newsletter.
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