If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 6 - Chapter 5

The Renewal of All Things

I found the ideas presented in this chapter really interesting, something I never really thought about before.

Firstly, Dickson points out that their is an intimate connection between humanity and creation. So, when "humanity defied the Creator, this had devastating consequences for the creation itself. The physical environment...fell under the spell of our displacement of God." I've never really had that perspective presented to me before and I've never really considered that the actions of man affected creation as well. I like what Dickson says about it here,

"in biblical thought the earth bears the scars...of the traumatic rift that has occurred between us and God...the physical world now contains a measure of frustration and chaos...there is enough disorder evident to remind us that things are not as they should be."

I particularly like those last few words. This makes a lot of sense to me and I feel like I can better understand the 'whys' and 'hows' of suffering in this world now.

So, what will God do?

God is going to renew the creation. Our physical existence is not going to be removed, but renewed. Things will be as they should be. Again, this is something I haven't really thought about at much length and I enjoyed reading about it. What a joy to be reminded that heaven will come to earth and everything will be transformed; a new creation.

How do we know God's going to do it or that he can do it?

Through the resurrection of Christ. Dickson says, God "is willing and able to breathe new life where there is currently death." For me, Dickson was presenting Jesus' resurrection in a whole new way. I found this was a different perspective that I hadn't really considered before. The resurrection of Jesus is God's way of showing us that he can re-create the universe.

What were your thoughts on this?