Introduction to Creation and Recreation
In order to understand the New Testament properly, we need to understand it as the beginning of the New creation as well as fulfillment of all that was promised from Genesis. If we accept that, then the New Testament is the last chapter of the story in God's redemption.. More simply put it is the final chapter of the story of God's dealings with mankind. One cannot hope to turn to the last chapter of the book, and claim to understand all that has gone before, in the book. Thus New and Old Testaments are not 2 separate books, they are one book. There is one story not two. In the one book there are two covenants that dominate it. The word testament, as in New and Old Testament is the word used for new and old Covenant. So when we speak of the New testament, we are talking about the New Covenant, which is promised in the Old. When speaking of the Old Testament we are talking about the Old Covenant God made with Israel. There is a 3rd part to the book which comes before the Old Covenant, which I will call the "Patriachs". This is the book of Genesis, where the Abrahamic covenants took place 450 years before the Old Covenant. The Abrahamic covenants are covenants of promise. All that God promised to do is recorded for us there. Apart from the covenants it tells of the world that was, the fallen world which now is, it promises the recreation of the creation that is fallen.

If we take Genesis and Revelation as a parentheses, we find Genesis starts with " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and ends the last chapters of Revelation with the recreation, i.e. John says I saw a "New heavens and earth". Recreation is what the New Testament is most concerned with. New creation is the major theme of the New Testament. The New creation is what the Old Testament prophets point toward in the future. Ezekiel, Isaiah and others use Edenic language to describe the New Creation, only that what they describe supercedes Eden. The Old Testament doesn't only point to the new creation of man. It points to a world made new. Everything will be recreated. Society, government, creation, everything will be transformed and made new. So what we are talking about is the substance, the essence of everything being Heavenly. It isn't about heaven elsewhere, beyond the stars. Although heaven at the moment is out there, the future of what is promised is" heaven on earth".

To put it in the way many Jews of Jesus' day understood it, restoration is bringing in the Kingdom of God. So when Jesus preached "The kingdom of God" the people were to understand that the time that the prophets pointed to of restoration was now taking place. They were also to understand that if in the ministry of Jesus the promised restoration was taking place, that the wicked would face ruin and destruction as judgement from God. For no wicked man could enter the Kingdom of God. So in Jesus' ministry he offered forgiveness apart from the temple, His ministry of healing demonstrated that what was only expected to happen when the Kingdom came in fulness i.e. the lame walking, the deaf hearing, the blind seeing was happening in the now. This ministry of restoration continued by Jesus destroying and defeating sin and death. Sin had to be dealt with in an effective way, so that by people being forgiven their sins they would receive the promises of the kingdom i.e. "The New creation" For the Old testament prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel said that a recreated people would return from exile into a recreated land. So the Kingdom didn't come as many expected, but come it has. The kingdom has begun becausee Jesus has been enthroned as God's King by his resurrection and ascension.

The time of resurrection has come by Jesus defeating death and sin. So Jesus' resurrection power is given to those who trust in him, as a 1st fruit. The harvest comes when we are physically made alive with all the other saints at his return. The language used for being saved or born again is resurrection language. Let me demonstrate what I am saying. Romans 6:4 " We were buried with Jesus in baptism unto death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we may walk in newness of Life. Can you see how the work of Jesus' resurrection is transferred to the believer being made alive to walk in newness of life. The model of Jesus death and resurrection is the model for those who believe in Him. vs 8, applies this to union with Christ, when Paul says "if we died with Christ we believe we shall also live with Him" The resurrection of Jesus is applied to living the resurrection life of being dead to sin and alive to God. Those who partake of the resurrection life, now , will partake of the resurrection of the dead on the last day when Jesus returns and establishes "The Kingdom." Then the recreated people will enter the recreated land. To put it another way only those who are part of the Kingdom now, will be in the Kingdom then. So to say we are not in the time of "The kingdom of God" is to deny the resurrection. Because we partake of Jesus' resurrection life we know the Kingdom has begun. I will give you scriptures to study that reinforce this point. Romans7: 4, 8:11 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 4, Ephesians 2:6, 11-13. The point is that the preaching of Jesus resurrection is central to the gospel and fits hand in glove with the cross. Resurrection is now but is also not yet, because the kingdom is now but also not yet. However it shows us that because we partake of his resurrection now, the Kingdom is also now, but in a 1st fruit sense.

What happens when I die?

People today don't ask the questions that the Old Testament or New Testament asks. The Old and New testament doesn't raise the question of what happens to you when you die.Rather it raises the question of what will happen to you on the day God raises the dead. The New testament asks the same question and applies it to the return of Jesus. That may come as a surprise to many. This question of what happens to you when you die preoccupies most modern Christians minds! Lets answer that question, yes, you do go to be with God when you die. You are safe and secure with him. However this is what is known as the intermediate state. I am sorry to dissapoint you, unfortunately the intermediate state is not the hope that is held out to us in the bible. What I mean by intermediate state is the time from death to the resurrection of the dead. The hope held out in Old and New testaments is whether you will partake of the recreation and renewal of all things, the world to come.. The state between death and the resurrection isn't what is promised as the "hope". What is promised is to be a partaker of the world to come. The world to come follows the destruction of this present wicked world.

One must think historically to understand this. For indeed the return of Jesus, judgement day, and the New heavens and earth are historical events. They are events that lie in the future. In Revelation 2:7 it is written,"he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give the right to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God." Surely the imagery of the Garden of Eden immediately comes to mind, when we hear this promise.. The Paradise of God is the Garden of Eden recreated. It is the world made new. Lets think in terms of the bibles on story line, the New Jerusalem, the New heavens and earth, the healing of people and the wiping away of every tear. This only happens in the story after the resurrection of the righteous and wicked. The wicked are damned in the fire and the righteous we find in God's new world. The streets of Gold , God dwelling with his people is after the judgement of the wicked on the last day. This promise can only be inherited when that new world comes into being. It certainly can't be inherited at death. Rather it is inherited at the resurrection of the righteous at the end of this present wicked world. This is the faith of Jesus and the early church. So while a believer does go to be with God at death, they only partake of what is promised when they are raised from the dead.