Re: appendix

----- Original Message -----
From: <drsyme@cablespeed.com>
To: "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>; "Don Winterstein"
<dfwinterstein@msn.com>; "asa" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: appendix

> Other than the effects of man's sin ("environmental degradation"), on the
> universe, exactly what do you see as imperfect in the original creation
> George?
>
> Are you saying that "when the times have reached their ultimate
> fulfillment" there will no longer be plate tectonics, genetic diseases,
> hemorrhagic fever viruses, or any number of other imperfections that are
> not a result of mankinds sin?
...................

Briefly, I don't know. This is essentially the same question as one about
what kind of bodies we'll have in the resurrection. We can speculate if we
wish but that's all. In I Cor.15 Paul gives some analogies from nature in
response to the question "with what bodies do they come" (after 1st calling
the person who asks the question foolish!), but that's quite different from
trying to explain it.

> You have not convinced me that the Incarnation was for anything more than
> restoring mankind, who had "gotten off the proper path for union with
> God...". Christ didnt come to redeem creation, he came to redeem man.
......................

Eph.1:10 says that God's "plan for the fulness of time" is to unite all
things in Christ & Col.1:20 says that "all things" are to be reconciled to
God through the cross. Especially in that latter verse, as the climax of
Col.1:15-20, it simply isn't possible to give /ta panta/, "all things,
anything less than its full meaning. /pas/ is the key word (of course with
inflections) in the whole hymn, & "all things" reconciled to God in v.20
must be the same as "all things" that were created through him & for him &
that hold together in him in vv.16-17.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Tue Jan 4 10:20:41 2005