Pentecostal Reflections on Revelation and the "New Creation

2004

Scripture deals with the most important questions humans are asking: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where will we be going? Why are we here? Although the NT preaches the good news about salvation and points to a wonderful future for those who choose to follow Christ, it also addresses the issue of creation. In this paper we will take a look at the NT references to creation, discuss the contribution of Jesus and his disciples to the theology of creation, and draw some conclusions for our present situation.

This presentation examines the creation motif in various New Testament passages in order to establish the beliefs of the New Testament writers concerning the creation event in Genesis. It offers a brief examination of creation passages in the New Testament, including John 1 and Hebrews 1 and compares these texts with the beliefs of modern scholars and offers some conclusions concerning the role of faith in making a decision concerning the creation event in Genesis.

Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2020

AN IMPRESSIVE variety of people today are asserting in different ways x\ the central importance of the biblical doctrine of creation: funda mentalists seeking court-ordered public-school instruction in Genesis, feminists revising patriarchal interpretations of creation texts, 1 sys tematic theologians reassessing the traditional place of creation in the Christian synthesis. 2 Old Testament scholars themselves are dissatisfied with the exposition of the doctrine found in the standard biblical theologies. Gerhard von Rad's influential 1936 essay, which forcefully declared that the biblical doctrine of creation never attained to the status of an independent doctrine but was generally subordinated to soteriological considerations, 3 has been vigorously criticized. The omission of creation from Israelite confessions of faith is not a sign of its unimportance; creation of the world by the gods was so much part of the ancient Near Eastern world * A version of this paper was read to the Catholic Biblical Association at its annual meeting in August 1983. The Psalms are cited according to the Hebrew verse numbers, which may vary slightly from the English versions. MT = Massoretic text.

Perspective Digest, 2005

cripture deals with the most important human questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here? While the New Testament preaches the good news about salvation and points to a wonderful future for those who choose to follow Christ, it also addresses the issue of Creation. The Creation Theme in the New Testament The New Testament refers to Creation quite frequently. All the larger New Testament books, namely the Gospels, Acts, Romans, the Cor-inthian letters, Hebrews, and Revelation, in addition to a number of the smaller epistles, contain quotations or allusions relating to the Creation account in Genesis 1-2. The strongest emphasis on Creation is found in the letters to the Romans and to the Hebrews, as well as in the Book of Revelation. In some cases, Creation and the Fall are connected. At other times,

Zygon®, 1987

This paper summarizes the current state of the debates in biblical criticism concerning the nature of Genesis, the genre and setting in life of Genesis 1:1-2:4a, and the reasons for the continuing significance of creation motifs in the biblical period. In identifying creation as a vital part of the traditions associated variously with the cult, with wisdom, and with prophecy (even in its later scribal and eschatological forms), Genesis 1: 1-2:4a is seen to be the necessary description of how the particularity of Israel is dependent on God, of how humanity is privileged, andof how hope is tinged with judgment.

2018

This work is a revised version of my PhD thesis, completed at St. Patrick’s College, the Pontifical University, Maynooth between 2013 and 2018, under the supervision of Rev. Dr. Jeremy Corley. It was inspired by a course undertaken at the same university, taught by Rev. Anthony O’Leary CP, in which I examined the theme of creation in Heb 1 – 2 as part of the assessment process. As part of the course on Hebrews at Maynooth, we naturally covered the more commonly discussed theme in the Epistle, the high priesthood of Christ. However, as I began to look at Hebrews more closely, I saw that the term high priest is not so common in the first four chapters of Hebrews, occurring only four times with a further reference to sacrifice in 1:3. Rather than emphasising the sacrificial activity of Christ, the opening section is replete with a number of references to creation: 1:2 – 3,10 – 12, 2:5 – 9, 10; 3:1 – 6; 4:3 – 4 and 4:9 – 10. This prompted me to ask why creation was being referenced so m...

Dialogo, 2023

Creation is not what it was intended by God to be. It has been suffering the effects of the curse over humankind. Yet, God has not abandoned his plan for his creation to make it glorify him, but sent his Son into creation in order to redeem it. This article seeks to explain Jesus’ central role in inaugurating and consummating the renewal of rebellious creation. We see the first signs of redemption in Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness temptation, in his authority over the rebellious nature, and supremely on the cross. His departure from earth meant that the second stage of consummation will follow later. Thus, Paul explains in what ways reconciliation of all things to God have an “already” dimension and a “not yet” one. Presently, redemption through Jesus’ death and resurrection is limited to spiritual salvation, but it anticipates the physical redemption of the human bodies and the material redemption of the natural world. At Jesus’ return, “all things will be made new,” meaning not a replacement of the first creation but a renewal of it. This biblical understanding of the new creation, that Jesus first inaugurated but will eventually consummate, shows that creation has value to God and therefore should have value to those who love God and their neighbor.