The Ark Theology of Restoration
Romans 8: 18-22, Genesis 2: 4-15
August 4, 2024
We’ve just finished a sermon series on dying well. What happens after you die?
People have many different ideas of what heaven will be like. I haven’t been there so I don’t know for certain. But I’ve read the Bible many times and I believe the Bible gives us some clues.
There are two broad understandings of heaven: the lifeboat theology of escape and the ark theology of restoration.
Which of those two views of heaven do you think is more biblical and true?
The lifeboat theology of escape or the ark theology of restoration?
The lifeboat theology of escape says we’ve permanently wrecked the world. What’s important now is simply that we rescue people from the wreckage. It’s as if the whole world was the Titanic. It’s hit the iceberg of sin and is sinking fast.
Do you know the story of the Titanic? About 100 years ago the supposedly unsinkable ship hit ice out in the middle of the Atlantic. Everyone tries to get off as fast as they can when they realize they’re sinking. But there aren’t enough lifeboats for everyone. People fight to get into those lifeboats.
The lifeboat theology of escape says now that we’ve hit the iceberg of sin, there’s nothing left for us to do, but get ourselves into our lifeboats. The ship called our world is sinking rapidly. God has given up on it for good. God is only concerned about the survival of their chosen people. Any effort to salvage God’s creation amounts to rearranging the deck chairs.
According to this theology, our only task is to get into lifeboats, to get other drowning victims out of the water and to paddle until we get to a spiritual heaven where all will be well.
This is the lifeboat theology of escape.
Another broad understanding of heaven is the ark theology of restoration. You remember the story of Noah’s ark. Noah’s ark saved not only Noah’s family, but it also preserved God’s other creatures as well. The ark and the flood were not about just escaping this terrible world, but about restoring the world to a better place. The ark returned to the land to begin again. Once the flood subsided, everyone and everything was intended to return to restore the earth.
God restores people, animals, and the whole earth. God doesn’t give up on His creation or any of His creatures. In fact, they command Noah after the Flood to do exactly what they commanded Adam and Eve to do in the Garden of Eden. Noah went out to plant a vineyard and people were back to work again on earth.
The ark theology of restoration is not about escaping this evil world that God is destroying for all time. It’s about working with God to restore God’s world to His original intention in the Garden of Eden. In this view, Heaven is the physical world the way God always intended. We can help, even now, to bring that kindom of God to earth as it is in heaven.
This is the ark theology of restoration.
Which of these two views of heaven is more true: the lifeboat theology of escape or the ark theology of restoration?
This sermon is the first message in a four part series on The Climate is Changing. Our climate is changing. What is our response as people of faith? I believe that we need to deconstruct some of our theology that we’ve been taught about our world. Then we need to reconstruct an understanding of God and the world that better fits what we believe now. This reconstructed framework can point us to a better way to respond to our climate that is changing.
Let’s look at some Scriptures to discover the answer.
Paul says in our Romans passage that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of God’s children.
It’s more than just God saving His people. It’s about God restoring and setting free all creation!
It says that right now creation is groaning. It’s not yet been restored and made well. It’s still in pain. But it’s about to give birth. New life will soon come for all creation.
What does this sound like?
The lifeboat theology of escape or the ark theology of restoration?
What is God doing here? Taking people out of this world or creating a new earth as they originally intended?
Let’s look at the story of the creation. Did you know the Bible includes two stories of creation? The first story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis describes it all happening in six days.
But the second story of creation in the second chapter of Genesis focuses on the Garden of Eden.
Read Genesis 2: 9-10
Notice the references to rivers and trees and fruit. Let me add another Scripture we didn’t hear earlier. I’m going to read from the last chapter in the Bible describing what happens at the end after God restores everything.
Read Revelation 22: 1-2.
Once again we have references to rivers and trees and fruit – just like in the second chapter of Genesis when they were describing the creation of the world. Heaven is all about the restoration of the world to God’s original intention in the Garden of Eden.
As we think about restoration, there are once again two paths we can travel in creating our theological framework. One path says that God is always fully in control. God therefore is responsible for restoring God’s creation. It’s all on God to do the work.
The phrase “infantile authority fantasy” is a way to understand this path. It’s about our longing to surrender ourselves to some authority figure who will solve all our problems – some hero. This means that we can regress into a comfortable, infantile state of dependency. In other words, God will take care of it. We don’t have to worry about it or do anything about it.
God will restore without our help.
The other path is the path of citizenship. We are responsible citizens of this world. We have an important role to play in the restoration of creation. It’s not just about God. It’s also about the work that is needed by us. We are God’s hands and feet.
I believe this second path is the true path and the one we’re invited to follow: the path of being responsible citizens of the world. I believe that the mission of the church is to bring paradise to earth as God intended from the beginning.
I believe it can happen.
Let me tell you about some trips I took to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota, my favorite spot in the world.
The summer of 1995 I took two trips up there. The first was with our whole family. All four of us were on one canoe. Lori was in the front and I was in the back. Our two nine year old children Scott and Sarah were in the middle.
We all enjoyed the beautiful scenery that trip. It was the one Boundary Waters Trip we took together as a family.
Two months later, my best friend at the time, Allan and I took our first trip together. We chose to go on the same route as our family had taken earlier. But this time everything looked different. A forest fire had swept through that area the month before. Everything was black – the ground, the stones, and all the dead trees. There was nothing growing anyplace around there. It was sickening.
The amazing thing is what we found when Allan and I returned a few years later. The black was returning to green. The dead trees were making way for new living trees and bushes and grasses. That’s God’s way. God restores with our help.
When we cause damage to God’s creation, God works with us to restore it.
Someday everything will be restored. That will be heaven on earth.
We can look forward to living in that restored world.
Heaven is not about our escape from this world.
Heaven is about God’s restoration of the world.
We have a part to play.
Let’s help God bring in their kindom on earth just as it is in heaven.
I’m going to end each of the messages this month with a time for you to make some suggestions about how we can respond to our changing climate, the work that we can do to bring God’s kindom to earth, to restore this world to God’s intention. What are some specific things that you are doing or that you would like to do?
