Reading the Fourfold Gospel From the Two Creation Stories in Genesis: A Creation Theological Understanding of the Fourfold Gospel for Holistic Mission

Genesis 1 (Gen. 1:1-2:4a): The Creator God and His Redemptive Work

Regarding the historical background of Gen. 1, Kim Jeongjoon says that it has to do with the Jews’ harsh experiences as captives in Babylon, and its author reveals for those who knew the Babylonian creation story the fact that God’s creation is different from it (Kim, 1988: 41). By speaking about the only Creator God who is entirely different from the Babylonian gods and goddesses, the author seems to try to console Jews who are frustrated by captive lives and experiencing chaos and to give them a steady point of view of God.

It has been understood that the story of Gen. 1 is related to the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish. From the middle of the 19th century, thousands of tablets that recorded the law, administration documents, and literature of the ancient Near East began to be excavated. Among them, seven tablets recorded the creation story of Babylonia and it was called Enuma Elish (“When on high”) later. Its content seems to have passed down from the Sumerian Empire in 3000 BCE through the Akkadian Empire to the Babylonian Empire with slight modifications. Therefore, it can be said that Enuma Elish reflects the longstanding thought with regard to the beginning of the cosmos in the ancient Near East.

After Enuma Elish was publicly known, scholars discovered many similarities to Gen. 1 and claimed that Gen. 1 came from Enuma Elish. For example, as regards especially Gen. 1:2 ² as God’s combat (chaoskampt) with the chaos that is expressed by the water (tehom) on the surface, Hermann Gunkel insisted that Gen. 1 originated from the story of Marduk’s combat with Tiamat in Enuma Elish (Walton, 2008: 48). Samuel R. Driver alleged that Gen. 1 is the Hebrew version of Enuma Elish (1907: 31). Other scholars, however, dispute Gunkel’s and Driver’s argumentation by claiming that the two stories just share the typical way of thinking of the ancient Near East about the beginning of the cosmos. Some of them such as Richard J. Clifford and David T. Tsumura analyze apparent differences between both and conclude that Gen. 1 has an independent origin regardless of Enuma Elish (Clifford, 1994; Tsumura, 2005: 143). Our thoughts are in line with such a conclusion. Besides, when the Jews were living as captives in Babylonia, most Jews followed the Babylonian religion, except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 3). If so, the author seems to have contextualized his creation story to react to and challenge such a crisis.

By comparing Gen. 1 and Enuma Elish, we need to see how the author(s) of Gen. 1 confronted the creation story of Babylonia and demonstrated Israel’s own and unique theology. In particular, we need to focus on the differences between the two. As the first difference, we can point out that the creation in Enuma Elish is related to the struggle with primordial divine chaos groups or the war among gods and goddesses.

When the heavens above did not exist, . . . there was Apsû, the first in order, their begetter, and demiurge Tia-mat, who gave birth to them all; They had mingled their waters together. . . The gods were created within them. . . Their clamor got loud, throwing Tia-mat into a turmoil. They jarred the nerves of Tia-mat. . . Apsû did not diminish their clamor. . . Apsû opened his mouth and addressed Tia-mat. “Their behavior has become displeasing to me. And I cannot rest in the day-time or sleep at night. I will destroy and break up their way of life. That silence may reign and we may sleep. . .” What they plotted in their gathering was reported to the gods, their sons. The gods heard it and were frantic. . . He [Ea, Apsû’s eldest son] bound Apsû and killed him. . . In Apsû was Marduk born. . . Tia-mat was confounded; day and night she was frantic. . . The gods assembled within her. . . They. . . and took the side of Tia-mat. They set up a host to bring about conflict. . . She [Tia-mat] exalted Qingu, and magnified him among them (Tablet I). ³

Tia-mat and Marduk, the sage of the gods, came together, joining in strife, drawing near to battle. . . He bound her and extinguished her life. . . He split her into two like a dried fish: One half of her he set up and stretched out as the heavens. (Tablet IV)

By contrast, there seems no war or violence among gods in Gen. 1. The creation of God is not such a story that the sun, moon, stars, and humans are created from the enemy god’s corpse gained from war among gods. There could not be a fierce and bloody struggle at the outset, because the only Creator God was acknowledged. Gen. 1:1 (“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”) seems to mark the end of the era of gods and goddesses and inform the beginning of the age of God who is preexistent, omnipotent, and creates from nothing. Then in a peaceful and controlled atmosphere, the sky and the earth (Gen. 1:8-10), the sun, moon, and stars are created by God’s word (Gen. 1:16).

William Lasor et al. argue that the author confronts the view of gods of the ancient Near East by saying that the sun, the moon, and stars that Babylonians believe as gods who dominate human destiny were created as simple luminous bodies (Gen. 1:16-18) through God’s command. The primeval mother goddess Tiamat (sea) and earth are also simple natural creatures created by God (Gen. 1:10) (1994: 126). Joo Wonjoon claims that Gen. 1, as “the charter of demythologizing,” is where the demythologizing of the sky god, wind god, mount god, water god, moon god, sun god, mercury god, and so on, of the ancient Near East is compiled. For instance, God diminishes the authority of these great gods by making them natural creatures only in four days. Joo argues that in this sense, Gen. 1 is the conclusion of Israel’s theological project to confront other religions and myths and to keep its own belief in creation (2018: 97, 94). Consequently, Gen. 1 stands against the Babylonian belief by reaffirming that because the cosmos was created by God, not by Marduk of Babylonia, all creatures belong to God and are ruled by Him.

The second difference between Enuma Elish and Gen. 1 appears in the understanding of human beings. Humans in Enuma Elish were created as slaves to serve gods. They seem only to be insignificant creatures.

When Marduk heard the gods’ speech, he conceived a desire to accomplish clever things. He opened his mouth addressing Ea. He counsels that which he had pondered in his heart, “I will bring together blood to form bone, I will bring into being Lullû, whose name shall be ‘man’. I will create Lullû—man. On whom the toil of the gods will be laid that they may rest. . .” They bound him [Quingu], holding him before Ea. They inflicted the penalty on him and severed his blood-vessels. From his blood he [Ea] created mankind. On whom he imposed the service of the gods, and set the gods free. (Tablet VI)

By contrast, humans in Gen. 1 were created in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-7). This story shows us Israel’s most distinctive viewpoint, among other worldviews. Gen. 1 offers an astounding meaning of the status of human existence. Because humans were created in God’s image, they have the highest value and dignity by nature. Only after the creation of humans in His image, God said that the world is “very good.” The creation of the world is completed only after the creation of them. Unlike Enuma Elish, humans in Gen. 1 are never slaves. Instead, they have enough right to be fruitful, increase in number, and rule other creatures. God grants them the right as vicegerents to rule over other creatures on behalf of God (Koo, 2016: 15).

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Gen. 1:28)

Human beings are not slaves for gods, but God’s agents and partners to manage and run the world that belongs to God. In this manner, Gen. 1 demonstrates that the things which the Babylonians serve as gods are simply natural creatures created by God’s word and wisdom and elevates the position of human beings to the level of a king to rule over nature. What is notable here is about humans’ work. Human work such as being fruitful, increasing in number, filling and subduing the earth, and ruling over every living creature is given as God’s gifts and blessing (Osborn, 1995: 28–29). Such given work does not mean that humans must do this on behalf of God. Also, it does not mean that God stops His work and imposes it on humans. Sustaining all things that He created, supporting them, feeding them, and so on, are still His work. Therefore, a human’s work simply means that as a steward, the human preserves and keeps all creatures as acknowledging God’s sovereignty. At any rate, Gen. 1 seems to deliver human beings from the Babylonian gods.

Gen. 1 continues to show the differences in concepts of God and humanity from those in Enuma Elish. While humans in Enuma Elish have a status of having to work for gods, God in Gen. 1, conversely, works for and serves humans. God is like the anthropocentric God. He made all things for humans. God creates the cosmos for man and put him in the position of the center of creation (Walton et al., 2001: 38). Above all, the world is the habitable place (oikumene) in which humans can reside. The heaven and earth in Enuma Elish are the places where gods reside (Walton et al., 2001: 38). Cosmos is considered as the residence in which gods enjoy and live, which is apparent: “He fashioned heavenly stations for the great gods” (Tablet V).

In contrast, the world in Gen. 1 is an excellent residence for humans (Isa. 45:18). God did not make any evil things in this residence. All creatures in this “house” reflect the goodness of God because they are God’s work (Gen. 1:4, 10,12, 18, 21, 25, 31) (Lasor et al., 1994: 127). So, the world is the place of shalom where humans live with God. Gregory of Nyssa described God as a host who goes about and makes all the preparations necessary to provide an incredible place for his human creatures to live. He portrays God as a host who prepares “a royal lodging for the future king (and this was the land, and islands, and sea, and the heaven arching like a roof over them), and when all kinds of wealth had been stored in this palace” (Arand, 2017: 275). Similarly, Martin Luther depicts God who sets up “a house with the sky as the ceiling, the oceans as the walls, and then fills it with everything we need for life with God and with each other here on earth” (Arand, 2017: 275).

God does not stop His creation by making a beautiful “house” for humans. Then He feeds them. “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Gen. 1:29). While humans in Enuma Elish were created as those who have to labor on behalf of gods and feed them, in Gen. 1, conversely, God provides humans with food. God feeds them, humans do not feed gods. Genesis 1 puts humans back to the original position. Regarding God’s attitude toward humans, John Stott says that it always is “positive, constructive, and enriching” and that “His principal and characteristic work is to bless people with salvation” (Stott, 2009: 9).

The third and final difference between Enuma Elish and Gen. 1 is about rest (Sabbath). Even after creation was complete, God’s work continued. His work reaches its climax in rest on the seventh day. Gods’ rest in Enuma Elish is accomplished by terminating chaos through murdering enemy gods and by creating humans who can labor instead of lower gods. In contrast, God in Genesis works for humans and then takes rest for them. God is everlasting. “He will not grow tired or weary.” He does not need food (Isa. 40: 28). Therefore, He does not need to take rest for Himself. He takes rest for humans, not for Himself. The reason that God takes rest is, again, for humans. Walter Brueggemann says that God’s rest is the promise of rest for humankind and it proclaims God’s ownership of all creatures as the element to guarantee the happiness of all people and all creatures. All people, including not only the owners but also the slaves and even animals, receive a period to work and take rest as presents (2002: 180). David Adams says God’s rest can be characterized as the ultimate state of “goodness” and “perfection” and “goal of His creative activity.” According to him, God’s rest reveals His intention that “such a state of rest should characterize all that he had made, and should be the on-going experience of his creation.” It also anticipates “the end-time restoration of creation to the state of rest that characterized it as the completion of God’s creative activity” (Arand, 2014: 141).

We have compared Gen. 1 with Enuma Elish thus far. All stories of creation do not end with a simple story. They may form a worldview and faith for those who listen to them and significantly impact their way of thinking and behavior, because humankind incessantly imitates and represents the actions of gods in stories of creation through rituals or festivals. For example, Enuma Elish, as discussed earlier, continues to remind that the universe was created in conflict, war, and violent situations and that humans were created as slaves to the gods. Ordinary people consider these stories as their fate. For them, the value of human dignity is not inherent from the beginning. They are gripped with fear and uncertainty. They have no choice but to live without hope. They are like universal orphans who cannot appeal to anyone. The masters of human destiny are gods. Gods determine their past, present, and future. People regard gods as fundamentally evil and unpredictable. For them, justice from the gods is fluid and always changing. When disaster strikes them, it is because a certain god or gods is or are angry or because a devil has been summoned to harass them. It is thought that humans are merely victims of the power of the gods. The only way for humans to live a safe life is not to be caught by the gods’ “radar.” To do this, by relying on fortune-tellers or spiritual experts, they must find ways to avoid the wrath of the gods (Gilbert, 2014: 52) or relieve the anger of the gods through sacrificial rituals, which inevitably offer sacrifices (foods) to gods.

Unlike Enuma Elish, the creation story in Gen. 1 offers a unique, alternative, and revolutionary worldview. Gen. 1 reminds us about the Creator God who is the only source of all creatures. God did not create human beings as His slaves. He created them in His image and let them rule over other creatures. They are inherently noble. As credible beings, they can manage their duty and responsibility. As mentioned so far, Gen. 1 is a story of salvation from gods who oppress humans. Gen. 1 includes a redemptive meaning in that it rejects the story that humans are only slaves to gods and claims that they were originally created in the image of God and so have the highest value and dignity among all creatures.

The Second Story of Creation (Genesis 2:4b-3:24): The God of Redemption and His Creative/Creational Work

The historical background of the second story of creation in Genesis (J-source) seems to be related to King Solomon’s worship of foreign gods. Solomon abandoned his faith in Yahweh at the end of his life and worshipped many foreign gods, building high places on the Hill of Corruption for Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the god of Moab, and for Molek the god of the people of Ammon (1 Kings 11:5, 2 Kings 23:13).

Some scholars such as Nicolas Wyatt and Fleming F. Hvidberg, who see the main background of this story as the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, argue that the story is associated with the Canaanite religion, especially the worship of El, the supreme god of Canaan and god of creation or Baal, the Canaanite god of abundance. According to them, the event that happened in the Garden of Eden symbolizes the worship of El or Baal. For example, according to Nicolas Wyatt, who claims the association with El worship, Adam was created as the archetypal gardener, the actual kingship (Gen. 2:15). Adam in the Garden of Eden represents the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, where a sanctuary (Shechem) existed. Like the gardener who has to care for the garden, the king must take care of the sanctuary by observing God’s Torah thoroughly. But to become a god, the king served El, which must never be committed (eating from the tree, Gen. 3:6). Thereby, the king broke the law and committed injustice before God. As punishment, he was banished from the sanctuary and forbidden to return (Wyatt, 1981: 20). Consequently, Gen. 2-3 suggests that the destruction of northern Israel by Assyria in 722 BCE resulted from idolatry (breaking the first commandment of the Ten Commandments). Wyatt also alleges that this story was easily applied over time as the cause of the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah by Babylon and, in particular, Gen. 2:10-14 may have been added at this time to Gen. 2 (Wyatt, 1981: 21). In any case, the author(s) of Gen. 2-3 seems to say that slavery in Egypt and the destruction of northern Israel and southern Judah originated primarily from idolatry.

Against this historical background, Christian theology sees that all the catastrophic consequences of humankind are attributed to the event of the good and evil tree in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3). In the Garden to symbolize a rich, abundant, and beautiful world enough to dwell with humans (Gen. 2:17) God prohibits humans from only eating the fruit of the tree, while allowing all other things. This prohibition was to set humanity’s distinct creatureliness (Och, 1995: 228), even though man has the image of God. This limitation was given with a strict warning that “when you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:17). But humans rejected their limitations as creatures and, in the end, violated God’s command to become like their Creator God (Gen. 3:5). This violated the boundaries of human beings.

There can be many ways to talk about Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God’s command and its consequences, but, above all, we point out that they have destroyed the entire harmonious order of creation. First, humans themselves distorted the Creator God. When God found them immediately after the event, they were hiding (Gen. 3: 8). It means that the relationship between God and humans had already begun to break. Adam and Eve no longer recognized that God is the Creator, Blesser, Benefactor, Sustainer, and Giver. For them, God was now just a fearful, unsafe, and harmful existence. Therefore, by hiding themselves, they separated themselves from such a God and let Him become a deus otiosus who has to be far from them. By this, they scandalously distorted the identity of God.

This distortion of God’s identity resulted in, at least, two successive consequences in the history of humanity, one of which transforms God into something else or creates other gods instead of God. The tree of good and evil was no less than idols because Adam and Eve had already believed in it as a means of realizing their desire to become gods (Rom. 1:25). So, in this story, Adam and Eve appear to be the first prototypical idolaters. It is easy to see that post-Adam people created numerous gods in human or animal images. For example, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the remaining people made the golden calf and called it Yahweh (Ex. 32: 4). Jeroboam, who established the northern kingdom of Israel, built a temple in Shechem instead of Jerusalem and made two golden calves there (1 Kings 12). Archeology shows that golden calf worship prevailed in northern Israel, judging from numerous excavated bovine idols. The excavated fragments are marked “glyw,” which means “Yhwh-Calf,” “Yahweh is a calf,” or “Calf of Yhwh” (Davies, 1994: 396–400). God was degraded and idolized in the form of a cow. God, the Creator, became a god created by humans.

Most of the gods, in all ages, have the images of man, animal, or therianthropic creatures, regardless of whether they are manifestations or symbols of divine beings. Humans not only distorted God’s identity but also made themselves and other creatures (pantheism) as gods and idols. The apostle Paul points out that man has “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom. 1:23). In Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin says that human nature is “a perpetual factory of idols.”

Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God. . . To these evils a new wickedness joins itself, that man tries to express in his work the sort of God he has inwardly conceived. Therefore, the mind begets an idol; the hand gives it birth. (Calvin, 2002: 76)

Since the first, second, and third commandment of the Ten Commandments are all related to the prohibition of idolatry, humanity’s desire for idol worship seems to be derived from the desolate and fallen human nature after the fall in the Garden of Eden.

Another consequence is the commencement of the action to try to alleviate the wrath of God for human sin. Essential to sacrifice is the act of offering food and animals to God. However, God neither spoke about nor commanded any sacrifices (Jer. 7: 22-23). God did not want sacrifice (Hos. 6: 6). Offerings are of no benefit to God (Isa. 1: 11-13). Through this act, the identity of God has been distorted from the feeder of humans and animals (Gen. 1:22, 28) to the eater who needs nourishment. God is also changed from God as the source and giver of rest to one whose wrath has to be alleviated by human sacrifices. Behind this act of sacrifice lies the desire of man to take the place of the benefactor, not beneficiary. Darrell Ferguson says that “their sin is to think of God as a beneficiary,” not benefactor (2011: 206). Quoting Acts 17:24-25 (“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else”), John Piper warns to “beware of serving God as a benefactor” (2011: 168).

Often, certain people were sacrificed as food for gods. The story of Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice his son Isaac reflects the ancient Near Eastern religious practice of sacrificing humans. God’s substitution of the prepared sheep forbade human sacrifice. However, until recently, quite a few people have been sacrificed as the best foods to nourish the gods, and human sacrifice is now in some places performed in the name of god(s). This kind of activity means that humans create gods and idols with their own hands and now have become slaves. This work of humans destroys the natural order given by the Creator God by lowering human dignity and humans to a position of being under other natural creatures. Unsaved humans are still trying to become like God through idolatry, but the result is only to live as slaves to idols, whether they are humans, animals, or things like money (mammonism), pride, and position.

In conclusion, the original sin of humans has resulted in the distortion of God, of human beings, and of nature. As God warned (Gen. 2:17), humans live in the curse of death (Rom. 5:12, 6:23) with the distorted order of creation.

Genesis 3:15: The Covenant of the Restoration and Completion of Creation

God continues to work for man, even after creation. Most notable is the declaration that He will redeem humankind from sin and curse. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15). This declaration is called “the protevangelium” in the sense of the first gospel proclamation of the Bible.

Adam and Eve’s sin was not only disobedience to God but also obedience to the serpent (Satan). Regarding the identity of the snake in Genesis 3, some scholars claim that one cannot identify the snake with Satan. They assume that at the time this story was written, the concept of Satan did not exist. Therefore, the snake could not represent Satan or Satan in the form of a snake but is merely a symbol of chaos and disorder. They also argue that there is no direct basis for identifying the snake with Satan, even in the New Testament (Joines, 1975: 8; Thiessen, 1979: 180). But judging from the fact that Satan entered Judas Iscariot (John 13:27) or that nearly 2000 demons came out of a man and entered a herd of swine again (Mark 5:1-13), we can assume that Satan in Eden took a snake’s body to achieve his purpose. In the Bible, Satan is expressed as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11), “the tempter” (Matt. 4:3), “a murderer from the beginning,” “Father of lies” (John 8:44), “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:2), “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5: 8, Job 2: 2), and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:11-12). Satan and evil spirits do the same to humans as Satan did to Adam and Eve as traveling throughout the world (Rev. 20:7-10). Those who do not overcome this temptation deny God and become slaves to Satan.

This unfortunate thing happened in the event of the tree of good and evil, and in the eventuality that the same would continue in the history of humanity, God creates redemption just as “making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isa. 43:19). Through the protevangelium, hinting Christ as the new Adam and Redeemer, God proclaims that Christ would defeat Satan. Also, this is God’s promise to heal all of what is wrong (false gods, idols, falsehood, unjust, diseases, pestilence, groans of nature, etc.) due to human sin through Christ and His covenant for the restoration of creation. This covenant was repeated through the renewal of it in the history of the Old Testament (Abraham, the Flood of Noah, the Exodus, the exile to Babylon, etc.). The covenant of Gen. 3:15 was finally accomplished by defeating sin and death through Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection.

The death and resurrection of Christ, however, do not finish with the redemptive level that human sin is forgiven. The redemptive event of Christ’s death and resurrection includes the reconciliation between God and human beings and the restoration of all creatures to the original condition created by God. As mentioned earlier, creation already has redemptive aspects. In sum, God is the only Creator of human beings and creatures, Blesser, Benefactor, Sustainer, and Provider. Human beings have God’s image and so they are not slaves of gods and idols. As God’s agents, they are accountable beings to rule over creatures so that they might glorify God. They are supposed to enjoy rest with God at the residential house. Therefore, if redemption means this restoration, it already has creational meanings as well.

Consequently, the two creation stories that we have discussed so far are in an inseparable relationship. Creation already has redemptive aspects, and redemption already has creational aspects. As James Chukwuma Okoye says, the act of creation was an act of salvation, and the redemption itself was an act of creation (2011: 64). Creation is the very beginning of redemption, and the history of redemption is oriented not only to the completion of redemption but also to the completion of creation.

The Gospel of Regeneration: The Beginning of the Restoration of Creation

Article 6 of the Constitution of the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church defines regeneration as “rebirth by the Holy Spirit, which is a mysterious spiritual transformation. It is the experience that makes a fundamental transformation in his/her spirit and entire personality when every person repents his/her sin and believes in Jesus Christ who shed his blood of the atonement on the cross.” In terms of “actual sin” and “original sin,” a reborn person comes to live a life as an actual sin-erased one and as a child of God (Oh, 2018: 40). The life of regeneration, however, is not perfect because the person’s original sin, which stems from Adam and is the root of all sins, is not yet absolved. For the same reason, the participation in and the experience of the kingdom of God are not perfect as well (Choi, 2014: 17). Therefore, the experience of sanctification is required.

From the two creation stories, regeneration means the beginning of the restoration of creation by God. For an individual, regeneration is the embarkation of God’s creational work that He promises His redemption and accomplishes the covenant for him/her through Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. It is the start of God’s new creation for the person and this is also why the person is called “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Regeneration means not only rebirth by the Holy Spirit but also, as a new creation, the person comes to stand in the middle of the process of the restoration and completion of creation. The person begins to be a participant of missio Dei, which is God’s restoration and completion of creation. In other words, regeneration means the reborn person’s right to participate in the missio Dei is recovered and a responsibility as a steward that was given to Adam is newly given to him/her. The person does not live without any purpose in life. The person is an accountable being to take part in missio Dei. Unlike the previous experience that was as a slave to Satan and sin, as an accountable being to God, the person should live a creational life to be part of missio Dei to restore the created world.

The creational life here means, above all, to acknowledge God as the Creator. This acknowledgment may mean three things, at least. First, because of God’s possession, the person cannot worship anyone other than God. The person cannot distort God’s identity or misuse His name. Second, one who believes in God as the Creator thoroughly admits that he/she is a creature of God. This admission means not to trespass the barrier between the Creator God and a creature of Him. The cause of the original sin was that a creature tried to cross the boundary between God and him and wanted to become a god like God. Therefore, the person is not involved in trying to become a god like God. The person does not idolize a person for his/her purpose as well. Third, the person does not erase the boundary among creatures. It means that the person does not involve himself in idolizing a creature (creatures) for his purpose or in becoming a slave to an idol, which is a foolish action to degrade himself/herself as inferior to another creature. Consequently, regeneration can be a starting point in the process that God restores and recovers His identity and human beings. This includes that the nature distorted due to human sin is restored to the original condition through His sovereignty.

The Gospel of Sanctification: The Restoration of Human Beings (Image of God)

From the redemption theological perspective, sanctification indicates the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which means the experience that a reborn person’s original sin is spontaneously cleansed by the baptism of the Spirit. Though regeneration is accomplished by God’s grace, it is just the beginning of true Christian life and it is not in its completion state. It is just the commencement of life as a reborn being. However, because the “old nature” is not yet deleted, the person contradictorily follows both the law of God and the law of sin (Rom. 7:25). Therefore, the reborn believer is not yet perfect. So, the believer needs the second Grace of God for the old nature to be eradicated, which is the very baptism of the Holy Spirit. ⁴

A believer must also be sanctified through the baptism of the Holy Spirit to participate in the kingdom of God wholly. The original sin of a reborn person must be cleansed by receiving the baptism of the Spirit so that the Spirit always dwells in him/her. A reborn person naturally hopes for the experience of sanctification through the baptism of the Spirit for him/her to become “a perfect Christian.” However, it is immediately given not by human effort but by God’s sovereign grace (Kim, 2018: 162, 165). Consequently, the effect of sanctification appears in a life of loving God and neighbors (Choi, 2014: 255).

From the creation theological perspective, sanctification is related to the entire restoration of God’s image in a reborn person. It is the experience that God’s image, which is inherent in the person, is wholly restored. In the beginning, before God created man in His image, there might have been an unbridgeable gap between God as the Creator and man as His creature. When He did so, however, God engineered such that man can reside with God and share the fellowship of His love and blessing. However, human sin distorted God’s image in humans. If the original sin of a reborn person is eradicated through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it may mean the experience of the entire restoration of God’s image in him/her. If the person receives the baptism of the Spirit, he/she becomes “the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). The renewed person in the restoration of God’s image, as a holy being of righteousness and truth, always reflects God’s glory by having fellowship with God. The person may sin unknowingly but does not commit sins intentionally against God, human beings, and nature. More positively, the person lives a life that reveals God’s righteousness and truth (Hong, 2015: 651).

The Gospel of Divine Healing: The Restoration of Body (Nature)

Divine healing means always staying healthy with God’s protection. It also means that believers are healed by the power of God even when they are sick, though this does not deny medical treatment. ⁵ It is also concrete evidence of God’s continued creational work and an event foreshowing the eschatological resurrection to be transformed into a spiritual body (Park, 2018: 221)

Unlike Plato’s philosophy of denying the human body, the human body in the Bible, as received from God, is “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” according to the apostle Paul. This presupposition would also be a basis that Christ, who is the image of God, could come to the earth in the flesh (Kim, 2020: 768). The body is not separate from God’s image in man. But sin also defiles (2 Cor. 6:17) and sickens the human body. Divine healing refers primarily to God’s healing of the believers’ physical diseases, but it is also related to the restoration of God’s image. Divine healing demonstrates that the restoration of the image of God through the experience of sanctification includes even the restoration of the human body.

Divine healing is not only done on a personal level because the human body is organically a part of nature. As In-Shik Choi says, “since the human body is not an isolated entity, but a biological, sociological and ecological organism existing in the whole, divine healing never refers only to personal dimensions” (2014: 444, 446). Young-Shik Park also says,

The purpose of divine healing is to restore the life of creation that God wanted, more abundantly. It means that the comprehensive and ecological relationship with the created world is fully restored beyond the vertical and holy relationship with God and the horizontal and social relationship with neighbors. (Park, 2018: 220)

Human sin, selfishness, and greed make humans as well as nature sick and eventually lead to death. Human sin makes the land mourn and makes “the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea” die (Hos. 4:3). Human sin affects nature, and so nature groans (Rom. 8:22). Similarly, since the human body and nature are in an organic relationship, the restoration of the body may mean the restoration of nature also. In other words, God’s healing a believer’s sick body represents His will to heal and restore all creatures.

The Gospel of the Second Coming: The Completion of Redemption and Creation

The Second Coming refers to the fact that Jesus, who resurrected and ascended to heaven, will return to the earth as he ascended. The purpose of the Second Coming is the completion of salvation. The ability to sustain a life of holiness comes from Christ’s Second Coming and hope for “the new heaven and new earth” or “new creation” ⁶ after the final judgment. It is because those who genuinely believe in the Second Coming of Christ, the Millennium, the final judgment, and the Kingdom of God cannot mindlessly treat the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a holy life through God’s grace (Choi, 2014: 284–285).

According to Revelation 20-21, during the Second Coming of Christ, judgment is made against Satan, and he is thrown into the Abyss. A particular group of Christians (Rev. 20: 4) are resurrected (“the first resurrection”) to rule the earth with Christ for a thousand years. The Millennium is realized on earth, which means it is still in human history. However, it is different from the previous world in that there is no sin and Satan. It is filled with the glory of God. It is the restored world like Eden. All creatures are also restored in the Millennium. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:20-24:

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

God will lift curses and restore all creation, not just humans.

After the Millennium, Satan is then released briefly, causing great confusion, but eventually thrown into the “lake of fire” forever. Then all the dead and the living are judged as recorded in the “book of life.” And then some go into “New Jerusalem,” “the new heaven and new earth,” and others are thrown into the “lake of fire” (Rev. 22:15). “The new heaven and new earth” is the Kingdom of God, which is completely new (2 Pet. 3:13, Rev. 21:1-8), not of the previously created world. It is not a renewed or revised kingdom of the previous world. After the final judgment, the previous world has disappeared (Rev. 21:1). Just as God created heaven and earth in the beginning (Gen. 1:1), “the new heaven and new earth,” however, appear at the end of human history (final judgment).

Like this, the gospel of the Second Coming of Christ not only leads one to hope for the restored world through the Millennium but also indicates the Kingdom of God (new heaven and new earth), which is filled with eternal love, eternal blessing, and eternal life.