Testimony of Creation-12 Sessions
The Testimony of Creation: God's Revelation, Sin, and Redemption
Session 1: God Reveals Himself — Through Scripture and Creation
Session 2: A Vast and Ancient Creation — God Beyond Our Scale
Session 3: Creation's Order — God's Design Through Natural Processes
Session 4: The Emergence of Humanity — Made for Relationship with God
Session 5: The Catastrophe of Choice — How Human Sin Corrupts Creation
Session 6: Sin's Corruption Spreading — Understanding Human Systems and Suffering
Session 7: Creation's Persistence — Beauty and Resilience Despite Corruption
Session 8: God's Redemptive Intervention — From Abraham to Christ
Session 9: Our Calling in a Corrupted World — Stewardship, Justice, and Redemption
Session 10: The Problem of Suffering — Faith in a Broken World
Session 11: Science, Scripture, and Mystery — Living with What We Don't Know
Session 12: The Ultimate Completion — Creation Restored and Redeemed
Audio Introduction, same as this text
Over the years of studying Scripture and observing the world around us, many of us have felt a tension. We've been taught that the Bible is true. We've also learned—through education, through observation, through science—truths about creation that seem to exist in a separate category. We've learned that the earth is billions of years old. We've learned about evolution, about ecosystems, about the vastness of space. And somewhere along the way, many of us absorbed the message that these two ways of knowing—faith and science, Scripture and observation—are enemies. That we have to choose. That we can't hold both.
But what if that's not true? What if God isn't afraid of our questions? What if the Bible and science are not rivals, but partners in revealing different aspects of a truth too vast for either one alone to contain?
This twelve-session study is built on a foundational insight that may be outside our normal patterns of thought: God created a good world through a growth process, uniquely designed humans for relationship with Him, humans chose rebellion, and that choice corrupted creation itself. God's entire redemptive plan is His response to that corruption—a plan that culminates not in escape from the world, but in its restoration.
That's a big claim. So let me share six thoughts that will set the stage for this entire series of study.
First: God is the Giver of All we see in the Universe
God has given humanity two great gifts for knowing Him: the written Word of Scripture and the observable world of creation. These are not rivals. They are partners.
The Bible reveals why creation exists and what it means. It addresses theology, purpose, relationship with God. It tells us who God is, what God values, and what God requires of us. That's irreplaceable. We need Scripture.
But science reveals how creation works. It addresses mechanism, process, the unfolding of time. Science asks questions the Bible was never meant to answer: How old is this rock? What are the mechanisms of heredity? How do ecosystems balance themselves?
Together—Scripture and creation, theology and mechanism, purpose and process—they testify to a God of infinite power, patience, and intention. When we close ourselves off to either one, we're choosing to know God less fully.
Second: Creation’s Vastness Declares God’s Transcendence
The universe is thirteen point eight billion years old. The earth has hosted life for three point eight billion years. These numbers are almost impossible to grasp. If you've lived eighty years, the age of the universe is over eleven million times longer than your entire life.
Now, many of us were taught that these numbers somehow threaten God's power or contradict the Bible. But I want to invite you to think differently. These numbers don't diminish God. They magnify Him.
A God who works across such vast timescales is a God utterly beyond human comprehension. The ancient writers understood this. They did not imagine God bound by human timelines. Instead, Scripture repeatedly invites us to expand our minds toward God's infinity. Isaiah writes: "His ways are higher than your ways, and His thoughts higher than your thoughts."
When we observe creation's age and vastness—through telescopes, through geology, through deep time—we are witnessing the display Scripture promises. And our response can only be worship. Our response can only be awe.
Third: Humanity’s Unique Calling
Within creation's vast unfolding, God created one species uniquely designed for relationship with Him: humanity.
We alone possess something called conscience—an inner voice declaring that some things ought to be done and others ought not. We alone worship. Every human culture across every era has sensed that there is something beyond the material world, something sacred, something worth worship. We alone create beauty for its own sake—not because it helps us survive, but because we sense beauty and feel moved to express it. We alone love sacrificially, in ways that make no evolutionary sense. We grieve the dead. We give what we cannot afford to give. We sacrifice for people we'll never meet.
These capacities are not evolutionary accidents. They are signatures—fingerprints—of being made in God's image. We are called to stewardship of creation. We are called to moral choice. We are called to relationship with our Creator.
That's not just something we do. That's who we are.
Fourth: Sin’s Cosmic Corruption
But humanity made a catastrophic choice. We asserted autonomy from God. We ate from the forbidden fruit, refusing the relationship we were made for. This was not merely personal failure. It was cosmic rupture.
When humans choose wrongly—when we choose greed, pride, lust, domination—the corruption spreads. Greed becomes economic systems that exploit the poor across generations. Pride becomes political structures that oppress. Lust becomes social systems that dehumanize. One individual's sin compounds across generations, becoming entrenched in institutions and cultures.
And here's what matters: creation itself groans under the weight of human corruption. Wars destroy ecosystems. Greed depletes resources. Pride creates hierarchies that oppress. Our choices don't just affect our own souls. They ripple outward, corrupting everything we touch.
This is what makes sin so serious. And this is why redemption must be so comprehensive.
Fifth: God’s Redemptive Intervention
But here is the miraculous truth: God did not abandon creation.
Instead, God entered into history to call humanity back. Through Abraham, God called forth a people through whom blessing would flow to all nations. Through Moses, God liberated enslaved people. Through the prophets, God persistently called His people back to justice and faithfulness. And ultimately, in an act of staggering love, God incarnated in Christ—becoming human, suffering, dying, and rising again to open the way for all creation to be redeemed and restored.
Redemption is not escape from the world. It is transformation of it. It is not rescue from the physical world. It is healing of the physical world. God's goal is not to rescue a few souls from creation. God's goal is to restore creation itself.
That changes everything about how we understand faith. And it changes everything about what God is calling us to do.
Sixth: Our Sacred Calling Today
We live in what Scripture calls the "already-but-not-yet." Redemption has already begun through Christ. But it is not yet complete. The fullness of God's kingdom has not yet arrived.
And we are called—invited, commissioned—to participate in God's redemptive work right now. We are stewards of creation. We are agents of justice. We are partners with God in healing what sin has corrupted.
Our choices matter. Our work matters. When we feed the hungry, care for creation, stand against injustice or love sacrificially, we participate in God's redemptive work.
This is not secondary to faith. This is not a distraction from the gospel. This is the substance of living as redeemed people in a world still waiting for redemption.
Why This Matters
Here's why we've invested in creating this twelve-session series:
We believe that many of us have been handed frameworks—ways of thinking about God, creation, science, and faith—that, while well-intentioned, are smaller and more fragile than the truth actually is. We've been told to choose. We've been told to fear. We've been told that faith means avoiding questions.
But what if that's not the kind of faith Jesus calls us to? What if real faith is strong enough to hold together apparent tensions? What if a mature Christian can read science seriously and trust Scripture deeply? What if wrestling with hard questions actually deepens faith rather than threatening it?
This twelve-session study invites you to think more broadly. It invites you to integrate what you know from Scripture with what you observe in creation. It invites you to ask hard questions and trust that God is big enough to handle them.
And most importantly, it invites you into a vision of redemption so large, so cosmic, so inclusive that it changes how you understand your life and your calling.
An Invitation
Each of these twelve sessions addresses a different aspect of this grand story. Some will feel familiar. Some will challenge you. Some may make you uncomfortable—and that's okay. Growth often requires discomfort.
But before we begin, I want to be honest with you: this is not a quick study. These twelve sessions will ask something of you—not just your time, but your willingness to think new thoughts, to expand familiar frameworks, to sit with complexity and mystery. Some sessions will challenge assumptions you've held for decades. Some will ask you to hold apparent tensions together without resolving them neatly. This kind of deep learning takes real commitment.
What we ask is this: approach these sessions with an open mind. Be willing to think new thoughts. Be willing to expand your understanding of God, creation, and your calling. And trust that at the end of this journey, your faith won't be weaker. It will be stronger. More robust. More ready to engage with a complex world.
The story we're about to explore together is one of breathtaking scope: a God creating through time, designing humanity for relationship, allowing genuine freedom, redeeming what we corrupted, and inviting us into partnership that lasts for eternity.
This is the testimony of creation. And it calls us to faith, humility, and action.
Session 1: God Reveals Himself — Through Scripture and Creation
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: God has given humanity two complementary sources of revelation: the written Word and the observable world. Neither is complete without the other, and neither contradicts the other.
Key Scripture:
Romans 1:20 — "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made."
Psalm 19:1-4 — "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Matthew 22:37 — "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
What to Look For As you read, notice how the Bible invites us to see God's character through His words and His works. Observe the pattern: what Scripture explicitly states, creation confirms through observation. Watch for passages that call us to both hear and behold God's revelation.
Personal Reflection Questions
When have you felt God's presence more strongly—through a Bible passage that moved your heart, or through a moment in nature that took your breath away? Why do you think both experiences are real encounters with God?
If someone asked you, "How do you know God is real?" would your answer come from the Bible, from creation, or from both? What would you say, and why?
Overview In our modern world, we often feel pressured to choose between faith and science, between Scripture and observation. But the Bible itself resists this false choice. From Genesis's opening affirmation that creation is "good," to Job's invitation to consider the natural world, to the Psalmist's declaration that "the heavens declare the glory of God," Scripture consistently treats creation as a legitimate testimony to God's reality and character. Today's senior believers have witnessed tremendous scientific advances—from the discovery of DNA to deep space observation—and rather than threatening faith, these discoveries can deepen our sense of awe at God's design. We honor both the Word and the world because both come from God.
This May Surprise You Many Christians assume the Bible and science are enemies, but the conflict is often overstated. The Bible addresses why the world exists and what it means (theology), while science addresses how natural processes work (mechanism). These are complementary questions, not competing ones. For example, the Bible does not describe the precise mechanics of how God created light, while physics can explain wavelengths and photons—but neither explanation eliminates the other. A sunrise can be both a miracle of God's provision and a result of planetary rotation. Understanding the "how" deepens rather than diminishes wonder at the "why."
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Scripture is God's self-revelation about purpose, character, and relationship
The Bible reveals God's character, intentions, moral standards, and redemptive plan. It tells us who God is and what He requires of us.
Comment: This is why we can read the Bible expecting to encounter the living God, not merely historical information.
Point 2: Creation is God's work, constantly revealing His power and design
From the first verse ("In the beginning, God created...") to the last vision (a new heaven and earth), Scripture affirms that creation is God's handiwork and belongs to Him.
Comment: When we study creation scientifically, we are studying something God made and declared good. We are never learning something God doesn't already know.
Point 3: Both reveal different but complementary truths
Scripture reveals purpose, meaning, and relationship with God. Creation reveals the scale, complexity, and artistry of God's handiwork.
Comment: A geologist discovering a 300-million-year-old fossil and a theologian reading Psalm 139 are both learning about God—one through observation, one through Scripture.
Point 4: The invitation is to integration, not isolation
The Bible calls us to love God with our minds (Matthew 22:37), which means engaging seriously with what we can learn about the world.
Comment: Thoughtful Christians have always engaged with the knowledge of their time—Augustine with philosophy, Aquinas with Aristotle, and we can engage with modern discovery without compromising faith.
Take-Home Thought
God has given us two great gifts for knowing Him: the written Word and the observed world. Neither is incomplete or deceptive. When we open ourselves to both, we discover that they enrich rather than contradict each other. A Christian farmer who understands soil chemistry is not less faithful—he is marveling at the intricate systems God designed. A senior who reads about the age of the earth and then reads Genesis is not abandoning Scripture—she is allowing Scripture to expand her sense of God's patience and power.
The goal of these twelve sessions is not to reconcile every detail (some mysteries remain, and that's okay) but to help us trust that God is big enough for all of reality. He doesn't need us to shrink either Scripture or creation to make them fit together. Instead, we are invited to stand in both streams of revelation and say with the Psalmist: "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3).
Quotes
"The book of nature and the book of Scripture have the same author. Whoever reads either of them with genuine interest and reverence will find clues to the other." — Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health
"I have always felt that the act of creation is the supreme act of imagination. To bring something out of nothing—that is divine. And when we observe what God has made in nature, we are reading the mind of God, one discovery at a time." — Thomas Torrance, Scottish theologian and physicist
Biblical Connections
Genesis 1:31 — "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
Psalm 19:1-4 — "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Romans 1:20 — "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities have been clearly seen..."
Job 12:7-8 — "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you."
Matthew 22:37 — "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
When life feels confusing or my faith feels small, remembering that God has revealed Himself through both Scripture and creation restores perspective. I can trust the Bible because it has proven reliable, and I can trust what I observe in the natural world because God made it and sustains it. This means I don't have to choose between being thoughtful and being faithful. I can ask hard questions, keep learning, and deepen my trust in a God who is vast enough to contain all truth.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us grew up hearing that science and the Bible are enemies. We were told—sometimes directly, sometimes by implication—that if you believe one, you can't believe the other. Real faith, we learned, meant choosing the Bible and being suspicious of science. This framework made sense at the time. It felt like the safest way to protect our faith from being undermined.
Why This Framework Developed
This either-or thinking became popular especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, when there was growing cultural anxiety about evolution, cosmology, and other scientific discoveries. Religious communities wanted to defend Scripture, so they created a clear boundary: science over here, faith over there. It felt like protection. But it actually created a false choice.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the problem with this framework: it makes the Bible weaker, not stronger. It forces the Bible to defend itself on scientific grounds—grounds it was never meant to defend itself on. When you require the Bible to be a physics textbook or a history textbook, you're asking it to be something it never claimed to be. And when science inevitably reveals truths the Bible didn't address, people feel forced to choose: abandon science or abandon the Bible.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we stop thinking in terms of either-or and start thinking in terms of both-and? What if the Bible is completely trustworthy about what it claims to teach—theology, meaning, morality, redemption—while science is completely trustworthy about what it claims to teach—mechanisms, processes, how things work? The Bible reveals why creation exists. Science reveals how it works. Both are true. Both honor God. Both deserve our serious engagement.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Francis Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
John Stott, Understanding the Bible
Alister McGrath, Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction
Session 2: A Vast and Ancient Creation — God Beyond Our Scale
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: The age and vastness of creation do not diminish God—they display His transcendence and power. God is not bound by human timescales or categories of understanding.
Key Scripture:
Isaiah 40:28 — "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth."
Psalm 90:2 — "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
2 Peter 3:8 — "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
What to Look For Notice how Scripture speaks of God's perspective on time and space as radically different from ours. Look for passages where God reveals Himself as eternal, unchanging, and utterly beyond human categories. Observe how the Bible's invitation is not to shrink God to our understanding, but to expand our minds toward His.
Personal Reflection Questions
Try to imagine a billion years. If you live 80-90 years, a billion years is over 11 million times your entire lifespan. When you think of God as standing outside of time itself, how does that change the way you pray or worry about tomorrow?
If God is truly infinite and eternal, does it make Him less impressive that the universe is billions of years old, or more impressive? Why?
Overview We live in an age of unprecedented cosmic awareness. We can see galaxies billions of light-years away. We know the universe is roughly 13.8 billion years old. We understand that the earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago and has been the stage for life for roughly 3.8 billion years. For many believers, these numbers trigger anxiety: "If the universe is so old, doesn't that contradict the Bible?" But Scripture has always painted a picture of a God utterly beyond human scale. The Bible never suggests that God works within our timelines or that His greatness can be measured by brevity. Instead, it repeatedly invites us to embrace God's vastness—which, paradoxically, makes our personal relationship with Him even more remarkable. That the Creator of billions of galaxies knows us by name is not less miraculous; it is infinitely more so.
This May Surprise You Many people imagine the Bible was written to provide a scientific timeline of creation. But the opening chapters of Genesis are theology, not chronology. They answer the questions, "Did God create? Is creation good? Is humanity special?" They do not answer, "How many billions of years did it take?" or "What were the intermediate steps?" In fact, the Hebrew word translated "day" in Genesis 1 (yom) can mean a literal 24-hour day, an indefinite period of time, or an era. Ancient readers understood this flexibility. Moreover, the genealogies in Genesis were never intended as a continuous, unbroken chronology—they include gaps and may use "son of" to mean "descendant of" rather than direct offspring. The Bible is reliable precisely because it is honest about what it is: a theological document, not a physics textbook. And that is infinitely more valuable.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: God is eternal and exists outside time
Isaiah 40:28: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary."
Comment: God does not experience time as we do. A billion years is not a long time to God; it is no time at all. This is incomprehensibly vast, and it is exactly what the Bible teaches.
Point 2: God's works reflect His infinite nature through their scale and complexity
Ecclesiastes 3:11: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart."
Comment: We feel the tension between our brief lives and eternity because God has placed that awareness in us. We sense we belong to something larger.
Point 3: The age of creation displays God's patient, purposeful power
Job 38-41: God speaks to Job not with hasty answers, but with questions about the vastness of creation—"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" It is a reminder that God's wisdom and works operate on scales we can barely fathom.
Comment: The longer creation took, the more patient and deliberately purposeful God appears to be. Vast time is not a threat to God's power; it is an expression of it.
Point 4: Our smallness in cosmic terms makes God's attention to us more remarkable
Psalm 8:3-4: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them?"
Comment: The Psalmist is not depressed by humanity's cosmic insignificance. Instead, he finds it moving that God cares about such small creatures in such a vast creation.
Take-Home Thought
There is a temptation to make God fit our understanding—to imagine He works on our timescale, thinks our thoughts, and operates within our categories. But the Bible consistently calls us to the opposite posture: to stretch our minds, to sit in awe, to admit that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). When we learn that starlight has traveled for billions of years to reach us, we are not learning something that contradicts Scripture; we are witnessing the display that Scripture promises.
Consider this: if we could fully comprehend God, if His creation fit neatly into our timeline and our logic, would He truly be God? Would He be worthy of worship? The Bible teaches that God's inscrutability is not a defect but a feature. It is an invitation to humility, to wonder, and to the kind of trust that does not depend on understanding every detail. You do not need to know God's timeline to know His character. And His character—faithful, creative, patient, loving—is revealed both in Scripture and in the age and vastness of the world He made.
Quotes
"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." — J.B.S. Haldane, geneticist
"The heavens declare the glory of God in their vastness, and in their age. Every star, every galaxy, every dark matter particle speaks of a Creator whose work is so far beyond our understanding that we can only respond with worship." — John Polkinghorne, theoretical physicist and Anglican theologian
Biblical Connections
Isaiah 40:25-26 — "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens..."
Psalm 90:2 — "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
2 Peter 3:8 — "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
Job 38:4-7 — God's speech to Job, challenging his understanding of creation's age and complexity.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — "He has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
When I face uncertainty about the future, remembering that God exists outside time itself brings deep peace. He is not surprised by tomorrow. He is not anxious about what I cannot see. And if He can sustain a universe for billions of years, guiding countless systems in balance, He can certainly guide my life. My smallness in cosmic terms is not depressing—it is liberating. It means I do not have to be in control. I can trust the One who is.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that real faith in the Bible means accepting a young earth. We were taught—or picked up the message—that if you believe the earth is billions of years old, you're compromising Scripture. This framework felt important because it seemed to protect the Bible's authority and God's power. Surely a truly powerful God could create everything instantly, not over billions of years.
Why This Framework Developed
This teaching became prominent when people calculated the genealogies in Genesis and came up with ages for the earth of around six thousand to ten thousand years. It became a test of faith: believe the Bible's literal numbers, or you don't really trust Scripture. People meant well. They genuinely thought this was the most faithful way to read the Bible. But they were treating the genealogies as scientific chronologies when they were actually theological documents.
Why This Limits Us
Here's what this framework does: it ties God's credibility to a specific scientific claim. When geology, physics, and astronomy all confirm that the earth is billions of years old, people feel they have to choose between God and reality. Some choose to reject science. Some choose to reject the Bible. Both are unnecessary. The framework itself is the problem, not the Bible or science.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we understood the Bible on its own terms? The genealogies in Genesis were never meant to be continuous timelines. The word "day" can mean different things in Hebrew, just as it does in English. When we read Genesis carefully, understanding what the original authors actually meant to communicate, the Bible becomes stronger, not weaker. We're no longer asking it to answer questions it never claimed to answer. And we're free to receive what science tells us about creation without anxiety that it threatens our faith.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
John Polkinghorne, Science and Theology: An Introduction
Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary
Carl Sagan, Cosmos (for perspective on cosmic scale)
Session 3: Creation's Order — God's Design Through Natural Processes
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: God created a world that sustains itself through elegant natural processes. These processes are not obstacles to God's design—they are instruments of it. Understanding how creation works reveals the wisdom of how God designed it.
Key Scripture:
Psalm 104:5-9 — "He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved... You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth."
Proverbs 8:27-29 — "When he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep..."
Colossians 1:16-17 — "For in him all things were created... all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
What to Look For As you read, observe how the Bible calls us to learn from the earth itself—not as divine, but as a designed creation. Notice passages that speak of God's work through natural processes: building mountains, carving valleys, sustaining growth. Look for the theme of God's patient, deliberate handiwork embedded in the physical world.
Personal Reflection Questions
Have you ever stood in a place of natural beauty—a canyon, a forest, a mountaintop—and felt that you were learning something about God? What did the landscape seem to "teach" you about His character?
If the rock layers beneath our feet preserve a record of millions of years of history, what does that tell us about God's patience? His attentiveness to process? His willingness to work over vast timescales?
Overview The earth is not static. It is a dynamic, changing system—has been for billions of years. Continents drift, mountains rise and erode, oceans advance and retreat, and layers of sediment accumulate, recording time like pages in a history book. For many people, this reality triggers theological questions: "If God designed everything, why is it always changing? Doesn't that suggest incompleteness or instability?" But the Bible invites us to a different reading: perhaps God designed a world that is alive, dynamic, and self-sustaining. The Bible's poetry repeatedly celebrates God's work through natural process. God did not simply declare mountains into existence; He demonstrated His power through geology. Rain, rivers, wind, and gravity are not obstacles to God's design—they are instruments of it. A river carving a valley over millions of years is not evidence of God's absence; it is evidence of God's patience and the elegance of His design.
This May Surprise You Many people assume that if God is omnipotent, He would create a "finished" world that doesn't need to change. But Scripture reveals the opposite: God creates processes that unfold over time. Seeds grow into plants. Children develop into adults. Civilizations rise and fall. Even restoration—God's work of healing and renewing—takes time. The earth's dynamic nature is not a flaw in God's design; it is central to it. Mountains erode not because God failed to make them permanent, but because erosion feeds soil that feeds plants that feed animals. The water cycle moves moisture across the globe. Plate tectonics recycles minerals and maintains the conditions for life. What appears to be endless change is actually an intricate balance. God created not a static monument but a living world—one that breathes, grows, and sustains life through processes that operate over vast timescales. This is not less impressive than instantaneous creation; it is more so.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: God established creation's systems to operate reliably through natural law
Psalm 104:5-9: "He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved... But at your rebuke the waters fled... You set a boundary they cannot cross."
Comment: This passage describes God establishing the earth's systems—not as arbitrary miracles, but as reliable, orderly processes. The water cycle, geological stability, and natural laws are all God's work.
Point 2: Creation's cycles and processes are expressions of God's sustaining power
Ecclesiastes 1:4-7: "Generations come and go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets... The wind blows south and turns north... All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full."
Comment: These cycles—of water, light, and seasons—are not accidents. They are the backbone of God's sustaining work. The fact that we can predict them and learn from them speaks to God's reliability.
Point 3: God invites us to learn from creation's processes
Job 12:7-8: "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you."
Comment: Job is not suggesting the earth has feelings, but that careful observation of natural processes reveals God's wisdom. The study of ecology, geology, and natural systems is a form of listening to God's creation.
Point 4: God's creative work is expressed through both immediate power and patient process
Proverbs 3:19-20: "By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let loose their water."
Comment: The earth's systems—its geology, hydrology, and atmosphere—are products of divine wisdom. They work because they are intelligently designed, not because they are miraculously preserved moment-by-moment.
Take-Home Thought
When we walk through a canyon and see layer upon layer of ancient stone, we are not seeing evidence that God was absent. We are seeing evidence that He was patient. Each layer represents time—years, centuries, millennia—all of it held in God's hands. When we observe a river carving through rock, we see God's power expressed not as a sudden catastrophe, but as patient, relentless work. When we learn about plate tectonics or the water cycle or the nitrogen cycle, we are reading the manuscript of God's design—a design so comprehensive that it sustains itself.
This has a profound implication: God did not create the world and then step back. He built into creation the capacity to sustain itself, to heal, to renew. That is the work of a master designer. And it means that when we study the earth—its rocks, its processes, its history—we are not learning something apart from God. We are learning how God thinks and works. We are, in a very real sense, meditating on God's nature by observing what He has made.
Quotes
"Geology is the history of the earth written by the earth itself. To read it carefully is to read the patience of God." — John Wesley, theologian
"The laws of nature are the thoughts of God." — Carolus Linnaeus, naturalist and theologian
Biblical Connections
Genesis 2:1-3 — "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array... By the seventh day God had finished the work..."
Proverbs 8:27-29 — "When he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above..."
Jeremiah 5:24 — "They do not say to themselves, 'Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains...'"
Colossians 1:16-17 — "For in him all things were created... He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
Hebrews 1:3 — "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
When I observe the reliability of natural processes—the seasons, the water cycle, day and night—I am reminded that God sustains the world with consistent care. He is not capricious or absent. The same God who has held creation together for billions of years holds my life together today. I can trust that His faithfulness to creation is a reflection of His faithfulness to me.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us were taught that God's power is best displayed through instant creation—a snap of the fingers, and it's done. We learned that if God used natural processes and long periods of time, somehow God was less powerful or less involved. This framework made God seem more impressive: the faster, the more spectacular, the more divine. Immediate miracles seemed more powerful than patient process.
Why This Framework Developed
This way of thinking comes from our culture's bias toward speed and efficiency. We live in a world that values quick results. We also inherited religious traditions that emphasized God's transcendence by making God completely separate from natural processes. Both influences pushed us toward imagining a God who works through miraculous interruption, not through natural law.
Why This Limits Us
Here's what we miss when we think this way: we can't recognize God's power in everyday processes. A river carving through rock over millions of years becomes invisible as God's work because it's "just geology." A cell reproducing itself becomes "just biology," not God's creativity. We end up requiring constant miracles to feel like God is present. But that actually diminishes God's majesty, because it suggests God can only work through the extraordinary, not through the intricate design of ordinary processes.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if God's greatest power is displayed precisely in designing systems that sustain themselves? What if creating a universe that can evolve life through natural processes, across billions of years, is far more impressive than snapping fingers? A master artist who can work through materials and processes and time—creating something so intricate it sustains itself—is more impressive than magic. When we learn how creation actually works, we're not learning something separate from God. We're learning the fingerprints of God's genius. That should expand our worship, not diminish it.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Debbie Blue, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World
Denis Alexander, Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?
Tim Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Session 4: The Emergence of Humanity — Made for Relationship with God
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: Humans emerged through evolutionary processes as the only creatures capable of knowing God, of moral choice, and of entering into covenantal relationship. This uniqueness is not biological but theological—we alone are called to relationship with our Creator.
Key Scripture:
Genesis 1:27 — "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Romans 2:14-15 — "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law... They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible speaks of humanity's origins not in biological terms, but in theological ones. Look for passages that emphasize what humanity is for—relationship with God, stewardship, moral choice, worship—rather than merely what humanity is. Observe how the image of God is something we bear, not something we gradually evolved.
Personal Reflection Questions
The Bible says humans are made "in the image of God." What do you think this means in practical terms? When you look at the person next to you, what does it mean that they bear God's image?
Modern science shows that humans are part of the animal kingdom, with a long evolutionary history. How can both of these truths be real at the same time—that we share ancestry with other creatures and that we are uniquely made in God's image?
Overview In our modern world, we live with a peculiar tension. Science reveals that humans are part of the natural world, products of natural processes extending back millions of years. We share DNA with other mammals. Our bodies follow the same biological rules. And yet we sense something more. We create art for no survival reason. We fall in love. We contemplate our own existence. We worship. We grieve. We ask, "Why?" in ways that seem fundamentally different from any other creature. The Bible resolves this tension not by denying our natural origins or our kinship with creation, but by emphasizing what we uniquely are: bearers of God's image, called to relationship with Him. This is not a statement about biology; it is a statement about purpose and calling. To be made in God's image means we are capable of relationship with God, of moral choice, of creativity, of worship—and of being held accountable for those choices.
This May Surprise You Evolution describes how God created humanity, not whether. The theological point is not that humans are exempt from natural processes, but that through those natural processes, God created creatures capable of something no other creature can do: know Him, worship Him, enter into covenant with Him, and be held morally accountable for their choices. This makes our emergence even more remarkable, not less. We are not aliens dropped into creation; we are the culmination of creation's long unfolding. Yet we alone possess conscience—an inner voice that says some things ought to be done and others ought not. We alone ask "Why?" about our existence. We alone create beauty for its own sake. We alone love sacrificially. These capacities are not accidents of evolution; they are signatures of being made in God's image.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Humans are created in God's image, which is the foundation of human dignity
Genesis 1:27: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
Comment: Every person—regardless of intelligence, ability, age, or status—bears God's image. This is not earned; it is bestowed at creation. It is the foundation of human worth and moral responsibility.
Point 2: Being made in God's image gives humans unique capacities—conscience, creativity, relationship with God
Romans 2:14-15: "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law... They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their own consciences also bearing witness."
Comment: Humans universally possess moral awareness—conscience—that points to God's law written into our nature. No other creature experiences this. It is evidence we are made for relationship with God.
Point 3: Humans alone possess the capacity to worship and sense transcendence
Ecclesiastes 3:11: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Comment: Across all cultures and eras, humans sense that life is more than material survival. This hunger for transcendence, for meaning beyond ourselves, is uniquely human. It points to our design for relationship with God.
Point 4: Image-bearing includes both capacity and responsibility
Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Comment: Humans are not merely creatures—we are stewards. We have the capacity to tend, to create, to care, and the responsibility to do so wisely. This responsibility is rooted in bearing God's image.
Take-Home Thought
You are not an accident. You are not a cosmic byproduct. You are made in God's image—intentionally designed by God for relationship with Him. The evolutionary processes that produced you are part of God's creative work, not evidence of His absence. Through billions of years and countless generations, God was working toward you—a creature capable of knowing Him, of moral choice, of creativity, of worship, of love.
This is what it means to be made in God's image: you are designed for relationship with your Creator. You have within you a conscience that points to God's moral law. You have creative capacities that reflect God's creativity. You have the ability to love sacrificially, to worship, to seek meaning beyond survival. These are not flaws or evolutionary accidents. They are signatures of God's intention for you. When you feel the pull of conscience, when you create, when you worship, when you love—you are exercising the very faculties that prove you are made in God's image. That is your true identity. That is why you matter infinitely.
Quotes
"Humans may have evolved, but evolution does not fully explain what we are. We are creatures designed for transcendence, made to know God, called to stewardship, and equipped for moral choice. That is the deeper truth." — Derek Kidner, biblical commentator
"The great truth is that we are made for God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. This restlessness, this sense that we are made for something beyond ourselves, is the echo of God's image in us." — Augustine of Hippo, theologian
Biblical Connections
Genesis 1:27 — "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them."
Genesis 2:7 — "The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."
Psalm 139:14 — "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful."
Hebrews 2:6-7 — "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a human being that you care for them? You made them a little lower than the angels."
1 Corinthians 11:7 — "A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
I am not a cosmic accident. I am designed by God for relationship with Him. My conscience, my creativity, my capacity for love and worship—these are not burdens imposed on me, but gifts that reveal my purpose. I can trust that God made me intentionally and that He calls me to relationship with Himself. That identity is my deepest security.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that accepting evolution means humans are "just animals" with no special status. We were taught—or absorbed from the culture—that if we share ancestry with other creatures, we've lost something essential about human dignity and purpose. We were told we have to choose: either humans are specially created and distinct, or we're reduced to mere matter and instinct.
Why This Framework Developed
When Darwin's theory of evolution emerged, some religious communities felt it threatened human significance. They responded by creating a sharp boundary: humans created specially by God, everything else evolved through natural processes. This felt like the only way to preserve human dignity and moral responsibility. The framework was meant to protect something precious.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: this framework assumes that sharing biological ancestry somehow diminishes the image of God. But the Bible never says the image of God is about biology. The image of God is about our capacity for relationship with God, our moral awareness, our creativity, our ability to love sacrificially. These things don't depend on how God created our bodies. Evolution doesn't touch what makes us image-bearers.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we stop thinking of evolution and human dignity as competitors? What if God, using evolutionary processes across millions of years, intentionally created creatures—us—with the capacity to know God, to make moral choices, to worship, to create, to love? We're not less special because we share ancestry with other creatures. We're more remarkable because we're the result of God's patient, purposeful creative work across deep time, and we alone bear God's image in the ways that matter most. We can accept the science and affirm our dignity. Both are true.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Denis Alexander, The New Atheists and the God Debate
Augustine, Confessions (classic reflection on human nature and God's image)
N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God
Session 5: The Catastrophe of Choice — How Human Sin Corrupts Creation
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: Humans alone have the freedom to choose against God. When we chose that freedom—when we ate from the forbidden fruit—we didn't just break a rule. We set in motion a corruption that spread through all creation. Sin is humanity's catastrophic choice to assert autonomy from God, and its consequences ripple outward.
Key Scripture:
Genesis 3:6-7 — "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."
Romans 5:12 — "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned."
Romans 8:22 — "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible portrays sin not as a minor rule-breaking, but as a cosmic rupture. Observe the consequences that ripple outward—not just to Adam and Eve, but to creation itself. Look for passages that show how human choices corrupt systems, relationships, and the natural world. Pay attention to the difference between how animals operate (instinctively, without moral choice) and how humans operate (with freedom, conscience, and the ability to choose wrongly).
Personal Reflection Questions
Think of a choice you've made that seemed small at the time but had larger consequences. How did your one decision ripple outward to affect others or your circumstances? What does this teach you about sin's cosmic nature?
Birds navigate through storms without anxiety. Lilies grow without fear. Yet humans create wars, hoard resources, destroy ecosystems. What's the difference between how creatures without moral choice operate and how humans operate when we choose wrongly?
Overview Here is the critical insight that transforms how we understand creation: God created a world that operates beautifully when creatures live according to their nature. Birds find food in drought without despair. Lilies grow without anxiety. The natural world sustains itself through elegant cycles. But humans are different. We have the capacity to choose against our nature, to refuse relationship with God, to assert autonomy we were never meant to possess. And when we make that choice, the consequences don't stay contained in our hearts. They spread outward.
When humans choose greed, ecosystems are stripped. When we choose dominance, we create systems of oppression. When we choose lust, we exploit and dehumanize. The sin is not just the internal choice—it's the external corruption that flows from it. This is what makes human sin different from animal instinct. An animal kills for food; that's nature. But a human kills for revenge, or greed, or ideology—and that choice corrupts not just individuals, but entire systems. When God says creation is "groaning" (Romans 8:22), He's not speaking metaphorically. He's describing the actual damage human sin causes to creation itself.
This May Surprise You Many people think of sin as primarily personal moral failure—"I did something bad." But Scripture reveals sin as cosmic corruption. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, God didn't just condemn them personally. He condemned creation itself. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food" (Genesis 3:19)—work becomes toil. "Thorns and thistles it will produce" (Genesis 3:18)—the earth becomes hostile. This isn't arbitrary punishment. It's describing what happens when creatures made for relationship with God choose autonomy from Him. The systems they create become corrupted. The environment they steward becomes degraded. The relationships they build become fractured. And this corruption spreads across generations and outward to all creation.
What's remarkable is that animals don't exhibit this corruption in the same way. A wolf pack may have hierarchy and competition, but they don't wage wars of ideology. Birds may compete for resources, but they don't hoard beyond need. The natural world (apart from human interference) maintains balance through natural law. But when humans enter with our corrupted choices—greed, pride, lust for power—everything we touch becomes corrupted. Wars destroy ecosystems. Greed depletes resources. Pride creates hierarchies that oppress. Sin doesn't just damage the soul; it damages the world.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Sin is humanity's catastrophic choice to assert autonomy from God
Genesis 3:6-7: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."
Comment: The forbidden fruit represented God's authority over human choice. When Adam and Eve ate it, they asserted their autonomy: "We will decide for ourselves what is good and evil." That refusal of God's authority is the root of all sin.
Point 2: Sin corrupts not just the soul, but the entire created order
Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned."
Comment: Paul describes sin as a cosmic infection. It doesn't just damage individuals; it spreads through human systems and relationships, corrupting creation itself. Death—the ultimate corruption—enters through sin.
Point 3: Creation itself suffers the consequences of human sin
Genesis 3:17-19: "To Adam he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat of it," Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.'"
Comment: The curse is not arbitrary punishment. It describes what happens when humans are separated from God: work becomes toil, the earth becomes difficult to tend, survival becomes a struggle. This is the natural consequence of human rebellion rippling outward.
Point 4: The weight of human choice is unique—only humans can corrupt creation through moral failure
Romans 8:22-23: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time... as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies."
Comment: Creation groans because it's been corrupted by human sin. But that groaning has a purpose: it's the pain of waiting for redemption, for restoration. Even in corruption, God is working toward restoration.
Take-Home Thought
Here is the heartbreaking and crucial insight: creation was designed to flourish when humans live in relationship with God. When we refuse that relationship, when we assert autonomy, when we choose greed, pride, lust, and dominance—the corruption spreads. It's not that God arbitrarily punishes us. It's that we have broken the relationship that everything depends on.
This is why birds go through drought without despair—they operate instinctively, without the burden or the freedom of moral choice. Lilies grow without anxiety—they don't hoard or fear the future. But humans, when we sin, create systems of greed that produce scarcity. We create hierarchies of dominance that produce oppression. We assert autonomy that produces alienation—from God, from each other, from creation itself. And this corruption spreads outward.
But here is the hope: God has not abandoned creation to this corruption. Even as we corrupted it through our choices, God is working to redeem it through His. That redemption is the subject of the rest of Scripture—and it will be the subject of the sessions to come.
Quotes
"Sin is not primarily a violation of a rule; it is the fracturing of a relationship. And when the relationship between humans and God is broken, everything that depends on that relationship becomes corrupted." — N.T. Wright, biblical scholar
"We are not simply individual sinners; we are members of a sinful humanity, heirs to systems of corruption and injustice that our ancestors created. Yet we are also the ones who perpetuate and deepen those systems through our own choices." — Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament theologian
Biblical Connections
Genesis 3:1-24 — The Fall narrative, the breaking of relationship between humans and God
Genesis 4:1-16 — Cain and Abel, showing how human sin corrupts relationships and spreads
Genesis 6:5-7 — "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become... his heart was deeply troubled."
Romans 6:23 — "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
1 John 1:8-9 — "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
When I see corruption in the world—injustice, greed, destruction—I can recognize it for what it is: the fruit of human sin. I can stop blaming God for a broken world and start taking responsibility for the choices that break it. But more importantly, I can trust that God sees this corruption and is working to redeem it. I don't have to fix the world myself. I can trust God's redemptive plan, even as I cooperate with it through my own faithful choices. And when I feel the weight of my own sin, I can confess it to a God who is already working to restore what was broken.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that sin is primarily a personal, individual failure. We think of sin mainly as "I did something wrong and need to repent." This framework made sense because it focused on personal responsibility and God's forgiveness. But it's incomplete. It left us puzzled by systemic injustice, by poverty that persists across generations, by corruption built into institutions.
Why This Framework Developed
For centuries, Christian teaching emphasized personal morality and individual salvation. This was valuable and important. But it developed partly because the church wanted to focus on what individuals could control—their own choices and their own hearts. It was easier to teach personal repentance than to address the complex systems that perpetuate injustice. The framework wasn't wrong, just incomplete.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: when we only see sin as personal, we can't understand why some people suffer not because of their own sin, but because of systems built by others. A child born into poverty, in a neighborhood with broken schools and limited opportunities, isn't suffering because of personal moral failure. That child is suffering because of systemic corruption. If we only teach personal repentance, we can't address what's really broken.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we expand our understanding of sin to include its systemic nature? Sin corrupts not just individual hearts, but institutions, laws, cultures, and systems of power. When we see sin this way, we understand that redemption must be systemic too. We're called not just to repent personally, but to work against unjust systems and structures. We're invited to be agents of both personal and systemic redemption. This doesn't diminish personal responsibility. It expands our vision of what it means to be faithful to God.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin
Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man (on sin and creation)
Session 6: Sin's Corruption Spreading — Understanding Human Systems and Suffering
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: Human sin doesn't stay confined to individual choices. It spreads through systems, institutions, and cultures, corrupting everything it touches. Understanding this helps us see both why the world is broken and why redemption must be systemic, not just personal.
Key Scripture:
Romans 7:14-20 — "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Ephesians 6:12 — "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Jeremiah 2:13 — "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
What to Look For Notice how Scripture addresses not just individual sin, but systemic corruption. Look for passages that show how human choices ripple through institutions, cultures, and generations. Observe how greed becomes economic systems, pride becomes political structures, lust becomes exploitation. Watch for the theme that we are both victims of sinful systems and perpetrators of them.
Personal Reflection Questions
Think of an injustice in the world—poverty, discrimination, war, environmental destruction. Can you trace it back to human sin? How do individual sinful choices combine to create sinful systems that perpetuate themselves?
Have you ever felt trapped by a sinful system—caught in a culture of greed, or pride, or injustice—and unable to extract yourself without great cost? What did that teach you about how sin works at a systemic level?
Overview When we read the Bible's account of sin, we often think of it in personal terms: "I committed a sin. I did something wrong. I need to repent." And that's true—individual choices matter, and personal repentance is essential. But Scripture also reveals something deeper: sin operates systematically. Greed doesn't just exist in individual hearts; it becomes economic systems. Pride doesn't just inflate individual egos; it becomes political structures and hierarchies. Lust doesn't just corrupt individuals; it becomes systemic exploitation and trafficking. And once these systems are in place, they perpetuate themselves across generations, damaging not just the perpetrators but vast numbers of victims.
This is why the world is so broken. It's not just that individual humans make bad choices. It's that those choices compound across time, becoming entrenched in institutions, laws, cultures, and power structures. By the time we're born, we inherit sinful systems we didn't create. We breathe air poisoned by someone else's greed. We live under laws designed by someone else's pride. We navigate a world shaped by centuries of someone else's exploitation. And yet, we're also tempted to perpetuate those systems because they benefit us, or because resistance costs too much, or because we don't even recognize them as broken.
This May Surprise You Many Christians think of redemption purely in personal terms: "I've accepted Jesus, so I'm saved." And that's true—personal redemption is real and crucial. But Scripture reveals that redemption must also be systemic. God's goal is not just to save individual souls from a corrupt world; it's to redeem and restore the entire created order. This is why Jesus didn't just preach about individual morality; He challenged corrupt systems (the Temple system, the purity laws, the structures of economic exploitation). This is why Paul writes about "principalities and powers" that oppress people. This is why the prophets called out injustice in nations and institutions, not just in individual hearts.
If you want to be redeemed by God, you must not only repent personally—you must also stop perpetuating sinful systems. You must work against greed, against domination, against exploitation. You must use whatever power you have to bend systems toward justice. This is what it means to participate in God's redemptive work. It's not comfortable. It often costs something. But it's what faithfulness demands in a world corrupted by human sin.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Human sin becomes systemic, perpetuating across generations and institutions
Romans 7:14-20: "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out."
Comment: Paul describes being trapped by sin—not just by his own choices, but by structures and patterns he didn't create but can't escape. This captures the experience of living in a sinful system: we're both victims and perpetrators.
Point 2: Systemic sin corrupts institutions, laws, and power structures
Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Comment: Paul acknowledges that evil operates not just in individual hearts, but through institutions and powers. Confronting sin means not just personal repentance, but challenging unjust systems.
Point 3: Abandoning God as the source of life produces broken systems
Jeremiah 2:13: "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
Comment: The metaphor is powerful: when people reject God as their source, they create broken systems that cannot sustain life. Greed creates economic systems that impoverish. Pride creates political systems that oppress. Lust creates social systems that exploit.
Point 4: We inherit sinful systems and must choose whether to perpetuate or resist them
Romans 6:16: "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?"
Comment: We have a choice: we can perpetuate sinful systems for our own benefit, or we can resist them in the name of justice and God's redemption. That choice defines whether we're aligned with sin or with God's redemptive work.
Take-Home Thought
Look around the world and you'll see countless systems corrupted by human sin: economic systems built on greed and exploitation, political systems built on domination and pride, social systems built on discrimination and dehumanization, environmental systems degraded by unchecked consumption. These systems didn't appear by accident. They're the accumulated result of billions of individual sinful choices, compounded across generations, becoming entrenched in institutions and laws and cultures.
The tragedy is that we inherit these broken systems. You did not create the structures of injustice you were born into. But you live within them, and they damage you and countless others. The double tragedy is that these systems perpetuate themselves: they benefit some (often those at the top), they're defended by those who profit from them, and they're normalized so thoroughly that many of us don't even see them as broken.
But here is the crucial point: redemption means not just personal repentance, but participation in God's work to redeem these systems. It means recognizing injustice and working against it. It means using whatever power you have—however modest—to bend systems toward justice. It means choosing not to perpetuate greed, domination, and exploitation, even when doing so costs you something. This is what it means to be an agent of God's redemption in a corrupted world.
Quotes
"We are not saved from the world; we are saved for the world. Redemption is not escape from systems of sin, but transformation of them." — N.T. Wright, biblical scholar
"If you want to follow Jesus, you can't just change your heart. You have to challenge the systems that crush people. You have to work for justice. Anything less is complicity with sin." — Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament theologian
Biblical Connections
Genesis 4:1-16 — Cain's murder of Abel, the first human violence and systemic injustice
Amos 5:24 — "Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream."
Matthew 23:25-26 — Jesus condemning systemic corruption in religious institutions
Acts 17:26 — "From one man he made all the people, that they might live... in order that they would seek God."
Colossians 1:20 — "Through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
I don't have to be paralyzed by the brokenness of the world. God sees it. God is working to redeem it. And He invites me to participate in that redemptive work, in whatever small ways are available to me. I can trust that God's justice will ultimately prevail, even when injustice seems entrenched. And I can choose to align myself with God's redemptive work rather than perpetuating sinful systems. That choice gives my life meaning and purpose.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that the solution to systemic injustice is personal moral change. "If people would just be nicer, if they would just have better values, everything would improve." This framework feels hopeful and empowering. It suggests that change is possible and that individuals matter. But it's incomplete. It can make us blame victims for structural problems they didn't create.
Why This Framework Developed
This framework became popular partly because it's psychologically comfortable. It puts the locus of control in individual hands. It feels more manageable than confronting massive systems. It also developed partly because churches emphasized personal transformation and sometimes avoided addressing structural injustice. The framework was meant to be empowering, and in some ways it is.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: this framework can make us indifferent to injustice. If poverty is just about personal laziness, we don't have to change systems. If racism is just about individual prejudice, we don't have to examine institutional racism. We can feel good about our personal virtue while ignoring the systems we benefit from or perpetuate. It can actually protect us from the discomfort of examining systemic change.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we hold both truths? Yes, personal moral change matters. Individuals need to grow in virtue and love. AND structural systems matter too. We need to examine institutions, laws, and power structures. We need to ask: Are these systems just? Do they benefit some at the expense of others? What would justice look like here? Real redemption includes both personal transformation and systemic change. We're called to work on both fronts.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Walter Brueggemann, Journey to the Common Good: Using the Bible's Stories and Vision
Soong-Chan Rah, The Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Trouble Times
N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God
Session 7: Creation's Persistence — Beauty and Resilience Despite Corruption
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: Despite human sin's corruption, creation continues to display remarkable beauty and resilience. Flowers still bloom. Birds still sing. Life persists. This persistence is not evidence that corruption doesn't matter—it's evidence of God's faithfulness and creation's designed resilience. Beauty in a broken world is a sign that redemption is possible.
Key Scripture:
Psalm 24:1 — "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."
Job 38-40 — God's response to Job, pointing to creation's grandeur and complexity
Romans 8:28 — "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose."
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — "He has made everything beautiful in its time."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible does not deny the reality of suffering, decay, and brokenness. Look for passages that hold beauty and tragedy together without resolving them into neat answers. Observe the language of longing for restoration, the recognition that the world is "not yet" what it will be. Watch for God's presence in the midst of both beauty and pain.
Personal Reflection Questions
When have you experienced something beautiful in nature—a sunset, a flower blooming, an animal thriving—while simultaneously aware of the brokenness around it? How did that moment feel? What did it teach you about God?
Why does creation persist in displaying beauty despite human sin's corruption? What does that persistence suggest about God's nature and intention?
Overview We live in a paradox. The world is broken by human sin. Ecosystems collapse. Species go extinct. Bodies fail and die. Wars destroy. Yet, simultaneously, creation continues to display breathtaking beauty. After the worst human atrocities, flowers still bloom. In the midst of suffering, life finds a way. A child is born and parents feel awe. A bird sings at dawn. A sunset stops us in our tracks. How do we hold these two truths together—that the world is genuinely corrupted by sin, and that it remains genuinely beautiful?
The answer is that creation is not abandoned by God. Even corrupted, even damaged by human sin, creation continues to be sustained by God and continues to display His character. The beauty persists not because sin doesn't matter—it matters catastrophically. But because God does not give up on what He has made. He sustains it, even in its brokenness. He moves toward redemption, even when humans resist Him. And He invites us to see in creation's continued beauty a sign that restoration is possible—that the day is coming when what sin has corrupted will be redeemed and restored.
This May Surprise You Many people imagine that if God is good and all-powerful, the world should be pain-free and perfect. If it's not, they conclude either that God is not good or not all-powerful—or that He doesn't exist. But this reasoning misses something crucial: God has given creation (and humanity) genuine freedom. And freedom includes the freedom to choose wrong. God could prevent all suffering by controlling everything and eliminating choice. But then there would be no real freedom, no real love, no real virtue. Instead, God has created a world with genuine freedom, knowing that freedom would be misused. And His response to that misuse is not to abandon the world, but to pursue its redemption.
This means the beauty that persists in creation—the sunrise, the flower, the child's laughter—is not accidental or peripheral. It's central to what God is doing. God is not waiting for the world to become perfect before He enters it or blesses it. He's present in it now, working redemptively, and the beauty that persists is a sign of that redemptive work. Every act of kindness, every moment of healing, every creature that thrives despite the odds—these are all foretastes of the redemption coming.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Creation continues to be God's work and remains under His care despite corruption
Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters."
Comment: The earth belongs to God. It has been corrupted by human sin, but it is still God's creation. He has not abandoned it. He sustains it, even as it waits for redemption.
Point 2: Creation displays God's power and wisdom even in a corrupted state
Job 38-40: God's response to Job, pointing to creation's grandeur—the behemoth, the leviathan, the vast cosmos. Not to answer Job's questions, but to expand his sense of God's power and wisdom.
Comment: In the midst of suffering and apparent injustice, God points Job to creation itself. Not because creation is perfect, but because it displays God's power, complexity, and care. There is comfort in serving a God this vast.
Point 3: Beauty persists as a sign that God has not abandoned creation
Ecclesiastes 3:11: "He has made everything beautiful in its time; and he has put eternity into man's mind."
Comment: God has made things beautiful—not because everything is perfect, but as a sign of His character and intention. The beauty persists despite corruption, testifying to God's faithfulness and to the redemption coming.
Point 4: God is present and redemptive even in the midst of brokenness
Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose."
Comment: This does not mean "all things are good." Evil is evil. Suffering is real. But God works in all things, bending even damage toward redemptive purposes. We often see this only in retrospect, as we recognize how God redeemed what was broken.
Take-Home Thought
Stand at the edge of a cliff overlooking an ocean. It is breathtakingly beautiful. But you know that ocean has drowned people. Storms destroy homes. The same beauty that moves your soul also destroys. A newborn baby is a miracle—and yet that baby will suffer heartbreak, loss, and eventually die. A flower is gorgeous—and yet it blooms briefly before wilting. This is the paradox we live in: creation is simultaneously beautiful and broken, sacred and corrupted, healing and hurting.
This paradox should not drive us to despair. Instead, it should strengthen our faith. The fact that creation continues to display beauty despite being corrupted by human sin is evidence that God has not abandoned it. God is not absent from this broken world. He is present in it, sustaining it, moving redemptively within it. Every sunset is a sign of God's faithfulness. Every creature that thrives despite the odds is a sign that redemption is possible. Every act of kindness is a foretaste of the kingdom coming.
And here is the ultimate hope: this brokenness is not permanent. The day is coming when creation will be redeemed and restored. Not destroyed and replaced, but redeemed—healed of the corruption human sin introduced, renewed to fulfill its original purpose. That day is coming. Until then, we live in the tension between beauty and brokenness, knowing that God is working in both toward redemption.
Quotes
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." — C.S. Lewis, theologian and writer
"The most beautiful thing in the world is the presence of God in the midst of suffering—not preventing it, but transforming it from within, bending it toward redemption." — Simone Weil, philosopher and spiritual writer
Biblical Connections
Genesis 1:31 — "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
Psalm 19:1 — "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Lamentations 3:22-23 — "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed... They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
Romans 8:22-23 — "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
Revelation 21:3-4 — "Now the dwelling of God is with mankind... He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
When I encounter both beauty and brokenness in the world, I am reminded that God sees it all and is working redemptively within it. He is not blind to suffering, nor indifferent to beauty. He weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice. I can trust that He is present in both, and that His ultimate intention is redemption and restoration. I can embrace the beauty in front of me without denying the brokenness, knowing that both are held in God's hands and that redemption is coming.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned a narrative that says: either the world is fundamentally good and getting better, or it's fundamentally evil and getting worse. We were told to choose our storyline. Some were taught that progress and science will solve everything. Others were taught that the world is hopelessly broken and we should focus on escaping it. Both narratives leave us unprepared for reality: genuine beauty existing alongside genuine brokenness.
Why This Framework Developed
The modern world created these two competing narratives. The secular world offered a story of progress—science and technology will improve everything. Religious communities sometimes responded with the opposite story—the world is fallen and doomed. Both narratives are appealing because they're simple and clear. They offer certainty.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: when reality doesn't match our narrative, we feel confused or betrayed. If we believe in progress, suffering and injustice feel like failures we should be able to solve. If we believe the world is hopelessly broken, beauty and goodness feel like false comfort. Neither narrative prepares us for the actual complexity of living in a world that is simultaneously beautiful and broken.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if we embrace a more complex truth? Creation is genuinely good—made by God and sustained by God. But creation is also genuinely corrupted by human sin. Both are real. Both matter. This isn't pessimism or naive optimism. It's realism. It's the framework that allows us to grieve injustice without despair, to celebrate beauty without denial. It's the framework that makes redemption necessary and hopeful. God is working to heal what's broken, and that work is already beginning. We can see both the brokenness and the signs of redemption happening now.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Simone Weil, Waiting for God
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Session 8: God's Redemptive Intervention — From Abraham to Christ
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: God did not abandon creation to corruption. Instead, God entered into history to call humanity back to relationship with Himself. From Abraham to Moses to the prophets to Christ, God has been working persistently to redeem His people and, through them, all creation. Redemption is not escape from the world, but transformation of it.
Key Scripture:
Genesis 12:1-3 — "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country... to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'"
Exodus 3:7-8 — "The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people... I have heard them crying out... So I have come down to rescue them.'"
John 1:1-14 — The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God entered into creation, into human form, into suffering and death.
What to Look For Notice how God's redemptive work is persistent and patient. Observe how God works through human history, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly, always moving toward restoration. Look for how God's plan includes not just individuals, but peoples, nations, and ultimately all creation. Watch for the theme that God pursues relationship with His people even when they resist Him.
Personal Reflection Questions
God called Abraham to leave everything and trust Him for an unknown future. What did that require of Abraham? When has God called you to trust Him in ways that required leaving something behind?
Jesus came not as a powerful king who forced change, but as a servant who died. Why do you think God chose redemption through suffering and love rather than through power and force?
Overview God's response to human sin was not to destroy creation and start over. It was to enter into history and call humanity back to relationship with Himself. This is the story of the entire Bible: God repeatedly intervening, calling, pursuing, offering relationship to a people bent on rejecting Him. Abraham is called to be the father of a nation that will bless all nations. Moses leads an enslaved people out of bondage. The prophets call Israel back to justice and faithfulness, over and over again. And finally, in the Incarnation, God Himself enters the world, suffers human pain and death, and through resurrection opens the way for all people to be redeemed and reconciled to God.
This is not a story of escape. Redemption is not about being rescued from the world; it's about transformation of the world. It's about God reclaiming what was corrupted, restoring what was broken, and inviting humans into partnership with that redemptive work. When we accept redemption through Christ, we don't just get a ticket to heaven; we get called into God's ongoing work to heal creation.
This May Surprise You Many people think of God's redemptive plan as "saving souls from the world." But Scripture reveals something different: God is saving the world itself. Jesus didn't preach about escape to heaven; He preached about the kingdom of God coming here, now, in the world we live in. He healed bodies (not just souls). He fed the hungry (addressing systemic poverty). He challenged corrupt systems (religious, political, economic). He embodied a vision of human relationships redeemed and restored. And the resurrection is not the proof that we escape the body; it's proof that God is redeeming the body, the physical world, creation itself.
This changes everything. It means your work in this world matters. Your fight for justice matters. Your care for creation matters. Your relationships matter. These are not distractions from "real" faith. They are the very substance of participating in God's redemptive work.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: God initiated a redemptive relationship with Abraham, establishing a covenant that would bless all peoples
Genesis 12:1-3: "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country... I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'"
Comment: God's plan is not just to save individuals; it's to create a people through whom blessing flows to all peoples. Redemption is communal and cosmic, not just personal.
Point 2: God heard the cry of the oppressed and intervened to liberate them
Exodus 3:7-8: "The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out... So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land.'"
Comment: God is not distant from human suffering. He hears. He sees. He intervenes. Liberation from oppression is central to God's redemptive work.
Point 3: God persistently called Israel back to justice and relationship through the prophets
Jeremiah 31:33-34: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel... I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor... because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest."
Comment: God's goal is not distant obedience, but intimate relationship. God desires to write His law on our hearts, to be known by us, to restore the covenant relationship sin had broken.
Point 4: In Christ, God became incarnate, suffering and dying to open the way for redemption
John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, the Father, full of grace and truth."
Comment: God did not just send a message or a law. God came Himself, in human form, to suffer with us and for us. The cross is God's ultimate statement: "I love you enough to die for you."
Take-Home Thought
God's redemptive work unfolds across thousands of years. It is patient, persistent, and costly. God calls Abraham into an unknown future and Abraham trusts. God rescues slaves from bondage and leads them toward freedom. God sends prophets to call a rebellious people back to justice and faithfulness. And finally, God Himself enters history in the person of Jesus Christ, suffers the consequences of human sin, dies, and rises again—opening the way for all people to be reconciled to God and to each other.
This is not a story of God giving up on creation. It's a story of God refusing to give up, no matter how deeply humans reject Him. It's a story of God entering into human suffering, not to prevent it from the outside, but to redeem it from within. And it's a story that's not finished. Redemption continues. The resurrection of Christ is the beginning, not the end. And we are invited to participate in God's ongoing redemptive work—in our families, our communities, our world.
Quotes
"The message of the Bible is not 'escape from the world' but 'transformation of the world.' God's goal is not to rescue a few souls from the material world. God's goal is to redeem all creation—bodies, earth, relationships, systems—and restore them to their original goodness." — N.T. Wright, biblical scholar
"The cross is God's way of saying, 'I will go to any length to restore what was broken.' It is the ultimate statement of sacrificial love, the ultimate demonstration that redemption is possible." — Brennan Manning, spiritual writer
Biblical Connections
Genesis 12:1-3 — God's covenant with Abraham
Exodus 3-12 — God's liberation of Israel from slavery
Isaiah 42:1-9 — The servant who brings justice to the nations
Luke 4:16-21 — Jesus announcing His mission: to proclaim good news, liberation, sight for the blind
Revelation 21:1-4 — The vision of a redeemed creation, a new heaven and new earth where God dwells with people
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
God's redemptive work is not finished. He is still calling, still pursuing, still inviting people back into relationship with Himself and with each other. I can trust that God sees the brokenness in my life and in the world, and that He is working toward redemption. I can participate in that redemptive work through my own faithful choices. And I can trust that the day is coming when redemption will be complete—when creation itself will be restored to the goodness God always intended.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that God's redemptive work is primarily about saving souls from the world, getting individuals to heaven. We thought of redemption as escape—leave the broken world behind, get to a spiritual realm where everything is perfect. This framework emphasized the importance of individual salvation and the afterlife. But it left us unprepared to think about redemption of systems, cultures, and creation itself.
Why This Framework Developed
This understanding developed partly from Greek philosophy, which valued the spiritual and immaterial over the physical and material. It was also reinforced by focusing on Jesus' promise to his disciples: "I'm going to prepare a place for you." We highlighted those passages emphasizing leaving the world. But we underemphasized the passages about God's kingdom breaking into the world now, about redemption of creation itself.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: if redemption is just escape, then what we do in this world doesn't ultimately matter. Our work for justice, our care for creation, our efforts to heal broken systems—all of that is temporary and insignificant. We can become passive about suffering and injustice in the world. Why work for justice in a world we're escaping from? This actually diminishes the urgency of living faithfully.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if redemption isn't escape but transformation? What if God's goal is not to rescue a few souls from creation but to redeem creation itself? What if the kingdom of God is breaking into this world now, not just waiting for heaven? Then everything changes. Your work for justice matters eternally. Your care for creation participates in God's redemptive work. Your effort to heal broken systems is part of what God is doing. You're not escaping the world. You're partnering with God to transform it. That's far more hopeful and far more demanding.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
N.T. Wright, How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospel
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
John Stott, The Cross of Christ
Session 9: Our Calling in a Corrupted World — Stewardship, Justice, and Redemption
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: We are not called to escape the world or to wait passively for redemption. We are called to participate in God's redemptive work now, in this broken world. We are stewards of creation, agents of justice, and partners with God in healing what sin has corrupted. Our choices matter. Our work matters. Our faithfulness matters.
Key Scripture:
Genesis 2:15 — "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Micah 6:8 — "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Matthew 5:14-16 — "You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Colossians 1:19-20 — "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible calls us not to passivity but to active participation in God's redemptive work. Look for passages that emphasize our responsibility as stewards, as agents of justice, as partners with God. Observe how Jesus modeled a life of healing, justice, compassion, and relationship—and how He called His disciples to do the same. Watch for the theme that our work in this world is not insignificant or temporary—it participates in God's eternal redemptive purposes.
Personal Reflection Questions
What is one area of corruption you see in the world—in systems, in nature, in relationships—that breaks your heart? What would faithfulness look like in response to that corruption? What small steps could you take to participate in God's redemptive work in that area?
If God's goal is not to rescue you from the world but to redeem you for the world, what does that change about how you think about your work, your relationships, your care for creation?
Overview This series has traced a journey: God created a good world through evolutionary processes. God uniquely designed humans for relationship with Him. Humans chose sin, and that choice corrupted creation itself, spreading through systems and institutions. But God did not abandon creation. God entered into history, calling humanity back to relationship, working persistently toward redemption, and ultimately incarnating in Christ to suffer, die, and rise again—opening the way for all people to be redeemed and for all creation to be restored.
Now we arrive at the crucial question: What does God call us to do in response? The answer is simple and radical: participate in God's redemptive work. You are not called to wait passively for redemption to happen. You are called to be an agent of it. You are called to be a steward of creation—caring for it, healing it, stewarding it wisely. You are called to be an agent of justice—confronting corruption, standing with the oppressed, working toward systems that honor human dignity. You are called to be a partner with God in the work of healing what sin has broken. Your life, your choices, your work—all of it can participate in God's redemptive purposes.
This May Surprise You Many Christians think of their faith as personal—"Jesus and me"—and their work as secular—"just a job." But Scripture reveals that this is a false division. Your work matters. Your care for the poor matters. Your stewardship of creation matters. Your pursuit of justice matters. Not because these things will finally redeem the world (that's God's work), but because they participate in God's redemptive work happening now. When you feed the hungry, you're participating in the kingdom of God breaking into the world. When you care for creation, you're stewarding what God has made and declared good. When you pursue justice, you're bearing witness to a God who hears the cry of the oppressed. When you love your neighbor—especially your enemy—you're embodying the reconciliation Christ died to make possible.
This means your daily choices are not insignificant. They are cosmic in significance. They are not distractions from faith—they are the substance of faith lived out. And you don't have to be perfect or heroic to participate. You just have to be faithful to the opportunities in front of you.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: We are stewards of creation, called to care for it and heal it
Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Comment: Stewardship is not optional or peripheral. It's central to what we were made for. We are called to tend creation, to heal it, to restore what sin has corrupted. This includes caring for animals, protecting ecosystems, using resources wisely.
Point 2: We are called to act justly, to stand with the oppressed, to confront corruption
Micah 6:8: "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Comment: Justice is not peripheral to faith—it's central. God requires it. We cannot be faithful to God while ignoring the oppressed, perpetuating injustice, or benefiting from corruption without resisting it.
Point 3: We are the light of the world, called to let our goodness shine before others
Matthew 5:14-16: "You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Comment: Our good works are not about personal pride or earning salvation. They're about bearing witness to God's character and redemptive intentions. When others see us acting justly, loving mercy, caring for creation, they see Jesus.
Point 4: God's redemptive work includes all things—material and spiritual, earthly and heavenly
Colossians 1:19-20: "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
Comment: Redemption is cosmic. It's not just about saving souls. It includes healing bodies, restoring relationships, transforming systems, redeeming creation itself. When we participate in that redemptive work, we're working for something that will outlast us.
Take-Home Thought
You stand at a crucial moment in history. The world is broken by human sin—greed has corrupted economics, pride has corrupted politics, lust has corrupted relationships, and all of it has degraded creation. Yet God is redeeming it. And God invites you to participate.
This doesn't require you to be a martyr or a hero. It requires you to be faithful to the opportunities in front of you. It means:
Caring for creation in small ways (what you consume, how you dispose of waste, how you treat animals)
Pursuing justice in your sphere of influence (standing against discrimination, supporting the vulnerable, confronting corruption where you can)
Loving your neighbors—especially those different from you, those you're inclined to dismiss, those your culture has labeled enemies
Using your work, your talents, your resources in service of others and in participation with God's redemptive purposes
Praying and acting, trusting that God is working even when you cannot see the full effect
You won't solve all the world's problems. You won't redeem all of creation. That's God's work, and only God can accomplish it fully. But you can participate. Your faithfulness matters. Your choices ripple outward. And the day is coming when all of creation will be redeemed and restored. Until then, you are invited to work with God toward that day.
But here is the honest truth: living faithfully in a broken world is not easy. You will suffer. You will witness injustice that seems undeserved. You will question why a good God permits evil. You will face moments when faith feels impossible. The final sessions of this series address that reality—acknowledging suffering's depth, integrating science with faith, and holding fast to the vision of God's ultimate redemption. These are not abstract lessons; they are anchors for the soul in a world still corrupted, still waiting for full restoration.
Quotes
"We are not saved from the world; we are saved for the world. God calls us to participate in the healing and redemption of creation—not as a secondary spiritual activity, but as the very heart of what it means to follow Jesus." — N.T. Wright, biblical scholar
"The Christian is not called to be a monk, escaping the world. The Christian is called to be a prophet, engaged in the world, speaking and acting on behalf of justice and redemption." — Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament theologian
Biblical Connections
Genesis 2:15 — Our calling to stewardship
Leviticus 25 — Laws establishing Sabbath, jubilee, and care for the vulnerable
Psalm 72 — Prayer for a king who brings justice and cares for the poor
Isaiah 58:6-7 — "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice... to share your food with the hungry?"
Matthew 25:31-46 — The judgment of nations based on how they treated the vulnerable
Titus 2:11-14 — "The grace of God... teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
I don't have to be paralyzed by the enormity of the world's brokenness. God sees it. God is working redemptively within it. And God invites me to participate, according to my gifts and opportunities. I can trust that God is working even when I cannot see the full effect. I can trust that the day is coming when all will be redeemed. And I can act faithfully today, knowing that my faithfulness matters and participates in God's eternal purposes.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that faith is something we do on Sundays or in private prayer, separate from our work and our public choices. We were taught that there's a divide between the sacred and the secular—church matters spiritually, but work and politics and economics are secular domains where faith doesn't directly apply. This framework kept faith from being controversial in public settings, but it left us uncertain about how to live faithfully in most of our lives.
Why This Framework Developed
This division became popular in the modern era as religious institutions tried to avoid conflict with secular powers. By saying "faith is personal," churches could avoid being silenced or persecuted. It also developed because Christianity sometimes became aligned with power structures, and emphasizing "spiritual faith" allowed those in power to avoid scrutiny for unjust systems. The framework felt safe.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: this framework makes most of our lives irrelevant to our faith. If what we do in our work, our politics, our economics isn't connected to faith, then faith becomes marginal. It becomes something we do in addition to our real lives, not something that shapes our real lives. This actually weakens faith. And it allows us to participate in injustice while telling ourselves we're faithful because our private faith is sincere.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if faith isn't separate from the rest of life but central to all of it? What if your work, your choices about consumption, your political engagement, your treatment of others—all of that flows from faith? What if living faithfully means your faith shapes every decision you make, not just your Sunday experience? Then you can't live one way at work and another way in church. You can't pursue profit that harms others and claim faith. You can't be indifferent to injustice and claim to follow Jesus. Your entire life becomes an expression of faith. That's more demanding, yes. But it also makes your life deeply meaningful.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living
Timothy Keller, Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
Makoto Fujimura, Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life
Session 10: The Problem of Suffering — Faith in a Broken World
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: Suffering is real, devastating, and often inexplicable. God does not prevent all suffering, but He promises to be present in it, to redeem it, and ultimately to end it. Faith is not the absence of questions about suffering—it is trust in God's character despite suffering.
Key Scripture:
Romans 8:28 — "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose."
Job 38-42 — God's response to Job's suffering: not answers, but presence and perspective
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 — "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Revelation 21:4 — "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible does not deny suffering or offer simplistic answers. Look for passages that acknowledge suffering's reality while affirming God's goodness. Observe how God's response to suffering is often presence rather than explanation. Watch for the theme that redemption includes the ending of suffering, not just its explanation.
Personal Reflection Questions
Describe a time you suffered—physically, emotionally, or spiritually. In that moment, what would have helped more: an explanation, or the assurance that God was present with you?
If God is all-powerful, why doesn't He prevent all suffering? What does your answer suggest about God's nature? About freedom and love?
Overview This is perhaps the hardest session in the series—and the most necessary. Seniors have lived long enough to have genuinely suffered. Many have lost spouses, children, friends. Many carry chronic pain. Many have witnessed injustice that seems undeserved. The question of suffering is not academic; it is personal and urgent: If God is good and all-powerful, why do innocent people suffer? Why do children die of disease? Why does evil prosper? Why does God seem absent in our darkest moments?
Scripture does not offer a simple answer. The book of Job is the Bible's most honest wrestling with this question—and it ends not with answers, but with encounter. God appears to Job not to explain suffering, but to expand Job's perspective on God's wisdom and power. The implicit answer is: "I am bigger than your questions. I am working toward redemption that transcends what you can see. Trust me." This is not satisfying to the intellect, but it can sustain the soul.
This May Surprise You Many people believe that if they have enough faith, God will protect them from suffering. But Scripture teaches something different: suffering is part of living in a corrupted world. Even the most faithful suffer. Jesus suffered. Paul suffered. Faithful believers throughout history have suffered devastating loss. This is not because they lacked faith, but because they lived in a world broken by sin. What faith does is not prevent suffering—it changes our relationship to suffering. It assures us that God is present in it, that God grieves with us, that God is working to redeem it, and that God will ultimately end it. This is not a satisfying intellectual answer, but it is a sustaining spiritual truth.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Suffering is real, devastating, and not always preventable
Job 1-2: Job loses everything—his wealth, his health, his children. He did nothing to deserve this. Suffering is not always punishment for sin; sometimes it's simply the cost of living in a broken world.
Comment: We must acknowledge suffering's reality. Platitudes like "everything happens for a reason" can feel cruel to those in genuine pain. The first step is honoring the reality of suffering.
Point 2: God's presence in suffering is more important than God's explanation of it
Job 38-42: God does not explain Job's suffering. Instead, God appears, speaks, and Job's faith is restored—not by answers, but by encounter.
Comment: In our darkest moments, we often need presence more than explanation. "God, help me endure this" is sometimes a deeper prayer than "God, explain why this happened."
Point 3: Suffering can deepen faith rather than destroy it
2 Corinthians 4:7-12: "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Comment: Suffering can strip away illusions and draw us closer to God. Many believers report that their deepest encounters with God came in their darkest seasons.
Point 4: God's final answer to suffering is not explanation but redemption
Revelation 21:4: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Comment: God does not promise that suffering will make sense now. God promises that suffering will end, and that all tears will be redeemed. That future hope can sustain us through present pain.
Take-Home Thought
If you are suffering, know this: your pain is real. God sees it. God grieves it. God does not ask you to pretend it's good or to be grateful for it. What God asks is that you trust that He is present, that He is working toward redemption, and that the suffering is not permanent. The cross reveals this truth: God did not prevent Jesus' suffering, but God redeemed it. Through Jesus' suffering, healing came to the world. Your suffering may similarly become redemptive—not because it's good, but because God can work redemptively through it. Until that redemption is complete, you can trust that God stands with you in the darkness. You are not alone.
Quotes
"God does not explain suffering. God enters into it. And that presence is more powerful than any explanation." — Dorothy Day, social activist and spiritual writer
"We are not given explanations that would satisfy our intellect. We are given a presence that can sustain our souls. And sometimes that is enough." — C.S. Lewis, theologian and writer
Biblical Connections
Job 1-42 — The entire book wrestling with suffering and faith
Psalm 22 — "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus' own cry of anguish
Lamentations — A book of grief and lament, honoring suffering's reality
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 — "The God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles"
Hebrews 5:7-9 — Jesus learning obedience through what he suffered
1 Peter 4:12-13 — "Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal... but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ"
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
I don't have to have answers to my suffering to trust God. I don't have to understand why I hurt. I can simply trust that God is present with me in the pain, that God grieves what breaks my heart, and that God is working toward a redemption that will make sense of everything. Until that day, I can cry out honestly—"God, why?"—and trust that God can handle my anger, my confusion, and my pain. I am not abandoned. I am held.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that real faith means not having doubts. We were taught that asking hard questions about suffering, or expressing anger at God, or wrestling with why a good God permits evil—these things indicate weak faith. We internalized the message that faithful people accept suffering without questioning it. This framework created the impression that doubt and faith are opposites.
Why This Framework Developed
Churches developed this teaching partly to protect faith from being undermined by doubts. They also drew on philosophical traditions that valued certainty and control. If you had all the right answers, you wouldn't be troubled by questions. So the teaching became: have more faith (meaning, fewer doubts) and the problems will resolve. It was meant to be reassuring, but it left people feeling guilty for the very human experience of questioning.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: when suffering comes—and it will—people with this framework feel like their faith is failing. They feel guilty for doubting. They suppress their honest questions. But suppressed questions don't go away. They fester. And when faith is based on suppressing doubts rather than on genuine trust in God's character, it becomes brittle. The smallest doubt can shatter it.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if real faith actually includes wrestling with hard questions? Look at the Bible. Job questions God extensively. The Psalmists lament and cry out in anguish. Jesus on the cross asks, "Why have you forsaken me?" Real faith isn't the absence of doubt. Real faith is trust in God's character even when you don't understand. It's honest wrestling, not comfortable certainty. When we embrace this broader understanding, our faith becomes more robust. We're not hiding from questions. We're bringing them to God. And God is big enough to handle our anger, our confusion, our pain. That's real faith.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Timothy Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering
N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God
Session 11: Science, Scripture, and Mystery — Living with What We Don't Know
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: The Bible is trustworthy about what it claims to teach (theology, morality, redemption), but it is not a science textbook. Science reveals mechanism; Scripture reveals purpose. Living faithfully means embracing both while remaining humble about the limits of human knowledge. Mystery is not a failure of faith—it is an invitation to worship.
Key Scripture:
Isaiah 55:8-9 — "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
1 Corinthians 13:12 — "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Proverbs 18:15 — "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out."
Colossians 2:2-3 — "My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
What to Look For Notice how Scripture itself acknowledges limits to human knowledge. Look for passages that celebrate mystery and affirm that God's ways transcend human understanding. Observe how biblical authors engage seriously with the knowledge of their time while remaining rooted in theological truth. Watch for the theme that wisdom includes admitting what we don't know.
Personal Reflection Questions
Have you ever felt torn between something science teaches and something you read in the Bible? How did you resolve that tension? What helped you hold both truths?
What does it mean to you that God's thoughts are higher than your thoughts? Is that comforting or frustrating?
Overview In our modern world, many believers feel pressured to choose: either embrace science and doubt the Bible, or embrace the Bible and reject science. But this is a false choice. The Bible and science address different kinds of questions. Science asks, "How does this work?" and "What are the mechanisms?" The Bible asks, "Why does this exist?" and "What does it mean?" and "How should we live?" These are complementary questions, not competing ones.
The problem arises when we expect the Bible to answer scientific questions it was never designed to answer—or when we expect science to answer theological questions about meaning and purpose. Genesis was not written to provide a chronology of creation; it was written to answer the questions, "Did God create? Is creation good? Is humanity special? What is our purpose?" These questions remain true regardless of whether the universe is young or ancient, whether life developed through evolutionary processes or other means. The Bible's genius is that it teaches eternal theological truth in a form that transcends any particular scientific paradigm.
This May Surprise You Many people assume that for the Bible to be "true," every statement must be factually precise and scientifically accurate. But this is not how truth works. A cookbook is true about recipes even if it contains no information about agricultural science. A love letter is true about the lover's emotions even if it uses poetic language that's not literally precise. A history book is true about past events even if it doesn't explain physics. Similarly, the Bible can be completely trustworthy about theology, morality, and redemption without being a scientific textbook. In fact, the Bible's refusal to settle scientific questions is often a sign of its integrity. If the Bible had provided detailed scientific explanations using the knowledge of the ancient world, those explanations would now be outdated. Instead, Scripture focuses on what is timeless: that God created, that creation is good, that humans are made in God's image, that God pursues relationship with His people. These truths are independent of scientific paradigm shifts.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: Scripture and science address different kinds of questions
Genesis 1 answers the questions: Did God create? Is creation good? What is humanity's role? It does not answer: How old is the universe? What are the mechanisms of life's origin? What does DNA do?
Comment: When we stop expecting Scripture to answer scientific questions, we discover that it is even more trustworthy about what it does claim: theology, meaning, morality, redemption.
Point 2: The Bible uses the language and categories of the ancient world to communicate eternal truth
1 Corinthians 9:20-22: Paul's principle of meeting people where they are and speaking their language to communicate truth.
Comment: The Bible was written by and for ancient peoples. They used the science of their time (geocentric astronomy, for example) because that's how people understood the world. But the theological truths were not dependent on those scientific particulars.
Point 3: Mystery and the limits of human knowledge are consistent with Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully."
Comment: Scripture affirms that we do not and will not have complete knowledge in this life. Mystery is not a failure of faith; it's a realistic acknowledgment of human limitation.
Point 4: True wisdom includes intellectual humility and honest inquiry
Proverbs 18:15: "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out."
Comment: Wisdom is not having all answers; it is seeking truth humbly, being willing to learn and revise understanding. A faithful Christian can study science seriously and remain faithful to Scripture.
Take-Home Thought
You can read the Bible as the powerful, transformative document it is without expecting it to settle every scientific question. You can engage with science, learn from it, and remain at peace in your faith. You don't have to choose between being thoughtful and being faithful. In fact, being thoughtful—engaging seriously with both Scripture and science—is part of being faithful to a God who gives us minds and invites us to use them.
When you encounter apparent conflicts between science and Scripture, take time to think carefully. Perhaps your understanding of Scripture needs refinement. Perhaps the scientific claim needs scrutiny. Or perhaps both are true—just addressing different questions. What you don't have to do is panic. God is not threatened by honest inquiry. God is not surprised by scientific discovery. And the fundamental truths of Scripture—that God created, that we are made for relationship with God, that God pursues redemption—remain true independent of scientific details.
Live in the mystery. Trust in God's character even when you don't understand all the mechanisms. Love God with your mind by studying seriously, questioning honestly, and remaining humble about what you don't know. This integration of faith and reason is not weakness; it is maturity.
Quotes
"The book of nature and the book of Scripture have the same author. Whoever reads either of them with genuine interest and reverence will find clues to the other. And when they seem to contradict, it is usually because we misunderstand one or the other—or both." — Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health
"If we knew everything, we would have no reason to worship. Worship requires wonder, and wonder requires mystery. A completely knowable God would be less than God." — Dallas Willard, spiritual formation teacher
Biblical Connections
Job 38:1-7 — God's response to Job's demand for complete understanding
Romans 11:33-36 — "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!"
Proverbs 3:5-6 — "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Ecclesiastes 12:12 — "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." (Recognition of limits)
1 John 3:2 — "Now we are children of God... what we will be has not yet been made known"
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
I don't have to have all the answers. I can read the Bible as the trustworthy guide it is without expecting it to settle every technical question. I can study science and deepen my faith. I can encounter mystery without fear. I can ask hard questions and trust that God can handle them. And I can live faithfully in the space between what I know and what remains unknown, trusting a God who is bigger than my questions and wiser than my understanding.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us absorbed the message that science and Scripture are competitors for truth. If something is scientific, it's not spiritual. If something is biblical, it's not scientific. We learned to inhabit these as separate worlds. We felt pressure to choose which world we'd live in—the scientific world or the faith world. This framework made us feel like we had to compartmentalize our thinking.
Why This Framework Developed
This happened largely because of how certain historical conflicts played out. When the church opposed scientific discoveries, a narrative developed: faith and science are enemies. Secular culture said: choose science and abandon superstition. Religious culture said: choose faith and be suspicious of science. Both sides reinforced this either-or thinking. It seemed like the only honest choice.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: this framework prevents us from thinking clearly. Most truth claims aren't either scientific or spiritual—they operate in different domains. The Bible doesn't answer every scientific question, and science doesn't answer every spiritual question. When we insist they're competitors, we end up asking the wrong questions of each. We ask Scripture to be a physics textbook. We ask science to answer questions about meaning and purpose. Then we feel like something is wrong when neither delivers what we're demanding.
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if science and Scripture are asking different kinds of questions, and both kinds of questions are legitimate? Science asks: How does this work? What are the mechanisms? Scripture asks: Why does this exist? What does it mean? How should we live? When we understand they're asking different questions, there's no conflict. A Christian can study evolutionary biology seriously AND believe deeply that God created. A person can understand the physics of light AND be moved by the biblical poetry about light. In fact, understanding the mechanisms often deepens wonder. A broader way of thinking allows us to be both thoughtful and faithful.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
Francis Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
John Polkinghorne, Science and Providence: God's Interaction with the World
Karl Giberson and Francis Collins, The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions
Session 12: The Consummation — Creation Restored and Redeemed
Audio Essay — Handout — back to list
Core Idea: God's redemptive work is not finished. The day is coming when all things will be redeemed, when creation will be restored to its original goodness, when suffering will end, and when God will dwell visibly with humanity. This future hope sustains us through present struggle and gives ultimate meaning to our work today.
Key Scripture:
Revelation 21:1-4 — "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... Now the dwelling of God is with mankind, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Romans 8:18-25 — "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us... We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 — "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality... Death has been swallowed up in victory."
Colossians 1:19-20 — "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven."
What to Look For Notice how the Bible's vision of redemption includes material creation, not just spiritual souls. Look for passages describing a physical, embodied, renewed creation where God dwells with people. Observe how the New Testament affirms resurrection of bodies, not escape from bodies. Watch for the theme that God's final answer is not escape from the world, but restoration of it.
Personal Reflection Questions
What does the idea of a "new heaven and new earth" where God dwells with people mean to you? How does that vision differ from what you've sometimes heard about "heaven"?
If you believed that God's goal is not to rescue you from the world but to redeem the world you're in, how would that change how you live today? What work would seem more significant? Less?
Overview We conclude this series where the Bible concludes: not with escape from the world, but with restoration of it. Throughout these twelve sessions, we have traced an arc: God created a good world through evolutionary processes. God designed humans uniquely for relationship with Him. Humans chose sin, and that choice corrupted creation itself. God intervened redemptively throughout history, culminating in Christ. We are called to participate in God's redemptive work now. We face genuine suffering and must learn to trust God despite it. We must integrate science and Scripture intelligently. But the story is not finished. Redemption is ongoing, and it will be completed when God's kingdom comes in fullness.
What will that look like? The Bible's vision is breathtaking: a new heaven and new earth, restored creation, God dwelling visibly with people, all tears wiped away, death and suffering ended, justice established, relationships healed, creation flourishing as God always intended. This is not a distant, disembodied, ethereal fantasy. It is earthy, material, physical, real. God does not rescue us from the world; God redeems the world.
This May Surprise You Many people imagine "heaven" as a disembodied spiritual state—souls floating in clouds, harps and hymns, complete escape from the physical world. But Scripture envisions something radically different: bodily resurrection, physical creation renewed, God dwelling with people in a restored world. Jesus' resurrection was not spiritual resurrection; it was bodily resurrection. He ate fish. He could be touched. He had a body. And that resurrection is the promise to us: we will not escape our bodies; our bodies will be redeemed and restored. We will not escape creation; creation will be healed. We will not be rescued from the world; we will be restored in the world, in a world made perfect.
This changes everything. It means the physical world matters. Your body matters. Creation matters. Your work in the world is not temporary or insignificant—it participates in something eternal. When you care for creation, you are stewarding what will be restored. When you work for justice, you are building toward God's kingdom. When you love faithfully, you are practicing the relationships that will characterize the new creation. Nothing faithful you do is wasted.
Seeds for Thought
Point 1: God's redemptive vision includes all things—material and spiritual, earthly and heavenly
Revelation 21:1-4: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth... Now the dwelling of God is with mankind, and he will dwell with them."
Comment: This is not escape from the world. This is the world made perfect, God's presence fully realized in creation. The goal is not disembodiment; it is embodied existence in a restored world.
Point 2: Bodily resurrection, not just spiritual immortality, is the Christian hope
1 Corinthians 15:50-58: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet... For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."
Comment: The resurrection of Jesus was bodily resurrection, and our resurrection will be too. We are not saved from our bodies; our bodies are saved. We are not rescued from creation; creation is redeemed.
Point 3: Creation itself waits for and will participate in redemption
Romans 8:18-25: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time... even we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies."
Comment: Creation is not a temporary stage to be discarded. It waits for redemption. And we wait with it, groaning in hope that God will restore what sin corrupted.
Point 4: Our faithful work today participates in God's eternal kingdom
Colossians 1:19-20: "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on# The Testimony of Creation
Comment: God's goal is comprehensive redemption. When you work faithfully—caring for creation, pursuing justice, loving others—you participate in that comprehensive redemption. Your work is not wasted; it is eternal.
Take-Home Thought
The story of creation has a glorious ending. Not destruction. Not escape. Not disembodied spiritual existence. But restoration. A new heaven and new earth. God dwelling visibly with humanity. Creation flourishing. Suffering ended. Justice established. Relationships healed. This is the Christian hope—not hope for escape, but hope for redemption.
And here is the remarkable truth: you can participate in bringing that future into the present. When you feed the hungry, you are practicing kingdom hospitality. When you pursue justice, you are establishing God's rule. When you care for creation, you are stewarding what will be restored. When you love your enemies, you are embodying the reconciliation Christ accomplished. When you create beauty, you are anticipating the beauty of the new creation. Nothing you do in faithfulness is wasted or temporary. It all participates in God's eternal purposes.
So live in hope. Not hope for escape, but hope for restoration. Not hope for disembodiment, but hope for transformation. Not hope for leaving the world, but hope for its redemption. And live faithfully in light of that hope. Your work matters. Your care matters. Your love matters. Because they all participate in the day when all things will be redeemed and God will dwell with humanity in a world made perfect.
Quotes
"We are not saved from the world; we are saved for the world. The Christian hope is not escape to heaven, but the renewal of all things. God's goal is not to rescue a few souls from matter, but to redeem all creation and transform it into what God always intended." — N.T. Wright, biblical scholar
"Because Christ rose bodily, we know that God's goal is not to rescue disembodied souls to some immaterial heaven, but to resurrect and restore embodied life in a restored creation. This is the true Christian hope—and it means that our work in this world, our care for bodies and creation, is eternally significant." — Cornelius Plantinga, Reformed theologian
Biblical Connections
Isaiah 65:17-25 — Vision of the new heavens and new earth where former things are remembered no more
Revelation 20:11-21:8 — The final judgment and the vision of God's kingdom come in fullness
1 Corinthians 15:20-28 — Christ the firstfruits of resurrection, and the restoration of all things to God
2 Peter 3:10-13 — Awaiting new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells
Ephesians 1:9-10 — God's plan to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth
How Does This Help Me Trust God Today?
Whatever struggles I face today, I know they are temporary. Whatever injustice I see, I know God will establish justice. Whatever suffering I endure, I know it will end. God's final word is not judgment or destruction, but restoration and renewal. I can trust that God's work is moving toward a glorious conclusion. And I can live faithfully today, knowing that my work participates in that coming redemption. My life has eternal significance. My faithfulness matters. And the day is coming when all will be made right and God will dwell with humanity in a world restored to goodness.
Expanding Our Thinking
The Framework We've Inherited
Many of us learned that heaven means escape from the physical world. We learned to think of our eternal future as disembodied, spiritual, immaterial—finally free from bodies and matter and earth. We were taught to focus on heaven as compensation for the suffering of earthly life. This framework emphasized the importance of the spiritual realm and the next life, but it devalued the physical world and this life.
Why This Framework Developed
This understanding came partly from Greek philosophy, which divided reality into higher (spiritual) and lower (material) realms. It was reinforced by focusing on passages about "going to heaven" while overlooking passages about God's kingdom coming to earth. It also developed because it offered comfort to suffering people: your pain now will be rewarded by escape later. It was meant to be hopeful.
Why This Limits Us
Here's the limitation: if heaven means escape from the physical world, then the physical world doesn't ultimately matter. Your body doesn't matter. Creation doesn't matter. Justice in this world doesn't matter. Work for healing and restoration doesn't matter. It all gets left behind. This can make us passive about suffering now and indifferent to caring for creation. Why work for justice in a world you're escaping? Why care for the environment if it's all going to be destroyed anyway?
A Broader Way of Thinking
What if God's vision isn't escape but transformation? What if the future isn't a disembodied heaven but a restored earth where God dwells with humanity? What if resurrection means our bodies are redeemed, not left behind? Then everything changes. Your physical body matters eternally. Creation matters eternally. Work for justice now matters eternally because it participates in what God is doing. Care for the environment matters because you're stewarding what will be restored. You're not escaping the world. You're helping to redeem it. You're working now toward what God will complete. That makes this life eternally significant, not a temporary waiting room.
You can read more from: (if you have strong feelings about some of these authors, see note at the end of the series)
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (and restoration)
Randy Alcorn, Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions (accessible exploration of restoration theology)
A Word About Some of These Authors
As you explore the resource list accompanying this twelve-session study, you may notice some names that you've heard critiqued from church pulpits over the years. Some of these authors hold perspectives that differ from traditional evangelical Christianity. Some are known for challenging comfortable assumptions. Some have lived unconventional lives or held unusual theological views.
This is worth addressing directly.
We live in a world where information—and ideas—move quickly, and it's easy to inherit cautions about certain thinkers without understanding what those cautions are really about. Our goal in this section is to help you understand why we're recommending certain authors, what we're recommending them for, and what we're explicitly NOT recommending.
Here's a principle that will help you navigate this: You don't have to agree with an author on everything to learn something valuable from them. Throughout Christian history, faithful believers have engaged with ideas different from their own. Thomas Aquinas learned from the pagan philosopher Aristotle. Augustine engaged seriously with Neoplatonism. John Wesley read widely across Christian tradition. Thinking Christianly doesn't mean avoiding ideas that differ from ours—it means engaging with them carefully, discerningly, and with our own convictions intact.
You are intellectually and spiritually mature enough to read broadly, think carefully, and hold fast to what is true while respectfully disagreeing with the rest.
CARL SAGAN
What you may have heard: Many of us were taught to be skeptical of Carl Sagan because he was openly atheist and sometimes dismissive of religious faith. That concern is not without merit. Sagan's worldview was fundamentally different from ours, and he did not believe in God or the supernatural.
Why we're recommending him: We are not recommending Sagan for his theology or his personal beliefs. We are recommending one specific aspect of his work: his unparalleled ability to communicate the genuine scale, wonder, and beauty of the cosmos. When Sagan describes the size of the universe, the age of creation, the vastness of space, and the fragility of life on our small planet, he does so with such clarity and awe that it helps us grasp what the Psalmist meant when he wrote, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them?"
How to read him: You can read Sagan on cosmology without adopting his atheism. In fact, encountering his perspective on creation's vastness might actually deepen your own worship of the God who created it all. Use what is helpful. Respectfully set aside what contradicts your faith. This is called discerning reading, and it's a spiritual practice worth developing.
N.T. WRIGHT
What you may have heard: You might have heard that N.T. Wright is "controversial" in some evangelical circles, or that his theology is "too liberal" or "too academic." These concerns exist, and they're worth acknowledging. Wright does challenge some traditional evangelical assumptions about heaven, hell, the end times, and the nature of redemption.
Who he is: N.T. Wright is an Oxford-trained biblical scholar with unquestionable academic credentials. He has served as Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. He is not a fringe theologian—he is one of the most respected New Testament scholars alive today. When he argues that redemption means transformation of creation rather than escape from it, or that the kingdom of God is breaking into this world now, he is doing careful biblical exegesis. He's reading the original Greek texts. He's engaging with centuries of Christian tradition. He may reach conclusions that differ from what you've been taught, but those conclusions are rooted in serious scholarship.
Why we're recommending him: Throughout this twelve-session series, we've emphasized that God's goal is not to rescue us from the world, but to redeem the world itself. This is not a new idea—it's central to Paul's theology, to Jesus' teachings about the kingdom, to the entire arc of Scripture. Wright helps us see what the Bible actually teaches about these topics, even if his conclusions challenge our comfort or our inherited assumptions.
How to read him: You don't have to agree with every conclusion Wright reaches. But engaging seriously with his scholarship will deepen your thinking about Scripture and challenge you to read the Bible more carefully yourself. That's valuable, regardless of whether you ultimately agree with him.
WALTER BRUEGGEMANN
What you may have heard: Some may have heard that Walter Brueggemann is too "political," too "progressive," or that he emphasizes social justice in ways that seem to dilute the gospel. These concerns often come from people who worry that focusing on systemic justice distracts from personal salvation or compromises conservative values.
Who he is: Walter Brueggemann is an Old Testament scholar with a doctorate from Union Theological Seminary. He taught for decades at prestigious theological institutions. He is a deeply faithful Christian who reads Scripture with both intellectual rigor and spiritual passion. His scholarship has shaped how Christians across denominations understand the prophetic voice of Scripture.
What he actually does: Brueggemann writes about justice, systemic oppression, the poor, and the prophetic critique of power. That's exactly why we're recommending him. The Bible itself is deeply, persistently, repeatedly concerned with justice, the poor, and systemic oppression. The prophets spent their lives calling out injustice. Jesus came preaching good news to the poor. Brueggemann's scholarship helps us see what Scripture actually teaches about these topics—even if his conclusions challenge our comfort or our politics.
How to read him: Brueggemann invites us to ask hard questions: What does the Bible really say about wealth? About power structures? About God's concern for the vulnerable? You may not agree with all his applications, but wrestling with his questions will deepen your understanding of Scripture and your obedience to Christ.
SIMONE WEIL
What you may have heard: Simone Weil was a brilliant philosopher and mystic, but she held some unusual theological views. She was French, intellectual, and lived an unconventional life during World War II. Some Christians have questioned certain aspects of her spirituality or her theological conclusions. She was not writing within the evangelical tradition, and her work reflects that.
Why we're recommending her: Simone Weil wrote Waiting for God while living in exile during World War II, wrestling with suffering, injustice, and the hiddenness of God. On the specific subjects of waiting, longing, encountering God in mystery, and encountering God in the midst of suffering, her insights are profound and deeply biblical. Her reflections on faith in darkness, on the pain of not understanding, and on the beauty of surrendering to God's mystery speak to experiences that many of us face but struggle to express.
How to read her: We are not recommending Simone Weil's entire theological system, and we're not asking you to embrace everything she believed. We're pointing you to one specific, beautiful work about faith when God seems silent and about finding God in mystery. Take what speaks to your soul. Leave the rest.
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER
What you may have heard: Some consider Francis Schaeffer too conservative, too critical of culture, or too dismissive of those who disagree with traditional Christian views. Others have found his cultural analysis outdated or overly polemical.
Why he's on the list: We're recommending Schaeffer's Pollution and the Death of Man—a short work from the 1970s in which he argues that biblical stewardship requires caring for creation. This was unusual thinking for evangelicals at that time. Schaeffer, writing from a conservative theological perspective, insisted that the environment matters to God because it is God's creation. This book helps us see that care for creation is not a "liberal" concern or a distraction from the gospel—it's a biblical imperative.
How to read him: Schaeffer's cultural criticism may feel dated to us now, and you may not agree with all his political conclusions. But his insistence that Christians have a responsibility to care for the earth stands as a witness to biblical truth. Read what is helpful; respectfully set aside the rest.
A PRINCIPLE FOR READING ACROSS DIFFERENCES
Throughout this twelve-session series, we've invited you to expand your thinking. We've asked you to hold together truths that seem to conflict: science and Scripture, beauty and brokenness, faith and doubt. Now we're asking you to do something similar with your reading: to engage seriously with authors who see the world differently than you do, while maintaining your own convictions.
This is not compromise. This is maturity.
Thoughtful Christians have always done this. They read broadly. They wrestle with difficult ideas. They respect brilliant people they disagree with. And they emerge from that reading with deeper understanding of their own faith.
Here's what we encourage you to do:
Approach each author with respect. These are serious thinkers, many of them faithful Christians, some of them scholars of tremendous credibility. Even if you disagree with them, honor the work they've done.
Read discerningly. Ask yourself: What is this author trying to accomplish? What are they an expert in? Where do I agree with them? Where do I have genuine disagreement? Why?
Hold fast to your convictions. Reading someone with a different perspective doesn't mean you have to abandon your faith or adopt their worldview. You are strong enough to disagree.
Look for what's true. As Paul wrote, "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Truth is truth, wherever it's found.
Be humble about disagreement. It's possible that someone you've been taught to dismiss has something valuable to teach you. It's also possible that you'll read them and understand exactly why you were cautioned. Either way, you'll have thought for yourself.
A FINAL WORD
This twelve-session study invites you into a larger conversation—a conversation that includes theologians and scientists, conservatives and progressives, believers and skeptics, ancient voices and contemporary ones. We're not asking you to agree with everyone in that conversation. We're asking you to join it thoughtfully, faithfully, and courageously.
You are intellectually and spiritually mature enough to do this. In fact, Jesus calls us to do exactly this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Using your mind includes reading widely, thinking carefully, and engaging respectfully with people—and ideas—that differ from your own.
The resources on this list represent voices in that conversation. Some are closer to your own beliefs. Some are further away. All of them have something to teach you. Approach them with openness, discernment, and faith.
SUGGESTED READING ORDER
If you're new to some of these authors, you might start with the most accessible:
Easiest entry points:
Francis Collins, The Language of God (scientist writing theology for believers)
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (contemporary preacher addressing skeptics and believers)
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain or A Grief Observed (philosophical but deeply human)
Next level:
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (challenging but worth the effort)
Walter Brueggemann, Journey to the Common Good (prophet inviting us into biblical vision)
For deeper reflection:
John Polkinghorne, Science and Theology (physicist-theologian in dialogue)
Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God's World (philosophy of Christian vocation)
Remember: you don't have to read all of these. Choose what speaks to your heart and your questions. This list is a menu, not a mandate.
edited and organized by Jack Barrett, research and grammar by Claude