Restoration to Eternal Paradise
The second sermon of Peter recorded in the third chapter of the book of Acts provides further evidence for placing the Genesis 1-3 account of creation in God’s eternal realm. On the occasion of Peter’s sermon a man lame from birth sits at the gate of the temple seeking alms when Peter and John approach to worship in the temple. Rather than giving him money, which they do not have, they give him the ability to walk by the power of Jesus’ name. This creates a public commotion, and as people congregate at the scene Peter begins preaching and calls upon them to repent and turn to Christ for salvation.
(Acts 3:19-21) “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; {20} and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, {21} whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration [apokatastasis] of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient [aion] time.
Christ had just ascended (Acts chapter 1), and the angelic messengers comforted his wondering disciples as they watched him go by telling them that Jesus would return in similar manner as he had departed. Acts 2 recounts Peter’s fist sermon on the memorable Day of Pentecost.
Now in Acts 3 Peter acknowledges that until His return Jesus is received in heaven (compare with Revelation chapters 4-5). In speaking of Jesus’ return Peter calls it a “restoration.” The Greek word for restoration, apokatastasis, means the same in Greek as it does in English—“restoration of a thing to its former good state.”
What is the “former good state” in which sin is absent (“wiped away”), and to which “all things” are to be restored, if not the creation of Genesis 1-3 where sin and death were absent? Is there any other former good state, in this cursed world of time, where we find the absence of sin and death?
What are sinful people afraid of? Against what do they rebel, if not “the presence of the Lord” in the perfect communion of Paradise/Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve fled and hid themselves from that “presence” once they were infected with sin (Genesis Chapter 3). Clearly Peter is referring to restoration of a previous estate. What other estate was there in which people had perfect communion with their Creator and sin was absent? Could there be any such estate other than that which is described in Genesis 1 and 2?
In the same sentence in Peter’s sermon, the English words “ancient time” translate the Greek word aion. Aion refers to a long period of time without reference to a beginning or end, as of “venerably ancient times,” (like our English word “eon”) or, if no end is specified, aion can mean eternity. For instance, aion is the word used by the Septuagint translators in Genesis 3:22 to translate the Hebrew word olam, “forever.”
(Genesis 3:22) Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever (aion)”—
Another Septuagint usage of aion is found in the following passage from Daniel.
(Daniel 7:18) ‘But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever (aion), for all ages to come.’
In Greek lexicons aion is variously defined as, “1) forever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity, 2) the worlds, universe, 3) period of time, age.” Usage of aion with the connotation of eternity in the Greek New Testament is found in the following passages:
(Mark 10:30) but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age [aion] to come, eternal [aion] life.
(Luke 1:33) and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever [aion], and His kingdom will have no end.”
(Luke 18:29-30) And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age [aion] to come, eternal [aion] life.”
(John 10:28) and I [Jesus] give eternal [aion] life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
(Matthew 12:32) “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age [aion] or in the age [aion] to come.
The last example above shows how the word aion can refer both to an indefinite period of time as well as to the concept of eternity, which is viewed by Jesus speaking from His incarnate body in “historical time” as “the age to come.” The world of time is referred to as aion and the world of eternity is also spoken of as aion. The inhabitants of each world have their unique points of view—temporal and eternal, and the two perspectives are entirely different in their focus and perception. I think that the “age to come” is eternal, not temporal, and this cursed world of time, though a creation by God where He quarantines people infected with the virus of sin, is not the same eternal Paradise (Garden of Delight) that God created in Genesis 1-2.
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