Journal of the Adventist Theological society, 29/1-2 (2018): 1-26.

Article copyright © 2018 by Laszlo Gallusz.

Radically New Beginning—Radically New

End: Creation and Eschatology in the
New Testament

Laszlo Gallusz
Belgrade Theological Seminary

The term “eschatology,“ derived from the Greek adjective eschatos

(“last,” “final”), is a word with many meanings.1 Essentially, it designates
the doctrine about “last things.” Daley observes that the core of eschatology
is “faith in final solutions,“ therefore the concept of hope is inherent to it.2
He points out that eschatology appeals to “the hope of believing people that
the incompleteness of their present experience of God will be resolved,
their present thirst for God fulfilled, their present need for release and
salvation realized.”3 Thus, eschatology reflects fundamental Christian
convictions about God, the world and human existence. It deals with God’s
final, decisive acts toward His creation in which His created order becomes
renewed, His kingdom comes and His will is done “on earth as it is in
heaven” (Matt 6:10).4

1
Markus Mühling (T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Eschatology [trans. J.
Adams-Massmann and D. A. Gillard; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015], 3–14) names
at least five different ways the term is used in scholarly discussion, and calls our attention
to the linguistic confusion which led to uncertainty in scholarly circles regarding the actual
object of eschatology.
2
Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: The Handbook of Patristic
Eschatology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 1.
3
Daley, Hope, 1.
4
G. C. Berkouwer (The Return of Christ [Studies in Dogmatic; Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1972], 9) points out that the goal of eschatology is “not to deal with unrelated,
independent events that are yet to take place; instead, it focuses on the concentration of all
these events in the promise of Him who is the Last.” He acknowledges that the last things

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This study sets out the thesis that the concept of creation is of
fundamental significance for New Testament eschatology. It acknowledges
the view of Hardy that an “eschatological theology cannot be carried out in
isolation from a doctrine of creation.”5 Clearly, without the creation we
would have no categories to think about the eschaton at all, since, as Volf
notes, “the eschaton is an eschaton of the creation, or it is no eschaton at
all.”6 Movement toward the eschatological goal is one of the major themes
in the biblical storyline, since essential to God’s promises is His “making
all things new“ (Rev 21:5). His major interventions in history follow a
consistent pattern: (1) chaos, subdued by (2) creation, resulting in (3) God’s
kingdom established, His order realized. Such a chaos—creation—kingdom
pattern was repeated from time to time in salvation history and it was
characteristic of God’s mighty acts: the creation, the flood, the exodus and
the return from Babylonian exile.7 Since the Old Testament plotline
provided the substructure for New Testament theology,8 and since God is
consistent in dealing with His creation, the theme of creation is, I argue in
this study, integral to New Testament eschatology. Dumbrell, Scobie and
Emerson have recently argued for the prominence of creation as one of the
key theological themes in the biblical canon,9 while Beale advances the

center on the future return of Christ, a decisive moment for all creation.
5
Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career, and Design of
Human Work (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), 195.
6
Miroslav Volf, “Eschaton, Creation, and Social Ethics,” CTJ 30 (1995),
130–143(134).
7
For God’s consistency and creativity in working according to this pattern in salvation
history, see Jon Paulien, Meet God Again for the First Time (Hagerstown, MD: Review and
Herald, 2003).
8
The Old Testament is not only a preliminary stage to the New Testament, but its major
biblical-theological notions and thought framework exercised a formative influence on the
theological thinking of the New Testament authors. This has been convincingly
demonstrated in e.g. C.H. Dodd, According to Scriptures: The Sub-Structure of New
Testament Theology (London: Nisbet, 1952); Peter Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie des
Neuen Testaments (2 vols.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprechts, 1992–1999).
9
William J. Dumbrell, The End of the Beginning: Revelation 21–22 and the Old
Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001); Charles H. H. Scobie, The Ways of Our
God: An Approach to Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003); Matthew Y.
Emerson, Christ and the New Creation: A Canonical Approach to the Theology of the New
Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2013).

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
thesis that creation is the single central theme of both Testaments.10
Engaging into this discussion is beyond the scope of this study, since the
focus of the examination will be on eschatology, precisely on its
relationship to the creation theme.
For our investigation it is of critical importance to explore, first of all,
how the New Testament authors understood the concept of the “end time”:
what was their eschatological outlook? After laying down the foundation
for our enterprise, I will identify and discuss three cardinal components of
New Testament creation theology which are integral to the eschatological
thinking of the New Testament authors. The analysis of these three
components will reveal the points of contact between eschatology and
creation within New Testament theology. Finally, the relation between
protology and eschatology will be explored from a canonical perspective,
maintaining the presupposition that the Bible narrates a unified, coherent
meta-story of God’s ongoing work in creation, therefore it provides an
inspired ground for doing biblical theology.

The Eschatological Nature of the New Testament

Scholarly research of the last hundred years has amply demonstrated
that eschatology cannot be relegated to a mere epilogue of theology.11 This
is mainly because the message of the New Testament as a whole is deeply
eschatological in character, since the framework of thought of the early
Christians, for whom the basic standpoint for understanding the gospel was
salvation history, was also eschatological. Their basic conviction,

10
G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2011).
11
The eschatological character of early Christianity began to be more fully recognized
only in the early 20th century, due to the work of Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer,
New Testament scholars whose views evoked heated discussions. As a result, a number of
different eschatological models have been developed in interpreting Jesus’ message
(consistent eschatology, realized eschatology, proleptic eschatology and models
de-emphasizing eschatology). For a critical evaluation of the different approaches to Jesus’
eschatology, see A. L. Moore, The Parousia in the New Testament (NovTSup, 13; Leiden:
Brill, 1966), 35-79. Somewhat later, in the second part of the 20th century, Jürgen Moltmann
(e.g. Theology of Hope [trans. James W. Leitch; London: SCM, 1967]) and Wolfhart
Pannenberg (Systematic Theology [trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley; 3 vols.; Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1991–1998]) emphasized in their influential studies the fundamental significance
of eschatology for understanding New Testament thought and Christian faith.

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
expressed in the earliest preaching, worship and confessions of faith, was
that the end-time predictions of the Old Testament have begun the process
of fulfillment in Jesus Christ.12 They believed that in Jesus’ ministry, death
and resurrection the history of salvation reached its climax and the
foundation stone was laid for establishing the Kingdom of God. For this
reason, our enquiry needs to start with the figure and message of Jesus of
Nazareth, who is “the starting point and focus of the New Testament
proclamation, and without an adequate understanding of him we cannot
arrive at an adequate interpretation of the New Testament kerygma.”13
Jesus’ proclamation was an eschatological proclamation. Even though
the Gospels record sayings that have no eschatological significance, the
main mode of Jesus’ preaching was undeniably eschatological. His focal
message was that His appearance announced the arrival of the Kingdom of
God (Mark 1:15): the old era is passing away, because in His person and
ministry a new era, the time of salvation has dawned. His healings and
exorcisms acted as the visible manifestation of the in-breaking of the power
of God’s kingdom into the earthly reality: “But if it is by the finger of God
that I cast out the demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you”
(Luke 11:20).14 Jesus’ kingdom sayings reveal His conviction that the
eschaton was already effective in His own person and ministry. His
eschatological language, as observed by Wright, heralded the arrival of “the
climax of Israel’s history,” the fulfillment of the Old Testament
eschatological expectations which became realized in defeating the rule of
evil itself.15 While the cross and the resurrection were the key moments in
achieving the decisive victory, the full “implementation“ of the effects of
the Christ-event is still in the future. Therefore, essential to Jesus’
eschatological paradigm is a tension between “already” and “not yet,”
which implies a dynamic process: God’s kingdom is inaugurated, yet not
consummated. The old age and the new age overlap: the first is still present,

12
Even the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, held in remembrance of the death and
resurrection of Jesus, has a significant eschatological emphasis in the liturgical texts that
could reflect fragments of the early liturgy (Matt 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18; 1 Cor
11:26; Did. 9:4).
13
Hans Schwarz, Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 68.
14
All Bible texts are quoted from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
15
N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of
God, 2; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1996).

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
while the second has been brought by the first advent of the Messiah. While
the eschatological kingdom has invaded history in the person of Jesus
bringing people freedom in the age of sin and death, the full consummation
is in the future.16
The authors of the New Testament wrote with the conviction that the
ministry of Jesus was the climactic fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecies, and they embraced Jesus’ typological thinking according to
which the “time of the antitypes had arrived” in Him.17 Consequently, their
writings present Jesus as a messianic figure whose ministry has not only
redemptive, but also eschatological significance. Likewise, they present the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a fulfillment of Old Testament
eschatological promises, the sign of the eschatological age in which
salvation is granted to all who call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:1–21;
cf. Joel 2:28–32). LaRondelle notes that “the whole New Testament is
essentially characterized by the typological and eschatological application
of the Old Testament, motivated and directed by the Holy Spirit.“18 It is a
testimony about the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning the coming
of God’s kingdom, the realization of Israel’s hope about God’s decisive
intervention in history. Cullmann considers the transformative ministry of
Jesus as the eschatologically interpreted “center of time,” which redefined
essentially the meaning of history.19 Moore builds on this insight when he
argues: “From the centre, Jesus Christ, the line of salvation history runs
backwards through the covenant to creation and beyond, and forwards

16
For the “already but not yet” tension in Jesus’ proclamation, see Joachim Jeremias,
The Parables of Jesus (trans. S.H. Hooke; London: SCM, 1954); Werner G. Kümmel,
Promise and Fulfillment: The Eschatological Message of Jesus (trans. D.M. Barton; SBT,
23; London: SCM, 3rd edn, 1961); George E. Ladd, Jesus and the Kingdom: The
Eschatology of Biblical Realism (London: SPCK, 1966).
17
Hans K. LaRondelle, Israel of God in Prophecy: Principles of Prophetic
Interpretation (Andrews University Monographs–Studies in Religion, 13; Berrien Springs,
MI: Andrews University Press, 1983), 37. LaRondelle (Israel of God, 54) claims that
typology and prophecy are twin sisters, both pointing forward to the same realities in the
future. He explains their internal connection by referring to Fritsch: “Typology differs from
prophecy in the strict sense of the term only in the means of prediction. Prophecy predicts
mainly by means of word, whereas typology predicts by institution, act or person.”
18
LaRondelle, Israel of God, 38.
19
Oscar Cullmann, Christ and Time: The Primitive Christian Conception of Time and
History (trans. Floyd V. Filson; Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1950).

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through the church and its mission to the Parousia and beyond.”20 Thus,
biblical eschatology is grounded in Jesus and it is focused on His person
and acts in relation to God’s creation.
In light of the salvation-historical standpoint of the early Christians, it
is not surprising that the New Testament authors perceived the beginning
of Christian history as the beginning of the end times. The phrase “latter
days” and its synonyms appear approximately 30 times in the New
Testament, and rarely refer to the very end of history, but rather to the era
starting with the ministry of Jesus in the first century.21 As Beale
convincingly argues, the “end-times“ phrases of the New Testament have
their roots in the language in the Old Testament, even though
eschatological expectations are expressed in the Old Testament sometimes
without using the vocabulary of “latter days,” “end-times” and similar
phrases. He concludes:
The New Testament repeatedly uses precisely the same phrase “latter
days“ as found in the Old Testament prophecies. And the meaning of the
phrase is identical, except for one difference: in the New Testament the
end-days predicted by the Old Testament are seen as beginning their
fulfilment with Christ’s first coming. All that the Old Testament foresaw
would occur in the end-times has begun already in the first century and
continues on into our present day . . . The establishment of His kingdom
have (sic) been set in motion by Christ’s life, death, resurrection and
formation of the Christian church.22
Ample textual evidence demonstrates that the end-times are not limited
to a future point in history, but that they extend throughout the entire
Christian era. The first occurrence of the expression “last days” in the New
Testament is found in Acts 2:17 (en tais eschatais ēmerais), where Peter
interprets the experience of speaking in tongues at Pentecost as the
fulfillment of Joel’s end-time prophecy: “Indeed, these are not drunk . . .

20
Moore, Parousia, 90.
21
For Beale’s in-depth study on the question, see G.K. Beale, “The Eschatological
Conception of New Testament Theology,” in ‘The Reader Must Understand’: Eschatology
in Bible and Theology, ed. K. E. Brower and M. W. Elliott (Downers Grove, IL: Apollos,
1997), 11–52. For a shorter version of this essay, see idem, “The New Testament and New
Creation,” in Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect, ed. S. J. Hafemann (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity; Leicester: Apollos, 2002), 159–173.
22
Beale, “Eschatological Conception,” 14.

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No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it
will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh . . .”
(2:15–17). In 1 Corinthians 10:11, at the end of a section in which Paul
refers typologically to the events of Exodus (10:1–11),23 he instructs the
Corinthian Christians about the manner of their life with an exhortation that
upon them “the ends of the ages have come” (ta telē tōn aiōnōn). In
Galatians 4:4 Paul speaks of the “fullness of time” (to plērōma tou
chronou) referring to the time of Jesus’ birth, while in Ephesians 1:10 the
expression “fullness of times” (tou plērōmatos tōn kairōn) designates the
time when He began His rule over the cosmos as a consequence of His
resurrection. These last two almost identical expressions in Greek point to
God who has control over the flow of time, appointing major events in
history according to His divine plan.
The “fullness of time,” therefore, refers to the climax of all earthly
times, the approaching of the eschatological time of Christ in which God’s
purposes became realized and revealed. In 1 Timothy 4:1 the expression
“later times” (hysterois kairois) is related to the apostasy in the church,
while in 2 Timothy 3:1 reference to the “last days” (en eschatais ēmerais)
comes in the context of the problem of deception. In these two texts, the
eschatological expressions refer not to the distant future, but rather to the
time when these problems arose in the life of the early church. That this
first century context is in mind is confirmed by the fact that in the same
epistles ample evidence is found concerning the presence of deceptive
teaching and apostasy (1 Tim 1:3–7, 19–20; 4:7; 5:13–15; 6:20–21; 2 Tim
1:15; 2:16–19, 25–26; 3:2–9). Hebrews 1:2 relates the ministry of Jesus to
the beginning of the “last days” (eschatou tōn ēmerōn), when God spoke
to humanity and acted through His Son, while Hebrews 9:26 similarly
states that “he has appeared once for all at the end of the age” (epi synteleia
tōn aiōnōn).
Peter reflects the same salvation-historical thinking when he refers to
Christ’s death and resurrection as an event that took place “at the end of the
ages” (ep’ eschatou tōn chronōn; 1 Pet 1:20). He also warns the church that
“in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts”

23
For an argument in favor of the typological character of this passage, see Richard
Davidson, Typology in Scripture: A Study of Hermeneutical ΤΥΙΙΟΣ Structures (AUSDDS,
2; Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1981), 193–297.

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(2 Pet 3:3). That the phrase ep’ eschaton tōn ēmerōn refers to his time, and
not to the future, is evident from the fact that Peter speaks openly about the
threat of scoffers spreading heresies in the church he is addressing (2 Pet
2:1–22; 3:16–17). The text in Jude 18 similarly reflects the challenges of
the church in the first century: “In the last time (ep’ eschatou chronou)
there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” Likewise,
fighting the deception of false teaching in his churches, John qualifies his
time with an expression carrying a strong eschatological overtone:
“Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming,
so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last
hour” (eschatē ōra; 1 John 2:18). In addition to these eschatologically
charged texts which refer to the present as the time of the end, a number of
texts deal with the coming “last day” as the eschaton and with the events
related to it. Thus, it is stated that the eschatological end will be preceded
by the last plagues (Rev 15) and it will bring the annihilation of death as the
“last enemy” (eschatos echthros; 1 Cor 15:26), the resurrection of the dead,
last judgment and salvation (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48: en tē
eschatē ēmera; 1 Pet 1:5: en kairō eschatō), and also the destruction of the
present cosmos (2 Pet 3:10–12).
The discussion in this section has demonstrated that the end-times
predicted in the Old Testament began with the Christ-event, which accounts
for the eschatological nature of the New Testament. The concept of new
creation, as will be shown below, has a significant role in developing the
New Testament eschatological outlook. The prominence of the idea is
explicit particularly in the Pauline writings and Revelation, but it is present
also in other New Testament writings. In the following we will indicate
how three basic aspects of New Testament creation theology are integral
to the New Testament’s eschatological perspective: (1) Christ’s
resurrection as the initiation of the new creation; (2) the creation of a new
humanity which advances God’s eschatological purposes in the world; and
(3) the consummated new creation, the final realization of God’s endeavors
to create all things new. We will explore these aspects under separate
headings.

Christ’s Resurrection: The Initiation of the New Creation

The New Testament presents Christ’s resurrection, together with His
death, as the key event of salvation history. This event initiates God’s new

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creation, and defines the basis of Christian faith and hope. It is the climax
of all the Gospel accounts, it features as a dominant thought in Pauline
theology and it holds an eminent place also in other New Testament
writings. The significance of Christ’s resurrection is most clearly
articulated by Paul: “and if Christ has not been raised, then our
proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Cor
15:14). During the two thousand years of the Christian era much ink has
been spilled over the question of Christ’s resurrection. It has often been
demonstrated that precisely this belief was the focal point of early
Christianity which kept its faith alive until today.24 Discussing the various
aspects of the topic of Christ’s resurrection is beyond the scope of this
study, since our enquiry is focused here on the question: What is the
relation of Christ’s life, death and resurrection to the creation theme?
The death of Jesus on the cross is the appropriate starting point for
understanding His resurrection. Christ’s death “carries connotations of the
beginning destruction of the old world which paves the way for the new.”25
That the death of Jesus is not just an ordinary death becomes clear
particularly during the last three hours of the crucifixion. The supernatural
events at Golgotha (darkness, earthquake, resurrection of dead, dividing of
the temple curtain) indicate that the moment has arrived for God’s major,
unparalleled intervention in salvation history. For our purposes, what is
particularly significant is the darkness lasting from noon to three o’clock
(Mark 15:33). The Egyptian plague of darkness (Exod 10), or the cosmic
judgment language of Amos 8:9, have both frequently been suggested as
Old Testament events illuminating what happens in the darkness at
Golgotha.
In light of these passages, the phenomenon of the crucifixion darkness
has usually been interpreted as the mark of God’s displeasure and
judgment.26 While we acknowledge these connections, the suggestion of
Ortlund and Beale also merits attention. They argue that “from the broadest

24
For an overview of recent discussions on the topic, see George Hunsinger, “The
Daybreak of the New Creation: Christ’s Resurrection in Recent Theology,” SJT 57 (2004),
163–181.
25
Beale, “Eschatological Conception,” 20.
26
See e.g. Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (BNTC; London:
Black, 1991), 375-376; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text
(NIGTC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans; Carlisle: Paternoster, 2002), 651.

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perspective, Mark 15:33 culminates a trajectory that is launched not in
Amos or even in Exodus but in Gen 1.”27 Thus, the darkness descending at
noon, together with the return of light, seems to echo the creation narrative
in which the darkness of chaos is subdued by the dawning of primordial
light (Gen 1:3–4). The background indicates that the darkness over
Golgotha was a phenomenon of de-creation, because crucifying the
incarnated Son of God, an act of utmost evil, was the expression of chaos,
the reflection of the fact that the relation of humanity with its creator is
fractured. The light returning symbolically in Jesus’ resurrection heralded
the inauguration of the new creation, since light in the Genesis creation
narrative appears not as an abstract brightness only, but the personification
of God’s creating power by which He orders chaos.28 The kingdom of God
dawned when Jesus fundamentally defeated Satan and his kingdom. The
effect of this act is that “the darkness is passing away and the true light is
already shining” (1 John 2:8). God was doing something new through the
events of the death and resurrection of Christ.
Jesus’ resurrection from death was more than a public
acknowledgement that God has accepted His sacrifice as a ransom for sin.
It was the key event signaling the dawning of the age which brought
qualitative newness to God’s creation. As the first day of the new creation,
the resurrection was the indicator of the renewal of everything, like the
spring flowers whose appearance on the earth reveals that “the time for
singing has come” (Song 2:12).29 In New Testament creation theology,
Christ appears as “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15), through whom
God becomes reconciled with “all things, whether on earth or in heaven”
(Col 1:20). The resurrection event was, therefore, no mere revivification of
Jesus’ dead body, but the manifestation of divine power in an act
comparable to the creation of the world. The world began with God’s act
of creation out of chaos (Gen 1:2). Similarly, God’s raising of Jesus from
death was an act of ordering announcing a new beginning after the chaos

27
Dane C. Ortlund and G. K. Beale, “Darkness Over the Whole Land: A Biblical
Theological Reflection on Mark 15:33,” WTJ 75 (2013), 221–238(224).
28
In contrast to this position, Ortlund and Beale relate the motif of returning of light
to the passing of the darkness after Jesus’ death (Ortland, “Darkness,” 221–238). However,
in none of the Gospels we have reference to light returning on Friday afternoon, after Jesus’
death.
29
Berkouwer, Return, 102.

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that came on the Earth as the consequence of rejecting God’s rule (Gen 3).
Thus, resurrection and creation belong together, since in the new creation
God’s original purposes come to completion, his creation is becoming
restored and extended.
The significance of Christ’s resurrection for the theological perspective
of the early church cannot be overemphasized. As Wright notes, the early
followers of Jesus, in light of His rising from the dead reshaped “their
worldview around the resurrection as the new central point.”30 This outlook
is formulated clearly in Galatians 6:14–16, where Paul stresses the reality
of the new creation as the principle of utmost significance:

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is
everything! As for those who will follow this rule peace be upon them, and
mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

This passage highlights the transformative effect of Jesus’ death and

resurrection which define the future of the world, but also the nature of
Christian discipleship. It emphasizes that as the result of the Christ-event
the world became a different place, therefore the question concerning the
distinction between Jews and non-Jews ceases to be a relevant issue. In the
background of Paul’s argument lies the Genesis creation account, since he
appeals to the one creator God, who by His creative activity exercises
sovereignty over all against the disorder in the world.31
Christ’s resurrection was an event of not only historical, but also
eschatological significance. The eschatological aspect surfaces in at least
three respects. First, the resurrection as the climax of salvation history was
the foundational act for the recreation of the world into its true form. As
“the great turning point from death to life, for all men and for all creation,”
it was an act initiating the era leading toward perfect and eternal creation
(Rev 21:1–8).32 Second, the events of that resurrection morning marked the

30
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question
of God, 3; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003), 27.
31
Wright, Resurrection, 223–224.
32
Martin Franzmann, The Word of the Lord Grows (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1961),
15.

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difference between the old and new creations. Christ’s resurrection
constitutes the “borderline”33 between the two realities which will exist side
by side until the parousia when the old age will be terminated.34 The
believers, therefore, live in an eschatological tension, since the end is
already present in one sense, yet it will come in the future, because the old
age is still here. Third, a fundamental consequence of the resurrection is the
ultimate coming of the kingdom of God in the parousia. The expectation
of that day, repeatedly presented in the New Testament in positive terms,
is the major hope of Christians, and endows their life with new meaning
(e.g. Titus 2:11–14). Ridderbos notes the close relation between Jesus’
resurrection and his His parousia, arguing that in one sense they form a
unity: “His announcement of the parousia of the Son of Man is. . .
provisionally fulfilled in his resurrection.”35 Thus, the resurrection of Christ
provides the basis for an ultimate and lasting eschatological hope which
comes from the assurance of Christ’s second coming, and from the fact that
the new creation has already been initiated.
The new creation is closely tied also to the concept of salvation
achieved by Christ. In the Old Testament God is presented in strictly
monotheistic terms, as a Lord whose supremacy in heaven and on earth is
seen in the fact that He is the creator (e.g. Ps 96:4–5). A basic conviction
of Old Testament writers, and also first-century Jews, was that God has not
only created the world, but that He also works actively within it. Wright
notes that the Old Testament picture of God presupposes not only
“creational,” but also “providential” and “covenantal” monotheism.36 These
modifiers point to the fact that Israel’s God is not intrinsically detached, but
that He is involved within His creation. He is not indifferent toward evil in
the world, but He has a plan according to which He acts decisively to
eliminate it and restore His created order. The New Testament writings

33
Hans Burger, Being in Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Investigation in a Reformed
Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009), 553.
34
For a comparison of the New Testament view of the two ages with the Jewish
apocalyptic views of history, see Jon Paulien, What the Bible Says about the End-Time
(Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1994), 65–83.
35
Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom (trans. H. de Jongste; Philadelphia,
PA: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1962), 468.
36
N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the
Question of God, 1; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1992), 248–252.

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
unanimously point to Jesus of Nazareth as the divine restorer, who
overcame evil with His sacrifice on the cross, opening the door of salvation
for humanity. By His resurrection from death He himself became the center
and goal of the new creation, because in Him the barriers between
humanity and God are knocked down: “in him things in heaven and things
on earth” are made one (Eph 1:10).37
However, the effect of salvation is not merely undoing the work of evil
and returning to the good-old-days, but it is striving toward a new and
unprecedented reality defined by God’s creative activity. Schwarz notes
that the eschatological promises act as a “driving force” for the vision of
salvation, because “salvation calls for a totally new creation.”38 In Jesus,
therefore, in whom a completely new world came, “the hope of humanity
was realized toward something final and absolute, namely, toward a new
creation.”39
The new creation has started with Christ’s resurrection, which was,
together with His death, the foundational event in God’s work of healing
the world. No wonder then that the early Christians considered these events
the central point of history which reshaped their perception of reality.
God’s creative activity, however, extends beyond the cross and the
resurrection of Jesus. It involves the church which is called to experience
the work of the new creation and to participate in its realization. In the
following section we will discuss this aspect of God’s creative activity,
which came as a direct consequence of the initiation of the new creation
through the Christ-event.

Creation of a New Community: Living as the People of God

According to the witness of the New Testament, the interval between

37
Paul in Romans 8 shows that God’s redemption is not limited only to an individual’s
salvation, but it includes the totality of God’s creation, because both are subjected to
frustration due to the presence of sin (“the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains
until now”; 8:22). This is a statement about the worth of creation, which stresses the fact that
the world is not merely an unimportant material, but a reality made by God and belonging
to Him. As John G. Gibbs (Creation and Redemption: A Study in Pauline Theology
[NovTSup, 26; Leiden: Brill, 1971], 34–35) observes, “The two realities are bound together
by the one redemptive purpose at work in both, as evidenced by the ‘hope’ which is
characteristic of both creation and Christians (8:20, 24).”
38
Schwarz, Eschatology, 160.
39
Schwarz, Eschatology, 161.

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Jesus’ ascension and His parousia is an eschatological end-time period in
which the work of Christ continues by extending on the Earth the kingdom
that was inaugurated in His earthly ministry. This is an era characterized by
the presence and work of the Spirit on Earth. Significantly, Acts presents
the outpouring of the Spirit as a sign of the End, “a gift of the end time,”40
the eschatological fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of God (Acts
2:15–21; cf. Joel 2:28–32).41
The Spirit’s primary office is revealing and mediating the presence of
Christ to people. As Hamilton notes, “The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ
because his office is to communicate the benefits of Christ’s work.”42 As
the result of His work people who are open to His influence experience
radical transformation: they receive “resurrection life in the present,”43 in
anticipation of the final resurrection at the parousia. Like Christ’s
resurrection, the “resurrection life” of believing Christians is the work of
God’s new creation, since “new creation is in mind wherever the concept
of resurrection occurs.”44 The link between Christ’s resurrection and the
Christian experience of inner transformation is explicit: our Lord’s
resurrection serves as the foundation for the believers’ experience of new
creation.45

40
Jerry L. Sumney, “‘In Christ There is a New Creation’: Apocalypticism in Paul,”
PRSt 40 (2013), 35–48(40).
41
Pentecost also marked the starting point of Jesus’ messianic reign. His enthronement
is described in the throne-room scene of Revelation 5, and the outpouring of the Spirit at
Pentecost was the visible confirmation of His rule in the end-time messianic age. Ellen G.
White (The Acts of the Apostles [Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2005]) states: “The Pentecostal
outpouring was Heaven’s communication that the Redeemer’s inauguration was
accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His
followers as a token that He had, as priest and king, received all authority in heaven and on
earth, and was the Anointed One over His people.” For an extended argument that the event
in Revelation 5 is Christ’s enthronement in the heavenly temple, see Ranko Stefanovic, The
Background and Meaning of the Sealed Book of Revelation 5 (AUSDDS, 22; Berrien
Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1996), 206–225.
42
Neill Q. Hamilton, The Holy Spirit and Eschatology in Paul (Edinburgh: Oliver and
Boyd, 1957), 15.
43
Wright, Resurrection, 304.
44
Beale, “Eschatological Conception,” 19.
45
Paul expresses the relation between the resurrection of Christ and that of the believers
by using a metaphor and a typological correspondence: first fruits offerings and Adam (1 Cor
15).

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
The identification of the inner transformation with the new creation is
clearly made in a number of New Testament texts. Although the phrase
ōkainē ktisis (“new creation”) occurs only twice in the New Testament (Gal
6:15; 2 Cor 5:17), the motif of newness in Christ pervades the atmosphere
of the New Testament writings (the adjective kainos occurs 49 times in 16
New Testament writings).46 As pointed out above, Galatians 6:15 highlights
the major significance of the principle of new creation which
fundamentally defines the thinking and lifestyle of Christians. Somewhat
differently, 2 Corinthians 5:17 directly states that the personal renewal of
an individual in Christ is an act of new creation: “So if anyone is in Christ,
there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has
become new!” The terms “old” (archaios), “behold” (idou) and “new”
(kainos) appear together also in Isaiah 43:18–19 (LXX) which lies in the
background of the passage. Paul’s argument echoes the Isaianic promise of
restoration in which the renewal is related to the motif of new creation.47
The phrase kainē ktisis shall be treated together with other renewal
terminology of the New Testament (paliggenesia, anagennaō and
anakainoō). The term paliggenesia (“regeneration,” “rebirth”) occurs twice
in the New Testament, and refers like kainē ktisis to the concept of new
creation. It designates the future renewal of the world in Matthew 19:28,
but for our purposes it is more significant that in Titus 3:5 it is related to
the spiritual and moral renewal of an individual. The inner change is the
result of the work of the Spirit who “recreates” the individuals for new life
in Jesus Christ. Similarly, anagennaō (“regenerate,” “bring to birth again”)
also occurs twice in the New Testament and in both references it designates
the “new birth” experienced by believers. These references appear in the
same context: first it is stated that believers are given the experience of new
birth by God, due to the resurrection of Jesus as an event which opened up

46
For an in-depth study on the theological significance of the motif of newness in
biblical literature, see Nikola Hohnjec, Novo stvaranje: teologija novosti u Svetom pismu
i njezin odraz u crkvi (Biblioteka riječ, 37; Zagreb: Kršćanska sadašnjost, 2000).
47
Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 are seen also as forming the background to the Pauline text
(see e.g. Peter Balla, “2 Corinthians,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old
Testament, ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic;
Nottingham: Apollos, 2007], 753–783[765–766]). It seems, however, that these texts refer
not to a “new exodus,” but to a new creation of a different sort, to the cosmic new creation
at the end of history.

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
vistas of hope (1 Pet 1:3), while later it is pointed out that this experience
takes place “through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pet 1:23).
The term anakainoō (“renew,” “make new”), which also occurs twice in the
New Testament, likewise refers to the renewal of the “inner man” (2 Cor
4:16), the “new self” which is modelled on “the image of its creator” (Col
3:10). For delineating God’s work of new creation in believers, attention
also needs to be given to texts in which His activity is referred to using
ktizō (“to create”), without an adjective, and it is applied clearly to renewal
in Jesus Christ (Eph 2:10; 4:24).
The divine work of transformation lies also in the background of a
number of texts which lack an explicit reference to “creation.” These
include the kainos texts, and those which point to the qualitative newness
in the Christian’s life. A good example of the latter is 2 Corinthians 4:6:
“For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has
shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.” This text is a reference to the Genesis story of
creation. Paul emphasizes his point by drawing a parallel between the
creation “in the beginning,” and the transformation brought by the light of
the gospel into the hearts of those who receive Christ. Thus, in light of the
Old Testament background, experiencing the inner renewal needs to be
interpreted in terms of God’s creative activity. Also, Paul’s ev christō (“in
Christ”) language implies living in a new world, in the reality of the new
creation, since as Strachan points out, “There is a new creation whenever
a man comes to be in Christ.”48 Paul’s death–life symbolism, the idea of
“dying to” a certain way of life and “living to” God (e.g. Rom 6:1–11; Gal
2:20), serves the same purpose. Hubbard observes that this concept
functions as “part of the interpreting framework for his new-creation
statements.”49
The people experiencing God’s work of new creation make up a new,
transformed community. Their life is characterized by a qualitative
newness, since their former relationship to the world has ended: the old

48
R. H. Strachan, 2 Corinthians (MNTC; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1935), 113.
Similarly, Jeffrey A. Gibbs (“Christ is Risen, Indeed: Good News for Him, and for Us,” CTQ
40 [2014], 113–131[126]) points out that the “in Christ” status of the believers reflects their
“participation in the new creation.”
49
Moyer V. Hubbard, New Creation in Paul’s Letters and Thought (SNTSMS, 119;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 89.

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
man belongs to the time “before Christ” and “without Christ.”50 The
difference between old and new is emphasized by different analogies: the
old yeast should be cleaned out, because a new batch is prepared (1 Cor
5:7); the old self must be crucified that we may live in newness to God in
a “resurrection life” (Rom 6:1–11). The visible testimony to the realization
of God’s new creation work is baptism, in which believing Christians have
“clothed” themselves “with Christ” (Gal 3:27), and have become part of a
“new” community which seeks to live in “newness of life” as people of
God (Rom 6:4).
The mission of the church is defined by its horizon of newness and the
horizon of the end-times it is existing in. As an eschatological community,
the church is called to proclaim to all the nations the prospect of a
“transition from suffering and fragmentariness to fulfilment and
completeness” in Christ.51 This task is eschatological in nature, since the
church serves in the eschatological era of end-times, but even more because
in its mission the eschatological hopes of the Old Testament are realized
through the gathering of the scattered remnant of Israel.52 By the
proclamation of the gospel, God’s work of new creation is being extended,
because the number of those accepting Christ’s Lordship and experiencing
transformation multiplies. Thus, the church becomes an agent in God’s new
creative work, but the realization of its mission is made possible only
through the generative power of the Spirit who makes the kingdom of God
present (Acts 1:8). At the same time, the church continues to be the
recipient of God’s transforming creation, since He never ceases to work on
the inner renewal of believers’ lives, and by so doing he enables them to
remain faithful in their call and commission (2 Cor 4:16–18).
In a similar way to the resurrection of Jesus, in God’s creative work of
inner transformation of people a chaos—creation—kingdom pattern can be
discerned. The believers’ life “without Christ“ is referred to as a life of
darkness which is being transformed by God’s interference who “called“
them “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). The life of
darkness is described in Titus 3:3 in terms of moral and existential chaos.
However, the description is followed by God’s saving intervention resulting

50
Hohnjec, Novo stvaranje, 61.
51
Schwarz, Eschatology, 208.
52
For an argument, see e.g. LaRondelle, Israel of God, 98–123.

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
in “rebirth” and “renewal” (3:4–5):

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to

various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy,
despicable, hating one another. But when the goodness and loving
kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any
works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

The experience of “rebirth” (paliggenesia) is followed by the

realization of God’s kingship in the lives of transformed people, which is
the essence of Jesus’ concept of the Kingdom of God; in Pauline
terminology the new life is life “in the Spirit“ (e.g. Rom 8). Since the gift
of the Spirit is essential to God’s new creational work in the eschatological
messianic era, it is significant that the events at Pentecost are in Acts 2
presented in terms of an antithesis to the Babel story (Gen 10).53 The chaos
of languages at Babel is in antithetical parallelism with the order which
came as the result of the Spirit’s work: understandable languages. The
antecedent of the Babel story is a rebellion against God, while the results
of Pentecost are renewed lives in Christ: three thousand people confessing
faith in Christ and being baptized in one day (Acts 2:41). The reversal
highlights the radical newness of the eschatological messianic era, in which
God made provision for the turnaround from chaos to His kingship through
His work of new creation.
New creation which has been inaugurated in Christ’s ministry and
continues to take place in the eschatological messianic era through the
ministry of the Spirit will extend forward until it reaches completion at the
very end of history when the “old age” will be terminated. We turn now to
the exploration of the third cardinal aspect of this divine creative work in
which God makes “all things new” (Rev 21:5).

53
For scholars viewing Acts 2 as the reversal of the Babel story, see Jud Davis, “Acts
and the Old Testament: The Pentecost Event in Light of Sinai, Babel and the Table of
Nations,” CTR 7 (2009), 29–48(30 n. 3). For an analysis of the parallels and differences
between the two stories, see Barna Magyarosi, “Etnicitás és etnocentrizmus Bábel és
pünkösd fényében,” in Keresztény egyetemesség és Nemzettudat, ed. Tibor Tonhaizer (Pécel:
Adventista Teológiai Főiskola, 2015), 9–29.

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
The Consummated New Creation: Making all Things New
The goal of God’s new creational work is the restoration of life on
earth. Human beings have been created from earth, they were made to live
on the earth—they belong to the earth and the earth was given to them as
a territory which they are to “subdue,” “fill” and “have dominion” over
(Gen 1:28). It was also on earth that Christ was born and crucified, on earth
He experienced resurrection, and it is on earth that the people of God
experience deliverance from evil and the final resurrection. Clearly, God
does not give up the earth as a lost territory, but He works on its restoration
which will culminate in creating a “new earth” (Rev 21:1; cf. 2 Pet 3:13).
This will not come as a renewal through a process of gradual
transformation, but it will be the result of an act of creation following a
cosmic destruction (Rev 20:11). This major creative act of God will be,
however, preceded by the millennium, starting with Christ’s second
coming. During this time, the saints, who came alive at the first
resurrection, will reign with Christ and participate in judgment (Rev 20).54
The qualitative distinction between the two worlds is indicated by the
use of kainos (“new”), which designates newness in nature, qualitative
superiority; neos signifies rather newness in time (“what was not there
before,” “what has only just arisen”), though the two terms could
sometimes be synonymous.55 The contrast between “first” (old) and
“second” (new) expresses a qualitative antithesis in other texts of
Revelation also, indicating contrast between incompleteness and
completeness.56 However, in spite of the sharp discontinuity between the
two creations, continuity will also be maintained to some degree, since “the
new cosmos will be an identifiable counterpart to the old cosmos and a
renewal of it, just as the body will be raised without losing its former

54
On interpretation of Revelation 20, a text which generated much discussion and
conflict in the Christian era, see e.g. Joel Badina, “The Millennium,” in Symposium on
Revelation: Exegetical and General Studies, Book 2, ed. Frank B. Hoolbrook (DARCOM
Series, 7; Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, 1992), 225–242; Peter M. van
Bemmelen, “The Millennium and the Judgment,” JATS 8 (1997), 150–160; Eric Claude
Webster, “The Millennium,” in Handbook of Seventh-Day Adventist Theology, ed. Raoul
Dederen (SDA Commentary Reference Series, 12; Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald,
2000), 927–946.
55
E.g. Matt 9:17.
56
G. K. Beale, Revelation (NIGTC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 1006, 1040.

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
identity.”57
God’s eschatological intervention will bring redemption also for the
non-human creation as a whole, which suffers the effect of sin and God's
judgment. The renewing of the moral order and the natural order are closely
connected, sine human evil has consequences not only regarding humans,
but also the rest of God’s creation on the Earth. While in the Old Testament
a series of passages depict all the creatures offering praise to their Creator
(e.g. Ps 148), at the same time, in number of passages the mourning of the
Earth is referred to because of the effect of human wrongdoing (e.g. Jer
12:4; Hos 4:1–3; Joel 1:10–12, 17–20).58 In New Testament this Old
Testament image is taken up in Romans 8:18–23 in which reference to
Genesis 3 is made. The connection indicates that “because of human sin,
God set creation on course for un-creation.”59 According to the words of
Paul, the deliverance of the creation from corruption will happen at second
coming of Christ when the children of God will attain their full salvation
in the glory of the resurrection (Rom 8:21–23).
With the consummation of the new creation God’s program of
restoration reaches its culmination. The most detailed portrayal of the
renovated universe occurs in the final vision of Revelation (chs.
21:1–22:5), in which the New Jerusalem appears as the reversal of sin,
death, agony, futility and discord. The vision is an appropriate conclusion
not only to the Book of Revelation, but also to the story of the entire Bible.
Dumbrell demonstrates in his insightful biblical-theological study that
major theological ideas of the biblical story-line such as new Jerusalem,
new temple, new covenant, new Israel and new creation find their ultimate
fulfillment in the panoramic concluding vision of the biblical canon.60 With
the transformation of the universe, redemption is complete and everything
that does not serve God’s glory is terminated. Thus, a state of universal
shalōm is established.
The cosmic new creation involves a fundamental reshaping of the
structure of the universe. “New heaven” is also created, not only “new
earth,” since the governmental center of the universe is relocated from

57
Beale, Revelation, 1040.
58
Strikingly, the morning is directed to God, similarly to praising (Jer 12:11).
59
Richard Bauckham, Bible and Ecology (London: Darton, Longmann and Todd,
2010), 97.
60
Dumbrell, The End of the Beginning.

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
heaven to the new earth (21:1–5; 22:1–5). Throughout the book of
Revelation God’s throne, along with the Lamb’s throne and the thrones of
His allies, is located exclusively in the heavenly realm, whereas the thrones
of God’s adversaries are limited to the earth. The new creation terminates
this pattern, since evil is “no more” and “the first things have passed away”
(21:4). The transfer of the center of space and time to the earth clearly
indicates the disappearance of the distance between God and humanity, and
the establishment of a new order in the universe. This development seals
God’s victory and stands as a lasting reminder of the vindication of His
reputation.61
The structure of the New Jerusalem vision is linear. It is introduced by
a thematic statement of the new creation (21:1–8), which is followed by its
description in terms of a temple-city of New Jerusalem, a Holy of Holies
in which God lives (21:9–27), and finally the city center is portrayed as the
new Garden of Eden (22:1–5). The language of the vision is drawn first of
all from the Old Testament prophetic literature, primarily from the
eschatological passages of Isaiah and Ezekiel 40–48.62 In Revelation
22:1–5, Garden of Eden imagery is added which ties the description of the
renovated cosmos to the creation–fall narrative (Gen 1–3). Five parallels
can be established between the creation–fall narrative and the new Garden
of Eden vision. First, the river of the water of life (potamon hydatos zōēs;
Rev 22:1) recalls the river flowing out of Eden (potamos; Gen 2:10).
Second, the tree of life appears in both contexts (xylon zōēs in Rev 22:2;
xylon tēs zōēs in Gen 2:9). Third, the curse (katathema; Rev 22:3) is
banished from the New Jerusalem, while in the Fall narrative it appears as
a consequence of sin (epikataratos; Gen 3:14, 17). Fourth, the promise of
seeing God’s face (Rev 22:4) reflects the undoing of the Fall’s consequence
of banishment from the divine presence (Gen 3:23). Fifth, the promise of
the reign of saints (basileusousin; Rev 22:5) reflects Adam’s original
commission to rule over the created world (archete; Gen 1:28). The five

61
For the macrodynamic of the throne motif’s development in Revelation, see Laszlo
Gallusz, The Throne Motif in the Book of Revelation (LNTS, 487; London: Bloomsbury
T&T Clark 2014), 257–268.
62
For a detailed study of intertextual links, see Jan Fekkes, Isaiah and Prophetic
Traditions in the Book of Revelation: Visionary Antecedents and their Development
(JSNTSup, 93; Sheffield: JSOT, 1994); Jeffrey M. Vogelgesang, “The Interpretation of
Ezekiel in the Book of Revelation” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1985).

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 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
allusions do not have equal strength. Whereas the first two are supported
by verbal parallels, the other three reflect only thematic correspondence.
John does not identify the new creation with the Garden of Eden, but
describes the New Jerusalem in the language of Paradise. Such an approach
is not new, since in the Old Testament and particularly in the Jewish
apocalyptic literature, Garden of Eden imagery and the motif of an
eschatological temple/city are related to one another.63
The purpose of adding the Garden of Eden imagery as a fresh symbolic
element in the final scene of the vision, which functions as the conclusion
to all of ch. 21, lies in generating a sense of climax. The climactic tone not
only of the New Jerusalem vision, but also of the entire book is generated
first of all by the emphasis on the centrality of the throne of God and the
Lamb in the new creation (22:1, 3). The throne imagery points here to the
fact that the New Jerusalem functions as the governmental center of the
new creation. Not less significantly, it is also made clear that God’s
kingship is a life-giving reality (the throne is closely related to two
life-images: the “water of life” and the “tree of life”). Setting the divine
throne in the context of the Garden of Eden emanates a rhetorical energy
which makes it a fitting conclusion to the book. As Deutsch points out,
Paradise functions as “the symbol of primeval completeness, a
completeness which follows the defeat of . . . chaos. Thus, it is only fitting
that the perfection of a restored or new order be symbolized by the image
of Paradise. End-time has become primeval time, assuring communities
under crisis of the ultimate victory of life and order.”64
In this cosmic renewal of the universe, a chaos—creation—kingdom
pattern can be discerned, just as in the case of the two previously discussed
cardinal aspects of God’s new creation: Christ’s resurrection and the
transformation of human lives into “resurrection life” in the present age.

63
In the Jewish literature just as it is stated that the earth shall return to a state of
primeval chaos, the New Jerusalem is sometimes linked with Paradise itself, not only with
the new creation (2 Bar. 4:1-7; 1 En. 90:33-36). In the description of the consummation of
the ages in T. Dan. 5:12, Eden and the New Jerusalem are set in parallel: “Saints shall
refresh themselves in Eden, the righteous shall rejoice in the New Jerusalem.” It is also said
that Paradise was sometimes hidden only to be revealed in the future (2 Bar. 59:8; 4 Ezra
7:123; 8:52; 2 En. 8:1-6).
64
Celia Deutsch, “Transformation of Symbols: The New Jerusalem in Rev 21.1–22.5,”
ZNW 78 (1987), 106–126(117).

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
The consummated new creation takes place because of the disorder in
God’s created world, which culminates in the moral chaos of Babylon’s
dominion and the anarchy following its collapse (chs. 17–18). God
establishes a new order, because human sin brought His creation to the
verge of collapse. The degradation caused by evil on the earth is clearly
expressed in the judgment series of the Seven Trumpets (8:6–11:18), which
pictures the course of human history in terms of progressive de-creation.65
Destruction is followed by renewal, and the result is the establishment of
a new cosmos oriented toward God’s throne, which is located in the center
of the temple-city, a location where His people will worship him and “will
see his face“ (22:4). The theocentricity of heaven, pictured in chs. 4–5
comes into focus again in the New Jerusalem vision, but this time the
location is the new earth and God’s people are pictures as participating in
His rule: “For the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever
and ever” (22:5). The reign of the saints will be, however, freed from all
associations of human rule, since it materializes in service in perfect
freedom and in seeking God’s glory. Thus, seeing God’s face and ruling by
serving “will be the heart of humanity’s eternal joy in their eternal worship
of God.”66
After discussing the three cardinal elements of the New Testament
theology of new creation and their eschatological character, the relation
between protology and eschatology will be examined in the following.

Protology and Eschatology

The biblical story-line starts with creation (Gen 1–3) and ends with the
descent of the New Jerusalem which signals the consummation of the new
creation (Rev 21–22). These two great events in history serve as two related
poles of the biblical meta-story. The connecting link is not only the theme
of creation, but also the motif of God’s presence. The story ends with a

65
Jon Paulien, Decoding Revelation’s Trumpets: Literary Allusions and the
Interpretation of Revelation 8:7-12 (AUSDDS, 11; Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews
University Press, 1987), 229–230; Roy C. Naden, The Lamb Among the Beasts: Finding
Jesus in the Book of Revelation (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1996), 141–142;
Hans K. LaRondelle, How to Understand the End-Time Prophecies of the Bible (Sarasota,
FL: First Impressions, 1997), 176.
66
Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (New Testament
Theology; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142.

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vision of God who moves His governmental center from heaven to the new
earth, coming to dwell with redeemed humanity in the New Jerusalem. The
beginning of the biblical narrative resembles this picture. Genesis opens by
portraying the creation of the earth which was designed to be a place where
God meets with His people. For this reason, both Eden and New Jerusalem
are pictured in terms of a temple: as a temple-garden and a temple-city.67
Since the divine plan was disrupted due to the disobedience of the first
couple, humanity lost the privilege of enjoying God’s presence directly.
The complex story that follows in the biblical narrative centers on God’s
redemptive mission, due to which the earth will be turned into a place
where God and humanity can dwell together again. So, the biblical story is
structured around the movement from creation to new creation, and the
process of redemption is seen as a means leading to the restoration of the
original creation. The original creation is, therefore, “the assumption in the
Old Testament from which all theological movement proceeds,” and its
restoration is the final goal toward which everything eventually moves.68
The strong link between the two ends of the canon suggests that these
passages frame the entire biblical narrative, therefore they serve as two
poles which have a critical interpretive significance for all biblical material.
Consequently, everything in the biblical canon is to be seen as having its
roots in Genesis 1–3, and also moving toward the final goal in Revelation
21–22.69
The relation of Gen 1–3 and Rev 21–22 reflects the well-known
Urzeit–Endzeit or protology–eschatology schema. As Aune notes, the
essence of this pattern of thought is that “the conditions of eschatological
salvation are usually conceptualized as a restoration of primal conditions
rather than an entirely new or utopian mode of existence with no links to
the past.”70 The conception that the end is recapitulating the perfect and

67
For Eden as the first earthly sanctuary, see Gordon J. Wenham, “Sanctuary
Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of
Jewish Studies, Division A: The Period of the Bible (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish
Studies, 1986), 19–25. For the New Jerusalem as a temple, see G.K. Beale, The Temple and
the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (NSBT, 17;
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity; Leicester: Apollos, 2004), 23–26, 365–373.
68
Dumbrell, The End of the Beginning, 189.
69
Beale, Biblical Theology, 59.
70
David E. Aune, “Eschatology (Early Christian),” ABD, II, 594–609(594–595).

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 GALLUSZ: CREATION AND ESCHATOLOGY IN THE NT
paradigmatic beginning is foundational for the apocalyptic worldview.71
The point of the parallel lies in emphasizing the restoration of the blessings
of an earlier idyllic period. At the eschaton a new order is set up in a new
environment, but it is the original creation fulfilled and restored to its
Edenic origins. Still, John does not identify the new creation with the
Garden of Eden, but rather, he describes the New Jerusalem in the language
of Paradise. While in his vision the end resembles the beginning, a
significant change is also evident: in Genesis the earth is presented as a site
in which some “building” (creative human activity) is expected to occur,
while Revelation presents a city.72 The imagery of city by no means suggest
that the endeavors of the humanity “build” an idyllic future. This holy city
comes from the heaven, from the divine sphere, “in the sense that all good
comes from God.”73 Namely, in the ancient world the ideal city was a motif
with a strong rhetorical force embodying the ideas of security and
prosperity; it was pictured as a place with the divine in its midst.74 Thus,
both creation and the eschaton flow freely from God, and His sovereignty
is manifested in both events in which His creative activity is at work.75

Conclusion
Creation and eschatology are intrinsically interconnected in New
Testament theology. To address one without the other risks distortion of
both topics. It is impossible to separate creation and eschatology since both
are part of the same process by which God orders the world subduing chaos
by turning it into an enjoyable place for his people. It has been
demonstrated in this study that the end-times were launched by Christ’s
death and resurrection, the pivotal events of salvation history. These events

71
For the Urzeit–Endzeit pattern in Jewish apocalyptic tradition, see David E. Aune,
“From the Idealized Past to the Imaginary Future: Eschatological Restoration in Jewish
Apocalyptic Literature,” in Apocalypticism, Prophecy and Magic in Early Christianity
(WUNT, 199; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006), 13–38(31–34).
72
T. Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: Exploring God’s Plan for
Life on Earth (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity, 2008), 14.
73
Bauckham, Theology, 135.
74
For an extended argument, see Eva Räpple, The Metaphor of the City in the
Apocalypse of John (SBL, 67; New York: Lang, 2004), 139–178.
75
Eric W. Baker, The Eschatological Role of the Jerusalem Temple: An Examination
of the Jewish Writings Dating from 586 BCE to 79 CE (Hamburg: Anchor Academic
Publishing, 2015), 31.

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were the laying of the foundation stone of the new creation, which was a
necessity because evil was so ingrained in the present order that a new
creation was the only means of dealing effectively with it. Thus, in the
eschatological messianic era, God is involved in the world through His new
creational work, directing the course of history toward the ultimate and
comprehensive restoration at the very end. In this study an argument has
been offered in favor of the suggestion that God’s new creational activity
is being realized through three cardinal works which follow a chronological
order: (1) Christ’s resurrection as the initiation of the new creation; (2) the
creation of a new humanity which is the recipient of, but also the agent in,
God’s new creational endeavors; and (3) the consummated new creation
which leads to the final restoration of the universe. In all three events a
chaos—creation—kingdom pattern can be observed, which reveals
consistency in God’s work with His creation. Also, all three events are
eschatological because they occurred/occur/will occur in the eschatological
era of the end-times and because they are events of eschatological
significance as major milestones in advancing God’s work of “making all
things new“ (Rev 21:5). The fact that the biblical story-line starts and ends
with creation accounts (Gen 1–2; Rev 21–22) gives an eminent role to
creation as a major theme in biblical theology. While in the New Testament
the theme of new creation dominates the creation theology of biblical
authors, they developed it as rooted in the Old Testament in conviction that
God has spoken “and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps
33:9).

Laszlo Gallusz . . .

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