"The Lenses of Reformation Concerning Restoring
Ancient Pathways"
by Dr. Patti Amsden
God brings about His plans for the earth through progressive or consecutive moves. This is observed by considering the methodology that God used when He created the earth. His intention or His predetermined plan was to reproduce an earthly reflection of heaven. With the eternal realm as the template, God began creating heaven into the earth. Each day God would complete His work by announcing “it is good.” Among other things, God was declaring that what He had made matched the heavenly blueprint. Day by day, God scripted the story of the eternal onto the pages of creation. He wrote the story of the unseen realm onto the tablet of the seen.
Reformation lens #1 – In the creation of the earth, God caused His reality and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God could have caused of heaven to be remade into the earth in a moment of time. He could have just said “be” and the earth would have been as perfectly created and flawlessly formed as we find it by the end of day six. God did not need six days or any particular length of time to recreate heaven on the earth. After all, God is all powerful and all knowing, so neither time nor experimentation would have been needed to accomplish His masterpiece of the created, temporal order. Yet God chose to build eternity into the earth one day at a time. God chose to use the vehicle of time to accomplish revealing His eternal realities into the arena of earth and history.
Reformation lens #2 – In order to bring the reality of heaven into the realms of earth, God released aspects of heaven progressively or consecutively into the earth through the vehicle of time.
After God competed the formation of the earthly realm, God commissioned Adam to be fruitful and to fill up the earth. Although without flaw in its design, the earth was not yet all that it was going to be. Through the works of the “Adams” – or humanity – the potential locked up in the earth would be released. Taking something from it potential stage into it fully developed stage is the concept of glorification. Mankind, in Adam, was commission to progressively or consecutively take the earth from one stage of glory to the next stage of glory. Every era in history would follow the pattern of a creation day and mankind would use the vehicle of times to bring heaven to earth. T
Reformation lens #3 – God called mankind in Adam to continue releasing the realities of the eternal into the earth, and man would use time to accomplish the earth’s glorification.
Although sin disrupted the direct development of heaven on the earth, God’s plan of redemption included calling men and women to serve as His heaven-on-earth builders. From one generation to another, one time frame following another, or one day after another God gave revelation as to what aspect of heaven needed to be developed in the earth. Throughout the time line of history, man has been building heaven into the earth just as God used time to do the same. Past moves of God lay the foundation for the next day or the next move just as day 3 of creation laid the foundation for day 4 or creations.
Reformation lens #4 – Progressive and successive moves of God in the timeline of human history advance God’s plan until the fulness of His will is done on earth just as it is in heaven.
As reformers, we must not neglect to appreciate and to steward the former moves of God any more than God would have neglected or dismantled a former creation day once He set about to fulfill the next creation day. God upholds all things by the word of his power (Col. 1:17), so He held in tack day 1 and day 2 while He created on day 3. If the church has failed to steward any past revelation, that past move or revelation must be restored. Martin Luther’s theme that the just shall live by faith was a truth that Paul heralded in his epistles, that had been neglected somewhere in the church timeline, but was restored in the message of Luther. Every past day revelation must be preserved as God would have it preserved to ensure that heaven is built into the timeline of history. Reformers are restorers. Reformers guard the former day truths and seek to understand the current day truth. Reformers build heaven into the earth one day after the next until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.
Reformation lens #1 – In the creation of the earth, God caused His reality and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God could have caused of heaven to be remade into the earth in a moment of time. He could have just said “be” and the earth would have been as perfectly created and flawlessly formed as we find it by the end of day six. God did not need six days or any particular length of time to recreate heaven on the earth. After all, God is all powerful and all knowing, so neither time nor experimentation would have been needed to accomplish His masterpiece of the created, temporal order. Yet God chose to build eternity into the earth one day at a time. God chose to use the vehicle of time to accomplish revealing His eternal realities into the arena of earth and history.
Reformation lens #2 – In order to bring the reality of heaven into the realms of earth, God released aspects of heaven progressively or consecutively into the earth through the vehicle of time.
After God competed the formation of the earthly realm, God commissioned Adam to be fruitful and to fill up the earth. Although without flaw in its design, the earth was not yet all that it was going to be. Through the works of the “Adams” – or humanity – the potential locked up in the earth would be released. Taking something from it potential stage into it fully developed stage is the concept of glorification. Mankind, in Adam, was commission to progressively or consecutively take the earth from one stage of glory to the next stage of glory. Every era in history would follow the pattern of a creation day and mankind would use the vehicle of times to bring heaven to earth. T
Reformation lens #3 – God called mankind in Adam to continue releasing the realities of the eternal into the earth, and man would use time to accomplish the earth’s glorification.
Although sin disrupted the direct development of heaven on the earth, God’s plan of redemption included calling men and women to serve as His heaven-on-earth builders. From one generation to another, one time frame following another, or one day after another God gave revelation as to what aspect of heaven needed to be developed in the earth. Throughout the time line of history, man has been building heaven into the earth just as God used time to do the same. Past moves of God lay the foundation for the next day or the next move just as day 3 of creation laid the foundation for day 4 or creations.
Reformation lens #4 – Progressive and successive moves of God in the timeline of human history advance God’s plan until the fulness of His will is done on earth just as it is in heaven.
As reformers, we must not neglect to appreciate and to steward the former moves of God any more than God would have neglected or dismantled a former creation day once He set about to fulfill the next creation day. God upholds all things by the word of his power (Col. 1:17), so He held in tack day 1 and day 2 while He created on day 3. If the church has failed to steward any past revelation, that past move or revelation must be restored. Martin Luther’s theme that the just shall live by faith was a truth that Paul heralded in his epistles, that had been neglected somewhere in the church timeline, but was restored in the message of Luther. Every past day revelation must be preserved as God would have it preserved to ensure that heaven is built into the timeline of history. Reformers are restorers. Reformers guard the former day truths and seek to understand the current day truth. Reformers build heaven into the earth one day after the next until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.