God Will Restore All Things

Holtonumc   -  

“Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
This means that Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the Father until he returns at the “resurrection of the dead”, at the last days, to “restore” all things. The Greek word for “restore” means to return to, to restore (like furniture, a home, etc.), although in a Christian sense it is more than just going back to a previous state, to be just like it was. Like what happened to Jesus’ body upon his resurrection, when Jesus returns, we (God’s children and all creation) will be restored (I.e. resurrected) to a better state than before, to a state without the effects of sin, evil, . We will receive imperishable resurrected or heavenly bodies (1 Cor. 15:35-58; 2 Cor. 5:1-5), that are not susceptible to disease, or the effects of sin or death (Rev. 21:4). Bodies that can live forever with God in his eternal home. But restoration isn’t limited to humans, all creation has been groaning in anticipation of being restored (Rom. 8:28) and at the end it will be destroyed by fire (read refined or purified, 2 Peter 3:7-10), so that all sin, impurities, anything that is not good, and of God, will be removed, and the new heaven and earth will emerge like a Phoenix from the fire.