Christianity is a Rescue Religion

I recently came across an idea in Andrew Wilson's book If God, Then What? that I hadn't quite considered before. Wilson points out that only Judeo-Christianity claims that God will rescue the world. As he puts it, in most other religions "there is no concept of being 'saved' or 'rescued' at all" — people either cycle endlessly through existence or the good guys escape to paradise. The idea of the world itself being redeemed and set right is unique to the Bible.

I think Wilson is absolutely right. Christianity doesn't promise that we'll float away to some ethereal heaven, leaving this broken world behind. It promises that this broken world will be set to rights — a New Earth, a redeemed and resurrected people, all sadness undone. A new creation where the mountains drip with wine, the trees clap for joy, the deserts flow with living water, and there is everlasting shalom.

As we celebrate Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a foretaste and the first fruits of a world that will one day be fully renewed when the King returns!