What is the purpose of Christ's return?
One of the theological reasons for Jesus’ return is connected in a fundamental way with God’s creation and the fall. At the end of the sixth day of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31; the phrase “very good” in Hebrew is tob me’od). The next time that the Hebrew term for “very” (me’od) is used in the book of Genesis is in the statement “Cain was very angry” (Gen. 4:5), a disposition that quickly led to the first murder in history. The fact that Cain was “very angry” was a vivid demonstration of the fact that God’s creation was no longer “very good.” The event that changed God’s “very good” creation was the decision of Adam and Eve to act in deliberate disregard of the will of God, following the Serpent rather than obeying the One who had created a perfect world (Gen. 3:1–6). The consequences of the fall were swift, decisive, and numerous (Gen. 3:7–19). First, the relationship of Adam and Eve with God was fractured: th...