Thus far in our series of articles entitled WHY FUTURE EVENTS? we have examined the first two things that God must do in order to fulfill His purpose for history before the history of this present earth ends. First, God must crush His enemy, Satan, and remove him and his evil kingdom rule from the earth. Second, God must restore His own theocratic kingdom rule to this earth and have that rule administered worldwide by His earthly representative, the last Adam (Jesus Christ), during the last great age of this present earth’s history. We noted that these two things are directly related to the first two tragic consequences of the first Adam defecting from God by joining Satan in his revolt against God.

The third tragic consequence of the first Adam’s defection was as follows: All of nature was subjected to a curse that caused radical changes in the world (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-22). In light of this consequence, the third thing that God must do in order to fulfill His purpose for history is this: When He restores His theocratic kingdom to this earth, He must remove this curse from nature and restore it to its original condition that existed from the time of creation until the fall of Adam.

In light of this third necessity, the following statement of Jesus Christ to His apostles is most significant: "Verily I say unto you, That you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28). To what was Jesus referring with the expression "the regeneration"? In order to find the answer to that question, we must look at the meanings of two words—one English and the other Greek.

The English word "regenerate" is composed of two parts—re+generate. The prefix re carries two meanings: "Back, especially back to an original or former state or position," and "Again;—used chiefly to form words, especially verbs, of action, denoting in general repetition (of the action of the verb), or restoration (to a previous state)" (WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Second Edition, UNABRIDGED, p. 2070). The second part, generate, means "To come into being; originate" (Ibid., p. 1044). The combination of the two parts, regenerate, produces the following meanings: "To generate or produce anew; to reproduce; re-create" or "To restore (a material) to its original strength or properties" (Ibid., p. 2096).

In light of these meanings, we can conclude that the idea involved in the English word "regenerate" is as follows: There was an original condition that existed for a period of time. But later something happened that caused that original condition to be lost for another period of time. Later still, through regeneration, that original condition is restored. Thus, "regeneration" refers to the restoration of a lost original condition.

The Greek word that is translated with the English word "regeneration" in Matthew 19:28 is "palingenesia." It too is composed of two parts—palin+genesia. The first part, palin, carries the same two meanings as the prefix re in the English word "regenerate": "back . . . In expressions that denote a falling back into a previous state or a return to a previous activity," and "again, once more, anew when someone repeats something he has already done. . . , or an event takes place in the same (or a similar) manner as before, or a state of being recurs in the same (or nearly the same) way as at first" (William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon Of The New Testament, p. 611). The second part, genesia, is derived from the word "genesis," which means "source, origin" or "birth" (Joseph Henry Thayer, A GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, Fourth Edition, pp. 474, 112). The combination of the two parts, palingenesia, produces the following meanings: "new birth, renewal, re-creation" and "denotes the restoration of a thing to its pristine state, its renovation" (Ibid., p. 474). In a literal sense it could be translated "back to genesis" or "genesis again."

This examination of the meanings of the Greek word "palingenesia" and its English translation word "regeneration" prompts the conclusion that both refer to the restoration of a lost original condition. In light of this, the comments of several scholars concerning what Jesus meant by "the regeneration" in Matthew 19:28 are significant.

Joseph Henry Thayer wrote that Jesus referred to "that restoration of the primal and perfect condition of things which existed before the fall of our first parents, which the Jews looked for in connection with the advent of the Messiah, and which the primitive Christians expected in connection with the visible return of Jesus from heaven" (Ibid., p. 475).

William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich indicated that Jesus had in mind "the renewing of the world in the time of the Messiah . . . in the new (Messianic) age or world" (A Greek-English Lexicon Of The New Testament, p. 611).

F. F. Bruce asserted that Christ signified "a renovation of all nature (cf. Romans 8:18-23)" that will accompany "the final inauguration of the new age" (The Book of the Acts, p. 91, footnote 36).

The fact that Jesus used the definite article "the" before the word "regeneration" indicates that He referred to the specific restoration of nature to the original perfect condition it had from creation until it was subjected to the curse as a consequence of Adam’s defection from God. Jesus indicated when that specific restoration would take place—in the future, when He, as the Son of man (the last Adam), would sit upon His throne and the apostles would "sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28). A parallel statement of Christ (Luke 22:30) indicates that this will be related to His future Messianic kingdom, when He will administer God’s theocratic rule over the world.

Since it was nature’s subjection to the curse that caused it to lose its original perfect condition, the restoration of that original condition will require the removal of the curse by Christ when God restores His theocratic kingdom rule to the earth through Him in the future.

Now that we have examined the three things that God must do in order to fulfill His purpose for history before the history of the present earth ends, the next article will begin to look at how God will accomplish those three things in the future.

To pursue the subject of how God works through time to accomplish His purpose for history, order my book: What On Earth Is God Doing?, from Loizeaux Brothers. P.O. Box 277, Neptune, NJ 07754-0277. Tel. 1-800-526-2796