Christian Hope

Pastor Martin treats the secondary object of salvation: the earth itself. The fundamental principle is that earth and man are so suited to each other that the condition of the earth is determined by the condition of the man who dwells on it. He traces this from creation (perfect man, perfect earth), through the fall (Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:19-22 — creation subjected to vanity and bondage), to the consummation when the earth will be purged by fire (2 Peter 3) and delivered into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Revelation 21-22). He applies the doctrine against humanistic optimism and pessimism about ecology, calling Christians to searching self-evaluation, vigorous hope, right priorities, humility, and worship.

Pastor Martin draws four practical implications from the doctrine of climactic sanctification. First, the Christian should not live in morbid dread or fear of death, since death's penal sting has been removed by Christ — illustrated by Stephen and Peter. Second, the believer should not give the disembodied state more emphasis than Scripture does, since the predominant biblical hope is the resurrection of the body (Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5). Third, a biblically instructed Christian should neither deify the body (hedonism, humanistic health and birth theories, body worship) nor demean it (asceticism, fasting as more spiritual than feasting, doctrines of demons of 1 Timothy 4). Fourth, the Christian should not live with crippling discouragement over present imperfection, but with the confident refrain: I am not what I should be, not what I desire to be, not what I once was, and not what I shall be.