Quote to Ponder: Early Church Belief in Renewal of Creation as Final Hope

Below is a quotation from Irenaeus who was a disciple of Polycarp. This is significant because Polycarp is believed to have been a disciple of the Apostle John. This quotation comes 2 generations removed from the direct tradition of the Scriptures. It is my opinion that it confronts the common belief that the early church taught that ‘going to heaven when you die’ is the hope of the Christian life. Read it, reflect, and let me know your thoughts…

For it is just that in that very creation in which they [martyrs] toiled or were afflicted, being proved in every way by suffering, they should receive the reward of their suffering; and that in the creation in which they were slain because of their love to God, in that they should be revived again; and that in the creation in which they endured servitude, in that they should reign. For God is rich in all things, and all things are His. It is fitting, therefore, that the creation itself, being restored to its primeval condition, should without restraint be under the dominion of the righteous; and the apostle has made this plain in the Epistle to the Romans, when he thus speaks: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies book 5.32; Scripture quotation changed to NIV)