Creation — Dr. Stephen E. Jones
Introduction: the Restoration of All Things as overarching purpose
The creation theology of Dr. Stephen E. Jones is not an isolated locus within a broader dogmatic system — it is the load-bearing structure of his entire theology of salvation history. The starting point is the dedication with which he opens his principal work: the book is given “to those who are called through the ministry of reconciliation, as Ambassadors of Christ, to tell the world the good news about the Restoration of All Things.” [b1] The restoration of creation is therefore not a peripheral theme but — in Jones’ own words — “God’s overarching purpose in history.” [b1]
Two sources form the basis of this article: Creation’s Jubilee (5th edition, 2000) [b1] and The Restoration of All Things (Berea-Studies) [b2]. Both are authored by Jones himself; together they provide a systematic exposition of his doctrine of creation.
1. Creation as good: refutation of dualism
The foundation of Jones’ doctrine of creation is the biblical declaration that God created the world good. He cites Gen. 1:31 as the normative text: “When God created all things He called it ‘good’ at every stage of creation and finally ‘very good’ at the end.” [b2] Sin is not a constitutive element of creation but a “later invasion.” [b2]
Out of the misunderstanding that evil is inherent in creation and that matter as such is evil, dualistic-gnostic theologies historically arose that assumed “good and evil, light and darkness, spirit and matter were forever each other’s opposites” and reduced the logic of salvation history to “the separation of two opposing kingdoms.” [b2] Jones rejects this conclusion. The opposition between good and evil is temporary, not eternal, and God’s oath in Isa. 45 confirms this: “His promise in Isaiah 45 is not based on conditions. It is simply a declaration of what God does according to His own will.” [b2] Likewise God’s oath in Num. 14:21: “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” [b2]
2. The dominion mandate: from Adam to Christ (Gen. 1:26-28)
The good creation was from the beginning bound to a mandate. Gen. 1:26 grants humanity dominion “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth.” [b2] Jones describes this as the Dominion Mandate: man receives authority to rule under God’s sovereignty. [b2]
This mandate runs as the biblical thread through salvation history. “The Bible focuses primarily on the history of the Birthright, which originally consisted of the Dominion Mandate — the right to rule the earth that was passed down from Adam to succeeding generations.” [b2] Adam was not given a limited territorial mandate: “Adam was given a universal dominion, not merely a small garden somewhere in the Middle East.” [b2]
The mandate culminates in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:7-9 quotes Psalm 8 — a text that refers to Adam’s dominion over the earth — and applies it to Christ: all things are subjected to Him… “He left NOTHING that is not put under him.” [b2] Restoration of creation is thus nothing other than the return to the good order of Genesis 1.
3. The fall: inversion of the mandate
When Adam sins, the mandate turns against him. “Adam lost his authority over the earth through sin, so that the earth gained authority over him.” [b2] His juridical status as a debtor furthermore has consequences for his entire “estate”: “Through sin man became a debtor in the eyes of the law and was therefore ‘sold’ into slavery as a ‘slave of sin.’ Together with him his wife, children, and his entire estate — the earth — were sold.” [b2]
Jones places this mechanism under the Law of Leadership: “The decisions of one in authority affect those under him, both for good and for evil.” [b2] The consequences of Adam’s fall therefore reach cosmically: “Just as Adam’s sin brought death upon ALL people and subjected creation to futility (Rom. 8:20), so the righteousness of Christ brought ALL people life and liberated all of creation.” [b2]
4. Theodicy: the tension in creation (Rom. 8:19-22)
The fallen state of creation raises the fundamental theodicy question. Jones opens his theodicy chapter with Paul’s cosmological description of creation-tension in Rom. 8:19-22: creation groans and suffers as in the pains of childbirth, subjected to “futility” — but not without hope. [b1]
Crucial to Jones’ interpretation is that Paul exonerates creation from any responsibility of its own: “Paul makes clear that the creature had no choice in being subjected to ‘futility’ and the ‘slavery of decay.’ It was done by the sovereign will of God alone.” [b1] The tension in creation is not the result of an unforeseen fall, but of God’s deliberate decision.
This is what Jones calls a “temporary injustice”: “We do not hesitate to call God’s action a ‘temporary injustice.’ It is the direct cause of the tension in the history of creation.” [b1] The tension has a purpose, however — it has the structure of a musical dissonance: “The imputation of death and corruption to humanity and creation in general has built up a judicial tension that demands a resolution… the injustice that causes the tension will be MORE THAN COMPENSATED when the final chord of history sounds.” [b1]
God’s purpose in this temporary injustice is the revelation of grace and righteousness: “God created His own purpose: to create the universe, to permit man to fall into death and sin, and then to reconcile His creation with justice and grace. To teach us righteousness it was necessary for man to fall into sin. To implement grace, God needed sinners as objects of grace.” [b1]
5. God’s juridical accountability for the state of creation
Jones goes beyond a simple theodicy: he argues that by the law of Moses, God has made Himself juridically accountable for the state of creation. He uses three Torah principles as evidence:
The ox in the pit (Ex. 21:33-34). As a man is liable when his uncovered pit injures another’s animal, so God is liable because He dug the pit (created the possibility of sin) and did not protect Adam (the ox): “God created the opportunity for Adam to fall into the pit. This made God legally liable under His own law and created a ‘tension’ that demanded resolution.” [b1] And: “God deliberately instituted this law to make Himself responsible, so that He could fulfill the law and resolve the tension in creation at the final Jubilee.” [b1]
The parapet on the roof (Deut. 22:8). Whoever omits the required safety parapet on his roof and someone falls bears liability. God permitted the tempter and did not protect Adam: “God withheld the parapet from the roof… God became liable and the tension resulted. This liability was to last until the death of the High Priest. Jesus had to come as the true High Priest of the heavenly temple.” [b1]
The grazing of another’s land (Ex. 22:4). Whoever allows his animal to graze in another’s field must give the best of his own field as compensation. God permitted the serpent to graze in the field of humanity; as compensation He gave the best of His own field: “God honors and upholds His own laws of liability, and therefore ‘the best of His field’ (Jesus) was given to man as compensation.” [b1]
6. The jubilee as the most fundamental law of creation
The conceptual heart of Jones’ doctrine of creation is the jubilee law. “Even with Jesus Christ as the central Person in all of history, the law of the Jubilee is the most fundamental law of all creation. The law of the Jubilee is the basis for forgiveness and grace.” [b1]
The jubilee law typifies creation on a prophetic level: no one could permanently lose their inherited land; every fiftieth year everything returned to the original owner. This is a cosmic prophecy: at the final Jubilee, creation returns to its Creator. [b1]
In The Restoration of All Things, Jones develops this further as a juridical limit on judgment. The jubilee places a maximum on punishment: “The law of the Jubilee limits the time of slavery and disinheritance to a maximum of 49 years. This is the grace of the law of the Jubilee. The righteousness of God does not include endless punishment.” [b2] The jubilee cancels at the end of the judgment period all remaining debts: “At the end of seven sabbatical years the Jubilee was proclaimed and all remaining debts were canceled, all by grace alone.” [b2]
Jones names the jubilee the first of five biblical proofs for universal restoration: “First, there is a law of the Jubilee, whereby all debts (sins) are canceled at the end of the judgment period.” [b2] And explicitly links it to Rom. 8:21: even unbelievers, “after their time of judgment is completed, will share in the freedom and glory of God’s children.” [b2]
7. Christ as Kinsman-Redeemer of creation
The redemption of creation follows the biblical law of the kinsman-redeemer (gö’el). Christ, as the last Adam, possesses the right, the means, and the will to redeem all of creation.
The right: Adam’s fall had brought his entire “estate” (the earth) into slavery. A kinsman-redeemer had to hold the legal title and be able to pay the price. Jesus redeemed as nearest kinsman “not only Adam, but also his wife and children (descendants) and the entire estate (creation). Everything that was lost in Adam is redeemed in Christ.” [b2]
The means: “He purchased and acquired the divine right to the dominion that Adam had lost.” [b2]
The will: Col. 1:16-20 answers the question of whether Christ willed to redeem all of creation: “In him all things were created… and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” [b2] Jones concludes: “All things were created FOR HIM and because He redeemed everything that was lost in Adam, all things will certainly be given to Him in the end.” [b2]
8. The covenant with Noah: God’s first explicit creation covenant
The Noahic covenant is for Jones the biblical foundation for the scope of God’s saving action. The covenant was not concluded with humanity alone: “This covenant was made not only with Noah and his sons, but also with the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals… These four categories of living beings represent the whole earth. The scope of this covenant is explained in verse 15 as ‘between every living soul of all flesh.‘” [b2]
This covenant definitively establishes the scope of God’s plan: “The covenant with Noah is the first covenant in the Bible and establishes the scope of God’s plan for the whole earth. It is the covenant of the Restoration of All Things, for it is the covenant with every living soul of all flesh.” [b2]
9. Universal reconciliation as the only sufficient resolution
The tension in creation demands a solution that does justice to the juridical accountability God Himself has accepted. Jones is categorical: “Universal reconciliation is God’s definitive solution to the tension in creation resulting from the ‘temporary injustice’ He Himself instituted… The Biblical record leaves us no other option but to justify God through universal reconciliation. No other solution is sufficient to resolve the tension He placed on creation by subjecting it to futility.” [b1]
The new creation at the individual level (2 Cor. 5:17 — “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”) [b1] is the foretaste of and participant in the cosmic new creation. The ministry of reconciliation in Jones’ theology is therefore the proclamation of the gospel of the cosmic Restoration of All Things. [b1]
10. Eschatological endpoint: the praise of all creation (Rev. 5:13)
The endpoint of creation’s history is for Jones the scene of Revelation 5:13, which he reads as the eschatological crown of the Noahic covenant:
“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” [b2]
Even classical commentators who reject universal reconciliation are forced by John’s plain language to acknowledge “that all of creation will one day be in agreement with God and will glorify Him — not from the depths of hell, but from the glory of a new heaven and a new earth.” [b2]
This will be preceded by the Tabernacles Age and then “the Age of a New Heaven and a New Earth”: “These are the Ages of the Ages — the ages that are to come.” [b1] The jubilee then forms the eschatological final chord of all salvation history: God will ultimately “invoke His sovereign dominion over all of creation according to the law of the Jubilee. All that was His in the beginning will be restored to Him.” [b2]
Summary
Jones’ doctrine of creation can be described in one movement: from the good creation (Gen. 1:31) through the dominion mandate (Gen. 1:26), the fall and the juridical tension (Rom. 8:19-22), the jubilee law as the most fundamental law of creation, redemption by the Kinsman-Redeemer (Col. 1:16-20), to the eschatological endpoint of universal worship (Rev. 5:13). The tension in creation is a deliberately instituted temporary injustice that is resolved juridically and eschatologically in universal reconciliation — the only solution that does justice to God’s own juridical accountability for the state of creation which He Himself established.