God’s Restorative Justice 201
Study Guide
God has a vision for relationship involving all things. God calls for human partnership to restore that vision. God’s justice is restorative and centered in Jesus.
201: God’s Actions in the Bible
201: Lesson, Reading
Read Robert Arakaki, Evidence for Christ's Descent into Hell to see how the early church for 1,500 years explained why God allowed for human mortality, and how that relates to Jesus. Also, skim over Genesis 3. (10 - 15 minutes).
201: Lesson, Video 1
In this 75 minute video, Exile and Mortality as Restorative Justice, Mako Nagasawa and Katelyn Hannan present the case for God’s restorative justice to professionals in the anti-trafficking endeavor.
0:48 Introduction to the Class and Its Purpose
9:50 Session 1 Recap and Discussion of Robert Arakaki's article, Jesus and the Harrowing of Hell
15:19 (Katelyn) Exile and Mortality as Restorative Justice
28:56 (Mako) Why Did God Have an Israel?
54:33 Q&A, Responses to the Restorative, Medicinal Framework
1:01:10 Q&A: Was Death Present in Creation Before the Fall?
1:04:18 Q&A: Didn't God Say in Scripture, "I Create Evil"? and Doesn't Paul Say That Creation Is Groaning Because Death Didn't Exist Before the Fall?
1:08:37 Q&A: Shouldn't Christians Celebrate the Gift of Death Since We Go to Be With the Lord?
1:12:48 Q&A: Since Jesus Descended to the Dead, What Does that Mean for All Future People?
201: Lesson, Video 2
In this 90 minute video, God’s Restorative Justice in Jesus, and Divine Fire as Purifying, Mako Nagasawa and Katelyn Hannan present the case for God’s restorative justice to professionals in the anti-trafficking endeavor.
0:48 Introduction to the Class and Its Purpose
9:50 Recap of Sessions 1 and 2
12:44 Responses to the Pre-Readings: Blog Posts 1, 3, and 4
22:44 (Mako) The Magisterial Protestant Reformers' Context
32:08 (Mako) Jesus and Retributive vs. Restorative Justice at the Cross -- an examination of Jesus' quote of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"
52:43 Q&A
1:05:11 (Mako) Human Destiny, Divine Fire, and Deservingness vs. Desire
1:29:25 Q&A
Slides to the Presentation:
God's Restorative Justice in Jesus, Divine Fire, and Human Destiny
201: Confirm What You Learned
Watch at least the first 60 minutes of this class recording. This is a presentation Mako gave to the 2022 Reconstruction class. It covers the early Christian understanding of human being, human becoming, and how we co-create with God our human desires and human nature. We spotlight how the theme of divine fire always starts out as God’s call towards purification. Only after resisting the purification does divine fire appear to be experienced as torment. The full video is 2 hours including the Q&A.
201: Put It Into Practice
Choose at least one of the evangelistic presentations below:
What Can We Do About Evil? (and smaller version and brochure version)
Check out the slides of this evangelistic conversation starter. Consider showing both Christians and non-Christians the questions it brings up, and discussing your responses to them. Here are instructions on how to talk about the questions it raises, especially with non-Christians. See also this conversation tree.
Does the Good Outweigh the Bad?
Check out the slides of this evangelistic conversation starter. Consider showing both Christians and non-Christians the questions it brings up, and discussing your responses to them. Here are instructions on how to talk about the questions it raises, especially with non-Christians.
Check out the slides of this evangelistic conversation starter. Consider showing both Christians and non-Christians the questions it brings up, and discussing your responses to them. Here is an associated message that shows how to talk about the questions it raises, especially with non-Christians.
201: For More Inspiration
Would people in Hell choose Heaven if given the chance? In the popular modern show The Good Place, people can and do. In C.S. Lewis’ classic portrayal of a bus ride from Hell to Heaven, all but one do not. That may be surprising.
One reason for our surprise is that Protestants tend to think of hell as a prison cell where people want to get out, where God keeps them in because of their deeds and deservingness. Which raises many challenging questions about the character of God. But Lewis portrays hell as a state of being where God calls people towards Him, where the people say "no," because of their desires and determinations. Which makes more sense since we see people today choose self-deception and addiction, where our attempts at truth-telling and love feel like torment to them. This was actually the way the early Christians understood Hell. Lewis expresses this idea to a modern audience, with modern stories.
Lewis cautioned that this was an imaginary work, but his The Great Divorce highlights major themes in Scripture that help us explain Hell responsibly from the perspective of the early Christians: The human being is a human becoming. Sin is a corruption of one’s own human nature which can get deeper and deeper. God’s divine fire is not retributive but restorative — not for inflicting pain for its own sake but for purifying and cleansing. Jesus as the restorer of human nature and cure for the corruption. See more about our 4 week class on The Great Divorce.