Divine Will Rest Doctrine
The doctrine that the Divine Will possesses three successively deeper rests, each tied to a distinct act of the divine creative and redemptive economy — the triple-rest schema: (1) the Creation Sabbath, when God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3), yet this rest was conditional on man doing the divine Will in everything, and because man withdrew from the Will, “the Work of Creation is not yet fulfilled, and neither can I rest in It, nor can It rest in Me”; (2) the Redemption Sabbath, when Jesus’s burial after the labor of Redemption constituted the most solemn Sabbath in history, completing the second stage of the Work of Creation; and (3) the DW Sabbath — the third and final divine rest — when souls dwell in the Divine Will and return Creation “all beautiful and striking, just as It came out of my hands,” fulfilling what Hebrews names as the rest that “remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9-11: let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest — the unfulfilled rest of Genesis 2:2 still available and still calling) and culminating in the eschatological completion-cry (Revelation 21:5-6: “Behold, I make all things new… It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega”) when the Work of Creation is finally fulfilled and God achieves the rest He has “yearned” for since the soul’s withdrawal first left both Work and Creator unable to rest in one another. (E)
Anchors: Genesis 2:2-3; Hebrews 4:9-11; Revelation 21:5-6 — Appearances: 15. Full Registry entry.