This post introduces a
section that begins to describe the wonderful onset of an eternal existence
with no taint of sin allowed. It will be
a time when God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10 “Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.”) As you will see, however, its onset follows a
spectacular beginning.
Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away; and there was no more sea.”
The expanded Greek by Kenneth Wuest adds
insight: “…a heaven new in quality
and an earth new in quality….”
The following verses appear to be referencing the same
event:
Isaiah 51:6 “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the
earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like
manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be
abolished.”
Isaiah 65:17 “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth:
and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Hebrews 1:10-12 “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a
garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed:
but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”
2Peter 3:10-13 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the
night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
In Isaiah 51 the Hebrew for “vanish away” describes it
as “to rub to pieces or pulverize; intransitively, to disappear as dust.”
The earth, according to the Hebrew, will “wear out, decay, waste” just like a
piece of clothing will over time—just like our own body does. In fact,
the verses in Hebrews support this thought.
Isaiah 65 emphasizes the thought in verse four
(upcoming)—things from the original creation and time on earth will be erased
from our memory. How comforting!
Peter’s words bring to mind many questions regarding
the previous thoughts about heaven and earth’s passing. He indicates that
the heavens will disappear “whizzingly, with a crash” and that all the elements
that make up the heavens and earth will melt (to the point of liquid) because
of great fire. In the new heavens and new earth righteousness will dwell—be
a permanent resident. The description here is much more violent in
description as compared to the other verses.
Noise - whizzingly, i.e. with a
crash:—with a great noise
Melt - to “loosen”
(literally or figuratively):—break (up), destroy, dissolve,
(un-)loose, melt, put off
Heat – to set on fire
Dissolved in v 11- same as melt in v 10
Melt in v 12 - to
liquefy:—melt.
Dwelleth - to house
permanently, i.e. reside
Because of the decay and wasting away of the heavens
and earth caused by the curse of sin, God will destroy the old one by fire and
create a new one from its ashes. At least, that is how I rectify these
ideas. Maybe this will be the same type of creation as occurred in
Genesis between the time of Satan’s fall and the creation of earth for mankind.
(See my notes on Genesis 1 at www.momsbiblejournal.com.)
Again, Joseph Seiss provides some food for
thought: “The dissolving of which Peter is made to speak, is really a
deliverance rather than a destruction. The word he uses is the same which the
Savior employs where he says of the colt, “Loose him;” and of Lazarus when he
came forth with his death-wrappings, “Loose him, and let him go;” and of the
four angels bound at the Euphrates, “Loose them;” and of the Devil, “He must be
loosed a little season.” It is the same word which John the Baptist used when
he spoke of his unworthiness to unloose the Savior’s shoestrings, and which
Paul used when he spoke of being “loosed from a wife.” It is simply absurd to
attempt to build a doctrine of annihilation on a word which admits of such
applications. The teaching of the Scriptures is, that the creation is at
present in a state of captivity, tied down, bound, “not willing, but by reason
of him who hath subjected the same in hope;” and the dissolving of all these
things, of which Peter speaks, is not the destruction of them, but the breaking
of their bonds, the loosing of them, the setting of them free again to become
what they were originally meant to be, their deliverance.”
There is a verse in Colossians that tells us that God
is the glue that holds everything together.
Colossians 1:17 “And He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist.”
Maybe this is a reference to God letting
go for a moment only to speak the word to bring it back together as a “new”
creation. I found an article by Lambert Dolphin who reasons it as follows:
The nucleus of the atom contains positively charged
and neutral particles-to use a simplistic model. Mutual electrostatic repulsion
between the like-positive protons would drive the nucleus apart if it were not
for the "strong force" which binds the nucleus together….Similarly,
accelerated electrons circling the nucleus should quickly radiate all their
energy away and fall into the nucleus unless there exists an invisible energy
source to counteract this.
The third New Testament creation-related passage which
talks about atomic structure and physics is found in the Apostle Peter's Second
Epistle: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the
heavens will pass away with a loud noise [rhoizedon, a rushing roar] and the
elements [stoicheion, atoms] will be dissolved with fire and the earth and the
works that are upon it will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10) The Greek word
translated "elements" in the above- mentioned passage from Colossians
(and in 2 Peter also) is stoicheion, which can mean "the building blocks
of the universe," or "the ordered arrangement of things." It can
also mean the "atomic elements." The word translated
"dissolved" in 2 Peter 3:10 is literally (in Greek) luo, meaning
"unloosed." This language suggests that there will come a time in the
future when God lets go of the nuclear forces which hold the atom together.
This passage, like the one in Colossians, strongly suggests that the active
power of God is behind the mysterious strong force that holds every atomic
nucleus together. If this is so, all the other fundamental forces of nature are
likewise forces that originate with Christ and His sustaining direction of the
old creation.
If God "sustains the universe by His mighty word
of power," moment by moment, were He to merely relax His grasp on the
universe, every atom would come apart "by fire" (that is, by nuclear
fire). It is inescapable that the Bible claims that God dynamically sustains
the universe, including the very atoms themselves. Atoms, it would seem, are
"stable" only because force and energy are being supplied into their
physical nuclear binding fields from "outside" the system.
[end quoted article excerpt]
In light of the above, I think it is interesting to
note that “earth and the heaven fled away” from the
great white throne and then suddenly appear as a new heaven and new earth after
that judgment has taken place.
John also observes that there was no more sea; the
Greek indicates that this is referring to the salt waters. I think this
is probably because fresh waters will be all that is needed for the environment
of the new earth. I would assume that earth will once again be
characterized by Eden-like conditions and that man will enjoy the bounty of its
provision in the same way as Adam and Eve did before they chose to sin.
Everything in the new creation will be for the benefit of man just as it was in
Eden in the beginning.
(to be
continued…)
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