Saturday, May 24, 2014

THE ETERNAL NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH


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…)

No comments: