10 CLUES TO UNDERSTANDING THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH

self | October 15, 2015 | Charles S. Meek

[grumpa]

The “new heaven and new earth” of the Bible is popularly thought by Christians to be a future world of perfect utopia. In the new heaven and new earth there will LITERALLY be “no more tears, pain, or death.” But watch out on this! We are given clues in the Bible that the popular view may be flawed.

Thesis: The New Heaven and New Earth is a Hebraic metaphor for the New Covenant in Christ. It is not the same thing as heaven itself. The primary texts about this are Isaiah 65/66, Matthew 5:17-18; 2 Peter 3, and Revelation 21. Let’s take a look.

CLUE #1: If the new earth is to be understood literally, we would logically have to understand the new heaven literally also. But, if God lives in heaven, why do we need a new heaven? Hmmm.

CLUE #2: In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus ties the passing of heaven and earth with the passing of the Law. So, if the Law has already passed away and we are now under Grace, we must be in the new heaven and new earth now!

CLUE #3: In Matthew 24:34-35, Jesus puts the passing away of heaven and earth in his generation, coincident with the destruction of the temple (Matthew 24:2).

CLUE #4: In Isaiah 65/66, we see that God’s enemies are destroyed, but regular human history continues. Houses and vineyards will be built in the new heaven and new earth. We also see that children are born in the new heaven and new earth. There is SIN in the new heaven and new earth. And, indeed, people still DIE in the new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:20; 66:24)! So, the new heaven and new earth is not the eternal state—heaven itself.

CLUE #5: In Isaiah 66:19f, we also see that regular human history continues after the “final judgment.” The survivors of Armageddon evangelize those who never heard of God. Get that? There are people on earth who never heard of God in the new heaven and new earth! This is not Utopia-ville.

CLUE #6: An uninformed reading of 2 Peter 3 in some Bible translations would leave one to believe that the earth will be literally burned up and a new earth (and heaven) re-created. But in other places, Scripture specifically says that the earth “will abide forever,” or implies the same with statements about Christ reigning “forever” (Daniel 4:3, 34; 7:14, 18, 27; Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 110:4; 145:13; Luke 1:33; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 13:20; Revelation 14:6). Problematic contradictions with 2 Peter 3 aside, I find it most curious that Christians seem to find hope in the destruction of the planet and a shiny new earth in which even carnivorous animals take up vegetarianism. In 2 Peter 3, Peter was warning the scoffers, who remembered that Jesus promised the culmination of last-days events would be in their generation (Luke 21:22, 32)—that God was not slow to keep his promises. And Peter emphasized the imminence by saying that those in the first century should themselves be looking “the coming day of God” which was hastening (2 Peter 3:12). This was certainly a warning about the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70.

CLUE #7: In Revelation 21:6 we find Jesus saying, “To the thirsty I will give from spring of the water of life without payment.” Are we not drinking of the fountain of the water of life freely right now?

CLUE #8: In Revelation 22:2 we see that the nations are in continual need of healing. Indeed, SIN CONTINUES in the new heaven and new earth per Revelation 22:15.

CLUE #9: All through the book of Revelation we see that the events described were to happen “soon” and “must shortly take place.” We see these imminence statements some 30 times, including BEFORE and AFTER the advent of the new heaven and new earth! See Revelation 22:6, 10, 12, 20. Unless the God cannot tell time or would mislead us, the new heaven and new earth was ushered in soon after Revelation was written.

CLUE #10: In the Jewish mind, heaven and earth came together in the temple (Josephus, ANTIQUITIES, Book 3, 3.6.4 and 3.7.7). But Jesus is the new temple (John 2:19; Revelation 21:3). So his ministry ushered in the new heaven and new earth.

So, what then, is the new heaven and new earth, really? It is an idiomatic expression for the NEW COVENANT brought to its fullest by Jesus during the lifetimes of the biblical writers. The new covenant began with Christ’s first advent. But the old covenant was not fully dissolved until Christ’s coming “in judgment” in AD 70 to wash away the visible fabric of Judaism. The new heaven and new earth is where we are blessed, accepted, loved, and forgiven through the finished work of Christ.

What about the “conquering of death” and “no more tears” promises? Well, Christ has already conquered death for believers (2 Timothy 1:10)! When we die physically, we continue to live—in heaven in a new state. “No more tears” is a reference to the fullness of personal relationship that each believer has with God. It is a reference to Isaiah 25-27 in which God promises to wipe away the tears with his salvation, foreshadowing the Messiah’s completed work in the last days of the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant there is no more consciousness of guilt, so no need to cry or sorrow in a theological, but real sense.

We have to constantly remember that the truths of the Bible are often communicated by way of symbols and Hebraic figures of speech. The new heaven and new earth is a “new creation” similar to how the Bible describes believers as NEW CREATIONS in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because of Christ’s first century work—the cross, resurrection, and the Parousia—we are in the new world order, so to speak.

Christians, don’t dismay. This is good news! We do not have to fear a coming Great Tribulation, Battle of Armageddon, or a burning of the planet. Christ is victorious, even in the midst of our toil. He is our rock and our salvation—and lives with us now into eternity!

So where does our hope lie? Our hope is in heaven itself. The new covenant is but a shadow of the ultimate rest for believers in heaven. The new heaven and new earth is thus a foretaste of the feast to come. As the hymn says, “In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”

[nonsporting]

One need only read the Bible to see the above is total nonsense:

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. (Revelation 21:1)

Last time I looked 70+% of the surface of the earth is still covered with water.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Simply getting rid of the “new testament” would answer all these questions.

[fishtank]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2580950/posts?page=5#5

“”Saturday, March 20, 2010

“Preterism doesn’t hold W.A.T.E.R.”

A short while ago, I realized that many people I know are holding to the ideas of preterism.

I wanted to re-read the gospel accounts of the Olivet discourse, since a frequent preterist poster on Freerepublic.com uses a verse to support his claims: “because these are the days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled” Luke 21:22.

I noticed that for preterism to be true, the following five events must have been fulfilled by now. Since they are NOT fulfilled, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to accept preterism.

I propose an acrostic to illustrate these events: W.A.T.E.R.

W = “worldwide total evangelism”, from Matt 24:14

A = “all tribes mourning the Son of Man”, from Matt 24:30

T = “times of the Gentiles fulfilled”, Luke 21:24

E = “elect gathered from the four winds”, Matt 24:31

R = “return of Jesus” - (how could this possibly have happened in 70 AD, as some preterists claim???) - from Matt 24:27.

This post is a brief introduction to this acrostic, as a reminder that “Preterism doesn’t hold W.A.T.E.R.”. “”

5 posted on August 31, 2010 at 3:05:47 PM MDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)