************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 37o ************
Doctrine: Eschatology; New Heaven and New Earth
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on January 30, 2000
B.C. 37o
Isaiah 65:17-25; Revelation 21:1-4
"A New Heaven and New Earth"
I Renewed Heaven and Earth
A It comes screaming out of the sky like a Scud missile. It is bigger than a mountain and packed with more energy than all the world's nuclear bombs put together. It hits the atmosphere at 100 times the velocity of a speeding bullet, and less than a second later smacks into the ground with an explosive force equal to 100 million megatons of TNT. The resulting shock wave travels at 20,000 miles an hour and levels everything within 150 miles. At the same time a plume of vaporized stone shoots up from the impact site, blasting a hole through the atmosphere and venting hot debris. The vaporized rock cools and condenses back into hundreds of millions of tiny stones. As they streak to the ground over the next hour, they heat up, and soon the very air glows hot pink. Steam hisses from green leaves; buildings and even trees burst into flame. Nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere combine into nitric acid; any surviving life, crawling out of a burrow or cave, gets pelted with rain as corrosive as the acid in a car battery.
This is what scientists believe happened when a comet six miles across hit the earth some 65 million years ago. This comet is blamed for killing off the dinosaurs and two thirds of all life. This is also what scientists predict will happen on August 14, 2126 if Swift-Tuttle, another six mile across comet, collides with earth.
If Swift-Tuttle misses the earth, there are other disasters just as devastating waiting to happen. Scientists say the days on earth are getting longer all the time – 350 million years ago each day lasted only 22 hours. Perhaps as soon as 10 billion years from now, days and nights on earth could each last 50 of our current days, severely altering the balance of plants and animals.
Our Milky Way and its closest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, are hurtling toward each other at about 65 miles per second. At that rate, they will collide in 5 or 6 billion years. Since Andromeda is two to three times bigger than the Milky Way, our galaxy will be consumed and destroyed.
The Sun is gradually getting bigger and more luminous. In about 2 billion years the winter temperature in states like Wisconsin or Minnesota will be 90 F. In 7 billion years, the Sun will become a Red Giant and start expanding rapidly. When the Sun is twice its current diameter, the earth's oceans will begin to boil. In 8 billion years the earth's crust will melt.
Scientists don't know if the universe will keep expanding forever or whether it will collapse upon itself. If it keeps expanding, eventually everything will end as cold frozen emptiness. If it collapses upon itself, everything will end in a dense fireball.
If all of this isn't enough to keep you awake at night, Scientists predict a return of the glaciers sometime within the next 2,000 years. When that happens most of the Northern Hemisphere will be covered with mile-thick sheets of ice. Many of the world's great cities will be crushed to rubble; most of the world's agricultural breadbasket will become snow-swept tundra; and countless species will be frozen out of existence.
All of these predictions are but educated guesses – we don't know if they will or will not happen. However, there is one future event about which there is no doubt that it will happen. We read about it in the letter of Peter:
(2 Pet 3:10-13) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare ... everything will be destroyed ... That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
At the time of the Second Coming of Christ, says Peter, heaven and earth will be destroyed.
B This is not the end of the universe, not at all. The message of the Bible is that there will be a new heaven and new earth.
(Is 65:17) Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
(2 Pet 3:13) But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
(Rev 21:1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away ...
The expression "heaven and earth" is a biblical way of designating the entire universe. So the Bible teaches us that the old universe will be destroyed and a new universe will take its place.
Now I need to ask a question: Will the present universe be totally destroyed and will the new universe be completely new, or will the new universe be the present universe renewed and purified?
There are three reasons for saying the present universe will be renewed rather than destroyed. The first reason has to do with the word the Bible writers used for "new." They had a choice between two Greek words: "neos" and "kainos." The word "neos" means new in time or origin. The word "kainos" means new in nature or quality. The Bible writers used the word "kainos" therefore telling us the new universe will be new in nature or quality, not in time or origin!
Second, in Romans 8 Paul tells us the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God so that it may be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (vs 20-21). Paul tells us here that it is the present creation, not some totally different creation, that will experience freedom at the second coming.
Third, if the present universe has to be totally destroyed then Satan will have won a great victory. Think about it. Total annihilation means the present universe is so corrupt that God can no longer do anything with it. But, as we know, Satan did not win such a victory. On the contrary, Satan has been decisively defeated.
C The Bible's teaching about a new heaven and new earth tells us something about where believers in Christ will spend eternity. God will create a new earth on which we shall live to God's praise in glorified, resurrected bodies. On the new earth, therefore, we will spend eternity. We will enjoy its beauties, explore its resources, and use its treasures to the glory of God.
In contrast to this, one gets the impression from certain hymns that believers will spend eternity in some celestial heaven somewhere off in space, far away from earth. The hymn "My Jesus, I Love Thee" conveys that impression. It says:
In mansions of glory and endless delight
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright.
This song gives the impression we are to spend eternity somewhere off in space, wearing white robes, plucking harps, singing songs, and flitting from cloud to cloud while doing so.
As I have said before, God's promise for the future can be summarized in this way: a new and better life in a new and better body on a new and better earth.
D The Bible's teachings about a new heaven and new earth helps us to understand Old Testament prophecy. I think of God's covenant promise to Abraham:
(Gen 17:8) The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you.
We see here that God promised the whole land not just to Abraham's descendants but also to Abraham himself. Yet by the time he died Abraham's only property in the land was a small burial cave (cf Gen 23).
What happened to God's promise? We get an answer to this question in the book of Hebrews:
(Heb 11:9-10) By faith [Abraham] made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. (10) For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
The city mentioned here is the New Jerusalem which will be found on the new earth. Abraham, in other words, understood the new earth as the fulfillment of the inheritance God promised to him.
II New and Perfect Earth
A What is life going to be like on the new earth? The first thing we can say is that it will include culture or civilization.
When God made the earth, He told people to fill it. We read of this in what we know as the cultural blessing:
(Gen 1:28) God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over it ..."
God wasn't just talking about making babies. God meant that human beings were to produce culture and fill the earth with it.
In the Book of Revelation, John sees the same thing happening with the New Jerusalem. John says,
(Rev 21:24,26) ... the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it ... The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
John pictures the New Jerusalem as being filled with the culture, the achievements, the inventions, and the genius of each people and civilization. John tells us that the best of human culture – even the best of evil, twisted, pagan culture – will be brought into the new heaven and new earth. He sees the New Jerusalem as being filled with the crowning achievements of the human race.
Why? What's the reason? One of the reasons is that the new earth – like the present earth – needs to be filled. Another reason is that the earth – and all its fullness – belongs to God. God means to reclaim and redeem and transform all that fullness. So the new heaven and new earth will be filled with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Phil 4:8). Nothing impure will be found in it (Rev 21:27).
B What is life going to be like on the new earth? The second thing we can say is that life on the new earth will be without the negatives. It would be great if right now we could have all the positives of earthly life with none of the negatives. That is precisely what the new earth has to offer – nothing but positives.
In this life and on this earth there are basically two negatives: human sin and the onward march of time. We all know the misery that sin brings. But do we realize the curse of time? In this life and on this earth, time withers flowers and human beauty, it encourages good intentions to evaporate, it deprives us of our loved ones. In a universe ruled by time, the happiest marriage ends in death, the loveliest woman becomes a skeleton. Fading and aging, losing and failing – these are the negative aspects of life in time.
In the new earth there are no negatives. Life will be everlasting, beyond the ravages of time. There will be no night (Rev 22:5); the first glorious morning on the new earth will never be followed by evening. Life will be pure and holy, without the taint of sin. This is what John says:
(Rev 21:4) "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
John tells us there will be no more curse (Rev 22:3). He tells us there will be no more war (cf Rev 22:2 re the healing of the nations). He tells us there will no longer be any sea (Rev 21:1); in Revelation the sea represents evil because it is the place out of which arises the demonic forces of the beast and the false prophet and the Antichrist. Because of Christ's finished work, says John, there are no negatives, only positives, on the new earth.
C What is life going to be like on the new earth? The third thing we can say is that on the new earth all persons will be equal. All will be equal in that none will suffer deprivation, none will be left out. In this life and on this earth there are always some who are left out. At the Olympic Games, for instance, only one athlete can win the gold medal and all the others lose. In an election only one person can be elected as President and all the others lose. At an auction only one person can have the winning bid and all the others lose. At an audition only one actor or musician can be chosen to fill a specific role and all the others lose. The Bible tells us that on the new earth all will wear crowns and receive prizes (1 Cor 9:25; Col 2:18; 2 Tim 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Pet 5:4; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:11). There will be no losers. No one will be left out.
D What is life going to be like on the new earth? The fourth and most important thing we can say is that life on the new earth will be life with God and Christ. John speaks to this when he writes,
(Rev 21:2-3) I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
This reminds us that the supreme joy of the future is life with God. Between God and man there will be perfect fellowship and love.
Life on the new earth is life with God. This means that heaven and earth will no longer be separate, as they are now. Instead, they will be one as the New Jerusalem becomes the center of the new earth. In other words, believers will live in heaven as they live on the new earth.
Life on the new earth is life with God. This also means there no longer is a need for a temple (Rev 21:22). The temple, of course, was the dwelling place of God on earth. On the new earth there will be no holy places where we can meet with God for every place will be holy to the Lord.
Life on the new earth is life with God. This further means that all God's children will perfectly know Him, serve Him, and enjoy Him. Says John,
(Rev 22:3-4) his servants will serve him. (4) They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Or, as Jeremiah puts it,
(Jer 31:34) "No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. (cf Heb 8:11)
Life on the new earth is life with God. This also means it is a life of splendor and glory. John says,
(Rev 21:23) The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
(Rev 22:5) There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.
In describing the New Jerusalem for us in the rest of Revelation 21, John talks of the jeweled foundations, the pearly gates, and the streets of gold. Details like these are NOT to be taken literally, but the brilliant splendor which these figures suggest staggers the imagination. The new heaven and new earth will be filled with the glory of God. And God's people will live in that glory, bask in that glory, and reflect that glory.
Conclusion
We look forward, of course, to the new heaven and new earth. We pray for it, we wait for it, we work for it, we even hasten it. But, at the same time, we don't want to diminish the life we have now. Jesus tells us that those who believe don't have to wait for His coming to have everlasting life for they have everlasting life now (Jn 6:47; cf Jn 3:36; 5:24; 1 Jn 5:12).
Not only do we have everlasting life now, but right now in the Spirit we have many foretastes of that future joy and blessedness (Rom 8:23; 2 Cor 1:22; 2 Cor 5:5; Eph 1:14). Already, today – if we believe in Jesus – we can have life with God. Beauty – whether a flower, a woman, a child – is a foretaste of the future. Any expression of love is a foretaste of the future. Wherever you see believers worshiping God and living for His glory you have a foretaste of the future.