Tag: New Earth

God’s Declaration In Isaiah 66

The content discusses the prophetic insights of Isaiah, emphasizing accurate predictions concerning Jesus and His significance beyond Israel. It highlights themes of eternal life and the New Earth, expressing God’s promise to reach all nations. The conclusion warns of the consequences for those rejecting Jesus, presenting a stark contrast to the hope provided in faith.

Looks into the future within the Old Testament are common. That is what prophecy is. We are living far enough in the future from the time of Isaiah that almost everything in it we can examine through hindsight. Almost.

Isaiah had warnings for the people of Israel and for the surrounding nations. It has all come true to my knowledge. It is so accurate that skeptics conclude that Isaiah had to be written after the fact, but there is no proof of this. Isaiah also spoke a lot about the coming of Jesus: virgin birth, living in Galilee, heir of David, widely rejected by the Jews, put through a judgment process where He did not defend himself, crucified for the salvation of others, and buried with the rich. They would be impossible or undesirable events to stage.

Toward the end of Isaiah there is a large and confusing section about the New Earth which is still future even to us. Check out my take on this section here: https://afterdeathsite.com/2022/05/24/wrestling-with-isaiah-65/

Then there are the final verses of the last chapter. It speaks about some stuff that is in our rear-view mirror and some that is not. It starts like this:

18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.

Isaiah 66:18-19 (ESV)

It is intriguing (to me) to ponder what constituted the right time to send Jesus to fulfill the Law and create an opening for people to have eternal life with God starting with Heaven and then later adding the New Earth. With this event comes a spreading out of knowledge about the God who encountered Israel for millennia, the events around Jesus’ life, and the promise of eternal life. God didn’t keep His promise within the borders of a chosen people. He opened the doors to everyone starting most likely 33AD. His description of “the nations” is strange to us, but must have been well known to the contemporaries of Isaiah. “They” in verse 19 must be the early disciples. The communication of God’s actions and the promise of eternal life continues with the disciples of Jesus today all around the world.

20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.

Isaiah 66:20-21 (ESV)

Not only was it surprise to hear that God would reach out to other nations, but an even bigger surprise that some of them would be used like the priests and Levites. This chosen group served in the temple as their sole occupation. They were chosen because of the faithfulness of one clan during the Exodus. In the future this would be opened up. I am such a person.

Another surprise is that these saved foreigners would be “your brothers”. This is not a promise to gather the dispersed Jewish people but rather to gather the elect from every nation. These are people whom God can foresee that He will be able to reach. Not everyone will embrace the promise of Jesus. This is sadly observable. Why? I’m not sure the cause or causes. But some will.

The weird modes of transportation are interesting too. I have never brought somebody to church on a dromedary. But this isn’t transportation to a place exactly. This is being involved in diverse ways in people’s lives so that they are connected to Jesus and when we all move past Judgment Day and to the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22), we will be like a grain offering that makes God very happy. The New Jerusalem is a place. We just help bring people to Jesus.

“For as the new heavens and the new earth
    that I make
shall remain before me, says the Lord,
    so shall your offspring and your name remain.
23 From new moon to new moon,
    and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the Lord.

Isaiah 66:22-23 (ESV)

Eternal life with God is just that–eternal. That is the consistent message of the rest of Scripture. This passage speaks of the permanence of the New Heavens and New Earth, the offspring of the people of faith within Israel, and their name. Part of our experience in Heaven and the New Earth will be worship. Don’t relate that to times you were bored in church. It is also notable that it is “all flesh”. Humans aren’t complete as a disembodied spirit. Paul calls that being “naked” (2 Corinthians 5). We will have a Heavenly Body and a resurrected Earthly body. Worship will be an immersive and positive experience. Everyone will do it. Everyone who is saved that is.

24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

I don’t think that we will make it a part of our eternal routine to observe “dead bodies”. The Bible says that everybody (saved and not) will be a part of the resurrection of our earthly bodies. While this may seem like an amazing and hopeful moment, those who stand judgment bearing their own sin rather than the righteousness we receive from Jesus will find their resurrected bodies are not indestructible. Malachi 4 speaks about them being turned to ash. That will be observable on Judgment Day, probably not after it.

The spirit of a damned person then experiences the ultimate consequence for sin that was completely avoidable. By rejecting Jesus they allowed themselves to bear the full consequence of the Law. They will experience an unending decay (the worm does not die), a fire that is never quenched, be abhorrent to themselves and others, and forsaken by God.

For my part, I wish this ended at verse 23. I can’t deny verse 24 and others like it. Jesus says many will enter destruct and few into life. I hope those relative terms do not mean like they sound. It sure sounds like the majority will experience verse 24.

Purpose In the Kingdom of God

The content explores the concept of purpose in life and after death, emphasizing the importance of serving God and others. While earthly pleasures may seem fulfilling, true satisfaction comes from meaningful engagement. It highlights biblical passages about eternal life, suggesting that purpose exists beyond rest, with joyful, fulfilling activities in Heaven and the New Earth.

What would you do if money and health were not issues? If you had no other purpose than to enjoy yourself, would you be happy? I think I would be for awhile. I would travel, golf, hangout with my kids and grandkids, hike, explore, ski, and much more. Many people think of retirement like that, only to be disappointed by restrictions and a nagging need for purpose.

As a person who is already a part of the Kingdom of God. There is an enormous amount of purpose to be had. We glorify God through doing a great job at our job. We are to show kindness and forgiveness to others. We are to be good stewards of time, money, skills, our body, our planet, our knowledge of Scripture, our relationships and more. We are to make disciples. We are to counteract evil. If you can’t find something to do as a disciple of Jesus, you are not looking hard enough.

But what about after death? Eternity is a long time. Will we be able to experience new things and enjoy fun things we already enjoy? I expect so. Will there be purpose? While there is never enough information about our existence in Heaven and the New Earth for my taste, there actually is more about purpose than there is about entertainment.

But let’s start with this passage:

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Revelation 14:13 (ESV)

This passage has unintentionally put into people’s minds that eternal life is a bunch of naps. “Resting from labors” is not sitting around. It is no longer experiencing the physical drag of work. When I have something to do, even something I will enjoy, there is a part of me that doesn’t want to do it. My body doesn’t want to give up the energy. That experience will be done. Nothing will be laborious. There will be purposeful, comforting, exhilarating, entertaining, loving, bonding, but not laborious.

I am not sure about the experience of being damned. The Bible speaks of fire and decay(worms). Jesus’ experience speaks of being abandoned by God and hopelessness. I would expect purposelessness and maybe laborious activity.

Can we know anything more specific about the purpose of the redeemed?

“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

Revelation 7:15 (ESV)

This is still rather vague. What type of “service” does God need? Honestly nothing. But just as we are allowed to be a part of God’s work here, we are also allowed to be in the direct presence of God and with purpose. Don’t read into this that direct worship is all that we do. Also, don’t pull into it visions of working a night shift here. This service is fundamentally different.

Another purpose section comes from Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 is a hard passage to interpret in light of other Scriptures. See a bigger discussion here: https://afterdeathsite.com/2022/05/24/wrestling-with-isaiah-65/ But Isaiah, speaking of the New Earth, includes a number of familiar functions.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain
    or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
    and their descendants with them.

Isaiah 65:21-23 (ESV)

This section is about the New Earth. It says so. Will we build and plant and have kids? Looking at other Scriptures, I can say that our days won’t be limited like a tree. We have eternal life. Will we go through cycles or does Isaiah 65 just compare the sorrows of current life to the absence of sorrows in the New Earth? It is hard to say, but I would not count out any of the purposes listed here.

Obviously, there is much we have left to discover about life in Heaven and the New Earth. It will be an experience that is “truly life”, and that includes purpose. Probably it includes familiar things and things that we have never imagined. None of it will be laborious. It will be joy.

Does Anything from This World Carry Over into Eternity?

The current world, seen as “The Great Tribulation,” is marred by sin and the curse, affecting everyone and everything. However, aspects like people, nature, deeds, and certain glories will carry into the New Earth post-judgment. Relationships and the beauty of God’s creation will transform, offering a vastly improved existence.

The conditions of this world, relative to Heaven or the New Earth, are pretty grim. Everything is tainted by either sin or the curse. That includes more than humanity. It includes the whole of this universe. The citizens of Heaven refer to this life as “The Great Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). That is hardly a complement.

It is also true that God will tear it all down and start over.

7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

2 Peter 3:7 (ESV)

So, does anything from this life and this universe carry over into the next? There are beautiful things here. There are really valuable aspects of now. As you search through the Bible about this you can come up with these important carry-overs: people, nature, certain deeds, and the “glory of the kings of the Earth.”

Let’s start with people. People are clearly one of the more contaminated things in this universe. We have proven ourselves to be capable of some horrible stuff. But people are also the main thing that Jesus came to save. I say this because Jesus was born a human and not something else. Once we put aside our current bodies which house our sinful nature, we will purely reflect the image of God again. People are something very valuable, although it currently may be well hidden.

We certainly value the idea of bringing our loved ones to eternal life with us. This should also be true of family or acquaintances that have not been very good to us. If they can be connected to Jesus through faith and baptism and remain in that connection, they will be a glorious asset in eternal life for they will be changed.

This is true of total strangers as well and even enemies. We can expect to have many new and valuable relationships among people. Will we be grouped as we are now? I am not sure. Our relationships will be different. I suspect that we will have contact with those we ministered to here on Earth. So, the more you reach here, the bigger your circle will be there. This is not to exclude other new relationships formed in Heaven or the New Earth.

Then there is nature:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:6-9 (ESV)

Nature has also been corrupted by sin. The current form must go away, but it will be reintroduced in a renewed form. This seems to include familiar species. Will it include familiar animals, like your pets? I don’t know, but maybe. This is in reference to the New Earth. It is a post-Judgment Day occurrence.

Then deeds. Our actions, words, thoughts condemn us. We are saved by the actions of Jesus. But as redeemed people we have the opportunity to build on the foundation of grace good deeds that are done by the power of God in humility and love. These deeds and their impact can follow us past the grave in the form of some type of reward.

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Revelation 14:13 (ESV)

Finally, the least clear thing, the glory of the kings of the Earth. Speaking about the New Jerusalem, the Bible says:

24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

Revelation 21:24-26 (ESV)

What is this? Is it great art or architecture? God finds beauty in some man-made things, and it seems to be preserved. What constitutes “glory” or “honor” is not clear. It certainly won’t include art that reflects either our false notions of God or the perversion of our sinful nature. There are other things that are worth remembering and keeping and God will keep them.

There will be many new, beautiful, breath-taking creations of the God, the ultimate Creator. the experience of Heaven and the New Earth will be different and massively better. But some of the familiar and what God values of the current universe will be a part of our new life in eternity. One would hope to be a contributor to this list.

When Did Heaven Enter the Plan?

The use of the word “Heaven”, the absence of Heaven as a human destination in the Old Testament, and similarities between Heaven and the New Earth leads to confusion about the topic. The article presents a view about how all of this fits together.

I recently watched a show of the documentary series Frontline about President Biden. It shared how, as a first term Senator, Joe Biden’s world was rocked by the tragic death of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The show interviewed the Catholic priest who ministered to the family at the time. He said something that stunned my wife and me. He started a sentence by saying, “If there is a Heaven…”. If? I’m not sure if the “if” was a reflection of a lack of faith or a confusion about God’s plan or both. If it was the former, I would say to him and any of you, expect this world to be difficult and unfair. We are sinful beings under God’s curse and cohabitants on this planet with Satan and his kingdom. There will be rough spots, even cruel ones. If the “if” is the latter, then this article is meant to address that. First of all, from where does the confusion about Heaven arise?

There are a couple of confusing aspects about Heaven in the Bible. The first is the word itself. “Heaven” both in Hebrew and in Greek is a word that describes several layers. The first heaven is the atmosphere of our planet. The second is the universe. The third is Heaven proper, the abode of God. This clearly shows the structure of creation as revealed to or understood by people in the biblical times. This doesn’t mean it is how it is actually structured. The model worked as far as God was concerned.

Next there is the fact that both Old and New Testament revealed the plan for a new heaven and new Earth. Certain similarities exist between the descriptions of Heaven and of the New Earth. So, are they the same? Do we go to Heaven and Revelation 21 and 22 describe it? Or do we wait the New Earth and references to Heaven describe it? Or are they two separate things?

Finally, why is there no reference in the Old Testament to people being taken to Heaven upon their deaths? Even the righteous expected to go to Sheol until the Resurrection?

The Bible reveals that God’s plans were established even before the problem of sin and rebellion existed. How He rolls out those plans and reveals them to mankind is the thing. Very early on God revealed the end of the plan. Job knew about the resurrection. Daniel speaks of it as well. Isaiah 65 reveals a description of the New Earth that doesn’t seem to agree with Revelation or the idea of eternal life. I suspect that Isaiah is only given a description that he and his contemporaries can process. To read more about this passage look here: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/1982

Information is given out by God on a “need to know” basis. Nothing about Heaven as a human destination is mentioned in the Old Testament, but we do find Satan in Heaven. This I believe is key. If we know about God’s plan, then Satan will certainly know about it. This is the reason why more specific details are not given about the Messiah. What is given is specific enough that they could be interpreted any old way, like a fortune cookie; but there is not enough information for Satan to defeat the plan–which he definitely tried to do. A big part of this is that with Jesus’ successful fulfillment of the Law, Satan and his cronies would be expelled from Heaven.

Satan’s expulsion is spoken of in Revelation 12:

7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 12:7-9 (ESV)

I believe this to be the ultimate “Good New – Bad News” message. The good news is that now those redeemed by Jesus don’t have to dwell in the bland comfort of Sheol. With Satan expelled, Heaven is in play, and it is our immediate destination at our death. Resurrection, Judgment Day, and the New Heaven and Earth are future and time does matter. (See this article about time: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/2356

The bad news is that Satan is exiled to here. This I don’t understand or like. Human beings are enough of a mess with our sinful nature. The world is also complicated by the curse. How much additional suffering does the presence of Satan and his angels create?

Heaven is indicated as our destination in several New Testament passages. This is not a development of theology as much as it is more information after a critical execution of the plan. 2 Corinthians 5 states that we have “an eternal house in Heaven” (speaking about our heavenly body). The fact that it is “eternal” does not make Heaven and the New Earth the same thing. Read about one possible scenario here: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/2356

There are many surprises that God still has in store for us. That makes it exciting. The most critical knowledge is already ours. We can only enter into eternal life with God as a gift through God connecting us to Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of God’s Law for us. We would never be able to do it ourselves.

Confusing Heaven and the New Earth

One thing that seems to escape many Christians, even clergy and theologians, is that Heaven and the New Earth are two separate places. The idea that there is just Heaven and Hell has been broadly taught for generations. We have even gone soft on these. “Heaven” is almost never capitalized. Does this mean that the editors of various hymnals and Bible translations consider “Heaven” to be a concept rather than a place with a name? And many Christians don’t believe in Hell.

If you are of the impression that there is only Heaven and Hell, where did you learn that? What Bible passages were used? Or was this just the general description given you as a child by adults who never studied the Scripture for this topic? Such an idea can become entrenched in our mind. We are certain that it must be in the Bible, but it is not.

A couple of linguistic things add to our confusion. First, the Greek word for “Heaven” is used to describe “the atmosphere” (first heaven), “the universe” (second heaven), and the dwelling place of God or what I would describe as “Heaven” (third heaven).

“Hell” an English word with a long history of where it came from, is often sloppily assigned to two Aramaic words, “Gehenna”, which was just transliterated into Greek (so it is a Greek word too), and “Sheol” which is translated into Greek as “Hades”. I think it is interesting that one word is just borrowed by Greek (like the word “hard drive” is rarely changed in other languages) and the other is assigned a word with a lot of meaning. “Hades” is also a place of the dead for the Greek people. From this I would conclude that “Gehenna” and “Sheol” are not synonyms. They are two place names, and the latter conceptually fits with the Greek idea of Hades. The result is the tendency to merge places that exist before Judgment Day with those that only exist after Judgment Day.

Heaven, as most of us would think of it, clearly exists now. It is the visible dwelling place of God, the Cherubim (also called Seraphim) and the angels. It will continue to exist after Judgment Day but will not be the visible dwelling place of God. The New Earth is something spoken of in both Old and New Testaments. It is not Heaven and only will exist after Judgment Day. It becomes the formal dwelling place of God with the arrival of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.

Sheol/Hades is a place for the damned (and until Jesus made atonement for sin, the Old Testament righteous) that exists today. What I would call “Hell”, Jesus calls “Gehenna”, and John calls the “Lake of Fire”; does exist until after Judgment Day. That it is something distinct from Sheol/Hades is established in Revelation 20:14 where Hades is thrown into the Lake of Fire. I guess at that point they become the same thing.

So will we be in Heaven forever? With the resurrection of our bodies on Judgment Day, the New Earth will become both our permanent dwelling and the dwelling place of God (Rev. 21:1-4); but there are some clues that Heaven remains in the mix somehow. First there is this:

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 5:1

Does Paul mean “heavens” as the universe or as the current dwelling place of God? Is “heaven” wherever God dwells or a place of its own? I believe Paul is not speaking of the universe and that Heaven is a place, even after God dwells with man on the Earth. Another passage:

According to his (God’s) great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

1 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV 1984)

We do go to Heaven when we die. God and probably the New Jerusalem are a part of Heaven that is eternal, but will move to the New Earth. Still, I think this is saying that part of our eternal inheritance is Heaven, the place. The New Earth and Heaven could be our home eternally. There is the movement of the New Jerusalem, which could be the sum total of Heaven, to the New Earth. This would create a parallel to the merging of Sheol and Gehenna described above, but symmetry is all that interpretation has going for it.

While I can see that some of the questions that can be raised about our eternity are unanswered, merging Heaven and the New Earth doesn’t honor the Scriptures, which clearly describes them as distinct. Either way, these things are ours by grace. God prepares for us a body or bodies and a sin and curse free place of existence where we are with Him.

The New Earth in Isaiah

The New Earth appears in several passages in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments.  One of the weirdest, and hardest to reconcile with the rest of scripture, is found in Isaiah 65:17-25.  I will emphasize that this is my take on this difficult passage and I have more questions than answers.  Prophecy is often purposely unclear.  Some aspects are meant only to be understood when either hindsight or the Holy Spirit unlocks its true meaning.  For prophecies in Isaiah, the mode in which he received them could be a part of the issue.  Isaiah’s prophecies read like verbal descriptions of visions.  Visions that were presented almost like Powerpoint presentations.  What I mean is that one “slide” could be the present, the next Jesus’ first coming, the last Judgment Day; and there is no sense of elapsed time.  Hindsight shows you that there is elapsed time.

With respect to Isaiah 65, Isaiah may be interpreting the vision in terms he and his immediate readers would understand.  We need the rest of scripture to give us “hindsight” into how to understand some the things that he writes.

The section starts with great clarity as to what it is about:

Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth.

This passage is not about Heaven.  It is not about a “millennium”.  It is about a to be created new universe with a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

This may make you a little sad.  I don’t think this means that we will forget about our relationships nor that the good God worked through us and for us will be forgotten.  Rather the pain and difficulty inherent in our present time will become a memory that fades away.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

These words stand for themselves, but the next part is where it gets weird.

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

For people who probably had a life expectancy of 45 years, this might seem like quite an upgrade, but God has promised us “eternal” life.  Verses about eternal life have to inform our understanding here.  Will there be infants and old men?  Living and dying?  Being accursed?  Sin and the wages of sin, should be eliminated with the death of our bodies and the removal of Satan’s kingdom from the system.  No other passage in scripture would lend support to aging, dying, or being accursed.  For this reason, I would have to consider this a literary device, or an interpretation of what Isaiah sees, to make a point–things will be changed for the good.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat.  For as the days of a tree, so will the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.  They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they are their descendants with them.  

Surely they understood that trees die.  But in comparison it must have seemed that certain species lived forever.  A question raised here is whether the reference to children and descendants are also a literary devices.  Maybe.  With resurrected bodies, it is possible that the new earth might include procreation.  A passage in Matthew tells us that “in the resurrection” which means “in the new earth”, that we will be like angels neither married or given in marriage.  Some take the leap to suggest that means we must be asexual in the new earth, but to be honest I don’t know what the angels are like.  If the new earth is a return to Eden in a way, I would have to assume that Adam and Eve were going to procreate with or without the fall into sin.  I think this topic remains a mystery for now.

Before they call I will answer, while they are speaking I will hear.

Like the Garden of Eden, God is there in visible form.  He will live with us.

The wolf and lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food.  They will not harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Some people want to read this metaphorically.  I think it is probably quite straight forward.  God’s plan is to redeem creation, not just people.  While there is no reference to nature in Heaven, there is a reference here.  Also like the Garden of Eden it is a death-free system without predators.  A place of beauty and of peace.  Could our pets be a part of this “nature”?  We will see.

 

The New Earth: A Return to Eden

Imagine a world in many ways similar to this one.  There are plants and animals, the full spectrum of God’s original creation.  We have bodies.  We eat, sleep, do pleasurable work, maybe even are sexual.  But this world has some profound differences.  First, we never die or get sick.  There is no war, crime, abuse or sin of any sort.  We don’t believe God exists by faith.  We see Him and speak with Him all the time.  Can you imagine this?  If so, where am I?

You might want to say the Garden of Eden, and that would be a close answer.  But this is a description of God’s ultimate, post-Judgment Day plans for us.  It is the New Earth.

I will say again, I am stunned as to how few Christians are familiar with even the idea of a new heaven and earth.  This includes clergy.  As you will see it is clearly declared in the Bible.  There is probably a more complete description of the New Earth than there is of Heaven.  People either haven’t read these passages or they have conflated the concept of Heaven with the New Earth. (If you haven’t read it, see: “Our Oversimplication of Life After Death“)

Let’s look at the passages about the New Earth, starting with the most basic 2 Peter 3.  Some of our questions will be answered, we can infer some things, but be prepared to have more questions than answers.

Starting with 2 Peter 3:10:

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.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness.

This passage foretells the complete annihilation of not only the planet but the whole of the universe.  All gone, down to the atomic level.  But this is not the end of all things.  In fact, it is something of which to look forward.  Why?  The creation as it now stands is messed up.  Its “order” has been disordered by Satan, by us and intentionally by God; and to get it back to the way God wants it, it must be destroyed and rebuilt.

In this passage we have very little detail of what the “new heaven and new earth” will be like, except that it is the “home of righteousness”.  We can infer some details from these words.  There will be no Satan, no sinfulness, no rebellion against God.  There will be no separation of God from His creation.  It will be somewhat like the Garden of Eden minus the way to mess it up.  We may maintain a knowledge of what evil was, but we will never go there again.

This was the understanding of life after death even in the Old Testament.  Next entry I will go to perhaps the most confounding passage on this topic or any in the Bible–Isaiah 65.

Our Oversimplification of Life After Death

Most people, if they believe in life after death at all, would subscribe to a basic Heaven for all or a Heaven and Hell model.  They would also believe the Bible supports these models.  It seems too few understand that the resurrection of the body leads not to Heaven but to a New Earth.  Why is this so?  I have even found pastors not clear about this.

The teaching that post-Judgment Day the saved will inhabit a New Earth is well attested in the Bible.  You can find it in Isaiah 65, 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 21 and 22.  This blog will eventually get around to each of these.  For now, I just want to ponder why were we taught that we will go to Heaven forever.

I starts way back with the first century church.  The Greek idea of the afterlife was a strongly “spirit only” model.  The body was seen as corrupt and worthless and had no part in life after death.  The Jewish understanding was different.  It was focused on the resurrection of the body.  Old ideas can die hard, and for quite a while the Church had to fight a Greek heresy called Gnosticism.  While repudiated, Gnosticism subtly had its influence just as the Greek worldview affected the thinking of Western culture.  Those influences and the scarcity of Bibles to read and for that matter the ability to read gave the common Christian the idea that Heaven was the end goal.  Even the presence of “the resurrection of the body” in the creeds didn’t dissuade people.  They just assumed that the resurrected body was made for Heaven.

Plenty of the Church fathers understood about the New Earth.  In fact, that is what is dominately talked about with respect to the afterlife.  Some question whether the hope of Heaven is biblical.  Heaven does show up in the Bible, however.  It is not part of Old Testament teaching as a destination for people most likely because God didn’t reveal it as a possibility until after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The teaching of our having a place in Heaven is found in Luke 18:22, 2 Corinthians 5:1, Philippians 3:20, 1 Peter 5:4 and Revelation 6:9-10, 7:9-17.  In fact the 2 Corinthians passage speaks of “an eternal home in Heaven” which might have led some to conflate Heaven and the New Earth.

The conflation of the doctrines of Heaven and the New heavens and Earth seems to be a particularly big problem during the period of the Enlightenment.  I am not sure why.  That period also gives us a number of our hymns about Heaven.  Try to find a hymn verse about the New Earth in Lutheran Service Book.  There are only a few verses, typically something like verse 8 and 9 which you never sing, about the resurrection of our bodies.  This adds to the ignorance of the Bible’s promise of a New Earth.

Heaven Is My Home, or Is It?

Another common misconception about eternal life is that Heaven is our final destination. Most people believe the Bible says that if you are saved you go to Heaven forever, and if you are damned you go to Hell forever, but the Bible is very clear on this subject, a New Earth is our ultimate goal. Heaven is an intermediary destination.

Here are some relevant passages on the topic:

2 Peter 3:13

But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Revelation 21:1-4

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The idea of being in Heaven forever didn’t come from the Bible. It first seeped into Christian thinking from Greek pagan religion. The Greeks believed that this world and our bodies were evil and the goal was to be released from our bodies. Similar ideas can be found in Hinduism and Buddhism. You can understand from where such thinking came. Our bodies and this world are not as God had created them. We get sick and die. We have all sorts of natural inclinations toward evil. This is because we have been altered by sin and live under the curse of God. It is not because the material universe is inherently corrupt or undesirable, but it can sure seem like it at times. In fact, God’s goal is to restore it original glory rather than abandon His creation.

In more recent times, Enlightenment era theologians had a tendency to conflate scripture that referred to Heaven with those that spoke of the New Earth. As a result, there are many beloved hymns from that era that speak of Heaven as our permanent home. Finding the words “the new Earth” in a hymn is rather unusual. Why this is so probably has something to do with the idea of the resurrection of the dead. Reanimating long-decayed remains seems like a physical impossibility. True people of science would never believe this to be literal. A heavenly goal is not challengeable by the laws of nature, so it seems more believable; but the laws of nature don’t restrict God.

Seminary and Sunday School also can shoulder some of the blame for our not hearing about the New Earth. In systematic theology classes that are jammed packed with topic matter, our eternal destiny tends to be left to the end of the line and was probably not always covered. If pastors were not thorough in their studies of scripture, they could easily overlook or dismiss the temporary nature of both Heaven and Sheol. As noted earlier, Sheol is usually mistranslated in most Bibles, therefore many pastors may not understand it at all. Then there is the training most lay people have had. I’ll admit the true plan of God for eternity is a little complicated. Try explaining it to Sunday School kids or, for that matter, Sunday School teachers. How much easier is it to present the “Heaven forever” model.

The Heaven Forever model does create some dissonance with the “resurrection of the body” that is proclaimed, often weekly, in the Creeds. That is one reason we have the ancient creeds. It is so we don’t lose important parts of the truth to false oversimplifications. If we are in Heaven, why would we need our earthly bodies resurrected? Of course, the answer is because we’re not in Heaven forever, still people readily ignore this contradiction.

Heaven is the destination of the redeemed between death and Judgment Day.  What we will experience in Heaven is not well explained in Scripture, but there are several descriptions of God’s throne room which are quite detailed.  They will be the topic matter for the next few publications.