Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 54)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 9 – How the Apostles Explained the Prophets
New Heavens and New Earth
The heavens and the earth became new when Jesus took the throne of the universe. Isaiah had prophesied it (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22) and John the apostle confirmed it (Revelation 21:1). It is a spiritual – not a physical – newness that is spoken of and this is obvious for several reasons.
First, many Christians will refer to a person who has trusted Jesus Christ as a “new creature” alluding to the following passage of Scripture:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Evangelical Christians will be quick to tell you that such newness has to do with spiritual things, for the “new creature” will have the same shoe size, same eye color, and will still have to eat and sleep. These Christians will not, however, allow the significance of the newness to be devalued for those reasons. They will insist (for the context of 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 demands it) that such spiritual newness is eternal and far more important than any physical change could ever be (for physical things are only temporal). If such reasoning is acceptable for the salvation of an individual why not for the salvation of the universe?
Second, while describing the new heavens and new earth John quotes God as saying, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Note that He doesn’t say that He is making all new things, but that He is making all things new.
Let’s say your name is Sally Smith and God promises to make a new Sally Smith. Is your hope that He makes you new (that is, renews you by cleansing what is wrong with you and preserving what is right in you) or that He makes another Sally Smith, obliterating you in the process? Of course, you want to be new and improved – not have some other human being take your place. If God was going to make all new things instead of make all things new then He
would have obliterated Adam and Eve after they sinned and started over. But even just two human souls are so precious in God’s sight that, rather than start over, He would set in motion a plan for redeeming and renewing what had already been created. This is the way God makes all things new. We don’t need a new physical heavens and earth. There is nothing wrong with the
ones we have. They are beautiful, enthralling, awesome. What has been wrong with creation from the beginning has not been the sunrises, or the mountains, or the oceans, but rather the sin in mankind, God’s co-rulers of the earth.
(This section of the chapter will be continued tomorrow)
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