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 55)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 9 – How the Apostles Explained the Prophets
New Heavens and New Earth (continued)
(Yesterday’s reading included the first two reasons why we are being reasonable to conclude that the Bible portrays the new heavens and new earth as spiritual rather than physical: 1) the example of a person becoming a new creature through Christ as described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, and 2) Revelation 21:5 says “I am making all things new” – not “I am making all new things.)
Third, if we read John’s description of the new heavens and earth in context, it is more than obvious that he is speaking spiritually. For one thing, John says “and there is no longer any sea” (Revelation 21:1); but just a few lines before (Revelation 20:13) he had described the sea as the place where the dead were kept. Physically speaking, the predominant place of burial is the
land, not the sea. But, again, John is using sea in the spiritual sense, not the physical sense. In the spiritual dimension of heaven, earth, and sea, the sea corresponds to Sheol (or Hades, if you prefer the Greek term) which was the place which, according to the Old Testament, housed all the dead. Thus, with the Second Coming being the time that Satan and his angels are cast out of
heaven and the dead being raised to heaven (Matthew 22:30) – that is, the “sea” was dried up – you can see that we do indeed have a new heavens and earth…if you are thinking spiritually.
Rather than using the expression “new heaven and earth” sometimes the Scripture uses the expression “heaven and earth will pass away” (e.g. Matthew 5:18 and 24:35). The meaning and result, however, are the same. That is, the idea was that the existing heavens and earth would pass away and new ones would come. Just as with the 2 Corinthians 5:17 passage, the
spiritual dimension was completely reconstructed while what is seen outward in the flesh appears unchanged. Those who set their minds on the flesh, however, keep wanting to see a new physical heaven and earth – yet, other than an absence of the sea, how would they recognize it?
Peter warned against such an obsession with a new physical heavens and earth for he said just before his own death that
…mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. 2 Peter 3:3-4
With these words, Peter was warning about the false teachers who would arise just before the coming of the Lord. Peter describes them as being sensual in nature. True to form then, these false teachers will point to the lack of physical change in the universe as proof positive that the day of the Lord has not come. From here, Peter goes on to invoke the memory of Noah who also labored long, preaching righteousness to people who never believed the judgment would really come…until it was too late. These false teachers, about whom Peter was warning, would be too sensual, too fleshly-minded, to appreciate the spiritual orientation of the Scriptures.
(This section of the chapter will be continued tomorrow)
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