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Helping Others Towards Heaven

New Heavens & A New Earth

7/30/2019

6 Comments

 
Picture
​This phrase is used to refer to the world we will inhabit in eternity with God (2 Peter 3). It is not a mere cleansing, renewal or restoration of our present world like what God did with the waters that covered this planet in the days of Noah. Peter draws a clear contrast between the destruction of the old world and the coming destruction of the present world. Our present world is reserved for fire. “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up… all these things will be dissolved” (vv. 10-11). Our present world will one day be gone (Matthew 24:35); there will be no place found for it (Revelation 20:11). But we have another place Jesus has prepared for us in His Father’s house (John 14:1-3; cf. Hebrews 11:16). This inheritance is “reserved in heaven” for us and is not just new in time but in kind, “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” (1 Peter 1:3-5; cf. Colossians 1:5). The new world will be spiritual, heavenly and eternal not physical, earthly and temporary as is our present world (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:11).

​In the new world, we will not have a corruptible, weak, dishonorable, physical body of flesh and blood after the image of the earthy but an incorruptible, powerful, honorable, spiritual body after the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:35-57). The resurrection body Jesus received was physical, with flesh and bones, because He was raised to walk on the earth again (Luke 24:39-43; John 20:25-29; 1 John 1:1-3), yet He still possessed the same miraculous power He possessed before His resurrection to pass through things, walk on water, appear and disappear. He must have received His present glorious body when He ascended into heaven (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:50). One day we, too, will be raised, not to walk on earth again but to go and forever be with the Lord in the new world (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Therefore, we will be given a different body like His glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21). On that day “we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). We shall be equal to the angels of heaven (Luke 20:34-36).
 
In Romans 8:18-23, creation is personified as if it has a soul awaiting the new creation, just as we are awaiting our new bodies. In both cases, the new is not earthly and physical but spiritual and heavenly.
 
We should not think of the new world as we do the present world. The present world is a mere type or figure of the world to come. The physical points to the spiritual. For example, in the last two chapters of Revelation John is given a vision of the church in its triumphant and eternal state after the day of judgment (Revelation 21-22). It is described as a new heaven and a new earth (21:1). John explicitly says that the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. He also adds that the sea is no more. The sea stood between God and His people in chapter four (4:6). In chapter fifteen (15:2) the faithful are seen after death standing on the sea. They had moved closer to God. But in the new world there will be no separation between God and His people. “God Himself will be with them” (21:3).
 
In John’s vision, the new world is pictured as a new Jerusalem (21:2). It is not the old physical city of the earth but as other visions in Revelation this one comes from heaven. John goes on to describe this city in much detail comparing it to a bride adorned for her husband and speaking of its foundations, walls, gates, a street, the kings of the earth, a river, a throne and a tree. These things are not meant to be taken literally but symbolically (Revelation 1:1; e.g. v. 20). They are but figures in an apocalyptic book to help us understand what it will be like in eternity for the people of God. It will be beautiful and wonderful. There will be room for all. We will never be moved but will be fully protected from sin and forever provided spiritual health and life. It will be glorious because we are there with God and the Lamb. God could only relate the new world to us by using familiar figures from our present world, but the two are completely different worlds.
6 Comments
Gerald sanders
8/1/2019 08:41:49 pm

Good job, Robert! Will we know each other in Heaven?

Reply
Robert Dodson link
8/29/2019 04:07:03 pm

In death we maintain our personal identity and are able to recognize one another, even those we have never met. Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom and the rich man saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:22-23). The Bible tells us that when Abraham died he was gathered to his people (Gen. 25:8). That would be meaningless if they could not know each other. When King David’s son died he said, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). Again, this would be meaningless if David could not know him.

Reply
Harold B Jackson
9/29/2020 09:55:51 am

So for, I have yet to find someone to speak from experience about us maintaining our earthly identity and being able to recognize each other. If that be the case, then all is not made new.

Like most of Jesus parables, they are not to be taken at face value. This is the case with the rich man and Lazarus. .Luke 16 is about two rich men. The first one had a steward that wasted his masters money. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, new Jesus was talking about them. It was the leaders of the Jews that caused Israel to commit spiritual adultery. The story about the rich man and Lazarus is not about how it will be when we die because it does not fit the context. Jesus is still talking about the Pharisees and the scribes, who were teachers of the law. He makes mockery of them by using Abraham. In John chapter 8, they claimed that Abraham was their father. Because they didn't have the faith of Abraham, Jesus gives them a picture of Abraham preventing them from entering into the kingdom.

Reply
Robert Dodson
5/24/2022 05:28:00 pm

The parables of Jesus are always true to life. Life after death is just as Jesus described it in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Reply
neal abbott
8/13/2021 02:34:27 pm

is a renovated earth being taught anywhere in the church?

Reply
Robert Dodson
5/24/2022 05:29:32 pm

Yes it is.

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    Robert Dodson is the Preaching Minister for the Northwest Church of Christ.

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