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The New Heavens and New Earth

What is the New Heavens and New Earth?  The Book Of Signs limits this term strictly to the universe after the supposed millennium.  It takes the traditional Christian approach of seeing this present world ending in fire.  [For my thoughts on that, see How Will The World End?]. Refreshingly, Dr. David Jeremiah understands that does not mean destruction but total renovation.  All sin and reminders of sin and death [like fossils] are removed.  We live through eternity in a perfect universe.

Woman Praising God

A New Creature

Before we look at the terms new heavens and new earth, let’s look at another Biblical principle.  We were all dead in sins until Jesus saved us and called us to Himself.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  2 Cor. 5:17, NKJV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.  Gal. 6:15, NKJV

When we experience salvation, we are recreated.  We become a new creature in Christ.  This is instantly [our position] and progressive [as we begin to live more and more like who we really are].

…and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him… Col. 3:10    

The same principle applies to the New Heavens and New Earth.  Spiritually it came into existence at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As new creatures, we are learning to live in the New Heaven and New Earth realities of righteousness and holiness as we forsake the fantasies of the sinful world we lived in before.  This is progressive.  The recreation or renovation of the physical heaven and earth will happen at the return of Christ to bring physical reality into line with spiritual reality.  There will then be unity, and everything of the old sinful life and world will be permanently destroyed.

The New Heavens And New Earth

The New Heavens And New Earth

With that in mind, let’s look at the four sections of Scripture that specifically mention the new heaven and the new earth.

You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen;
For the Lord God will slay you,
And call His servants by another name;

So that he who blesses himself in the earth
Shall bless himself in the God of truth;
And he who swears in the earth
Shall swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hidden from My eyes.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or [f]come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people;
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.

“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat;
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labor in vain,
Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord,
And their offspring with them.

“It shall come to pass
That before they call, I will answer;
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”
Says the Lord.  Is. 65:15-25, NKJV

The first thing to notice is who God is speaking to.  He told rebellious natural Israel that He would “leave your name as a curse.”  Then He said He would “call His servants by another name.”  By what name are the servants of God known today?  Christians.

Then we see God creating a New Heaven and a New Earth for these new servants.  What we see is something that God created at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and which progressively grows and develops until Jesus returns, when we will have the fullness of everything God promised.  The mention of “death” and “sinner” shows that this is not yet the perfected form of the New Heaven and the New Earth but its progressing form.  

“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain.

And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.  Is. 66:22-23, NKJV

Again, this section of Scripture is talking about bringing people from every nation into the Kingdom of God.  This began when Jesus broke down the middle wall of partition with His death and resurrection.  It will continue developing until the return of Jesus when the complete number of people from all nations will have been saved.

Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  2 Peter 3:13, NKJV

We look at this verse and its context in detail in How Will The World End?

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.  Rev. 21:1, NKJV

The Book Of Signs takes the removal of the sea as literal and then proceeds to explain why this does not mean there will be no large bodies of water in the New Heaven and the New Earth.  However, in prophetic Scriptures, the sea often represents the heathen nations.  We have the Land [of Israel] and the Sea [of nations].  This is a picture that there are no national divisions in the kingdom of God.  We are all one.  It is not making a statement about whether the recreated earth will have bodies of water.

We cannot limit the term New Heaven and New Earth to the recreated heaven and earth after the return of Jesus.  That will be its final and perfect form, both spiritually and physically.  But Christians are now living in the New Heaven and the New Earth and will progressively experience its benefits as they are renewed into the image of Christ.

Return to The Book Of Signs.

For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.


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