Biblical Reasons Why We Should
And Practical Suggestions on How We Can
Create Heaven on Earth
This is not a test.
This is not a drill.
This is not a "spiritual exercise."
Telling you "We're already in heaven" -- that was a spiritual exercise.
I'm here to tell you we really are in "The New Heavens and the New Earth."
But I'm also here to tell you what the Bible means by that phrase, because we're not in "The New Heavens and the New Earth" as most people understand that phrase.
For decades I believed that 2 Peter 3 was talking about a future Second Coming and the End of the World. Then I discovered that many occurrences of the phrase "end of the world" in the New Testament are more accurately translated "end of the age," that is, end of the Old Covenant Age. Now I'm convinced that "The New Heavens and the New Earth" is Biblically understood as the New Covenant age.
Lets' look at the text.
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Let's look first at the word "elements." David Chilton notes that this word is completely mis-defined by many theologians.
Study notes for II Peter 3:10 from the New Geneva Study Bible; and MacArthur Study Bible:
New Geneva Study Bible (p.1983) elements. Greek stoicheia, a term used for (a) the elements making up the world (according to the philosophers these were earth, air, fire, and water)...
MacArthur Study Bible (p.1959) the heavens will pass away with a great noise. The "heavens" refer to the physical universe. The "great noise" connotes whistling or a crackling sound as of objects being consumed by flames. God will incinerate the universe, probably in an atomic reaction that disintegrates all matter as we know it (vv.7, 11, 12, 13). the elements will melt with fervent heat. The "elements" are the atomic components into which matter is ultimately divisible, which make up the composition of all the created matter. Peter means that the atoms, neutrons, protons, and electrons are all going to disintegrate (v.11).
How could these scholars be so mistaken? Chilton writes:
Throughout the New Testament, the word "elements" (stoicheia) is always used in connection with the Old Covenant order. Describing Old Covenant rituals and ceremonies, {the Apostle Paul] says "we were in bondage under the elements (stoicheia) of this world....How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements (stoicheia), to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years..." (Gal. 4:3, 9-10). He warns the Colossians: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the basic principles (stoicheia) of the world, and not according to Christ....Therefore, if you died with Christ to the basic principles (stoicheia) of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle"' (Col. 2:8,20-21).
The writer to the Hebrews chided them: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elements (stoicheia) of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food" (Heb. 5:12). In context, the writer to the Hebrews is clearly speaking of Old Covenant truths particularly since he connects it with the term oracles of God, an expression used elsewhere in the New Testament for the provisional, Old Covenant revelation (see Acts 7:38; Rom.3:2). These citations from Galatians, Colossians, and Hebrews comprise all the other occurrences in the New Testament of that word "elements" (stoichea). Not one refers to the "elements" of the physical world or universe; all are speaking of the "elements" of the Old Covenant system, which, as the apostles wrote just before the approaching destruction of the Old Covenant Temple in A.D. 70, was "becoming obsolete and growing old" and "ready to vanish away" (Heb.8:13).
St. Peter uses the same term in exactly the same way. Throughout the Greek New Testament, the word elements (stoicheia) always means ethics, not physics; the foundational "elements" of a religious system that was doomed to pass away in a fiery judgment.
What is the "promise" that Peter says his readers were looking for? Or more important, the promises, plural. How many promises of a "New Heavens and New Earth" can you think of? How many promises did God make to destroy the old heavens and the old earth? Does anyone remember Haggai 2:21: "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth." Or verse 6: "For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land." When God judges a civilization, He speaks of the fall of the heavens and the earth. The purpose of this form of speech is not to make declarations about astronomy, but reinforce the seriousness of the ethical decisions that must be made. Consider these:
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
(Joel 3:16)10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
(Joel 2:10,30)For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
(Jeremiah 4:28)And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
(Isaiah 51:16)Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
(Isaiah 13:13)
While most of the "de-creation" prophecies of Old Testament judgment have been fulfilled, some are said by New Testament writers to be ready for fulfillment in the days of the Apostles. The promise spoken of by Peter was also spoken of by the writer to the Hebrews:
See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: [25] Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. [26] And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. [27] Wherefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
(Hebrews 12:24-28)
Probably the best known promise of a "New Heavens and New Earth" was made by the Prophet Isaiah:
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Note the presence of two things that most people who are waiting for the rapture are hoping to escape: death and work. In "The New Heavens and the New Earth" people are still dying, though at more advanced ages. And people are still working, still exercising dominion. This is a surprise to most people waiting for the rapture. Most people who want to be raptured into "The New Heavens and the New Earth" were hoping that heavenly mansions and a heavenly buffet would be theirs without having to work for them. But in "The New Heavens and the New Earth" people are building their homes and planting crops.
This passage should force many people to work through these spiritual exercises. It simply does not fit their theological preconceptions.
If we were more grateful, we would appreciate the blessings we have. Anyone living in Isaiah's day would have no problem believing that we are now living in "The New Heavens and the New Earth." Life in our day is so amazingly different from life in Isaiah's day so as to be almost incomprehensible to Isaiah and his contemporaries. The Apostle Peter and his readers would also be overwhelmed.
But we want more. And we want it all without having to work for it.
The Bible never teaches an end to our duty to exercise dominion, respond in a Christlike manner to evil, and grow in grace. Christians in our day are completely unappreciative of God's blessings and the treasures we now have in Christ. They long to be raptured out of the present and into a childish future of irresponsible luxury.
The Bible does not promise a "New Earth" like most people want. The best Bible scholars have concluded that Peter was not talking about the physical destruction of the planet, but the destruction of the Old Covenant and the reign of darkness over the nations.
Dr. John Owen (1616-1683) On the 'New Heavens and Earth.' (2 Peter iii. 13)
Bringing in the fullness of "The New Heavens and the New Earth" is our present duty.
For Further Reading:
Looking for New Heavens and a New Earth | David Chilton | Preterist Archive
Preterism and Spiritualization
The New Heavens and Earth | Study Archive
eschatology.org: New Heaven and New Earth articles
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