OceanSide church of Christ
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NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
Affirmative Arguments
Victor M. Eskew
INTRODUCTION
A. The phrase, “new heavens and new earth,” is found three times in the Bible (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; II Pet. 3:13). And the phrase, “new heaven and new earth,” is found one time in the Bible (Rev. 21:1).
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
B. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have always advocated that all of the saved, except 144,000, will live on a new heaven and earth.
1. “As the King of God’s Kingdom, Jesus will exercise full control over earth and its elements. He will re-create, or renew, conditions on earth, making them similar to those that existed in the garden of Eden” (https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/earth-destroyed/).
C. There are those in the denominational world who advocate that the saved will live on a new heaven and new earth in what we call the afterlife. (Creation Museum has entire section dedicated to this concept).
D. We now have some ministers within the church of Christ who are promoting the teaching that the redeemed will live on a new heaven and new earth throughout eternity.
1. It is not a large group who hold the position.
2. They have sought to keep the issue in the realm of option in an effort to
a. Not create as much division.
b. To keep their standing in the brotherhood.
c. To be able to promote their doctrine without really being marked and avoided.
3. They also point out that many of the restoration preachers believed in the new heavens and new earth like that which they advocate
(See http://johnmarkhicks.com/2012/01/27/heaven-on-earth-a-stone-campbell-tradition/)
Here are just three examples. First, David Lipscomb in his Salvation from Sin (pp. 35-36):
God is holy. As a pure and holy being, he cannot tolerate guilt and sin. The two cannot permanently dwell together in the universe. When sin came into the world, God left this world as a dwelling place. He cannot dwell in a defiled and sin-polluted temple. He has since dwelt on this earth only in sanctified altars and temples separated from the world and consecrated to his service. He will again make this earth his dwelling place, but it will be only when sin has been purged out and it has been consecrated anew as the new heaven and new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. [Quotes Rev. 21:3-4.]
Second, James A. Harding (“What Are We Here For?” The Way 5 [3 December 1903], 1041):
…the earth is God’s nursery, his training grounds, made primarily for the occupancy of his children, for their education, development and training until they shall have reached their majority, until the end of the Messianic age has come; then it is to be purified a second time by a great washing, a mighty flood, but this time in a sea of fire. Then God will take up his abode himself with his great family upon this new, this renovated and purified earth.
Third, Alexander Campbell (Christian System, p. 257):
The Bible begins with the generations of the heavens and the earth; but the Christian revelation ends with the regenerations or new creation of the heavens and the earth. This [is] the ancient promise of God confirmed to us by the Christian Apostles. The present elements are to be changed by fire. The old or antediluvian earth was purified by water; but the present earth is reserved for fire, with all the works of man that are upon it. It shall be converted into a lake of liquid fire. But the dead in Christ will have been regenerated in body before the old earth is regenerated by fire. The bodies of the saints will be as homogeneous with the new earth and heavens as their present bodies are with the present heavens and earth. God re-creates, regenerates, but annihilates nothing; and, therefore, the present earth is not to be annihilated. The best description we can give of this regeneration is in the words of one who had a vision of it on the island of Patmos. He describes it as far as it is connected with the New Jerusalem, which is to stand upon the new earth, under the canopy of the new heaven:–[quoting Rev. 21:1-4].
I. OUR INARTICULATE AND NON-ENTICING VIEW OF HEAVEN
A. How many of us have preached much about heaven?
When you preached about heaven, how did you describe it?
When you preach on heaven, what do you tell your audience we will be doing there?
B. The argument is that heaven ought to be the place that we as God’s children talk about the most. However, because we do not have an accurate view of heaven we do not speak about it like we should. And, when we do, it is not very enticing.
C. They believe the renovated earth view makes life in the next world much more appealing to the saved.
II. GOD’S ORIGINAL DESIGN
A. Those who believe in a renewed Earth, believe that God will be doing nothing more than restoring His original design for man and the earth. J. Richard Middleton called this “God’s creational intent for human beings” (A New Heaven and A New Earth, J. Richard Middleton, p. 57).
B. JW: “If our first parents, Adam and Eve, had not pursued a course of sin, they would have had a close relationship with Jehovah God eternally on a paradise earth. They started life in Paradise, for the Scriptures tell us: “Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8) It was in that paradisaic garden that Eve was brought into existence. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, they and their perfect offspring could have worked together happily until the entire earth became a paradise. (Genesis 2:21; 3:23, 24) The earthly Paradise would have been mankind’s home eternally” (https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/w20031115/You-Can-Believe-in-a-Paradise-Earth/).
C. A New Heaven and A New Earth, J.Richard Middleton:
1. “Contrary to the popular notion that we are made to worship God, the Bible suggests a more mundane purpose for humans made in God’s image, involving the development of culture and care for our earthly environment. But human sin (understood as rebellion and violence) has blocked God’s original intent for the flourishing of earthly life” (p. 17).
2. “Nevertheless, God’s ultimate purpose beyond judgment is to accomplish his original intent for the flourishing of humanity and the nonhuman world” (p. 18)
D. “Upon creating the heavens and the earth, he called them ‘very good.’ Never once has he renounced his claim on what he made. He isn’t going to abandon his creation. He is going to restore it. We won’t go to Heaven and leave Earth behind. Rather, God will bring Heaven and Earth together in the same dimension, with no wall of separation, no armed angels to guard Heaven’s perfection from sinful mankind (Gen. 3:24)” (Heaven, Randy Alcorn, p. 88)
III. A POSSIBILITY: Before and After the Flood
A. II Peter 3:6
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
B. II Peter 3:7
But the heavens and the earth which are now…
C. According to the New Heavens and New Earth advocates, this world will go through another renovation process when Jesus returns. The only difference is that it will be done by fire and not water. The Lord will then provide a new heavens and a new earth for all of the redeemed.
IV. EARTH IS SUPPOSED TO LAST FOREVER
A. Psalm 37:29
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
B. Psalm 104:5
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that is should not be removed for ever.
C. Ecclesiastes 1:4
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.
D. Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else.
V. THE RENEWAL (REDEMPTION) OF ALL THINGS (Matt. 19:28)
And Jesus said unto the, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
A. The key word is “the regeneration.”
B. Definition:
1. Strong (3824): rebirth, renovation, restoration
2. Thayer: renewal, recreation, regeneration
3. Vine: “In Mat_19:28 the word is used, in the Lord's discourse, in the wider sense, of the "restoration of all things" (Act_3:21, RV), when, as a result of the second advent of Christ, Jehovah "sets His King upon His holy hill of Zion" (Psa_2:6), and Israel, now in apostasy, is restored to its destined status, in the recognition and under the benign sovereignty of its Messiah. Thereby will be accomplished the deliverance of the world from the power and deception of Satan and from the despotic and antichristian rulers of the nations. This restitution will not in the coming millennial age be universally a return to the pristine condition of Edenic innocence previous to the Fall, but it will fulfill the establishment of God's covenant with Abraham concerning his descendants, a veritable rebirth of the nation, involving the peace and prosperity of the Gentiles. That the worldwide subjection to the authority of Christ will not mean the entire banishment of evil, is clear from Rev_20:7, Rev_20:8. Only in the new heavens and earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness," will sin and evil be entirely absent” (e-sword).
VI. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
A. Psalm 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
B. Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
VII. I WILL MAKE THE RULER OVER MANY THINGS
A. Matthew 25:21, 23
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
B. Revelation 2:26, 27
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
VIII. REDEMPTION OF THE CREATION (Rom.8:22)
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
A. The earth is under the curse of Adam and Eve’s sin (Gen. 3:17-18).
B. It will be redeemed from the curse to God’s original intent for it at the beginning (Rev. 22:3).
And there shall be no more curse…
1. History will continue from that present time onward along with all of the technological advances that we have at this present time. Just as Noah’s history continued after he was commanded to leave the ark.
2. “Do I seriously believe the new heavens will include new galaxies, planets, moons, white dwarf stars neutron stars, black holes, and quasars? Yes. The fact that they are part of the first universe and that God called them ‘very good,’ at least in their original forms, means they will be part of the resurrected universe” (Heaven, Alcorn, p. 262).
3. Will we eat and drink? Yes. Most believe that we will be vegetarians in the new earth. Alcorn even advocates that we will drink coffee in heaven (pp. 307-309).
4. Will animals exist on the new earth? Yes. Dinosaurs will be there. Our pets will be renewed and be there as well. Alcorn even advocates that some animals will speak to us (pp. 403-405).
5. What will man be doing: working, creating, building, cultural developments, engaged in the arts, laughing, sports, play, travel, trade, explore space, and even travel in time.
IX. A REINTERPRETATION OF NUMEROUS PASSAGES
A. John 14:1-3: mansions are rooms the Lord prepares for us
B. I Thessalonians 4:13-18: meet him in the air
1. When the Lord returns in the air, we will go out to meet him just as the citizens go out to meet the returning general and army after battle.
2. The Lord will return to the renovated earth and we will return with Him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
C. II Peter 3:10-13
1. JWs: Earth does not mean “the planet.” It refers to the wicked people of the earth.
2. Dispensationalists: “A surface reading of the above passage would lead one to believe that the earth as a planet, and the sidereal heavens, are to be destroyed by fire and pass away. But a careful study of the Scriptures will show us that this is not so, that what is to happen is, that this present earth, and the atmosphere surrounding it, is to be Renovated by Fire, so that its exterior surface shall be completely changed, and all that sin has brought into existence, such as thorns and thistles, disease germs, insect pests, etc., shall be destroyed, and the atmosphere purified and forever freed from evil spirits and destructive agencies” (https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/25.cfm).
3. NOTE: They will define many terms in Peter’s writing.
a. Cosmos: land surface, the inhabitable earth
b. The heat will melt the presents surface of the earth ridding it of all the things that came from the curse of sin. The heat will cause the gases in the atmosphere to explode.
c. The dissolving: It is the same word translated “loose” (Mark 11:2). They believe the Creation is presently in a state of captivity, and it is awaiting to be loosed from the bondage that sin has caused (Rom. 8:19-23).
CONCLUSION
A. “The earth shall also put on its Edenic beauty and glory. There shall no longer be thorns and thistles, no parasites or destructive insects, and labor shall be a delight. No serpents shall hiss among its flowers, nor savage beasts lie in ambush to destroy and devour. Its sod shall not be heaped over newly made graves, nor its soil moistened with tears of sorrow and shame, or saturated with human blood in fratricidal strife. The meek shall inherit the earth, and from north to south, and from east to west, it shall blossom like the rose and be clothed with the verdure of Paradise Restored” (www.blueletter.org).
B. “No, God will not permit Satan to block His plan for peopling this earth with a Sinless Human Race. The death of Christ was not merely to redeem a few millions of the human race, but to redeem the Earth, and the Race Itself from the curse of sin, and the dominion of Satan” (Ibid.).
C. “It seems clear from the presence of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, that God intended the human race to populate the Earth, and when it became too thickly populated, to use the surplus population to colonize other spheres. Our "Solar System" is only in its infancy. The Earth is the only one of its planets as yet habitable. Where are the inhabitants for the other planets to come from? Think you that the planets of our Solar System, and the planets of other solar systems, of which the stars are the suns, were made simply to adorn the heavens for our little earth? God does not plan things on a Small Scale, and it magnifies His power and wisdom to believe that He created man in His own likeness, a created being higher than the angels, and gifted with the power of Procreation, that He might by means of him populate the Universe” (Ibid.).