New Heavens and Earth: A Present Reality to the End

New Heavens and Earth: A Present Reality to the End

Matthew 5:17-18 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished

Matthew 24:34-35 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away UNTIL all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

NOTE: Heaven and earth will pass away when this generation (Apostate Israel) will pass away and vice versa.When Jesus said “all these things,” He was of speaking about everything in verses 1-33. This includes the temple being destroyed, wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, false prophets and persecution, the gospel being preached to all nations, the abomination of desolation and Jews fleeing from Judea, great tribulation, the coming of the Son of Man, etc. This show that all these things were fulfilled by the time the temple fell in 70 AD. That means the “The Heavens and Earth” will come to fulfillment. They are an expression of covenantal language.

Isaiah 1:1-2 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

NOTE:  Heavens and Earth serve as witnesses for the rebellion of Judah and Jerusalem.

Deuteronomy 4:26 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

Deuteronomy 30:18-19 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live

Deuteronomy 31:28 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

Deuteronomy 32:1 32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

Jeremiah 2:12 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,

Jeremiah 6:19 19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

Micah 6:2 2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

Isaiah 51:12-16 12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? 14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. 15 I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

NOTE: God gave Israel the law and the Old Covenant.  The meaning of this passage is that God gave His covenant with Israel to create “a covenant universe with God” God created Israel’s universe-“heaven and earth” by making a Covenant with them. Now if God destroyed the Old Covenant (heaven and earth) and replaced it with a New Covenant (New Heavens and Earth), wouldn’t he be creating a New Heaven and Earth? This is exactly what we see in the New Testament.

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Exodus 19:5-6 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Judges 5:4-5 4 “Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. 5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.

Psalm 68:7-8 7 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah 8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

NOTE: The heavens and the earth are connected to Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:5-6). We also see this in Psalm 68:7-8 when God marches with them through the wilderness.

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Jeremiah 4:19,23,27-28 19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. 27 For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. 28 “For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

Isaiah 13:1-13 13 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. 2 On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones. 4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. 5 They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! 7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. 8 They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. 9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

NOTE: The Babylonian Universe was being destroyed. Its “Heaven and Earth” will be gone. We see this “Heaven and Earth” language also used in Isaiah 24-27, Edom -Isaiah 34, Nineveh-Nahum 1, and Israel again-Hebrews 12.

Isaiah 24:20-23 20 The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. 21 On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. 22 They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. 23 Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

Ephesians 4:24 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

2 Corinthians 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

2 Corinthians 6:16 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ephesians 2:21 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Revelation 3:12 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

NOTE: In the New Creation, Christ is our Temple. He dwells within us.

Galatians 4:9 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Colossians 2:20-22 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?

2 Peter 3:7-13 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies(The Elements) will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

NOTE:  As you can see, the Elements (Greek: stoicheion) being burned up isn’t part of the environment. It is the Law/Principles of the World. We see that the Law/Old Order is associated with the The First Heaven and Earth. Below is a list of verses, which supports this idea. The New Covenant is the “The New Heavens and Earth.” It is a New Beginning/New Order.