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| Apostle Peter wrote to those Jewish believers who have obtained like precious faith
these words around about AD 66. |
"11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
Please note the word "heavens" is in the plural, and Peter was writing to Jewish believers.
Many assume and take for granted that the phrases 'coming of the day of God' and ‘new heavens and new earth’ must necessarily relate to the second coming of Christ, and not the gospel age perfected after the destruction and abolition of the very ancient and earthly theocratic Israel in 70AD.
The ‘new heavens and a new earth’
is a prophetic term
that speaks of the new gospel age
after it has been purged and delivered
from the harassment of the old covenant.
is a prophetic term
that speaks of the new gospel age
after it has been purged and delivered
from the harassment of the old covenant.
The language of the heavens and earth being abolished and destroyed indicates the cataclysmic and violent nature of the complete overthrow and obliteration of the ANCIENT theocratic nation of Israel. "New heavens and a new earth" is a description of the gospel age after the old has been completely abolished... thus leaving only the new and superior order of the new covenant. The dissolution of the 'old heavens and earth' most certainly will profoundly affect the Jewish people personally and practically - the dissolution will happen in their time... the abolition of old earthly theocratic Israel. The removal of the old resulted in the new heavens and a new earth, a description of the new spiritual kingdom of Christ free from the pesky baggage of the olf covenant.
1. Consider these passages:
Isa 65:17 "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."
This is a prophecy concerning the removal of the old covenant, thus resulting in the dawning of the gospel age purged of all the relics of the old. The former, earthly theocratic Israel with all its trappings and baggage shall be COMPLETELY abolished! (This was fulfilled in AD 70).
Isa 66: 22 "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.”
Both of these passages are found in the context of the prophecy concerning the dawning of the gospel age, and the abolition of the old covenant order - temple, sacrifices, etc. The context in both is REMOTELY connected with the second coming of Christ.
It seems that the new heavens and new earth spoken of is the new covenant which remains and freed from the last remnant of the old, and the former heavens and earth that shall be done away. The dawning of the gospel age is marked by the coming of the kingdom of heaven, slowly but surely replacing the earthly kingdom of the theocratic Jewish nation, which was completely and finally done away with in 70AD, resulting in an epoch marked by "the new heavens and a new earth."
Haggai 2:6-9 “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; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord.”
When the Lord shake out the old heavens and old earth, what is left is the new heavens and new earth... the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind, i.e. the former shall be abolished permanently. That's is the day of God spoken of - when the Lord shall shake the heavens and the earth... only the new will remain.
The language in Haggai is similar to that used by the Lord in Mt 24.29-30 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
It seems to me that the Lord's word here is intimately related to the words in Is 65:17 "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" and Haggai 2 "I will shake the heavens, and the earth." The shaking of the heavens and the earth is accompanied by the making of the new heavens and the new earth.
The new heavens and a new earth in Isaiah, Haggai and 2Pet speak of the new world order of the gospel age completely freed of the old, in contrast to the old covenant age narrowly confined to the tiny Jewish nation. The end of the Jewish economy is such a radical and cataclysmic transformation that it is only adequately described as doing away with the former heavens and earth, and the establishing of the new heavens and new earth.
2. Read Gill's comment on 'the new creature' of 2Cor 5:17
Here he speaks of the gospel dispensation as the new heavens and new earth. Note especially the closing statements at the end of the quote:
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He said, "the sense of the whole may be this, if any man is entered into the kingdom of God, into the Gospel dispensation, into a Gospel church state, which seems to be the sense of the phrase "in Christ," in Galatians 3:28 he is become a new creature, or is got into a new creation, as it were into a new world, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile;
- for with respect to the former state of either, "old things are passed away"; if a Jew, the whole Mosaic economy is abolished; the former covenant is waxen old, and vanished away; the old ordinances of circumcision and the passover are no more; the daily sacrifice is ceased, and all the other sacrifices are at an end, Christ, the great sacrifice, being offered up; the priesthood of Aaron is antiquated, there is a change of it, and of the whole law; the observance of holy, days, new moons and sabbaths, is over; the whole ceremonial law is at end; all the shadows of it are fled and gone, the things they were shadows of being come by Christ, the sum and substance of them; and there is no more a serving God in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit:
- and if a Gentile, all the former idols he worshiped he turns from, and his language is, "what have I to do any more with idols? or what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" all former sacrifices, superstitious rites and ceremonies, with which he worshiped them, are relinquished by him; with all other Heathenish customs, rules, and methods of conduct he had been used to: "behold, all things are become new";
- to the one, and to the other; the Gospel dispensation is a new state of things; a new form of church state is erected, not national, as among the Jews, but congregational, consisting of persons gathered out of the world, and anew embodied together; new ordinances are appointed, which were never in use before, as baptism and the Lord's supper; a new and living way is opened by the blood of Christ into the holiest of all, not by the means of slain beasts, as among the Jews, nor by petty deities as with the Gentiles; a new commandment of love is enjoined all the followers of the Lamb; and another name is given them, a new name, which the mouth of the Lord their God has named, not of Jews nor Gentiles, but of Christians; and new songs are put into their mouths, even praise to God:
In short, the Gospel church state seems to be, as it were, a new creation, and perhaps is meant by the new heavens and new earth, Isaiah 65:15 as well as those who are the proper members of it, are new creatures in the sense before given." [end quote].
3. The apostles speak of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in plain language, without prophetic figures. - 2Th 1:7ff, 2Tim 4:1.
2Th 1:7 "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
At the end of the gospel age, the redeemed shall enter into their eternal inheritance, reserved for them in the heaven [singular], different and distinct from the "the new heavens" that the believing Jews, prior to 70AD, were looking forward to.
The believing Jews, after 70AD, were indeed living in a time of the "new heavens and a new earth" - with the theocratic nation of Israel completely obliterated, never to be established again. The bitter enmity from the unbelieving Jews was destroyed with the abolition of the theocratic nation. It is an age most fittingly described as "new heavens and a new earth."
just my cheapskate thoughts,
sing
Read here also: The Lord is not willing that any should perish
