14 Sep Our “New Heaven and New Earth” Blunder [Part 3 of 5]
If you are interested in first two parts of this series you can access them here: Bamboozled Believers’ Big Bible Blunders [Part 1of 5], Our “Last Days” Blunder [Part 2 of 5].
Jesus said that until “heaven and earth” passed away, not a “jot or tittle” could pass from the Law (Matt. 5:18-19). Obviously much more than a “jot or a tittle” has passed from The Law, so the “heaven and earth” must have passed away too. The planet is still here, so the “heaven and earth” that passed away must be a metaphor representing the Old Covenant that passed away in AD 70. In several other passages “heaven and earth” is used as a metaphor:
- In Isaiah 51:16. There we read that when God gave Israel his word (the Law) and covered them with the shadow of is hand (protected them) he created “heaven and earth.” He didn’t create planet earth by giving the children of Israel his word… he created the Old Covenant religious system.
- The Song of Moses is addressed to the “assembly of Israel.” In it God says: “Give ear O heavens, and I will speak; and hear O earth the words of my mouth” (Deut. 31:30 and 32:1).
- In Isaiah chapter 1, God says: “Hear O heavens, give ear O earth!” He was not speaking to the sky or planet earth. He was speaking to Old Covenant Israel… He was using a metaphor.
- As Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple, he said: “Heaven and earth will pass away; but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). In that passage, Jesus was predicting the end of the age (not the world) and the Old Covenant age did come to an end before that generation passed away, exactly as predicted. Jesus was using a metaphor as he predicted end of the Old Covenant. It was “growing old” when Heb. 8:13 was written and it “vanished away” in AD 70.
Since the old heaven and old earth is a metaphor for the Old covenant, we should understand that the “new heaven and the new earth” is a metaphor for the New Covenant. Jesus did not promise to incinerate the planet and then make a new earth… We’ve taken a metaphor literally and concocted end-of-the-world, new-earth eschatological scenarios that are utterly ridiculous! I give a more thorough discussion of this subject in Bamboozled Believers; but here is one more quick fact:
- In the book that repeatedly states that it deals with events that were “about to happen” 2,000 years ago, John links the coming of the new heaven and new earth to the passing away of the old heaven and earth. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away…” (Rev. 21:1) Since the old heaven and earth passed away in AD 70 it appears that the new heaven and new earth covenant came fully into effect at that time. (There had been a forty-year period of transition.)
Dear pilgrim, you will not spend eternity playing golf on the renovated “new planet earth”… that is a delusion; a fantasy derived from a very feeble analysis of Scripture.
Over and over, year after year, decade after decade and century after century, our doomsday prophets and Chicken Little preachers have been WRONG! WRONG! And WRONG again! Taking metaphors literally, they produce predictions that are always wrong. It is time to admit our error…