Monday, July 29, 2024

Anonymous Asks (313)

“Is there any way the new heavens and new earth could be happening now?”

The idea that the new heavens and new earth prophesied in scripture exist today “in seed form” is a concept embraced by a subset of the post-millennialist prophetic school. They would say this seed “grows and spreads and becomes more and more manifest until it finally culminates in the Final Coming of Christ, which introduces the Eternal State”.

I feel like that’s a major stretch.

Seeds and Shoots

Post-millennialists believe we are currently in the millennial reign of Christ on earth. As someone who takes literally the Old Testament promises concerning the millennium, I feel like my post-millennialist brothers and sisters in Christ should be just a little disappointed in what they observe around them today. Then again, their theology leads them to expect generalized, more-or-less-continuous improvement in the nations and institutions of the world through the preaching of the gospel over the centuries to come. That means they are prepared for a few ups and downs along the way, and are not expecting to see the spiritual perfection of any particular society within their lifetimes. Some talk in terms of multiple thousands of years of incremental moral improvement. Like the theory of evolution, eschatology that involves timeframes this lengthy becomes effectively non-falsifiable. Likewise, how could you identify a “new heavens and new earth” in seed form? The only way to know if there is a seed in your garden is to dig it up. You can’t see any evidence of its existence until it grows and puts out shoots.

To me, two thousand years seems a long time to wait for the first shoot.

In Isaiah 65

The expression “new heavens and new earth” occurs only four times in the word of God: twice in Isaiah, once in 2 Peter and finally in Revelation 21. Here’s the first time that expression is used, from Isaiah 65:

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.”

To anyone reading literally, it seems Isaiah is talking about the millennial reign of Christ as premillennialists conceive it: a thousand year idyll in which Christ is bodily present on earth once again, ruling the world from the city of Jerusalem, consistent with a literal interpretation of other Old Testament prophets. It is neither the church age in which we currently live, nor the eternal state to which we look forward, which John describes in detail in Revelation 21-22. Instead, the millennium is an interval between the two ages in which Christ comes to earth to fulfill his promises to Abraham, Moses and David concerning the nation of Israel. During this period, people in Jerusalem will live longer than they do now, but not eternally, just as men did in the days prior to the Flood.

The premillennialist sees no evidence of this in the Jerusalem of the present day. We only need to go back to last October to recall scenes of great weeping and cries of distress. If Jerusalem is currently “a joy”, and her people “a gladness”, I wish somebody would tell that to the folks living on the Gaza Strip so they can cease their hostilities. I’m quite sure Israelis would be happy to live extra-long lifespans, but again, we see no evidence this is currently occurring.

In short, if, after two thousand years since the first coming of our Lord Jesus to earth, this sad, present state of affairs is the “seed form” of the new heavens and new earth, we are probably within our rights to inquire when we might expect the seed to sprout. Even if you allegorize Isaiah, he has to be saying something. Substitute the Church for Israel if you insist, but then please tell me exactly what the prophet is foretelling and how it is occurring today.

In Isaiah 66

If we continue reading in Isaiah, we come to the second appearance of this enigmatic expression in chapter 66, where he writes:

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.”

Again, taken literally, this is neither the present age nor the eternal state. In the eternal state there is no night, and therefore no “new moon”. This period Isaiah describes is also not the present age, in which all flesh manifestly does not come to worship before the Lord, and Jews and Israelites are not brought to the holy mountain of Jerusalem by the nations as an offering to the Lord on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and dromedaries. Just as we find in Revelation 19, the judgment of the wicked at Armageddon has taken place, because the bodies of the dead can still be seen, but since the wicked dead have not been consigned to the lake of fire described at the end of Revelation 20, we are somewhere in between the two eras.

Once again, the literalist says, the context must be future and millennial.

In the New Testament

When we come to the New Testament, we find Peter writing:

“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 will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 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! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

Some say Peter’s usage of the term “new heavens and a new earth” poses a major problem for premillennialist interpreters of scripture, in that it appears to follow chronologically after the day of the Lord, which includes his millennial reign. I would say it poses a bigger problem for the post-millennialist, who is desperately trying to apply the phrase to our present era. The premillennialist simply acknowledges that scriptural usage of the term seems to apply to both the millennial reign of Christ and the eternal state, just as the phrase “day of the Lord” encompasses both Armageddon and the millennial reign. We have to go to Peter and John to interpret Isaiah, who only saw the first stage of a reign that will never end. The apostles can tell us the rest.

Finally, in Revelation 21, John describes a new heavens and new earth in which the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, ushering in the eternal state in which God will be all in all. A careful reading of these two chapters shows conditions to be the polar opposite of our present state of affairs. More importantly, at least so far as our question is concerned, both Peter and John, well into the church age, are saying the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells are still future. Neither so much as suggests these were in existence at the time the latest books in the Bible were written, even in so-called seed form.

In Summary

When we search the scriptures, the words “new heavens and new earth” are never used to describe anything like the present day. They are something to which we look forward after the Lord’s return, a time when conditions in this world will be vastly improved and ultimately perfected under the personal rule of Christ. If the new heavens and new earth are indeed happening now, they are a sad parody of what scripture describes. I see no biblical warrant to believe they are currently underway even in in the seediest of “seed form”, and no warrant whatever to believe the spiritual transformation of nations or institutions will be gradual.

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