NO MORE SEA by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 19, 1901

NO MORE SEA.

By Editor

WILL there be a sea on the new earth? The query is raised on this point because of an expression found in Rev. 21:1, which says, “And there was no more sea.” It is very easy to take these terms in a general and unlimited sense, and give them a very rigid interpretation, and then it would appear that on the new earth the sea is to be done away, disappear, and be no more. The question in itself is of no sort of consequence whatever. But it is of interest to those who have a disposition to let the mind run forward and dwell upon our future inheritance, and who have a curiosity to set up a picture before the imagination of all the local features of the scene. The reason we say that it is of no consequence whatever how we decide the question, is because we know, from the general instruction on the subject, that whichever way it is, that way will be best. If it is best that there shall be no sea in the new earth, then there will be none. And if it is best that there should be a sea, then there will be one. Our speculations upon it will not make a particle of difference. It will all be arranged in the highest wisdom of God, and we shall be abundantly satisfied therewith.

We had a note on this point in the REVIEW of July 9, 1901, Ques. 814, in which we gave a modified rendering to Rev. 21:1; thus: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” We contended for a unity of thought in the whole passage. The term “the earth” would naturally include the sea, unless there was a thought peculiar about the sea, which rendered a separate mention of it appropriate. So the construction we gave of the passage was this: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth;” and since there is a discrimination made between the earth and the sea, it might have continued: “And a new sea; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” The literal rendering of this language would be: “And the sea [fixing the mind on the first sea, like the first earth] was no more.” That, too, had passed away in the scene which John beheld; and the same idea attaches to the sea that is expressed in regard to the heaven and the earth; namely, “I saw a new sea,” adapted to the new order of things.

The answer to question 814, as given in the REVIEW of July 9, was as follows: “We do not understand the text to affirm that there will be no more sea, or that the sea will no longer exist. The prophet was describing the change that is to take place in the present constitution of things. He saw a new heaven and a new earth; ‘for,’ he says, ‘the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;’ and the next and last clause, instead of reading, as in our version, ‘And there was no more sea,’ might be translated, ‘And the sea is no longer,’ that is, the sea as it at present exists will be no more. This brings the sea into the same category with the heavens and the earth, and affirms that the great change that is coming will affect the sea the same as it affects the heaven and the earth. ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth,’ says John. So the sea will also be renewed, or made new.”

This seems to us plain enough. But a correspondent, even in the ministry, takes exception to all this, and takes us to task quite sharply for such treatment of the Scripture. He calls it wresting the Scripture and denying the Scripture. He says we might, on the same ground, pervert and deny any of the plain statements of the word of God. This is strange. The prophecies are entitled to a certain degree of flexibility in their application. This remark we made at the time of the Minneapolis Conference in 1888. A good deal of fun was made of it then; but it is true, nevertheless. For instance, the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast of Daniel 7 denoted, according to the explanation of the angel, ten kings, or kingdoms, that should arise out of Old Rome. In time they were all developed, and the historian could locate them, and put his finger on the map of their territory. But in the changes and revolutions that followed, three of these ten horns were plucked up by the roots; that is, the kingdoms which they represented were wholly destroyed. Then, after this, the image representing the Roman Empire had only seven toes, had it? and the beast but seven horns? but the ten toes and the ten horns are contemplated in the prophecy as continuing unto the end, because they represent divisions in the days of which the God of heaven is to set up His kingdom.

Just so the sea, after the time in which it is said that it was no more, or was no longer, may be contemplated as existing, like the heaven and the earth, in its renewed, or purified, state. Such continuance we believe the utility and beauty of the renewed state demand. The dominion of the King in His beauty is spoken of as “extending from sea to sea [Ps. 72:8], and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” The proportion of land and water as it exists upon the earth to-day gives us three fourths of the surface of the earth covered with water. It does not accord with our ideas of the perfect state to suppose that such a proportion will be abandoned to a watery waste. In the chapter which speaks of the new heaven and new earth, John heard the voice of Him that sat upon the throne saying, “Behold, I make all things new.” The sea is enumerated among the “all things.” Then the sea is to be made over new.