p. 1 | The New Heaven and the New Earth

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1872

The New Heaven and the New Earth.

By Rev. Stephen Bowers

A sermon preached in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, Newport, Kentucky, by Rev. Stephen Bowers.

TEXT.—“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. 3:13.

This is a wonderful planet. It measures two hundred and fifty-six thousand millions of cubic miles, upon which live more than a thousand millions of human beings, and an inferior order of animal life more numerous than the leaves of its forests. As motion is the first condition of vitality, everything connected with our earth is moving. Our globe is continually describing five or six independent kinds of motions—its rotary, from west to east; its annular, in which it follows the line of an ellipse around the sun; its rhythmical swayings, as a top turns round and bends over successively in every direction, describing with its axis an ideal cone; its mutations, or more rapid swayings, caused by the attraction of the moon and the vicinity of certain planets; and its translatory motion, by which it is dragged through endless space in the train of the sun at the rate of about 44 miles per second, describing, it would seem, an ellipse around some great center. Besides these motions the continents themselves are slowly moving round the globe, while some portions of the earth’s crust are gradually rising and other portions subsiding. But nature brings about the most wonderful events without even the knowledge of the beings she nourishes. Time is the earth’s attribute, and mountains are raised until their summits kiss the clouds and broad seas are dried up without so much as “disturbing the flight of an insect.”

Compared with other worlds ours is but as the small dust of the balance, lost in the midst of the Milky Way, with great worlds glowing above us, around us, and beneath us. But though in magnitude our earth may be lowest in rank among the heavenly bodies, yet in the variety of its details it may surpass them all. It may have the grandest mountains, the broadest seas, the most beautiful rivers, the loveliest forests, and the purest skies. It may be the only world where Deity veiled himself in humanity. It must be an attractive and interesting world where all these are found. Can we be censured for desiring to live here as long as it is God’s will?

But this earth with all its loveliness is not a fallen planet. From the time it was first peopled with human beings, it has been a theater for strife and crime. It has been so drenched with human blood that it is necessary that the purifying fires of the Almighty should pass over it and purify it from the effects of crime, and fit it, as we believe, for a higher order of life than it now possesses. That fire is to be the agent in this renovation is clearly indicated in the Scriptures: “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” Deut. 32:22. “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.” Isa. 66:15. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Pet. 3:10.

There is no conflict between science and the Scriptures on this subject. It is evident that portions of the interior of our globe are liquid with intense heat. In many places heat increases at the rate of one degree to fifty feet as we go downward. In seventy miles this would give us more than 7,000 degrees of heat, which would be sufficient to melt any substance known to the chemist. It is also known that volcanoes exist in every portion of our globe. They seem to be great safety valves for the escape of steam and heat within. Here is material close at hand for the final conflagration. As electricity had much to do in the formation of our globe, and especially in its development during the long ages of geology, it will also aid in its purification. God may employ it as the agent for destroying the equilibrium of nature, and for changing the organic laws of combination. Thus water, which covers three fourths of our globe, may have its gases, oxygen and hydrogen, dissolved by this agent. At the command of God, it may dart out through earth, and sea, and air, and wrap the globe in a vast sheet of fire. Science shows us that there is not a substance known in nature but in some form is a supporter of combustion; therefore it nowhere contradicts the inspired word in regard to the purification of the earth by fire.

The renovation is to take place at the end of the present dispensation, and is to be preceded by the resurrection and the Judgment. Paul says, “The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” They shall rise before the living are changed. John says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works.” Immediately after this the apostle informs us that he saw the new heavens and the new earth. Peter declares that “the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

But what will become of the righteous during the final conflagration? We may be able to show you, before the close of this sermon, that they may possess bodies which cannot be affected by any conceivable condition. While we do not propose to get over hard places by appealing to miracles, as we believe a miracle is never resorted to when natural means will do, yet we must remember that the time of which we are speaking is a time of miracles. The resurrection of the dead and the change to be wrought in the bodies of the living, appeals to the miraculous. Paul says, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” . . . . “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Isaiah, after referring to the resurrection, says, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy door about thee; hide thyself, as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.” We infer from this that the righteous are to be caught up into celestial chambers until the “indignation be overpast.” His fires purify the earth, when the new Jerusalem shall descend, adorned as a bride for her husband. With these remarks, we are ready to enter upon the more central idea of our text.

Shall we have new heavens and a new earth? Peter says, “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth.” By turning to the Old Testament we have the promise to which the apostle refers: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isa. 65:17. This language may be figurative, but it seems to be emblematic of those real new heavens and new earth described by Peter. I also understand the prophet to refer to the spiritual seed of Abraham as the legitimate inhabitants of the renovated earth: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I shall make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.”

Paul refers to this, doubtless, in the eighth chapter of Romans: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now.” This seems to be a description of the present bound and fettered condition of nature, and the deliverance will take place when the curse of sin is removed. Does not the apostle in this chapter contrast the condition of the sinner with that of the adopted child of God, and the earth cursed by sin with the earth regenerated? As the sinner throws off the shackles of his fallen nature and emerges into the liberty of the sons of God, so this earth shall be delivered from the effects of the fall, and in its regenerated state be prepared for a higher order of life than has yet graced it. Will its regeneration be more remarkable than the regeneration of the sinner? Will it be more difficult than the calling up and remolding of the human body?

The apostle John says, “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. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Rev. 21:1–3. This whole chapter relates to scenes beyond the Judgment, and it is a description of the glorious state of God’s church to be located on this earth. The change that most forcibly impressed the mind of the apostle was that there was no more sea. The seas now occupy about three-fourths of the earth’s surface, leaving but a small portion of the globe for the habitation of man; but then the whole earth, as God’s holy mountain, shall be inhabited. In the fifth verse the apostle says, “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” He has just assured us that there is to be a new heaven and a new earth, and here declares that there is to be a new order of things to correspond with this new creation.

He who created and then called together the particles which compose this earth could reduce it to its original gases and annihilate it; but will he do it? There is no evidence that a single particle of matter was ever annihilated, or that it ever will be. God’s will makes fire the agent in the earth’s destruction, and fire only changes the form of matter, never annihilates it. The greater part of the earth’s crust has already been oxydized, or burnt; most of its rocks are metamorphic, but though once liquid with intense heat, they were not annihilated, nor will they be in the final baptism of fire. True, Peter represents the atmosphere as passing away with a great noise, but this is nothing more than a chemist would predict in the liberation of the earth’s gases by the intense heat. The new heavens of which the text speaks is the transparent expanse around this material globe, and does not refer to the heavenly bodies, as some flaming poets and prose writers imagine. . . . . . . . .

The truths I am developing to-night may conflict with the preconceived notions of some in this large audience. You may say, “We are hearing strange doctrine to-night.” Nay, brother, this is not strange doctrine; it is as old as the Bible, but you are the stranger. I court your fullest inquiry into the basis upon which these truths rest, and I cheerfully submit them to the most crucial tests. But what have been the views of theologians on this subject? Dr. Chalmers says: “Out of the ruins of this second chaos may another heaven and another earth be made to rise, . . . and the whole world be peopled with material loveliness.” Tholuck says: “According to Peter and John, the kingdom of God is placed upon the earth. . . . This exposition has been adopted and defended by most of the oldest commentators, as Chrysostom, Theodoret, Hieronymus, Augustine, Luther, Koppe, and others.” Dr. Griffin says: “It is a most animating thought that this visible creation, which sin has marred, which the polluted breath of men and devils has defiled, and which by sin will be reduced to utter ruin, will be restored by our Jesus, will arise from its ruins in tenfold splendor, and shine with more illustrious glory than before it was defaced by sin.” Dr. Edward Hitchcock says: “The resurrection of the body, as well as the language of Peter, most clearly shows us that the future world will be a solid, material world, purified indeed, and beautified, but retaining its materialism. . . . . The change is no other than the conversion of this world into Heaven.” So we understand Wesley, Adam Clarke, Barnes, Scott, John Pye Smith, Lange, Bengel, Alford, and others, to interpret most of the scriptures we have quoted.

We think we have clearly demonstrated from God’s word that this earth is to be purified by fire, and “rise,” Mr. Wesley says, “as it were out of its ashes;” and the scriptural fact is also indicated by science. Now, is there clear proof from the Bible that it is to be the future abode of the saints? We think there is. Our text declares it a place where righteousness dwells. It would be hard to separate this from the idea of sinless beings. But the Apostle John leaves us no place for doubt. He says of the new heaven and the new earth, “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” This clearly points to the fact that those redeemed by the blood of Christ, who have had their names written in the book of life, are to inherit the earth in its purified state.

But what will be the composition of the resurrected body which is to inherit the new earth? That is not so easily answered. But this we do know, that it will not be spirit, but matter, unless there be in the universe a third substance distinct from both mind and matter. Paul assures us that the future body will be as much unlike the present as the stalk of wheat is different from the grain from whence it sprang. There is a substance or form of matter

which remains the same under all circumstances. It is that “attenuated medium by which light and heat and electricity are transmitted from one part of the universe to another,” and is called luminiferous ether. It exists and acts wherever we find light, heat, or electricity, and they are found everywhere. We do not say that the body will be composed of this substance; we only state that it is within the range of possibility. Then it would be unaffected by heat or cold, or any circumstances we can conceive, and it could communicate its thoughts and receive knowledge from distances inconceivably great, and with the speed of lightning. When the wires were completed to San Francisco, they were attached to the pendulum of a clock in Massachusetts, and its tick flew over the wires and registered itself in San Francisco and returned before the clock could tick a second time! Now, if we have control of a substance which communicates our thoughts to a friend four thousand miles distant, and then returns to us, traveling eight thousand miles in perhaps one sixteenth of a second, what might our power of communication and locomotion be if our bodies were composed of this material? Might we not visit other worlds and other systems God has stretched out into infinity, with the velocity of thought itself?

But we will not speculate concerning the substance that shall compose our bodies in the future state. It is enough for us to know that we shall walk embodied under the festooned bowers of our second Paradise; and with bodies as effulgent as the body of Christ on the mount of transfiguration, we shall stand in the presence of God our King.

Just what dress nature will put on after the renovation of this globe, we know not, only that it will far excel in splendor the drapery she now wears. When God laid the foundations of the earth, “all the sons of God shouted for joy.” And when this grand fabric is rebuilt by that same hand that first launched it into space, we shall join our voices with theirs; and the earth upon which we shall walk, and the air that shall be resonant with our songs of joy, will be as material as the first. The river of life will flow there; trees of eternal verdure will grow along its banks, while birds of the softest melody will sing in their branches; flowers, such as mortal eyes have never seen, will bloom there, and the whole earth will be filled with the music of unfettered tongues, and of harps not made with human hands. I suppose the luminous atmosphere of the sun shall cease, as the light of the sun will not be needed by day, nor the moon by night, “for there shall be no night there;” but Heaven’s concave arches shall be lighted up with a brilliancy which no human imagination can now conceive. Jerusalem, that metropolitan city God hath built and adorned, arrayed in Heaven’s gorgeous canopy, shall descend to earth, and from her lofty temples shall shine forth; starry, resplendent, the Godhead rays of Christ our King, and his glory shall light up the abodes of blessedness.