“AND THERE WAS NO MORE SEA.”
By G. W. A.
Such is the statement of John in Rev. 21:1. From this isolated text some conceive the view that there is to be no sea in the new earth state. But such an idea is hardly consistent with the general tenor of the Scriptures, nor is it a necessary conclusion from this text. Mr. Elliott, the voluminous writer on the Apocalypse,—a profound scholar in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek,—translates the passage, “The sea is no more.” So also Dean Alford in his “New Testament for English Readers.” This certainly is more in accordance with the Greek, which literally reads: καὶ ἡ θάλασσα οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι, “and the sea not is longer.” The entire verse in which the above phrase is found reads, “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.” The leading idea here seems to be a new heaven and a new earth, in contradistinction to the old heavens and earth. Now as the sea is an integral part of the earth, as a matter of course, when the old earth passes away, the old sea will depart, too; and is it not just as reasonable to suppose that when there is a new earth, so, too, there will be a new sea. That there is to be a sea in the restored earth is plainly taught in more than one passage. In Rev. 5:13, is a description of the glorious new earth. It says, “And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in THE SEA, and all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.” Here we find “the sea” in the grand restitution of all things. The old sea passes away with the old earth, but when the new earth is ushered in, per consequence we have a new sea. In the seventy-second psalm there is an extended prophecy of the future kingdom of Christ. In the eighth verse it says, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” This shows that there will at least be two seas in the earth renewed. The same prophecy is repeated in Zech. 9:10, with additional particulars: “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the heathen; and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” The only rational exegesis of this prophecy is that it presents both seas and rivers in the future, new-earth inheritance. The very idea of a river in the present state suggests the thought of a sea, lake, or ocean, it being always connected with such bodies of water. That there will be rivers and streams in the new earth is proved by the last two references, and also by another very plain passage, which is here quoted: “But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.” Isa. 33:21. And chap. 35:6, says, “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” The tenor of all the above texts is one way, namely, that in the new earth we shall have seas, or lakes, with rivers and streams. It is not argued that the future inheritance will be like the earth in its present state, three-fourths of it under water; but the point is clear enough that Rev. 21:1, simply teaches that the old “sea was no more.” G. W. A.