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The New Heavens and Earth
Matthew
24:35 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass
away."
II Peter 3:13 "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for
new heavens, and a new earth."
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John Brown
(1853)
" 'Heaven and earth passing,' understood literally, is the dissolution of
the present system of the universe, and the period when that is to take place,
is called the 'end of the world.' But a person at all familiar with the
phraseology of the Old Testament Scriptures, knows that the dissolution of the
Mosaic economy, and the establishment of the Christian, is often spoken of as
the removing of the old earth and heavens, and the creation of a new earth and
new heavens" (vol. 1, p. 170)
"It appears, then, that is Scripture be the best interpreter of Scripture, we have in the Old Testament a key to the interpretation of the prophecies in the New. The same symbolism is found in both, and the imagery of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets helps us to understand the imagery of St. Matthew, St. Peter, and St. John. As the dissolution of the material world is not necessary to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, neither is it necessary to the accomplishment of the predictions of the New Testament. But though symbols are metaphorical expressions, they are not unmeaning. It is not necessary to allegorise them, and find a corresponding equivalent for every trope; it is sufficient to regard the imagery as employed to heighten the sublimity of the prediction and to clothe it with impressiveness and grandeur. There are, at the same time, a true propriety and an underlying reality in the symbols of prophecy. The moral and spiritual facts which they represent, the social and ecumenical changes which they typify, could not be adequately set forth by language less majestic and sublime. There is reason for believing that an inadequate apprehension of the real grandeur and significance of such events as the destruction of Jerusalem and the abrogation of the Jewish economy lies at the root of that system of interpretation which maintains that nothing answering to the symbols of the New Testament prophecy has ever taken place. Hence the uncritical and unscriptural figments of double senses, and double, triple, and multiple fulfillments of prophecy. That physical disturbances in nature and extraordinary phenomena in the heavens and in the earth may have accompanied the expiring throes of the Jewish dispensation we are not prepared to deny. It seems to us highly probable that such things were. But the literal fulfillment of the symbols is not essential to the verification of prophecy, which is abundantly proved to be true by the recorded facts of history." (vol. i. p.200).
Gary DeMar
(1996)
"Jesus does not change subjects when He assures the disciples that
"heaven and earth will pass away." Rather, He merely affirms His
prior predictions, which are recorded in Matthew 24:2931. Verse 36 is a
summary and confirmation statement of these verses.(6) Keep in mind that the
central focus of the Olivet Discourse is the desolation of the
"house" and "world" of apostate Israel (23:36). The old
world of Judaism, represented by the earthly temple, is taken apart stone by
stone (24:2). James Jordan writes, "each time God brought judgment on His
people during the Old Covenant, there was a sense in which an old heavens and
earth was replaced with a new one: New rulers were set up, a new symbolic world
model was built (Tabernacle, Temple), and so forth."(7) The New Covenant
replaces the Old Covenant with new leaders, a new priesthood, new sacraments, a
new sacrifice, a new tabernacle (John 1:14), and a new temple (John 2:19; 1
Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21). In essence, a new heaven and earth.
The darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars, coupled with the shaking of the heavens (24:29), are more descriptive ways of saying that "heaven and earth will pass away" (24:35). In other contexts, when stars fall, they fall to the earth, a sure sign of temporal judgment (Isaiah 14:12; Daniel 8:10; Revelation 6:13; 9:1; 12:4). So then, the "passing away of heaven and earth" is the passing away of the old covenant world of Judaism led and upheld by those who "crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). "
Jonathan Edwards (1739)
"Thus there was a final end to the Old Testament world: all was finished
with a kind of day of judgment, in which the people of God were saved, and His
enemies terribly destroyed." (History of Redemption, vol. i. p.
445)
John Lightfoot (1859)
"That the destruction of Jerusalem is very frequently expressed in
Scripture as if it were the destruction of the whole world, Deut. 32:22;
"A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and
shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of
the mountains.' Jer. 4:23; 'I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form,
and void; and the heavens, and they had no light,' &c. The discourse there
also is concerning the destruction of that nation, Isa. 65:17; 'Behold, I
create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered,'
&c. And more passages of this sort among the prophets. According to this
sense, Christ speaks in this place; and Peter speaks in his Second Epistle,
third chapter; and John, in the sixth of the Revelation; and Paul, 2 Cor. 5:17,
&c. (vol. 2, pp. 18-19)
"With the same reference it is, that the times and state of things immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem are called 'a new creation,' new heavens,' and 'a new earth.' When should that be? Read the whole chapter; and you will find the Jews rejected and cut off; and from that time is that new creation of the evangelical world among the Gentiles.
Compare 2 Cor. 5:17 and Rev. 21:1,2; where, the old Jerusalem being cut off and destroyed, a new one succeeds; and new heavens and a new earth are created.
2 Peter 3:13: 'We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth.' The heaven and the earth of the Jewish church and commonwealth must be all on fire, and the Mosaic elements burnt up; but we, according to the promise made to us by Isaiah the prophet, when all these are consumed, look for the new creation of the evangelical state" (vol. 3, p.453)
"That the destruction of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish state is described as if the whole frame of the world were to be dissolved. Nor is it strange, when God destroyed his habitation and city, places once so dear to him, with so direful and sad an overthrow; his own people, whom he accounted of as much or more than the whole world beside, by so dreadful and amazing plagues. Matt. 24:29,30, 'The sun shall be darkened &c. Then shall appear the 'sign of the Son of man,' &c; which yet are said to fall out within that generation, ver. 34. 2 Pet. 3:10, 'The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' &c. Compare with this Deut. 32:22, Heb. 12:26: and observe that by elements are understood the Mosaic elements, Gal 4:9, Coloss. 2:20: and you will not doubt that St. Peter speaks only of the conflagration of Jerusalem, the destruction of the nation, and the abolishing the dispensation of Moses" (vol. 3, p. 452).
John Locke (1705)
"That St. Paul should use 'heaven' and
'earth' for Jews and Gentiles will not be thought so very strange if we
consider that Daniel himself expresses the nation of the Jews by the name of
'heaven' (Dan. viii. 10). Nor does he want an example of it in our Saviour
Himself, who (Luke xxi. 26) by "powers of heaven" plainly signifies
the great men of the Jewish nation. Nor is this the only place in the Epistle
of St. Paul to the Ephesians which will bear this interpretation of heaven and earth.
He who shall read the first fifteen verses of chap. iii. and carefully weigh
the expressions, and observe the drift of the apostle in them, will not find
that he does manifest violence to St. Paul's sense if he understand by
"The family in heaven and earth" (ver. 15) the united body of
Christians, made up of Jews and Gentiles, living still promiscuously among
those twp sorts of people who continueds in their unbelief. However, this
interpretation I am not positive in , but offer it as matter of inquiry to those
who think and impartial search into the true meaning of the Sacred Scriptures
the best employment of all the time they have." (Ephesians 2:9-10, in
loc.)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
"The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analogy between
the world natural and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic.
Accordingly, the world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the
whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people, or so much of it as is
considered in prophecy; and the things in that world signify the analogous
things in this. For the heavens and the things therein signify thrones and
dignities, and those who enjoy them: and the earth, with the things thereon,
the inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called Hades or Hell,
the lowest or most miserable part of them. Great earthquakes, and the shaking
of heaven and earth, are put for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and
overthrow them; the creating of a new heaven and earth, and the passing of an
old one; or the beginning and end of a world, for the rise and ruin of a body
politic signified thereby. The sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in
the kingdoms of the world politic; the moon, for the body of common people
considered as the king's wife; the starts, for subordinate princes and great
men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ.
Setting of the sun, moon, and stars; darkening the sun, turning the moon into
blood, and falling of the stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom." (Observations
on the Prophecies, Part i. chap. ii)
Origen (2nd Century)
"For if the heavens are to be changed, assuredly that which is changed
does not perish, and if the fashion of the world passes away, it is by no means
an annihilation or destruction of their material substance that is shown to
take place, but a kind of change of quality and transformation of appearance.
Isaiah also, in declaring prophetically that there will be a new heaven and a
new earth, undoubtedly suggests a similar view. "(Principles,
2:6:4)
John Owen (1721)
'It is evident, then, that in the prophetical idiom and manner of speech, by
heavens and earth, the civil and religious state and combination of men in the
world, and the men of them, were often understood. So were the heavens and
earth that world which then was destroyed by the flood.
' 4. On this foundation I affirm that the heavens and earth here intended in this prophecy of Peter, the coming of the Lord, the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, mentioned in the destruction of that heaven and earth, do all of them relate, not to the last and final judgment of the world, but to that utter desolation and destruction that was to be made of the Judaical church and state
'First, There is the foundation of the apostle's inference and exhortation, seeing that all these things, however precious they seem, or what value soever any put upon them, shall be dissolved, that is, destroyed; and that in that dreadful and fearful manner before mentioned, in a day of judgment, wrath, and vengeance, by fire and sword; let others mock at the threats of Christ's coming: He will come- He will not tarry; and then the heavens and earth that God Himself planted, -the sun, moon, and stars of the Judaical polity and church, -the whole old world of worship and worshippers, that stand out in their obstinancy against the Lord Christ, shall be sensibly dissolved and destroyed: this we know shall be the end of these things, and that shortly." (Sermon on 2 Peter iii. 11, Works, folio, 1721.).
C.H. Spurgeon (1865)
"Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer,
of any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the
feast of tabernacle, or the dedication? No, because, though these were like the
old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we
now live under the new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of
divine teaching is concerned. The substance is come, and the shadow has gone:
and we do not remember it." (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxxvii,
p. 354).
Moses Stuart (1836)
(On Heb. 12:25-29) "That the passage has respect to the changes which
would be introduced by the coming of the Messiah, and the new dispensation
which he would commence, is evident from Haggai ii. 7-9. Such figurative
language is frequent in the Scriptures, and denotes great changes which are to
take place. So the apostle explains it here, in the very next verse. (Comp.
Isa. 13:13; Haggai 2:21,22; Joel 3:16; Matt. 24:29-37). (Hebrews, in loc.)
Milton Terry (1898)
"That these texts may intimate or simply foreshadow some such ultimate
reconstruction of the physical creation, need not be denied, for we know not
the possibilities of the future, nor the purposes of God respecting all things
which he has created. but the contexts of these several passages do not
authorize such a doctrine. Isaiah 51:16, refers to the resuscitation of Zion
and Jerusalem, and is clearly metaphorical. The same is true of Isa. 65:17, and
66:22, for the context in all these places confines the reference to Jerusalem
and the people of God, and sets forth the same great prophetic conception of
the Messianic future as the closing chapters of Ezekiel. The language of 2 Pet.
iii, 10, 12, is taken mainly from Isa. 34:4, and is limited to the parousia,
like the language of Matt. 24:29. Then the Lord made 'not only the land but
also the heaven' to tremble (Heb 12:26), and removed the things that were
shaken in order to establish a kingdom which cannot be moved (Heb.
12:27,28)." (Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 489).