5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom

In Revelation 21:1, the narrator said, "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."

Now, my question is: is this to be taken literally?  Or is it just a symbolic description?  Also, in Isaiah 65:17, it says, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind."  Is this a prophetic verse for our time?  Or was it a metaphor for that civilization?  In 2 Peter 3:13, it says, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."  So, indeed, we expect the new heaven and new earth?  Is this the new Paradise?

Sincerely,
Looking Ahead

Dear Looking Ahead,

Any time we see terminology like “new heavens and new earth”, we need to make sure that we are keeping it in its context.  Depending upon the circumstance and the situation, the phrase may mean different things.  A new heaven and earth stands for a change in world-order… the new world can only be understood by looking at the context and seeing what the old world was.  In Isaiah chapter 65, the prophet is discussing the new covenant that would be set up by Christ.  The old covenant Jews are being compared to the new covenant christians.  The Jews rejected God (Isa 65:12), and the christians would be a new Jerusalem that would faithfully serve God (Isa 65:18, Heb 12:22-24).  The new heaven and new earth of Isa 65:17 is the church and the New Covenant in Christ.

However, Rev 21:1 and 2 Pet 3:13 are talking about an entirely different situation.  Once again, context is the key to understanding these verses.  In both Revelation and Second Peter, the context is dealing with the end of this physical world and the beginning of eternity in a spiritual realm (Rev 21:4, 2 Pet 3:7-10).  In those verses, the new heavens and earth represent the change from a physical world to a spiritual world.

5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom

In your post this morning, "The Power of Choice", you made two points that interest me:

1. "Anyone can trust God, but very few people are interested in doing so."
2. "Whenever you give people freedom, expect most of us to abuse it."

But given that God created us, why didn't He create us so that more people are interested in choosing Him?  He could have made us in any way He desired.  But He gives us freedom to choose what we want, plus a natural inclination to turn away from Him.  It doesn't make much sense.

Sincerely,
Free To Fail

Dear Free To Fail,

Your question has a built-in contradiction.  You wrote, “Why didn't He create us so that more people are interested in choosing Him?” – if God designs us to choose one thing over another, we aren’t really choosing at all.  It would be like engineering a car that automatically stayed on the road; it would take driver error away, but it would also take driver freedom away.  God didn’t make man with a natural inclination to rebel against Him or choose Him.  God makes every human a blank slate and gives us equal opportunity to decide between righteousness and wickedness.  In the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam & Eve (Gen 3:8), and the serpent offered deception (Gen 3:1)… both options were available.  Adam & Eve had equal freedom to choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing – perfect freewill.  God sets before us life and death (Deu 30:15), and we have the total freedom to choose either option.  God hasn’t stacked the deck one way or the other.  The entire world is full of sinful temptation, but none of those temptations are beyond our capacity to resist (1 Cor 10:13).  There are false prophets who proclaim false gods (1 Jn 4:1), and yet the entire creation screams of God’s existence, so that we are without excuse (Rom 1:20).  The evidence is there; the choice is ours to freely make.

5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom