Inspiring Phrases from 2 Peter: a new heaven and a new earth

Inspiring Phrase: a new heaven and a new earth

Context: 

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:10-16

My response:

In my last blog post, we looked at how God’s timing and ways are impossible for us as humans to understand. God is God and we are not. What He does is way beyond our understanding. I suggested that it is only in trusting God that He knows what He is doing and that He loves us and wants the best for us that we will find rest and peace.

When we come to talk about eternity and what will happen after we die or at the second coming of Jesus, we face the same unsettling level of questions and unknown. Because while as Christians, we all generally believe that we will live with God forever, there’s an awful lot of speculation about the exact hows and wheres. The end of this extract from Peter’s second letter mentions Paul and his words about the Second Coming and how these have been so quickly distorted by ignorant and unstable people – imagine how much more interpretation has gone into those words of Paul’s over two thousand years later!

Peter believes that the slate will be wiped clean for God to start all over again: this earth will be destroyed and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will all be a part of that somehow. And we have absolutely no way of knowing when that will be. Many people at the time believed this would happen imminently – and here we are, still waiting! That day will come without warning like a thief in the night.

I have found a peace with not knowing. However, in a couple of months time, when I come to study the book of Revelation, I do intend to study this whole area more closely and work out what I do believe. I’ll start with Revelation itself and then turn to other scholars such as NT Wright for elucidation.

Until then, let me explain my peace with not knowing. You see, I trust God that He knows what He is doing and that He loves us and wants the best for us. It comes back to that. I live with a sense that the more I get to know God now, the less of a surprise/shock it will be when I enter into His physical presence; the more I live as God intended now, the less of a change it will be in the new ‘world’.

From the way Peter has written here, I think he’s on the same page as me. He spends less time discussing the details of what will happen then and more time focusing on how the future should influence the present. We should live now in the light of what is to come. He urges us to live holy and godly lives, spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Not because we fear His judgement, but because this is how God always intended humans to live and this is how we will live for eternity.

Let’s start living now more in line with how we will live forever. Let’s pray every day ‘Let your will be done, let your kingdom come on earth as in heaven’ and do all that we can to make that a reality. Let’s focus on shining the light of heaven into the darkest corners here on earth. We do not need to fear what is to come. We can trust the God of the universe for that.