Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5) [emphasis mine]
One of the sad misconceptions of many within the conservative evangelical church has been the understanding that we are “aliens and strangers” on the earth. The truth is, however, that we are to be aliens and strangers to the world—to the ungodly and rebellious world system ruled over by Satan. The Scripture informs us that this world system is going to be destroyed and its diabolical ruler vanquished for eternity. And as a long and glorious celebration of our Savior’s victory, we are going to reign with Him on this very earth* which so many of us now abuse and malign. When we attain our final and complete adoption as children of God, we will embrace a good earth healed from the curse where thorns no longer “infest the ground.”
So the second coming of the Messiah is bad news for this world system, yet glorious good news for the earth and for those of us who will reign with Him upon it. I’m convinced that it is time for us to imagine with C.S. Lewis the moment when “that hideous strength” of the enemy of God and man is finally wrestled into defeat and submission, and when all the elements, plants, and living creatures of a restored earth join in one grand united doxology with redeemed mankind in praise to our Savior and Creator, Jesus Christ: It will be the return of shalom—of Isaiah’s prophesied peaceable kingdom (Isaiah 11). The apostle John shared with us his vision of that moment:
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! (Rev. 5:13, NIV).
Note in that passage how John explicitly includes the entire biosphere: creatures in the sky, on the earth, 
under the earth, on the sea, and in the sea. Imagine the scene: larks, dragonflies, rabbits, badgers, moles, trap-door spiders, Portugese men-of-war, sharks, and sea stars all attending to the Savior-Creator and singing! Who says Narnia is fiction? Remember that Aslan is the Lion of Judah! Think of the joy that will fill the Hundred-Acre Wood. Tigger will jump higher than ever and Eeyore, then the eternal optimist, will “bouncy-bounce” with him. Earth will be Perelandra, and Neverland will become Everland!
I feel that many of us may ne
ed to repent of our careless lack of camaraderie with the other creatures of the earth and of our lack of care for the marvelous handiwork of God that has faithfully given witness from the beginning of His divine nature and eternal power (Romans 1:20). With our hearts and with our hands, let us work toward the anticipated restoration of the good Earth.
* I realize that there is some debate about whether or not the new earth is this old earth renewed or is an entirely different planet—indeed an entirely different cosmos. There are many passages that indicate to me, however, that the “new earth” is this same planet . This passage from the Revelation, however, convinces me of that. Here we read of the fulfilled prophecy when God will make His dwelling among men and there is “no more curse.” We know, of course, that this earth was cursed at the Fall; so if this were an entirely new planet the end of the curse would be meaningless. And Romans 8:20-21 tells us that the cursed creation is going to be liberated:
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Acts 3:19-21 tells the story of Peter’s sermon on the Temple steps. In his message he speaks of the “refreshing” and of the restoration of everything: Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says that heaven and earth will be reunited: In [our Lord Jesus Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Ephesians 1:8-10)
Finally in his letter to the church in Philippi Paul says all things were made by and sustained by Christ the Creator and will finally be reconciled to God: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15-20).
When I add to these passages the prophecies of Isaiah about the final peaceable kingdom when Jesus comes again to reign on the Earth I have to conclude that his old earth will be redeemed,
refreshed, restored, reunited, and reconciled to God the Father. Why would all this need to be done if God simply plans to annihilate this earth and give us a new planet? Why would the creatures look for the day of redemption in hope, if they are merely going to be annihilated with the earth?
For a further discussion of this, I recommend the book by my friend Mike Wittmer of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary: Heaven Is a Place On Earth.
Tiger photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddsnet/
January 17th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Dean, I am wondering how Revelation 21:1 sets with you?
Also 2 Peter 3:10 ?
Steve
January 18th, 2010 at 11:28 am
A simple answer, Steve, would be to interpret Revelation 21 in the light of Revelation 22, which pictures a renewed earth free from the curse. And 2 Peter 3:10 would be interpreted in light of the earlier verses in the chapter, which compares the world “destroyed” by the Flood with the world “reserved” and “kept” for a judgment of fire. We know, of course, that the planet was not destroyed and replaced by the Flood; the human-defiled world was purged by water. Peter sees the future human-defiled world (spoken of also by Paul in Romans 8:19ff) being purged by fire.
The comment section of the WOC website does not lend itself to in-depth theological discussions of something as complex as this. In fact, John Calvin didn’t even offer a commentary on Revelation 21 because, it is said, he simply did not understand it. However Mike Wittmer’s book does go into this, as do several others. One in particular is Steve Bouma-Prediger’s book “For the Beauty of the Earth.”
Sometimes you simply have to examine the Scriptures on some issues and make a necessarily humble and somewhat tentative conclusion on the basis of the weight of Scriptures on a mental scale to see which of two positions gets the most affirmation. In my judgment (and that of many others), the scale dips heavily in favor of a renewed planet, not a new one. One biblical commentator believes the phrase in Revelation 21:5 is telling: it speaks of God making “all things new,” not making “all new things.”
January 18th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Dean, I teach older adults (my peers, of course) in our Baptist Sunday School, and picked up an ESV Study Bible for my study (horrors, a Southern Baptist with something other than King James!!) and the notes are pretty good. The notes on New Heaven and New Earth on Rev. 21 pretty much go along with what you have said.
They say they don’t think that God will once again create an earth ex nihilo (out of nothing) but that the earth will be “qualitatively transformed in a fundamental way” They are speaking mostly of the moral, spiritual side of this issue, but it certainly applies to the natural order as well.
We won’t know the absolute certainty of these things until they happen, and I wouldn’t want to start a new denomination over these issues, but the way you present these things seems to me to be in line with the overall thrust the Scriptures give.
Bob
January 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Dean and Bob, Thank you both for your insight concerning the subject. I beg your patience with me. What about the part of no oceans?
Steve
January 18th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Greetings again, Steve. Bouma-Prediger, the Hope College theologian (Reformed tradition), whose book I recommended, has done a neat paraphrase of Revelation 21 and 22. He put the exegesis of several Revelation scholars into a narrative format with a rich poetical perspective. Here is his “amplified version” of the passage about the sea:
The chaotic sea—
out of which the blasphemous beast arose,
on which the great whore was seated—
this threatening, abysmal sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city—the New Jerusalem—
coming down out of heaven.
No Babylon this—fallen and frenzied and foul;
on the contrary, this City of Shalom came from God,
like a beautiful bride adorned for her husband.
These commentators believe that the sea mentioned in Revelation 21 was the specific sea mentioned in the previous chapters, not the planet’s oceans.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Dean, it may be worth noting also that later in Ch. 21 it is revealed that as “God makes all things new” that he mentions no more mourning, crying, pain, etc. He will be making US new. But that doesn’t mean He will start completely over with us, He will take us, remove the sinful nature and we will be changed (hallelujah!!) If there is a relationship between the natural order and what He will do for us, it seems only right that He will remove the curse from creation (which will bring hallelujahs from the trees, animals, etc) In other words, if creation is groaning now (Romans 8:19ff) and eagerly longs for the “revealing of God’s sons”, it must picture the future restoration God will do rather than the total annihilation of the created order.
Do you think that these passages have to be taken in more of a figurative sense than a “wooden literal” sense. I was taught to take the passage literally unless it clearly says the passage is a figure of speech, but doesn’t Revelation lend itself to more “picture” language than others?
These are good thought provoking questions and make good discussion.
Bob
January 19th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Thank you Dean, this is a concept I had never been exposed to. I had a hard time seeing an earth without the Ocean and all the life that flurishes there.
Steve
January 19th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Bob, I believe you are right in concluding that if the non-human creation is eagerly looking forward to the changes that are coming at the return of Christ, it will not be annihilated. Another very significant truth is also evident in the Romans 8 passage: the non-human creation is expecting us (made in our Creator’s image) to change dramatically at the same time, since we are its stewards and masters. Catholic philosopher Jean Mouroux called us “creation’s priest.” I’m not sure how far we can take that, but it does indicate to us how responsible we should be.
Some of the earlier evangelical theologians called the language of Genesis 1-11 and the Revelation “pictoral-illustrative.” Revelation 5 in the NIV says this: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” Can chipmunks really sing? Can sharks use human language? Not in our experience. But the facts I believe we can take away from this picture are that the non-human creatures can respond to their Creator in their own natures and may well “know” that Jesus turned their existence from suffering and pain to comfort, peace and joy. It is biblical truths like this that compelled Francis Schaeffer to conclude that even now we should be actively involved in bringing about a “substantial healing” of the rifts between man and nature created by the Fall. Isn’t that part of what sanctification is all about?
January 19th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Sanctification (the process of growing more holy) is, I believe, in essence what this same 8th ch. of Romans (the Holy Spirit and sanctification chapter) tells us that we are to be “conformed to the image of His Son”.
Since the world was made “through the Son” (Heb. 1:2; Jn. 1:3) and clearly He pronounced the creation “good” and “in the fullness of time (He will) unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph.1:10), it seems that this sanctification would definitely include love for, and care of, and as Schaeffer says “substantial healing of” the created earth.
I may have just heard a tree clapping its hands.
Bob