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The New Heavens And The New Earth

What does the Bible teach about the new heavens and the new earth? There are two concepts: (1) It will be physical, or (2) it will be spiritual.

“...I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind....I create Jerusalem...” (Isa. 65:17,18). Upholding a spiritual interpretation, Homer Hailey commented, “The coming of the Messiah will introduce a new spiritual and moral order or arrangement. Paul calls this new order ’a dispensation (arrangement) of the fulness of times,’ when all things will be summed up (brought together under one head) in Christ (Eph.1:10). Isaiah’s new heaven and new earth are the new arrangement to which Paul refers, and before which all old dispensations must pass away....” (Isaiah, p. 518). From Matthew Henry: “If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full accomplishment in the gospel church...” (Commentary, Vol. 4, p. 386).

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord” (Isa. 66:22,23). From Homer Hailey, “...the seed and name of the new Israel remain. There will always be a seed, a faithful remnant who serve God....Confusing old national Israel with the new Israel is a chief error among religious teachers today....Though fleshly (national) Israel is cast off (cf. 65:15), spiritual Israel is ever before Jehovah....It is the seed and name of the new spiritual Israel that shall endure before His presence” (Isaiah, p. 528).

To make Isaiah refer to a physical, earthly, heaven and earth is to miss his prophecy of the dispensation under Christ, a spiritual order.

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Pet. 3:13). In his Commentary (vol. 10, p. 264), Barnes wrote: “The ‘new heavens and new earth’ referred to will be such as will exist after the world shall have been destroyed by fire; that is, after the general judgment. There is not a word expressed, and not a hint given, of any ‘new heaven and earth’ previous to this, in which the Saviour will reign personally over his saints, in such a renovated world, through a long millennial period.” In his Commentary on II Peter (p. 188), Guy N. Woods commented, “The ‘heavens and earth’ to which Peter refers here is described as ‘new.’...The heavens and the earth which the apostle describes in this passage will be fresh and new, and not worn and old, as are the heaven and the earth which now exist. In this new heaven and earth righteousness will dwell. Righteousness dwells wherever righteous people live. The heavens and the earth here contemplated will, therefore, be the abode of righteous and obedient people.”

“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” (Rev. 21:1). In his commentary on Revelation (p. 287), John T. Hinds wrote, “In the vision of the judgment he saw the heaven and the earth flee away, because not suitable for the home of the redeemed; here he sees a new heaven and a new earth fitted for our bodies when ‘conformed to the body of his glory.’ (Phil. 3:21). That new heaven and earth will be a state, place, or condition ‘wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ (2 Pet. 3:13)” In his Commentary on Revelation (pp 404, 405), Homer Hailey wrote, “At the appearing of the Lord in judgment, the heaven and earth had fled away, signifying the passing of the present order (20:11). In their stead John sees a new heavenly order.”

Isaiah looked beyond physical Israel to the Messiah. He used “the new heavens and earth” when prophesying of the future of God’s people and the great spiritual blessings under the Messiah’s rule.

The references from II Peter and Revelation look beyond the time when “...the heavens shall melt with fervent heat...” to the eternal state wherein dweleth righteousness. Study Carefully. - Glenn Melton