Quote:
Originally Posted by kalawine  OK, I may be depending on some of our Greek experts for this one but anyone who knows what they're talking about will do. When Peter wrote about the destruction of the elements by fire and then a new heavens and a new earth: Will this literally be a new heaven and a new earth? Is this figurative? I realize that as long as we are with our Lord in eternity it doesn't really matter. On the other hand, if there was no reason for it this passage wouldn't exist. Any comments? |
kalawine,
Briefly, I take the "new heavens and new earth" to be centered on the restoration of the heavens and the earth. There is continuity and transformation (better word, I think, than discontinuity) that takes place. Peter says the old world "perished", but we know that it survived the flood. So with the language of the current heavens and earth (the ones existent after the flood) being 'dissolved', etc., I don't take the language 'literally', but believe it will survive, albeit restored - like in "This Old House" when they make the home "new'.
When you became a 'new creation', were you obliterated, destroyed, or were you redeemed? God redeems. He saves that which exists rather than relegate it to the scrap heap per se.
It is in this passage, because it gives a point of contrast with the false teachers - "where is the promise of his coming? All things continue as they always have..."