Title: The Need for New Heavens and a New Earth

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: We look at the statements in Scripture that a new heavens and a new earth are coming, and ponder whether they mean physical destruction or not.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 33:20
Jeremiah 31:40
Ezekiel 43:7
Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34; 6:26; 7:13-14, 18, 27
Amos 9:15
Micah 4:7
2 Peter 3:9-17
Revelation 21:1-5
Genesis 1:1
Jeremiah 4:22
Psalms 102
Isaiah 51:1-16
Jeremiah 4:1-end
Revelation 20:11
Luke 5:36
Ezekiel 36:25
2 Corinthians 5:17

In ordinary life, we tend to think of "peace" as essentially "a lack of conflict." As a nation, if we're not at war, it's a time of peace. On a spiritual level, though, peace is something much more powerful, and much more active. Rather than looking at it as the "lack of conflict," in fact, you could look at it as "the active effect of non-conflict," a force drawing things together and unifying them. Ultimately, of course, that force is the Lord Himself, and the unity formed by His perfect love and His perfect wisdom. We feel it when we allow ourselves to be drawn to Him, described in the works of Swedenborg this way: "peace in the heavens is the divine nature intimately affecting everything good there with blessedness." We also feel it when what we want in our hearts is aligned with what we know to be right -- a state we achieve ever more fully as we move toward the Lord and toward heaven. These things are meant when the Bible talks about peace: the one-ness of purpose in the Lord, and the harmony we experience when our desires align with His loves and our thoughts align with His wisdom.