An Earth Where Righteousness Dwells? Really?
2 Peter 3:12-13 Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Has there ever been a time on this earth where true righteousness has prevailed? It was not true when Adam and Eve were in the Garden. They were given one command and they violated it. Many years later, God looked down from heaven on the children of men and saw violence in the earth. Men’s hearts were evil. So God said, “I will start over,” and He destroyed the earth with a flood (and, yes, I believe He destroyed the actual earth with an actual flood and that only eight people survived that destruction.) God has promised us that He will never again destroy the whole earth with a flood, and He has given us a rainbow from time to time to remind us of that promise. We have had terrible floods in Colorado, New Mexico and Mexico this past week. I wonder if any of those people saw a rainbow. That would have reminded them that although they may have suffered terribly, the current destruction caused by weather that seems out of control is not THE END.
Our verse for this week talks about the coming of the Day of God. The Day of God seems to be different from the Day of the Lord which is associated with the Lord’s second coming. That second coming involves both a rapture and a revelation. The rapture removes Saints before the Lord’s wrath falls on this earth during the tribulation period. The revelation of the Lord is where He descends to the Mount of Olives and sets up a righteous reign on this earth for a literal thousand years. But even during that reign of righteousness which begins with people who are true worshipers of Jehovah, people are born that have the old sin nature. While sin will be judged immediately and while the Lord will judge righteously, by the end of the millennium, people will still be deceived by Satan and will go back to their evil ways of war and rebellion (Revelation 20:7-9). Because Satan will be bound for a thousand years, evil will be restrained, but evil will not be eliminated. But when we reach the Day of God, we have reached the eternal day when there will be a totally new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. The old earth that we know will be destroyed by fire.
Years ago I took a class in astronomy in college and found it fascinating. One day our instructor told us that our sun was basically a hydrogen bomb where the fusion was controlled. He said that our sun was in the middle of its life cycle, but at the end of it, the fusion would be uncontrolled. As a result, our sun would explode and would vaporize the nearest planets including the earth. He said that this probably wouldn’t happen for millions of years but it could happen tomorrow. At the time, I thought, “Wow! Peter, an unlearned fisherman, knew things that I was learning by getting an “advanced education.” Many scientists try to discount the truth of the Bible and as a result they are like fish swimming upstream. They might get there, but they are going to have a hard trip. It would be so much easier to believe God and swim with the current. Answers would be clearer and research would be much more productive.
I believe that Christians are to be salt and light in this world. We are to leave a good taste behind us and we are to provide the light of the Gospel to a dark world. But we need to remember that a world where true righteousness exists is going to require the destruction of everything we know and in many cases love. I sometimes wonder if we who call ourselves Christians, will find ourselves “at home” in this new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of September 22 2013