Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Session 13
Reference
Not all evangelical theologians and Bible commentators would agree that
the “new heaven and new earth” will be a total restoration of God’s
creation, which now lies in groans awaiting the inauguration of God’s
kingdom in its fullness. Some will contend, ‘What about the long
passages in the Gospels that seem to be full of prognostications from the
lips of Jesus himself – prognostications that seem to relate to the end of
the world. What are we to make of these passages, such as Matthew 24?1
And what about passages like 2 Peter 3:10-13 that says the heavens will be
destroyed by fire and the earth ‘laid bare’?’ e following article seeks to
shed light on these two particular passages that seem to undermine the
interpretation of total restoration of God’s creation.
Peter says that Jesus will return with the fire of judgment. . . . “the present
heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment
and destruction of ungodly men. . . the day of the Lord will come like a
thief. e heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be
destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare [i.e.
found] . . . But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a
new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet.
3:7,10,13). is passage, which is meant to give a warning to the wicked
and hope to the saints, has been read by many Christians in such a way
that it takes away all hope for the social and physical world in history. But
is such an interpretation truly warranted?2
We need to realize, first of all, that the background of Peter’s teaching here
is the prophesy of Malachi:3 “en suddenly the Lord you are seeking will
come to His temple . . .But who can endure the day of His coming? Who
can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a
launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” (Mal. 3:1-3).
e fire this passage is talking about, then, is a refiner’s fire which burns up
the dross and purifies the silver. e fire is for ‘the destruction of the
ungodly men’ and ‘the elements’. e word elements does not refer to the
elements of physical earth which are the building blocks of our planet.
e Greek for elements that Peter uses here is stoicheia which is also used
in Galatians 4:3,9 where it is translated as ‘basic principles of the world’
and ‘those weak and miserable principles,’ and in Colossians 2:8,20 where
it is translated as ‘basic principles of the world’ which are ‘hollow and
deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition’ and enslaves
people. e word ‘elements’ thus refers not to the elements of modern
chemistry but of Greek thought which also has a connotation of stars and
With this sensitivity in mind, how then can we interpret passages such as
Matthew 24? We can interpret them as a) exhortations and
encouragement to Jesus’ disciples to hold on to “the gospel of the
True, throughout church history, there have always been groups that,
convinced they knew when the world would end, would quit their jobs and
wait with eager anticipation for Christ’s appearance. In Matthew’s
understanding of the Christian faith, however, the second coming
shouldn’t cause us to quit the job of being the church in the world; rather,
it calls us to take it up with even more urgency.18 e hope that drives us
to keep on keeping on is that the final appearance of the Messiah will be
so obvious that there will be no question about it. Jesus’ return will not be
that of a “hidden Messiah” who must be sought out, but will be a
universally observable event and as unambiguous as lightning!19 us
Matthew’s point is that there will be no sign in the sense of preliminary
warnings in the form of a calendar of events: e first clear sign will be the
end itself with its cosmic disruption and the indisputable appearance of
the Son of Man. In verse 30 the disciples’ question in verse 3 receives its
definitive Matthean answer: e sign of his appearing will be the Son of
Man himself.20
What was the destruction that needed to be avoided in his time – if it was
not the literal end of the world? Jesus apparently foresaw a scenario
something like this: “Tensions will continue to rise, and eventually the
Zealots will lead the people into a violent rebellion. When they rebel,
God will not intervene as they hope, because God does not want to
continue to bless violence. Instead, they will be crushed brutally by the
As anyone who knows history will realize, the scenario Jesus describes did
in fact occur. His countrymen did not trust him or follow him. ey
rejected both his promises and his warnings. ey did not accept his
radical alternative to violence, accommodation, or isolation. Jesus himself
realizes this will be the case as he descends to Jerusalem on what we call
Palm Sunday, and he begins to weep and says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If
only you knew what makes for peace!” Because they rejected his way,
tensions did rise. e Zealots did stage a revolt in AD 67. e Romans
did come in and crush Jerusalem and destroy the temple and wipe out the
historic temple system of sacrifice. For the Jews of that day, the moon did
turn to blood and the stars did fall from the sky – these events were truly
(but not literally) ‘earth-shattering’.24
Yet, these events did not yet precipitate “the end”. More still was to come,
and in the meantime, the church was continuously called to proclaim the
“good news of the kingdom”; to posit an alternative to the various stories
and worldviews that framed the lives of untold numbers of Jesus’ disciples’
contemporaries. In summary, then, passages like Matthew 24 don’t need
to be interpreted in a way that contradicts the view of a total restoration of
creation. In fact, if you read Matthew 24 in the ways presented above, I
believe you will agree that Jesus’ warnings, exhortations and
encouragements come together in a coherent and satisfying way – far more
coherent and satisfying than the conventional approaches.25