5) Now what about the destruction of the earth and of heaven ?
- Let’s have a look at the context of the first part of the Bible !
https://shreddingtheveil.org/2015/08/26/heaven-earth-have-passed-away/
Look now at Is. 13. 1,
“ The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.“ The first verse establishes that the prophet is speaking to Babylon. Remember that when a prophet speaks he is going to use some figurative language, and it is not literal.
Is. 13:5
, “They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.” (KJV)
The word country we know is a land, and it is a far land, “
from the end of heaven”. In the figurative prophetic language country is land and is also heaven.
Is. 13:10,
“ For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” (KJV)
In prophetic language “stars” and “sun” and “moon” are rulers, kings and princes. The “sun” is a greater ruler than the “moon” which is lesser. The moon does not shine as brightly as the sun. Rulers rule over countries and nations. So, when they do not give their light, they are no longer ruling. God has taken away their power, and their light does not shine any more over the nation.
Is. 13:13,
“ Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.“
What is God shaking? The prophet is speaking of the destruction of Babylon, of the judgment against Babylon, which occurred in 539 BC when the Medes destroyed Babylon.
Is. 13:19-20, “
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.” (KJV)
When God shook the “heavens” and moved the “earth” out of her place, He was not speaking of the literal physical cosmos, but of the nation of Babylon. He shook their world. He destroyed their world in judgment delivered by His rod and messengers, the Medes.
We can see that in figurative judgment language used by the prophets of God, that “heavens and earth” are nations under judgment. The phrase and words are used the same way all throughout Isaiah in the prophetic judgments against all of the nations God warned. God was going to change their “world”, or His covenant with them. How then shall we understand this same language when we see it in used in the New Testament?
Heb. 12:26-29, “
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” (KJV)
Do you recognize now the prophetic figurative language? It is the same that was used in Isaiah, and the other prophets in the Old Testament. Shaking the earth and the heaven must be understood as the destruction of a nation and the change in God’s agreement with them, in the same way that it was used in the Old Testament. It is the judgment of Israel once more, and specifically Jerusalem of the first century A.D that is spoken of in Heb. 12.
In verse 27, what cannot be shaken? The answer is in verse 28, the Kingdom, which is everlasting. It is the Kingdom of the New Testament, the never-ending, everlasting, spiritual Kingdom. The New Testament, the new covenant brought by the blood of Christ, bought by the sacrifice of Christ in place of all of us, fulfilled the Old Covenant which God had made with the children of Israel. The New Covenant would be with spiritual Israel, the new Jerusalem, all those that are in the body of Christ.
The Old Covenant was removed, shaken, taken out of the way, and replaced with a New Covenant that would not be shaken. The last days spoken of in the New Testament were the last days of the Old Covenant.
2 Pet. 3:7,
“ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (KJV)
Peter wrote this letter sometime before 68 A.D., most probably between 64 – 66 A.D. It predates the destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple. The reference in verse 7 above is to the then future destruction of Jerusalem, and not to the literal physical cosmos as most people try to make it say. The verse specifically states
“against the day of judgment”. So, we need to immediately associate judgment language with this verse.
All Old Testament prophesy of “fire” was judgment figurative language of destruction against a nation or land, against a group of people. Judgment was brought against a sinful people who would not repent and turn back to God.
What was being kept in store and reserved unto fire, that is destruction, was Jerusalem. That destruction occurred in A.D. 70, and the
“heavens and earth” of the land of Judea, the remaining two tribes of the children of Israel, and the covenant with them, passed away. The destruction of the temple which Jesus foretold in Matt. 24, was the destruction of the Jewish world. It was the destruction of the Old Covenant sacrificial system that passed away.
Now look at Matt 5:17-18,
” 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (KJV)
Paraphrasing…
“till [the Mosaic covenant] pass…”; and
“till [the temple] pass…”
Are we still under the law of the Old Covenant? Most people will agree that we are not! Then, working back through the scripture, “
heaven and earth” must have passed. Today, some 2,000 years later, we still see the literal heavens and the literal earth. So Matt. 5:18, recorded in the first century A.D., is not speaking of the physical cosmos. It is the same figurative OT language of prophesy. It is speaking of the land nation of Judea and old Israel, and the covenant under which it still operated. That land and that nation whose capital was Jerusalem was going to have to pass away before the New Covenant with spiritual Israel could be completely probated and set firmly in place.
If you believe that the heaven and earth of Matt. 5:18 means the literal physical cosmos, then you must also believe that the Old Covenant, the old law is still in place.
I submit to you that the figurative “heaven and the earth” were always the nations who came under judgment of God for breaking His laws and commandments in both the Old and New Testaments; that the heaven and the earth of Matt. 5:18 was the Old Covenant God had established with the tribes of Israel; that they were the land of Judea and the two tribes remaining, and the surrounding nations that would come under judgment with her in A.D. 70; and that they have indeed passed away with the destruction of Jerusalem.
As we are under the New Covenant, the New Testament, then all has been completely fulfilled as Jesus stated would happen in Matt. 5:18. The New Heavens and the New Earth are the New Covenant, and the way God is now dealing with His people. They are the spiritual Jerusalem, and the spiritual Kingdom of Christ.
Is. 65:17,
“ For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Rev. 3:12, ”
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.“
Rev. 21:2,
“ And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
For more study please see my posts titled “It’s Not The End of The World, Parts 1 – X”.
(Updated Sep. 6, 2022)
