In a previous episode, I told you where scripture says we will spend eternity, not in heaven, but in the New Jerusalem, which will descend from heaven to the New Earth, where God will be the Light of the New Earth and Christ and believers as the church will be the temple of the New Jerusalem. Now I want to tell you why we’ll live forever on a New Earth. To understand “why,” we have to go back to the beginning of everything in Genesis 1:1, where I will answer why we will live for eternity on the New Earth and why God created the heavens and the earth. This answer will surprise you and open the door to more questions.
First, Genesis 1:1 is an introductory statement. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This isn’t a descriptive act of creation. There’s no time reference or even any details of what was created. God created the heavens. What are the heavens? The heavens are the ether, the sky, all the heavens, all of what we can’t see, the invisible bits, to our eyes, of creation. Because they’re invisible to us, it doesn’t mean something isn’t there. Also, God created the earth. What’s the earth? The Hebrew word ‘erets means to be firm. The solid things, the earth, the planets, the stars, what we can see, the visible bits of creation. In the beginning, God created a universe we can and can’t see. This is just an introductory statement of fact. Not how he did it.
It’s important again to consider the context of the original audience before we can understand the meaning for us. Did the author’s audience know anything about science? No, they were an agrarian society. They grew things: plants, animals, and families. They didn’t care about the substance of things; they cared about the order of things. In their world, order was paramount. A lack of order meant they couldn’t plan when to plant, harvest, or grow their herds. In their worldview, the universe existed of three things: Chaos, Order, and Disorder. Not atoms and protons. Four elements make up the world: earth/solid things, air/wind/invisible things, fire/energy, and water.
This is why the writer says that sometime after this, God created the visible and invisible universe (Genesis 1:2). When God created the heavens and the earth, chaos existed in the universe. The earth was “tohu bohu,” without order, chaotic. In the audience’s culture, chaos wasn’t evil but a lack of order. Chaos wasn’t good or bad. Is a storm evil?
Then, God brought order out of the chaos on the earth (Genesis 1:3-5). Did God create the light that day? No, he arranged or ordered the light and darkness so there would be days. This rearrangement of light and darkness was good because it brought order to a society of farmers and herdsmen. It gave them days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries. Order was created for counting and planning. What the light was made from and the speed of light had no significance to them.
How was this order accomplished? God spoke order out of chaos. The order came through God’s word. The Apostle John says that the word of God is God in John 1:1-3, and that word brought order. Paul concurs with John in Colossians 1:15-17.
If Jesus is the primary creator of all creation and puts everything in order and maintains order, why? The writer of Hebrews tells us why in Hebrews 1:2. Why? Because God ordained Jesus as the inheritor of the creation, which will become the Final New Creation.
This is verified by Jesus in his prayer to the Father in John 17:4-5. Jesus was with the Father at the time of creation, and God’s plan was in order. And part of that order then was for Christ to come into the world and complete the job he started.]
What was the job he needed to complete? Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4-5. Before the creation, the plan was to adopt specific children from humanity for Himself and make them holy and blameless forever through love, by his grace and will.
Again, Why? Why did God choose to do this? Listen to the answer Paul gives in Ephesians 2:19-22. So those children, you and I, would become the household of God of which Christ is the building being put together with us growing into a holy temple in Christ for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. God is building a temple, not made with hands.
Again, why? Paul continues to explain this in Ephesians 3:10-11. So that the wisdom of God would be declared through the church, the adopted children, you and I, and the rulers and authorities in the heavens. Yes, there is a hierarchy of beings in the heavens, the invisible places we can’t see; these authorities influence this world against Christ to bring disorder to God’s plan. They can’t defeat Christ because he already has all authority and power in heaven. But they can obscure God’s plan through confusion, doubt, persecution, and manipulation of truth by those under their influence.
These are the daily battles waged against those predestined to embody the temple of God in Christ when he descends from heaven with the New Jerusalem to the New Earth. Those rulers and authorities are trying to delay this as long as possible. In our next episode, we’ll look at these other beings who are invisible to our sight but not invisible to what they are trying to accomplish in the world. We’ll also look at what we should be doing about the effects of these disruptive beings. Not all of them are against God’s plan; we’ll also talk about them.
