The New Heavens and the New Earth

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for December 9
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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The New Heavens and the New Earth

What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 2
Peter 3:11-13. 


The feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth made new. Fire
will come down from God out of heaven and devour them--burn them up root
and branch. Satan is the root, and his children are the branches. 

The same fire from God that consumed the wicked purified the whole
earth. The broken, ragged mountains melted with fervent heat, the
atmosphere also, and all the stubble was consumed. Then our inheritance
opened before us, glorious and beautiful, and we inherited the whole
earth made new. 

"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the
wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No
eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful
consequences of sin. 

The sea divides friends. It is a barrier between us and those whom we
love. Our associations are broken up by the broad, fathomless ocean. In
the new earth there will be no more sea, and there shall pass there "no
galley with oars." In the past many who have loved and served God have
been bound by chains to their seats in galleys, compelled to serve the
purpose of cruel, hardhearted men. The Lord has looked upon their
suffering in sympathy and compassion. Thank God, in the earth made new
there will be no fierce torrents, no engulfing ocean, no restless,
murmuring waves. 

Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal
river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the
shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that
world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe.
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

>From Maranatha - Page 351