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The New Heavens and the New Earth, December 9
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 atmo-
sphere 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 eter-
nally 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.”
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