[A rush manuscript, to fulfill a promise. Please report any typos to joel@americanvision.org.]
“Behold, I make all things new,” says the Enthroned One of Revelation 21. What did He mean by this announcement of a totally new creation?
One of the most misunderstood and misapplied themes in all of Scripture is that of “new heavens and new earth” mentioned in Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:13. Peter wrote “we are waiting” (v. 13) for this reality, and many Christians think this is the case still for today: Christians are waiting for the appearing of the Lord, a final cataclysmic judgment of the world, and then a new heavens and new earth.
In the studies which follow, I am going to tell you why this is almost entirely incorrect.
The Promise of His Appearing
(See here for the previous exegetical work on 2 Peter 3:1-13.)
Different Worlds, Same Word
Peter’s answer to the scoffers (of 2 Peter 3:3–4) is notable in many ways, particularly in what it implies about the nature of the judgment—both in general and for what Peter’s audience should have expected in their episode. The relevant passages say,
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly (2 Pet. 3:5–7).
First, there are translational issues here. I don’t like the ESV (above) here, nor am I happy with any one popular translation that’s out there. Considering that punctuation and verse divisions came much later than the earliest manuscripts, and looking at the overall message Peter is trying to give (that is, a parallel between the certainty of the prophesied judgment of Noah’s flood and that of Jesus’ prophesied return in judgment), I think verses 5–7 could better be translated like this:
For they willingly ignore this: that heavens existed long ago, and land out of water and with water gathered together, by the word of God the world at that time perished, being flooded with water; and the present heavens and the earth by the same word, are being reserved for fire, kept unto a day of judgment and destruction of godless men.
While this is not a noticeably large difference, the key thing of interest here is the parallel of the two certain judgments being effected by the same Word of God. During the flood, the “world at that time” suffered judgment “by the word of God”; this was for Peter enough to refute the scoffers’ view that all things continued the same since the beginning of creation. But since the same God and the same Word also now pronounced judgment coming upon “the present heavens and earth” (of Peter’s day, before the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem), then the scoffers were equally wrong for questioning this time as they were about ignoring the history of Noah. Translating the verse this way brings to the fore the eternal reliability of the Word of God despite and against the claims of godless men, the scoffers. Peter is not trying to spin some arcane theory of creation here, he is simply reemphasizing the trustworthiness of the “sure Word of prophecy” (1:19) in judgment, for this simple fact alone overturns the scoffers’ view of both history and the near future.
Second, there is both interplay and distinction between “heavens and earth” and “world” here which shows the two are not necessarily to be considered equivalent, although not mutually exclusive either. This means there is flexibility and overlap in how these phrases are understood and applied, and contexts will play a role in determining how they are used.
The heavens existed from long ago, and the earth standing out of and with the water. This “heavens and earth” is a clear reference to the themes developed in Genesis 1:1–10, which includes the separation of waters and earth beneath the heavens, and the gathering of the waters together.
(There may be some semantic relation between the Septuagint’s sustema (“gathering”) of the waters and Peter’s usage of sunestoma (“standing together”), which I translated interpretively as “gathered together,” in regard to the land and water. There should be further study of the etymology and usage of these two words. There should be some focus given to how closely Peter came to the Septuagint of Genesis 1 here.)
Interestingly, the heaven and earth, land and sea described here are not the subjects of judgment during the flood, per Peter, but rather the water of that creation was the agent which does the flooding; and it floods not the land or earth (ge in Greek) specifically, but the kosmos at the time. This indicates at least some linguistic distinction between the physical elements of creation per se, and perhaps even as a whole—“heavens and earth”—and some other way of understanding the totality of what God used those elements to judge, here called kosmos. In short, kosmos is not necessarily exactly the same as the “heavens and earth,” nor vice versa.
At this point we must be quick to note that Peter does seem to use the two categories interchangeably. In verse 6, speaking of the old world before the flood, judgment comes via the creation upon the kosmos that existed at the time. But in Peter’s reapplication of that certainty to his own time, judgment was about to fall upon “the present heavens and earth.” So there seems to be at least some interchangeability in the terms. To the extent that there is, both terms can have flexibility to be understood sometimes metaphorically, representatively, typologically, and at other times literally. However much their penumbrae of meaning may overlap, Peter’s presentation of the two judgments as parallel examples of God’s reliable advance of righteousness in the earth expects us to accept significant if not total overlap in this place. And while I do not think they are technically identical by any means, Peter’s parallelism is clear (I paraphrase):
The world [kosmos] of that time perished by the Word of God (v. 6)
The heavens and earth of this time will be destroyed by the same Word of God (v. 7)
Yet since the “world”—as in the physical heavens and earth—of Noah was not literally “destroyed” and was not literally replaced by a new physical world after the flood, we need not necessarily assume that Peter is looking for a total physical change in the planet in His time either. There would certainly be a physical aspect in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, just as there was in the physical flood of Noah; but the death of the old world and the birth of the new need not itself to be understood as a purely physical transformation. This is primarily a covenantal change which carries with it certain limited physical transformations.
The long story short, here, is that God’s covenantal judgments—however extensive and severe—at different times can delineate different “worlds” before and after, as well as different “heavens and earths” before and after, while not necessarily being understood as literally as possible. There was an “old world” along with a “heavens” that “existed long ago” which perished in the flood, and there was a “present heavens and earth” which were about to be destroyed in Peter’s time to make way for a new heavens and new earth which Peter and his audience “expected” as we shall see. Yet during none of these judgments was the physical creation completely obliterated and replaced. The change from “old” to “new” in each case had limited physical applications which pertained to God’s covenants with man, judgment on wicked men, and the preservation of God’s elect into the new world. Thus there are multiple applications of “world” and of “heavens and earth” which we ignore at our peril.
While this begs for a much more diverse study than I can pretend to offer here, the immediate application to 2 Peter 3 should be obvious: the heavens and earth about to be destroyed by no means necessarily refer to a destruction of the physical heavens and physical earth. Peter and his audience have something much simpler, though just as profound, in mind for this event. There was a destruction of the “present heavens and earth” coming in their lifetimes, after which they expected a new heavens and new earth,” and both of these expectations were built directly upon the teachings of Jesus.
Heavens and earth will pass away
We have established a close connection between Peter’s letters and Jesus’ eschatological predictions. This is particularly true of Matthew 24:34—“this generation”—as we saw. In this context, too, we should emphasize Jesus’ very next words in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” These are obviously connected to the same predictions of Jesus. They also correlate directly to Peter’s “new heavens and a new earth.”
But what did Jesus mean “heaven and earth will pass away”? On the surface, this appears to be merely some kind of figure of speech to emphasize the invincibility of God’s Word compared to even the entire universe; but we should rethink this. Is it not the case, rather, that it is directly connected to the idea of a new heaven and earth about to come in the same time frame as the destruction Jesus just predicted. Indeed, seen from this viewpoint, Jesus was promising the passing of the present heaven and earth and the creation of a new heaven and earth in the lifetime of those listening to Him. And this is exactly the issue which Peter takes up in 2 Peter 3.
This connection is not only thematic, but literary also. Jesus’ word for “pass away” [pareleusetai] is repeated by Peter: “the heavens will pass away [pareleusontai] with a roar.” Peter is again applying the teaching of Jesus for his audience.
The word in itself does not denote so much a physical disappearance or death (in the way we today euphemize death as “passing away”), but is widely used to refer to passing or passing by in time, event, or physical distance. This is further evidence that the event Peter is describing is not a destruction of the physical planet, but a transition from one type of world order to a new one.
What then is meant by the obviously literal language Peter employs? What about the “heavenly bodies” and “all these things” being “dissolved,” the heavens being “set on fire and dissolved,” etc.? There is no good reason to take these literally in this case. There are good reasons not to, in fact:
First, to think that the literal “heavenly bodies” will literally “be burned up and dissolved” is nonsensical. Since “heavenly bodies” is held distinct from “the heavens” here, the phrase cannot refer to the heavens of the earth’s atmosphere (which could, technically, burn away and dissolve). If “heavenly bodies” is to be taken literally, it must refer to stars, planets, etc. But this presents a literal, physical problem: the vast majority of these heavenly bodies are stars. And what are stars? They are, to be blunt, balls of fire. Is God here saying He intends to destroy balls of fire by burning them with fire? Perhaps the insistent literalist will say God will use the hottest fire imaginable. But then again, stars are not just fire, they are essentially natural nuclear fusion reactors—the hottest temperatures imaginable. Again, is God warning us here that He plans to burn up the hottest temperature imaginable by using the hottest temperatures imaginable? Granted, with God all things are possible, but there seems to be something contradictory and irrational if this language is to be taken literally.
This problem is cleared up quite nicely when we understand this language to be like so many other Scriptures which describe God’s great covenantal judgments in terms of undoing creation (Isa. 13:10–19; 34:1–5; Ezek. 32:2–11; Joel 2:30–31; Matt. 24:29–30, to name a few). Whereas covenant blessing is frequently spoken of in terms of pristine creation language—gardens, rivers of water, abundant fruit, fish, etc.—covenant curses present the opposite: not the abundance of creation, but the undoing of it. This is exactly what we see in Jesus Olivet Discourse, as well as Peter’s instruction in 2 Peter 3.
Second, the text does not say that the earth will be burned up and dissolved, only the heavenly bodies and the heavens. While the less reliable manuscripts behind the KJV do say the earth and its works will be burned up, the better MS tradition now reads “discovered” instead. While this sounds a bit strange at first, it is actually more biblical. Again, God is not burning up the literal universe here; this is a covenantal judgment destroying the present order of things and ultimately a judgment upon godless men. The burning up and dissolving of the heavens is a metaphorical removal of the heavenly firmament and exposing the godless sinfulness of the polluted land and the works in it—particularly, the faithless Jerusalem which had rejected and murdered Jesus. The godless will be exposed.
This is consistent with images found elsewhere in Scripture, and again during other covenantal judgments. For example, Ezekiel 8 has God giving Ezekiel a tour of the Temple complex, exposing all of the abominations of the Israelite people at the time. God had Ezekiel look through a hole in the wall (Ezek. 8:8) and discover what the Israelites thought they kept well-hidden (see 8:12). God then ordered a slaughter of the Israelites throughout the land. He specifically exempted the faithful and marked them (the elect), and then called for the judgment specifically to “Begin at my house” (Ezek. 9:6).
Now the ultimate symbol of the Old Covenant administration—the “present heavens and earth” of 2 Peter 3—was the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus had clearly predicted it would be destroyed, not one block left upon another (Matt. 24:2). James Jordan and Peter Leithart argue that the Temple was a symbolic “creation” of God, an image of “the heavens and the earth,” and I tend to agree.[1] This is why the tabernacle/temple was adorned with beasts, lights, trees, fruit, a sea, etc., and separated from the other heavens by a ceiling (firmament), while a veil (again, a firmament) separated God’s presence in the Holy of Holies from everything else. While I do not have the time to develop this completely, let it suffice to say that God was about to destroy this particular heavens and earth literally, and by extension, the entire covenant world-order associated with it.
After Christ came in the flesh (the living tabernacle/temple), the Jews rejected Him, and He finished His work, any continued worship at that Old defunct Temple was rank idolatry in God’s eyes. It was an abomination. Thus Peter’s situation replays almost exactly that of Ezekiel 8ff. A covenantal administration lawsuit was in view, and unbelieving Israel was about to be destroyed for their abominations (rejecting Christ not the least of them), and Peter had even expressly told his readers that judgment must “begin at the household of God” (1 Pet. 4:17; cf. Ezek. 9:5).
God had rent the firmament to expose the land and all the works in it to His holy consuming presence. The godless men—unbelieving Jews—were thus discovered, exposed, and were soon to be destroyed.
Third, the translation “heavenly bodies” is not very supportable here anyway. Both times this phrase appears the Greek word is stoicheia, “basics” or “principles.” The KJV actually went with “elements,” but even this is not quite right if understood as physical elements, earthly elements. In the New Testament, the word is used to refer to principles of the covenant order, often of the Old Testament, to which the people should not want to return (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20; cf. Heb. 5:12). In one place, a group of Jews uses the verb form specifically to direct Paul to follow Old Covenant rituals (Acts 21:24). In other places, the verb form refers to a basic discipline of living righteously, by the faith, or by the Spirit (Phil. 3:16; Gal. 5:25; 6:16; Rom. 4:12). This is about all the biblical direction we get, and none of it refers to the heavenly bodies or to the physical elements of the world, earth, heavens, or universe. It seems the consistent theme throughout the biblical usage is that of basic principles of religion. Thus it seems that the “heavenly bodies” mentioned in 2 Peter 3 should probably be translated something like the KJV, but understood as a reference to the elements of the Old Covenant order. God was not about to nuke the stars, but He was about to destroy the Old Covenant Temple with all of its special rules, rituals, rites, vessels, and paraphernalia. These basic elements—which Paul calls stoicheia tou kosmou (“elements of the kosmos”)—would be no more.
And as that old heavens and earth passed away, Peter and his audience looked for—“expected,” “eagerly anticipated”—a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.
New heavens and new earth
Peter concludes this section:
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13).
Most commentators make the connection between this passage and Isaiah 65:17: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isa. 65:17). Isaiah’s description which follows of this new heavens and new earth includes the well-kown references to extra-long age (someone dying at 100 years is just a child and considered accursed for living so briefly) and changes in the nature of deadly beasts: “’The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD” (Isa. 65:25).
The exact phrase appears again in Isaiah 66:22, and later in the New Testament in Revelation 21:1. Again, I must shorten this study more than I would like:
While 2 Peter 3:13 is definitely related thematically to Isaiah 65, it is a mistake to think that there is an exclusive relationship between the Isaiah passage and any New Testament usage, as if Isaiah were giving a unique prophecy of a unique event in the future, and then Peter and John were announcing the fulfillment of that one predicted event on their horizon (or at any time in the future). It is not that Isaiah announced “X,” and that Peter and John were saying “the time has come for X,” after which time “X” is done and gone. Rather, both texts are partaking of a much larger theological genre which is replayed many times throughout Scripture, and which reappears particularly prominently in these passages. This is to say that while Isaiah 65 is certainly a backdrop to the New Testament references to a new heavens and new earth, it is not the ultimate basis of it.
That ultimate basis is found in Genesis 1. All talk of creations or new creations and the mechanisms God uses to bring them about are rooted in the first chapter of Scripture and cannot be understood properly unless we begin there. This is not just because the theme of “creation” in general begins there, as if we cannot discuss “new” creation without relaying the theological foundations of creation in general afresh every time. Rather, it is because creation and Spirit-nurtured re-creation are there exhibited as God’s primary modus operandi for every act of blessing He brings about (by contrast, acts of judgment are often presented as language of de-creation).
At many points in Scripture these relational/covenantal images are rehearsed, usually in conjunction with periods of transition and judgment. God creates primordial tohu and bohu (Gen. 1:2); the Spirit/Wind of God then hovers (flutters like a bird) over the waters, and out of this comes ordered creation (Gen. 1:2ff).
God created man out of the dry land, and His Breath/Spirit entered that lifeless form and became a living system and image of God. God’s is now carried in the Temple made without hands, man.
The same story plays out with Noah. God had Noah prepare an ark/Temple in which life was preserved, which floated upon the chaotic flood. After some time a dove is sent out—an image of that Spirit hovering over the face of the waters—until dry land appears. A new creation is born. Indeed, emerges from the shut-ark—an image of resurrection. He is then designated an ish hadamah (Gen. 9:20)—translated as “man of the soil” and understood as “farmer,” but h-adam-ah is also a clear poetic reference to the original man Adam who was taken from the adamah, soil. The image: Noah is a new “Adam” standing upon the dry land of the Spirit-discovered new creation.
It plays out again with the Israelites, living in the “without form and void” of the Sinai wilderness. The unfaithful die there (in judgment), but the faithful are led by the Spirit (pillar of fire and cloud), across the waters of the Jordan, into the promised land (a new garden).
Jesus replays this exact picture: He is baptized in the waters of the Jordan river; at that moment the Spirit descends upon him in the form of a buffalo—just seeing if you were paying attention—no, in the form of a dove, and this is indication to John the Baptist that Jesus is the Messiah. Indeed, Jesus is, once again, the new Adam, the new creation, the new Israel, the new Temple etc.
This Jesus then predicts the destruction of the Old Covenant Temple, while predicting the rebuilding of the Temple (His body) in three days—His resurrection. The Old Temple is thus being replaced by the New One. Thus, in covenantal language: the present heavens and earth were being replaced by the new heavens and earth.
This new heavens and earth was, first, the new Temple, the body of Jesus. The new “stone cut out without hands” which would grow and fill the earth (Dan. 2:35–45). But this body/Temple, we know, is not limited to Jesus’ physical/resurrected body alone. There is a whole doctrine of the “body of Christ” in Scripture (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12–27; Eph. 3:6; 5:23; Col. 1:18, 24; cf. John 15), and it is all implicated in the doctrine of the new Temple as well. Peter—it is fitting—mentions how believers are living stones that build up a spiritual house: “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Paul is even clearer on this point. Union with Christ in “one new man” he connects with the new temple image:
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18–22).
And just as Peter was looking for that new creation in which “righteousness dwells,” so Paul assures us that the “new man” is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24).
In other words, the church—the body of all believers—are part of the new Temple. They are thus the new creation as well: the body of the new Adam, the new dwelling place of God via the Spirit. For this reason, Paul can say, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The literal Greek here is so spare it is even more frank: Therefore, if anyone in Christ, new creation: the old things passed, behold, new have come.
This—the church—is the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells which Peter and his audience anticipated. It was already there definitively because of the finished work of Christ, but it was not fully ratified—confirmed in history, if you will—until the purge of that old system was completed, and until that old Temple—a stack of stones which were cut out with hands—was leveled to the last block.
New Creation, New Adam, New Eve, New Marriage
The doctrine of “new heavens and new earth” appears most prominently in the New Testament in Revelation 21, and it ties together all of these themes and then some. The text reads,
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Rev. 21:1–5).
We have seen the doctrine of the new creation and the new Adam, and we have discussed “union” with Christ in which believers become part of that creation. These images are repeated here, largely, and a hint is given which both 1) involves the nature of that union, and 2) ties all of the imagery back to the original creation.
First, we have already mentioned that there can be many heavens and earths in this regard, in this typological application, so we must not necessarily translate protos here as “first.” One could only be dogmatic about this from the basis of some preconceived eschatological system being imposed upon the text. Instead, verse 1 should better read, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away.” This is perfectly allowable within the range of normal meanings for protos and fits better with what else we’ve learned so far. This interpretation also fits better with the common translation of protos in the following verse 4: “former [prota] things have passed away.”
This understanding is also backed up by the fact that there was a “world” (kosmos) prior to the flood (2 Pet. 3:5), and yet another “world” after it (Gal. 4:3 et al), and yet the new heavens and new earth of 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 is yet another new creation. In other words, there is not simply a first and a second, but many recurring new creations covenantally speaking as God progresses his creation toward glory.
Second, we are introduced to another new creation theme, and that is the new Jerusalem. This is yet another reference to the church, for Paul tells us in Galatians 4:26, “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” This is in contrast to the earthly Jerusalem, which was in bondage to the Old Covenant, and which was soon to be destroyed, or “cast out” in Paul’s allegory (Gal. 4:21–31).
Indeed it is just this “Jerusalem above” which we meet again in Revelation 21, for this “new Jerusalem” was above, but descended “down out of heaven from God.”
This image is nowhere made more forcefully brilliant than in the book of Hebrews, where the author culminates his pro-Christian argument against the Old Covenant systems by telling the saints,
you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:22–24).
So it’s clear that this new Jerusalem is indeed the New Covenant church. We also have reiterated the righteousness that dwells in this new creation which houses “the righteous made perfect.”
In one sense, new Jerusalem is indeed the church, wedded as a bride in union to Christ. In another image, new Jerusalem is a New Eve to conjoin the New Adam, and Paul says “she is our mother.” Since only those who are in Christ have life, we can say that this new Jerusalem is the mother of all living—and thus, truly a New Eve, New Adam’s Bride (Gen. 3:20).
Third, the connection between the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21 and the New Testament body of Christ/new Temple is seen in the language of the relevant passages:
the household of God, built on the foundation [themelio] of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone (Eph. 2:19–20).
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations [themelious], and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev. 21:14).
Unless this foundation that is the apostles has more than one superstructure erected upon it, we must assume some vital organic connection between the New Testament “temple in the Lord . . . dwelling place of God” of Ephesians 2 and the “new Jerusalem . . . dwelling place of God” of Revelation 21.
Fourth, what really is of delightful interest here, in terms of biblical theology, are the images opened up by the phrase “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). This draws together creation, marriage, and covenant, and world-order all in one place.
A Bride Adorned, or Kosmetology School
We have encountered the idea of “world” (kosmos) and have seen than while it significantly overlaps with “heavens and earth,” it is by no means always identical. Without time to do an extensive study to hash out all of the instances, it will suffice to say that “heavens and earth” seem to be a much broader and more general category than kosmos is most often used to denote. Granted, “world” does have universal import in many cases (dare we deny it in John 3:16?), but too many uses of kosmos and its various forms denote something much narrower and more technical than the universe at large.
Significantly here, this new Jerusalem bride of Revelation 21:2 is said to be “adorned” as a bride for her husband. The word for “adorned” translates a form of kosmos—here a perfect passive participle, kekosmemenen (“having been adorned”). In its verb form—kosmeo, etc.—the word alerts us to the more technical meanings that we are not used to associating with “cosmos” in our vernacular. We are too used to thinking of the “cosmos” as the “universe”: Russian astronauts, space explorers after all, are called cosmonauts. Carl Sagan—an astronomer—wrote a book and TV series about the universe called Cosmos. We describe things of grand, interstellar scale as being “cosmic.” And yet we have a perfectly technical usage of the word in our vernacular which is even more common but does not seem to register as quickly in regard to kosmos, and that is cosmetic. Makeup, fashion, plastic surgery, hair styling—all aspects of kosmeo which register more with “a bride adorned” than with a “universe.” Much of the usage of the word in Scripture relates more to our modern cosmetology than to our astronomy. This is about arrangement, adornment, even decoration, more than the physical matter of outer space and solar system—except insofar as the solar system, etc. are understood as God’s intricate and aesthetic ordering of things.
Indeed, this is the sense we more often than not get from Scripture (with the exception, perhaps, of the writings of John, who uses the word inordinately and almost always has a universal meaning in mind). Just a few examples:
- The multitude of stars are referred to as “the host of heaven.” “Host” is kosmos (Gen. 2:1; Deut. 4:19; 17:3; Isa. 13:10 all LXX). Here the idea is “array” and the Hebrew word behind it is often applied to an army set in array for battle.
- In many cases ornaments of different types of apparel—in many cases, jewelry—are described by forms of kosmo (Ex. 33:5–6; 2 Sam. 1:24; Isa. 3:1–26; 49:18; 61:10; Jer. 2:32; 4:30; Ezek. 7:20; 16:11; 23:40–41; 1 Pet. 3:3; 1 Tim. 2:9; Rev. 21:2, 19). Here it clearly means adornment and even decorative adornment. It is often a cause of sinful pride and vanity.
- It is used to describe other types of decorations, such as of tombs, houses, and buildings (Matt. 12:44; 23:29; Luke 11:25; 21:5).
- It described the fashioning or crafting of things in a special way: for example, who can straighten [kosmesai] what God has made crooked? (Eccl. 7:13 LXX). Solomon “set in order” [kosmion] many proverbs (Eccl. 12:9).
Again abbreviating, what we see here is not just making in general, but purposeful, delightful, decorative, comely art. We see this as God’s creation, yes, but in kosmos He is making something that has beauty and attraction. He is an artist, painting His divine bride, a delightful companion, and falling in love with her. It is His bride specially adorned for Him.
Yet she is also a city. She is a system: both chaotically buzzing and orderly, predictable, grand, complex—just like the fixed constellations and host of heaven, and the armies of God in battle-array. Applied to the covenantal systems governing God’s people over centuries in different forms, God’s kosmos is more than a decorative adornment, it is a world order. And dare we say it? Every time God brings about a new heavens and new earth—a new kosmos—we may well be justified in saying God brings about a new world order.
So here we see the theology behind the new heavens and new earth—at least in an abbreviated version. It is rooted in Genesis 1 and 2. Noah preached it. So did the Patriarchs, Moses, and Joshua. Samuel knew it; David preached it and sang it several times. Isaiah pronounced it; so did Ezekiel, and all the prophets, really. Nehemiah lived it, in part. Jesus brought it about, and His apostles lived through its birthpangs. This theology has never changed, though it has been told many times. It lies at the heart of what 2 Peter 3 is saying, as well as Revelation 21. They are all connected. One logos, one word, manifested in several “worlds” so far.
Endnotes:- See Leithart, The Promise of His Appearing, 100. [↩]
Joel McDurmon, M.Div., Reformed Episcopal Theological Seminary, is the Director of Research for American Vision. He has authored four books and also serves as a lecturer and regular contributor to the American Vision website. He joined American Vision's staff in the June of 2008. Joel and his wife and four sons live in Dallas, Georgia.
2 Peter 3 – heaven and earth passed away / new heaven and earth arrived.
This is the same event – and should be viewed as past as well:
Revelation 20
11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Revelation 21
1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
Knowing that 2Peter 3 is of the destruction of the Heavens and Earth is reduced to the Hebreic mindset of Governments and Peoples of the Mosaic Temple Cultis system through out Judea/Jerusalem. This shows the narrowness of the WHO the Heaven and Earth are, then, this would translate also to the narrowness of the Noah Flood ‘world’ to only a small group of Covenant Breaker Peoples and not Global. Joel, you have wasted a lot of words to explain your position that does more to confuse the non-studying Christian than get to a good point. A Nicely written paper but anyone who really understands the Covenantal Nature of the Bible will say that you are writing to much and not getting to the point….. Even when you ‘thought’ that you got to ‘The Point’, you were still way off. I guess that it is easy to see that partial preterists want to have their feet in several ‘camps’ and end up in none.
Blessings Joel
I am really loving the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems? A handful of my blog audience have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any solutions to help fix this issue?
Joel,
I must disagree. The elect are infinite. In heaven, there is no such thing as the word finite, which only applies to the realm of this earth. One God but infinite expressions of him through his elect.
The reason there is a Kosmos before and after (2 Peter 3:6), is that the word is refering to the ungodly people and their habitation (2 Peter 2:5 and Hebrews 11:7). You are right to see a difference between ge and kosmos. Ge refers to the earth which was given form on creation period three, just as it is mentioned here “earth standing out of water.” The planet was now no longer a formless ball covered by water. A local region (in which all humans lived) was flooded, but the whole planet and beyond will be destroyed in the future.
How New is New?
Some hold to the restoration view because of the use of the Greek word kainos (new) in the New Heavens and New Earth. Kainos means qualitatively new unlike neos which they say means numerically new. But they misunderstand the meaning of the phrase “numerically new.” It has to do with age, not first verses second. Neos often just means young (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-39; 1 Cor. 5:7; Titus 2:4). In these three gospel examples neos is actually contrasted with kainos. Neos describes the new or young wine as opposed to fermented wine and kainos describes the new wineskins as opposed to old or used wineskins. It’s not just the quality of the wineskins that was new, as if they had been refurbished. The old ones had to be replaced, or the new fermenting wine would cause them to burst.
“Kainos denotes new, of that which is unaccustomed or unused, not new in time, recent, but new as to form or quality, of different nature from what is contrasted as old.”
“Neos signifies new in respect of time, that which is recent; it is used of the young, and so translated, especially the comparative degree ‘younger;’ accordingly what is neos may be a reproduction of the old in quality or character.”
W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, 1966, pg. 109-110
“Kainos; qualitatively new as contrasted with neos, [kainos is] numerically new or the last one numerically (Matt. 9:17; Eph. 2:15)… hence the NT is kainediatheke, qualitatively new, not merely numerically new (nea). [kainos is] – added by me for clarity.”
“Neos; new in relation to time, as that which has recently come into existence. Referring to young woman (Titus 2:4); referring to new wine, but the same as was had before (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22); the new man (Col. 3:10).”
Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study New Testament, 1992, pg. 912, 923
In Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 the creation of new heavens and a new earth are described. In each of these verses Isaiah uses the Hebrew word chadash (new or a new thing). The translators of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) used the Greek word kainos as the equal of chadash, showing that kainos meant more than just new in quality. Likewise in Revelation 3:12, 21:2 and 21:10-22:5 the New (kainos) Jerusalem is not the earthly city restored. It is the place that Jesus went away to prepare for us. It is a second city.
In Hebrews chapters eight and nine the old covenant is contrasted with the new (kainos) one. In Hebrews 8:7-8, 13 and 9:1, the old covenant is called the protos (first) which again means that the new covenant is the second. Verses 7 and 13 clearly state that kainos refers to a second covenant and that the first is therefore obsolete and will pass away.
In Revelation 21:1 John tells us that he sees the kainos (new) heaven and the kainos (new) earth, because the protos (first) heaven and the protos (first) earth had passed away. If the old is the first then the new must be the second. Every other place in Revelation where protos is used, it means that there is more than one. The comparison of this text with the one in Hebrews 8 makes a strong case for the New Heavens and the New Earth being a completely different creation, not a restoration of the first one.
The first creation will be destroyed (Ps. 102:25-27; Isaiah 34:4, 51:6, 65:17; Matt. 5:18, 24:35; Hebrews 1:10-12; 2 Peter 3:7,10 and 12; Rev. 20:11, 21:1,23 and 22:5) and a second one will be created (Is. 65:17, 66:22; Hebrews 11:9-10,13-16 and 13:14; 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1-2, 10).
In Isaiah 65:17-18 there are two different things being discussed. Verses 18-25 are not talking about the New Heavens and New Earth.
How can a star die a firery death? By Exploding!!
You said, “One could only be dogmatic about this from the basis of some preconceived eschatological system being imposed upon the text.” You mean like a Preterist system?
E Harris
You are a machine. How many keyboards did you go through last year?
I just … get a little… involved sometimes. Writing helps me think! The kind folks over at AV haven’t blocked me yet. I don’t even know if they read it. It’s only a reply, so I don’t worry about editing. I just “flow” and see where it takes me. If I had my own blog, I’d be going crazy. Like I’m doing in here. When I see a truth clearly (or think I do) – I just LOVE to describe it. And Joel’s clearly going in that direction!! I LOVE IT! I really do. I just think he needs to carry that same logic and theology and apply it to time periods PAST AD70!! And then… the rest takes care of itself!!! (The full preterists won’t know what hit ‘em. They truly can’t see it, I don’t know why.)
And I see a tremendous possibility for Organic House Church theology and certain elements of Protestant Historicism (along with christian libertarianism) to merge together as one. And provide a theological and moral impetus behind BEING the church in this world. It goes beyond just ‘limited “government”. When trying to find a theological basis for secular government, there isn’t one. When trying to find a basis for christians to lord it over each other (or the heathen) there isn’t one there, either. Free Market is supported in the New Covenant, freedom to keep and to give and to work as one wills under God… but governing over anothers transactions is not supported as a must-do. It’s only TOLERATED by christians who live under military rulers-of-this-world who DO lord-it-over others as a matter of course. This is the Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar boasted in building…it just shifted hands down through the years, until Jesus came. And now it’s on it’s last fumes, and losing ground to the pure gospel. Islam is only a reaction to an impure presentation of this gospel – and it is a twisted bastardization of it (has no Son-connection, no respect for the individual, it’s basically monotheistic statism).
Much of organic house church theology comes from believers in China during Communism’s reign. So it will come in even more handy, if China gains power. Just as a purer picture of individual personal Oneness under God in Christ comes in handy when dealing with monotheists without a picture of individuality or grace. We don’t realize how precarious our earthly economy is… and how people will react when economies collapse… or how they will seek to resurrect some normalcy. The need of the hour is for christian thought-leaders to begin to get together in love as normal, basic, christian brothers – and bridge their divides. True Christianity is the call. Basic, humble, personal, TRUE relationship with God and men.
One thing I know: unity must be organic. There is no such thing as unity of official organizations without statist collectivism in some form. You end up with a STRONGER clergy/laity divide…with a ‘ruling class’ trying to determin for the ‘rest of us’ (the numbers). We cannot merge denominations, and get unity. We can only collapse them, and be SIMPLE BELIEVERS, or “Mere Christians.” However, similar logic that applies to denominations, can also be applied toward fixed-member congregations. There is no division in Christ. The only thing that really divides us externally (as a fellowship of brethren/sistren) is geography and the logistics of travel. Beyond that, it is a believers choice how much of his possessions and career he wants to sacrifice for the sake of the brethren.
You simply cannot get a “Divine Order” of things (or God’s order) with a permanent and entrenched human heirarchy. When Israel asked for an earthly king, Samuel said that they had rejected God as their king. And when a kingship was given to them, by God’s anointing, it was a foreshadowing of JESUS ETERNAL REIGN. After Jesus, there is no more (biblically supportable) kingship. There is the civil sword, which we are to respect & stay out of the way of (unless we are defending against its evil – that’s a choice). But we are not called to JOIN WITH the civil sword and help it network and grow. Our network is with EACH OTHER as servants of Christ. We grow in His Kingdom (which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost). The only thing that spreads the gospel is PURE proclaimation in love. That’s it. No army can do what we can do, for a society. To paraphrase Obama (and apply it only to those with Christ’s Spirit working in them): WE ARE the stability we have been waiting for. Someone said a few days ago that we need a David to help us rescue America or DC. I say, we need to BE Davids (as David was a foreshadowing of Christ, who we are to be like, when we have His Spirit in each of us, working miracles in and through us).
Whether or not America can be rescued, is for the political minded. I will vote. But THEY need to see that it is the pure christians who aren’t in government and who are humble… who are their BEST STRATEGIC ALLIES. The soldiers aren’t the strength of government. The gospel in the hearts of as many people as possible: is the strength and stability (and sanity) of any society.
American Vision helped me see this. But I didn’t restrict myself to the paradigm that this website offers. I see how America’s libertarian logic connects with the individualistic & personal house church movement (in the NT days and in China and America today) as they seperate from various divided institutions-of-men, and with Protestant Historicism in the days when they were first separating from Rome, and American believers who said “we have no king but Jesus”. PROPER THEOLOGY (gospel proclamation) is the key to winning our battles…that, and really BELIEVING IT. Collectively, we strengthen and weaken things that we lift up as our “solutions.” So let our solutions be totally and clearly in line with solid Bible teaching.
I’m trying to refrain from being this confrontational in person. But this is the web. My preacher friend knows (more and more) how I feel. But I need to get better at living this message, IN LOVE. God is working on me. The only way I can truly and effectively proclaim the gospel of personal freedom in Christ Jesus… is if I have nothing but unadulterated love in my heart for people.
In government, our theology should be one of advancing a spirit, theology, attitude and culture of SELF-Control. The gospel mindset and spirit of the gospel is the only successful means to have truly satisfying (and society-advancing) SELF-control. All human government should see it in their own self-interest to have a population that is internally regulated (in their own persons) according to the precepts of the gospel.
This cannot be taught by force, however. It can only be ALLOWED by civil governments, as they ENCOURAGE believers to witness about the gospel…or at least get out of the way as believers take up the cultural reigns and witness the gospel. I’m not talking about a statist gospel. I’m talking about a libertarian-style, organic, personal, SELF-controlled style that freely allows people to recognize the leadership authority that they choose to recognize, without any permanent/coercive/mandatory/static titles, money-structures, man-made authority structures, and the like. Look at how Jesus led. How John the Baptist led.
Look at how the apostles led, with friendship. They were very personal. Not usually (at all) buracratic and numbers-based. Sure there were those who coordinated the voluntary money-distribution toward those in need (in emergencies, and toward genuine widows). And there was a council where all 12 met, one time only, to articulate with greater clarity how the Old had passed away and the New had come. …and they agreed by unanimous consensus, as it seemed right to the Spirit – it was very personal to them all. This was no institution of rules, procedures, and forms. The apostles very rarely attached a role in front of their names, as a title. And that was only probably to let people know that their authority was limited…to teaching and proclaiming and counseling. They expected people to hear them, out of respectful brotherhood – not fear or collectivist intimidation.
Paul also warned about those who were exalting themselves, promoting themselves, for the purpose of ill gain…in the church. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how the falling away happened – how the church progressed from NT-style meeting in homes, to a statist institution burning people at the stake for publishing the Bible. There was a continuity. The bishopric (single-man over a city) and Constantine himself, and Nicaea itself… were part of that continuity. Somehow, we progressively got away from organic expression of Spirit-life… and toward statist rules that incite the will to dominate over others, control the thoughts of the masses (via coercion of every kind), and as well as a host of other evils used at various times. But we forgot that this thing called itself “The One True Church” on earth, and it’s head the Pope (especially circa 1100) had practically every title imaginable: including God on earth, Christ on earth, the VICAR of Christ, and Pope (Father). With our theology, we need to declare to unbelievers how we are not of them. We need to declare how they can trust us never to be like them (cuz ‘the dirty secret’ is out on display). We need to declare how such a “western” system (of religion) was anti-Christ, and anti-gospel in many of the ways that it functioned. We need to STAY clear on that message, and follow that logic to it’s proper conclusion: JESUS IS the way, and He unites with us on a personal and intellectual level. And He helps us have self-control over our minds, wills, and bodies – so that others have nothing to fear from us (other than the sword of the Bible/gospel being declared openly, clearly, and sometimes loudly). It isn’t the gospel that people are afraid of these days (they know they are free to ignore it). More and more, people have respect for faith of all kinds (including pentecostal & radical christian). It’s TYRANNY and the civil sword that people are afraid of… they are watching intently (and attempting to control) who gets control over the monopolistic civil sword. To try to preach the gospel THROUGH government isn’t going to cut it at this stage. We need to preach the gospel, WITHOUT government – and articulate how government (civil sword) should get itself OUT OF THE WAY, so that we can promote and spread REAL PEACE. The Son of God brought a sword into the world…but it wasn’t a civil sword. It was the sword of the Word – dividing soul from spirit, old from new, setting people at (relational) odds with each other. We must teach, until people understand that we have no ‘angle’ other than the love and holiness found in JESUS and His Way of Life. Babylon is fallen. We need to rise. And there is One who descended and ascended so that we COULD GO with Him.
Sorry. My careless wordiness is too much even for me. I’m done for now. I respect the quality of Joel’s article above, and I shouldn’t have been so goofy. I just wanted to get some thoughts out there and maybe provoke more discussion about what the Bible really says – but I’ve done too much of that for one guy. I really do think that we can apply the same logic to true Israel right now, as before AD 70 and before AD30. The difference is… true Israel before AD30 didn’t have the Chronological revelation of what Jesus Christ did! After that revelation of Who Jesus was & did (to a broad number of witnesses), both true Israel and those who refused to humbly stay in the covenant relationship with their God…both struggled with issues related to how to be a collective and what the proper forms should be for their fellowship and acceptance as a group. True Israel learned…and gravitated toward Christ, dishonest Israel floated away…and though they were judged, they are still out there (right along with the dishonest church people we can still call “Israel in name only.”) So the same logic applies to Gentiles as to Jews…only the Jews are biologically related to Jesus and have a proud heritage of being culturally related to the culture that brought him into the world. So when Gentiles truly are saved, the Jews have reason to be provoked to jealousy. What are the Gentiles supposed to learn? That JESUS is the Way toward Life and out of what we today call Statism, death, sin, pride, and all kinds of problems.
Therefore, I don’t think it absolutely necessary to cut off Revelation at 70AD. It’s possible that the story merely continued. Same themes, same struggles, just increasing cultural revelation as the Gentiles grow (over time) closer to a cultural understanding of what True Jews (holy & new men) really are supposed to be like…and how to ‘achieve’ such perfection. We Gentiles are surely not exempt from the same type of punishment that befell the Jews in AD70. If they were punished…we will be punished in similar circumstances, as well. God doesn’t change, and He certainly doesn’t change in how He nurtures, reproves, and prunes the Israel that is saved by grace through faith. Any who reject Jesus as the Only Way, but keep his trappings around them (false externals & blessings) are ripe for having such externals shaken.
In a Kairo-logical way: the Old can pass away and the New can come, even if this isn’t visible. Even if this isn’t manifested in the external Chono-logical yet. After all, the Spirit must enter, before it can do any activity.
Chrono-logical is the working out, of the Kairo-logical (eternal) within us. (God has set eternity in the hearts of man. That eternity can be filled with the new that is above him in importance, and edifies – or the old that is beneath him, that degrades. There is no limit to the Height of God, and there is no limit to the depth of the bottomless Pit. Man’s heart is a fragile shell-of-a-house in the middle.)
Amen, Joel! I just carefully re-read your article again, and I agree with most of it! Very precise & insightful. Amen! You are equipping the church to realize who she is In Christ Alone.
I just think that you need to carry the same logic forward, past 70AD. The same wording, even, pertaining to true Israel, still applies. The same pitfalls persist in God’s people, and began to be strengthened within a generation from the Diaspora from earthly Jerusalem. It didn’t take long to have a bishopric over each city (one man bishops… consolidated heirarchy leading to politics). Sure enough, Constantine and others did the next logical step: and took the “city governments” and turned them into building blocks for more and more levels of bureaucracy… probably using the doctrine of “tithing” as their financial base for doing so.
I disagree with you, in that I believe that Jesus Christ is the end (Dembski’s “The End of Christianity” is a cool book). JESUS IS the End (purpose) of the Old Covenant that was the law structure for the Old Man, meant to culturally prepare us to accept the New when the fulness of time had come. The Old Covenant was to direct us to the New Man wherein we participate in the New Covenant with God.
Because of this, 70AD cannot be the passing away of the old. As I’ve already said (ad nauseum) the old HAD passed away. The new HAD come. 70AD was merely a correction, God telling Israel that the time had come to stop relying on centralized geography and props. That message was helpful to the believing church, the unbelieving ‘church in name only,’ as well as to the unbelieving Jews. But we didn’t learn our lesson, and many men tried to force history to acknowledge Rome or Constantinople as the “New” center for “Christian” faith. JESUS IS the center!
As history has demonstrated, there CONTINUE TO BE unbelieving Jews of all stripes, including those who want to rebuild the stone temple with their own hands. This is actually an AMAZING (miraculous?) historical anomaly, despite all they’ve been through. This doesn’t reflect an absolute condemnation. They’re still allowed (by God) to persist, and because they are people, God still wishes to save them. This means that if any substantial number of them IS saved… it will be a TREMENDOUS historical testimony to the grace, truth, and endurance of Jesus Christ and His Scriptures.
There also continues to be christians (in name only) who are a little too reliant on their heirarchies, money-structures, and buildings made with hands. The same exact error (of Old Jerusalem) persists!!! With hardly an historical hiccup between the time that the last remaining Christians fled Jerusalem, and the time when there was “one bishop” over each city, and a re-centralizing had begun already!!
This centralized external form (using money, man-made fixed heirarchy, and buildings, and “commands to obey” that go beyond straight scripture and twist it’s doctrinal purity… was not just a problem with the Jews. It’s still a problem today among Israel-In-Name-Only. The external forms persist, in almost the exact same (spiritual) way. Only… the external names and practices shifted. The old prideful ways (that resemble babylonish spiritual and political heirarchy) are still in full swing, even in the name of Israel (especially that of Jesus’ name, the name of the true Israel). Western Civilization failed to learn the lesson. It was given to the man of sin (by God) to overcome the saints…for a time. A militaristic propaganda machine used it’s leftover momentum to hijack the momentum of the gospel to it’s own ends. But those who truly sought God (whether in that system or outside) continually helped to bring people more in line with the TRUE Word of God, the TRUE message of the gospel pointing straight to an individual relationship with JESUS. No government is higher than His, because the Father has given all things to Him. And there is no mediator between God and man except Him. No other name. Not Allah, not Muhammed, not Pope or Bishop or Pastor. We have One Father, One Teacher, One Lord, and… one baptism.
Some preachers even preach doctrines related to tithing and identity… that are not found in scripture. Seeking to bind with cords that they call their ‘authority’, and when that fails they try to teach doctrines that are shallow & slightly twisted, to support a mass-produced ministry (that, overall, still treats people impersonally as numbers). They do this to those that the Bible says are free in Christ! It’s time that we see the “5-fold ministry” of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers … as assistants to the regular average-joe men of God. They are not lords or heads, nor should they act, sit, or get paid AS SUCH. They are like the rest of us: entrepeneurs who minister in word AND deed. In fact, we all are called to be “5-fold” budding ministers who “go” and minister (as travelling missionaries in a foreign land, sometimes…like apostles which means “sent ones”). We are all called to teach and proclaim what we know, and we are encouraged to be prophecy. The testimony of Jesus Christ is the heart of (real) prophecy and testimony. Jesus equipps us in our ministering. So we cannot say that we aren’t speaking FROM His Spirit. That is precisely what we are called to do (as Jesus didn’t say or do anything that He didn’t see His Father doing first).
But we allow ourselves to be YOKED again, after already having Kairological freedom declared to us (eternal freedom in Christ, and a straight-line access to the Father). It’s all about what sits on the altar of your heart. What “mental framework” are you worshipping, or attempting to worship WITH and THROUGH. I can tell some people have difficulty worshipping God, because their image of Him and how to GET to Him is severely warped! And a distorted image of spiritual heirarchy/authority/access hampers our ability to be effective (and restful) believers! But Jesus is our rest, so that we can work in cheerfulness and give cheerfully…without this moral & mental baggage over our heads from our own past and from the guilt that others seek to manipulate.
I’m not for rebellion or stirring up too much trouble. I attend a weekly congregation, and give to them as well (money, music, and teaching). I know Viola and those in the organic house church movement who have good relationships to paid ministers. But it’s about time that we recognize (and teach) what these ministers really are: at best, they are spirit-led entrepeneurs…who know how to get paid to speak a message of truth. But we should stop acting like we MUST pay them for any reason. The apostles payment probably consisted in food and lodging, because they travelled so much and had nothing. This is not exactly the same as a man who is stationary and teaches. If you can get paid for teaching, and you have a wide ministry… great! But don’t pretend that it’s any holier of a vocation than the carpenter who teaches his own son, and meets in a house somewhere to praise God & speak truth to his friends & neighbors. And everyone who gathers together in Jesus’ name, and is in one accord with His Spirit, has something to share – whether it be a psalm, tongue, doctrine, revelation, or an interpretation. And so we work together, teach together… and even when we are not together, we esteem each other as if we were. There are no divisions in Christ. There are only a variety of services, according to the temporary strengths that each individual possesses. This is humility. This is also why the saints were sometimes called to endure…because they weren’t called to take up an earthly sword. They were called to lead society (often being mis-portrayed & painfully enduring persecution) while ministering with their heavenly sword. “The Church” has never been the human institution permanently called ‘church’. It is a Divine Institution among men, and we cannot track who is in or who is out with any certainty unless we know them personally and the Spirit informs our discernment. The Spirit knows where it comes from and where it’s going. And so do people who are born of the Spirit. And you can’t always track that with a sheet of paper, and a list of names.
When I share my faith in Jesus I like to use the words Jesus used when talking to people who have trouble understanding the concept of creation and the Fathers relationship within the Creation. “A sparrow does not fall to earth, that the Father does not know it.” “The Father has given names to all the stars.” Just two examples of the Creators involvement in His own creation. All things exist because they are in the mind of God and God is aware of every atom of His creation. You ask ‘could God create a fire greater than the fire He created’? Fire exists because God has it in His mind for it to exist. If it is in the mind of God to cease thinking of even a ‘quark’ then that ‘quark’ ceases to exist. You say that to narrowly exempt a wide variety of word usage, ‘one does so at their own peril’. That pharse is overused. Who ever says, in my opinion, ‘you need not be so dogmatic’ or ‘you need not be so literal’ or ‘you need to narrow your outlook’ are taking on the burden of ‘interpreting’ the Holy Spirit. I read this article and couldn’t find ‘the point’ probably because I am unlearned in Arimaic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew or any of the other languages of the Bible and must depend that the author knows what he is saying when he uses these words to defend his augrument. But I can read English and you went down too many adjectiveable (?) rabbit trails for me. (per se). Too many words to objectify or rationalize your points. I got lost in the verbage.
I understood that later part of you dicertation when comparing Adam to Jesus. Some of the ‘old and new’ but I was waiting, still, to read how this current ‘heavens and earth’, since we need not look for a complete reworking of the Universe, will tolerate a building that is 1500 miles long, wide and high. I think that would take on a definite need to ‘restructure’ some part in the ‘array’ of stars even if only to keep the orbit steady. Other than that, it did get me through the morning. Thanks
Just wonderful Joel…. My brain understands and is in awe…. what freedom…. now, alas, I wish I could explain it to someone else as well as you have taught it!
Joel, do you see the first (πρωτος) Adam (Genesis) as the first covenant man or the first human being? And how would you view the last (εσχατος) Adam according to your answer? (1 Corinthians 15:45)
Also, wouldn’t the LAST Adam be representative of the anti-type of the first Adam, indicating no more types/shadows would follow his Parousia coming in AD70?
“Buffalo”?
Joel, you are a funny, funny guy. I very much look forward to meeting you some day.
Blessings,
Tim Martin
BeyondCreationScience.com
Now THAT’s an article, requiring study! I’m going to have to re-read that many times, because I’m sure there are things that went over my head.
The Old has gone, the New has come. Moses represented the Old Covenant, Jesus the New. The New fulfills the Old. Because of this, new wineskins (paradigms) are required for us to properly view (and participate in) mass organization. This is as true for people today as it was back then. Those entrusted with the Old failed in the shadow that they were entrusted with (most of the time!). They ended up requesting a king – and even that lesser type/shadow fell apart. Then they ended up being ruled by secular empire named Babylon (of which Rome is the feet). Jesus came while Israel was still (basically) in the belly of this beast (they were there because of their failure to truly RECOGNIZE the TRUE dynamic of their relationship with God).
Most of our view of the world is consumed by our inner acknowledgement of a “pecking order” or even multiple “pecking orders” layered on top of each other. This is, I believe, part of what is meant by “kosmos.” It’s the social/financial frameworks that dominate, control, and FEED what men think. Men become slaves of these systems, from the simple to the complex. Which was is ‘up’ and which way is ‘down’ in terms of authority, dominance, and respect? How do we COME TOGETHER and have a name for ourselves? How are we to coordinate, equip, “have influence”, “ascend” or make ourselves “stronger”? Much of this is determined by our own view of strength, and the shape of our “community organization”.
Jesus cut through all this, straight to the individual’s heart. Jesus changed the whole equation by coming, living his life, dying, and sending His Spirit in the precise way that He did! God DID the largest revolution (socially speaking) that is possible, single handedly, and backed by God Himself. He showed us (more clearly) what Adam, Abel, Enoch, Moses, Abraham, David, and others had gotten very close to showing us. That one man can walk with God, and be a servant, and be totally accepted…not on their merit, but because GOD has grace. How do we rise?? How are people to rise up and take dominion? Jesus showed it, God manifested himself in the flesh, as one individual. A servant is not greater than his master. For those looking for signs, Jesus’ miracles were as big of a validation as you can expect… that He truly is Who He claimed to be: the Way. In Him we have freedom and everything we need to be who God wants us to be.
Jesus said “I MAKE all things new.” I don’t know the original language, but this does not appear to be past tense, future tense, or even one-time present tense (“I am making…”). No. This seems to be a statement about his continual work and relationship to creation. This is how God (in Jesus) OPERATES. This has been true for the last 1980 years (it may have been true before that, but shrouded in mystery that was revealed through the cross/resurrection/ascension & Holy Spirit infilling. And the work doesn’t stop with our souls…but extends to all things.
Since man looks at the external, and his senses & efforts are external… his efforts at making a temple for God are also external (hence: Old). The new is internal, creative, abiding, new…and it only BECOMES new when God fills the eternal void that is in men’s hearts with His Spirit. The process of growing up is moving from the old (external toys, external examples, crutches) to the new (internal, eternal, abiding relationship). The new is revealed in Jesus: because Jesus is ALIVE – not some dead instrument or letter. The Eternal Word/Plan came to Life! The old and external, crumbles and dies. But the new (through Jesus) remains.
Since Jesus’ Body was the House of the very Presence of God… His Body was the Temple. He came to His own, but they didn’t understand (their kosmos-idea of social importance was blocking their understanding of the Spirit of His Person). Now, of course I will say again that WE are His Temple on earth, as He is now seated in power in Heaven. We are also seated (right now) WITH HIM. We are the head, and not the tail (politics follows us, doesn’t lead us). In a way, by filling us with His Spirit… Jesus has joined His Spirit with our spirits, making us a lesser part of the mysterious unity of the Godhead. Let me explain! The Son served the Father. God is Spirit. Yet Jesus died, and walked the earth as a man. God is not a man. It’s pretty plain that the clay that was Jesus’ Terrestrial Body, when united with the Spirit that is God… produced (in the merger) a soul that had a man’s will, thought, and emotions. Thus, God’s Son was what happened when God (Spirit) merged with Clay in a special more Personal way, than with the first Adam. Therefore God’s MIND, when merged with clay, produced a lesser mind that was nonetheless in perfect obedience to the Father because the Spirit of God was directly connected to the clay without any intervening will. This is to say that when we receive the Spirit of Christ, we become like Him… and our minds are increasingly transformed, and we become an image of Christ, just as Christ was an image of God. If you can picture concentric circles radiating outward: the Eternal One (Spirit/God); Son, Holy Spirit (conforming us to the Son), our spirit, our will/mind/emotion, our body (which is also Christ’s Body, when we have His Spirit). The Eternal Order (Kairos Logic) resides within the old chonological shell (the Body), and gives life and animation to what would otherwise be a hollow lifeless shell.
However, in order to fill ALL things, and affect the rest of creation – God chooses to work THROUGH His Body, His Bride, the Temple. We are His Treasure, and the world is ours (as we submit to Him). We participate in the order of authority: in our very Persons, because His Person resides within. He is truly God With Us.
The realm of coercive civil government, is what happens when men are out of alignment with the perfect obedience of the Son. The civil sword is a ‘necessary evil’ that God allows, to school men and drive them TOWARD accepting His Chosen Way. God does not desire that ANY die, but that ALL come to the knowledge of the Truth.
Now I believe there are some gaps with the logic of the article above. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something. I’m sure there is someone reading this who is willing to correct me.
1) The terrestrial realm was affected by the fall, but out-of-joint with the eternal kairological truths. Chronological seemed to become more dominant than Kairological after the fall. The truths that God sought to bring into contact with the terrestrial realm were accomplished in the incarnation, death, resurrection. The Old was past away and the New came. It didn’t wait for 70AD.
2) Kosmos. 70AD judgment upon the Temple and upon the nation-state of Israel was merely a useless physical shadow passing away. A judgement upon the external form, which was nothing but an empty & USELESS crust at that point. More than a judgment taken out on the “temple” it was a deeper judgement upon the Jews Kosmos-idea. Their whole culture centered around an external form and heirarchy that was hollow at that point. So God toppled the external relic of their Kosmos, to expose their need…and their true poverty. (The people who called themselves descendents of Abraham were judged, those that failed to trust in the fulfillment of their own prophets. Their trust was directed toward their Kosmos-idea of what Israel and the Temple. They didn’t have the Spirit, so they clung to the external form, when they got desperate.)
If we understood the power of ideas to channel money, and the power of money to channel ideas, attention and effort…we would begin to understand just how impactful a kosmos-idea-system can be on the physical world. What happened in America (and even greater) could have happened soon after Moses’ day. What stopped them? They had the same Spirit available to them (by the same grace, through the same faith) as we have today. It just was harder (almost impossible) to see clearly. God’s plan was in effect, it just hadn’t been revealed in our Chronological Terrestrial realm yet… it hadn’t yet TOTALLY INTERRUPTED our kosmos-system-idea. (And Babel/Babylon seems to be the most prevalent kosmos-structure that men revert to, as they try to interpret the universe around them. Israel began falling into this trap, when they requested a terrestrially centralized king.)
Kosmos-structures can literally can RE-SHAPE and RE-COMBINE nearly anything about the physical dimensions. This is why they are so entwined (I’m guessing…but I may be accurate). Man’s dominion power (as technology now demonstrates) is exponentially deeper than we have ever imagined. And that’s with most of our brains and brawn tied behind our backs, by the self-same system (& fallenness) that seeks to exploit some areas and neglect others. Our systems of money and authority twist and warp our society, because fallen men are in control and christians are still following their lead with their carnal thinking. God alone can keep man from driving himself off of a cliff. (Take the current trend of technological innovation, and carry it forward just 40 years from NOW, at the current rate of progress, without interruption. It’s very scary. Currently, we have machines that are close to being able to rudimentarily sync with the brain, and also sync with the web, and remote control things as well… In less than 15 years, a common problem may be hackers hacking into an account that has the information recorded from your brain. That’s theoretical, but technologically possible in a very short time. And that’s just ONE area of technology. That is the extent to which even fallen man can direct the resources that GOD has placed at our disposal. We can exploit the atom, and unleash almost unlimited energy.) But God is still in control of all, and I’m thankful!!
So… as the Bride/Body takes authority and THINKS and ACTS with a pure doctrine and Godly feelings and instincts… we will see a NEW Heavens (authority) and a NEW earth (economy). The old Kosmos will have passed away, and all will be new, externally! The external change will come to reflect the internal change that had already taken place circa 30 AD!
The change didn’t occur in 70AD. It occurred when Jesus resurrected, and then sent His Spirit! That was the fulfillment, that was the change. 70AD was just the external passing away of the old (the old that had already lost it’s power). At that point, the old had already passed away. But that fact wasn’t reflected in the outer activity of many men who continued to operate as if their kosmos-idea was intact. 70AD didn’t abolish the old. Jesus Christ did! Men caught up with HIM (or fell away, relative to HIM).
The Old had already passed away before 70AD, the New had already come. But externally, this process may be progressively reflected in our culture.
3) The old heavens and the old earth, were the physical and social economy (money and authority) that centered on the Temple that fell apart. The New had already come. BUT that doesn’t mean that the destruction of “the old” was completely fulfilled in 70AD. …as history shows. There was a falling away as men began to exult themselves within Israel yet again. That is, within the Body of believers. The new heavenly authority and earthly economy that was established was based on Jesus’ ministry and Spirit. It had tremendous respect for the individual Person apart from existing authority structures of men, because that is HOW JESUS CAME. And this mindset was supported by the directions from God, and the way the Holy Spirit moved. The new heavens and new earth have the Christ’s Spirit and the Person of GOD at their core (concentric circles inside of every individual terrestrial person…making their outer shell of a body an earthly abode for His Spirit and Person). In essence, our person is just a pale shadow and servant of His Ultimate Person, that becomes one with us via Jesus Christ. The seed is more alive and real than the shell that houses the seed. And when we are broken, He lives all the more through us! Just as He lived, as He walked among us. This is the new economy. It is miraculous, life-giving, and life-affirming. It seperates from the old and sinful. And rejoices in the new. God is with us – even if that revelation hasn’t completely played itself out IN HIS STORY yet!
It’s obvious that many in Israel (the church) fell away from her yet again. In the name of Jesus (‘coming in my name’) things were done, and power centralized, in a way that was NEVER Jesus’ design. And it was even called “the church” yet it was not. It was a platform of authority WITHIN the church’s people, using their silence as affirmation, using their money and bodies as food for its political growth. This church made a progressive alliance with the feet of Babylon (Rome). How can we say that 70AD was the external end of the Old… when the Old resurfaced under a new name???
Obviously, the Old is still among us, like a hollow zombie or frankenstein’s monster… it just keeps going. Yet, the Old is dead and decaying, because it is based on Flesh not the Spirit of God (as the apostles strove to be led).
We increasingly relied on creeds, territorial concerns, and the like. And we called it the concerns of “the church.” Our kingdom is not of this world. We are seated in heavenly places, even now. So why do we rely on the patterns of Babylon (Rome) to tell US how to organize ourselves into earthly collectives?? Obviously, the old (though decaying) is still plodding along.
But in comes the gospel. And try as hard as we can to resist it, it’s like a tar-baby. Neither the carnal mind does not have the power or will to resist it for long. It gets closer and closer to the logic of the gospel – without actually embracing a Personal cross. So the world (through empire) proclaims a tainted gospel. But the spiritual mind discerns the true gospel when it is presented, and empraces it like a long-lost friend. At its most basic level, the gospel teaches how God came down and joined with the earth, and the perfectly ordered man resulting from that union died… but was resurrected. Now, from that resurrected union…other children can be born. We can walk as new creatures upon a fallen earth, as the New Earth is birthed THROUGH OUR ECONOMY. As more are brought into the kingdom (righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost) our economy only grows stronger and more externally stable. The old heavens see their demise, and are growing louder out of panic. But soon… God’s order will be reflected in the external world… through us being NATURALLY WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist. But more rocket scientists will result from more righteousness in the regular little lives of regular little believers.
We are facing the end of an “age” right now. The external temple-like structures that we “Christians” were duped into holding onto (at all cost!) are crumbling and being judged and evaluated, like never before. We are in some striking ways like the Jews of old, right before 70AD. We cling to our external forms, thinking that our religion is the true way. When Jesus is the Way…and His Way when brought forth provides for the widows and orphans…not collectively, but individually. We are individuals, just as God is. His Holy Spirit is our genius – our central coordinator. HE IS the Genius of the Saints. We don’t need an emperor. His kingdom is present within us, and this fact WILL be reflected externally, as naturally as a plant grows from a seed. It doesn’t need to be forced or coerced. Let the dead bury their dead. “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still…” Rev 22:11
Our weapons aren’t according to the flesh, but the Spirit. We are a redeemed people, a holy nation, set apart. We who are new are not of this world, even though we are in it. Evil may be occurring all around us – as it was with Jesus – but he was unblemished still. And his righteousness beat back the waves of sin and unrighteousness that assaulted him. Did he do that through violence or a civil sword? Did his disciples? Our order is a higher, new, inner order (Kairos logic of priority) that becomes reflected Chronologically as we live it out. In the OT, the leper made the clean unclean. In the New, the clean touches the leper and heals him. We are all called to be “sons of God”, and there is no head over a man except Jesus Himself. The rest of us are just helpers.
We ARE one with Christ in our inner man. But the inner man longs to be CLOTHED (externally) with good works and modesty. And when the inner man is shown, and the outer man is broken, it multiplies. And society is won/re-created and strengthened in new relationships…the Body of Christ. And society begins to bless the earth, and enrich life (over time) for all creatures beginning with men. Disguised under all the empty rhetoric of the Marxists, etc… is a growth of the real gospel. It is growing wider, stronger, and more in-line with the gospel. Compare where we are now, to the conditions of the church 700 years ago. We are advancing over empire & every crafty thing that exalts itself against Christ. And the enemy is losing his ability to control the narrative over that of the church’s more pure narrative. World civilization is actually turning IN OUR FAVOR. That is why the secularists are becoming friendly with their mortal enemies, the monotheistic Islamists. Secularists are in a last ditch attempt to erode the voice of the pure gospel account. Yet, Islam is hollow without the Son and Spirit of God…and many muslims have a hunger for the Personal gospel. Whether we win or lose (externally) we win people in the end. Because when the external crumbles, what is inside becomes visible. And the Body of Christ is not hollow, like other cultures.
I think that Concentric circles would be a much more apt (even if rudimentary) way of explaining the Godhead and all of nature and existence.
The Father said for the Son to wait until He had placed everything under the Son’s feet. So the Son is waiting (and reigning) from Heaven, before he steps down to visibly present himself (again) as our eldest brother. He cannot come back, quite yet, because (culturally) we would be even worse than we were in the 1st century. Jesus couldn’t get a minute alone, hardly! He wants us to lean on the same Spirit and Father Who equipped Him! So that we can walk like He did without using His physical body-presence as an external crutch. Notice: he RAN AWAY when the people tried to crown him as king. But is there any doubt that if Jesus came back & was recognized for who He Is (the historical and divine Jesus)… we would do the same thing (but with billions of people!) Jesus wants a kingdom that trusts and relies on the Spirit more than the flesh.
Anyway… I think it would go a long way toward understanding our reality, if we understood Kairos-priority, and simply trust that this kingdom knowledge will be expressed more and more as Chronological time goes on. Kairos-priority comes from the Father and is centered IN the Father since He is the Origin of all. Now, in my rudimentary way of talking, the Father (in order to create lesser-willed beings) had to LAYER Himself. He had to layer conscious awareness itself: from the MOST animate and aware and powerful (HIMSELF) to the inanimate (the “surface” of existence, the shell). And there are indications that hell or the Pit is even beyond/under this “surface” that we know of as physical existence. So (in my hypothetical model) there is a Head of all creative power that remains intact, remains the conscious center of all truth. But radiating out from Him, in concentric circles… are beings that are one with Him in purpose and obedience. They follow His order without interruption. And as we move toward the terrestrial/physical/chronological…you get beings such as angels and men that are able to move, apparently in “rebellion” against God’s chronological will (but are still powerless to change the eternal Kairological order). God Himself remains in complete control of the eternal order that is in the dimensions just above the surface/shell that is physical time/space.
God remains as the Head of all of Reality, but “after” God’s first act or first word, there is a layering (so that He remains God, and the potential damages of rebellion remain contained). From the most animate to the least animate. The Father (Who Is Spirit) – The Logos (Who came to life as the Son at the moment of conception into the terrestrial) – the Holy Spirit (this is where this diagram is weakest) – Flesh with spirit – Flesh with soul (animals have also shown properties of will/emotion/intelligence, but nothing approaching a human person) – Flesh without soul (plants) – inanimate matter – anything beneath inanimate matter, in the “outer darkness” (?) etc.
God remains in complete control, in eternity ‘outside’ of time. Creation is chronological. The New is eternal, while the old is the original old external that is controlled by physical (and spiritual) entropy…it cannot help itself, it leans more toward lifeless inanimate than the Life that is found in Christ.
Anyway, I know this language may sound new-ageish or modistic, or whatever. It’s merely the attempt of a finite human brain trying to see and describe the truths found in Scripture that bear witness with his mind, soul, and spirit!
Trinity is not a biblical word, and even those who profess that language still don’t understand what “trinity” truly means in all it’s detail, or what “persons” (plural) means when we’re talking about ONE GOD. So my diagram is an attempt to describe how ONE GOD can be the Father of creation, be all-powerful and eternal…and still have a chonological creation that seems loose and willy-nilly despite having an all-encompassing and truly eternal God who sees it all beforehand, and knows it all. It’s because the inner things that never grow old (but came first, in the order of creation) still remain at the center of both awareness and material existence, even if they are not acknowledged and communed with. And radiating out from beings that bridge the spirit-physical dimensions (human beings) should be increasingly wide circles of blessing and influence toward beings that have lesser awareness/freedom-of-animation than we ourselves have.
…and God continues to create. There may be a day when God decides we are ready… and our whole existence and universe turns into a united paradise full of the light of His Glory that nobody can deny. All beings will be shown to be centered on His Existence (like it or not). All beings will bow to Him, because there will be NONE left that can contend with him, socially speaking. We will see the truth. The closer to His Heart we are, the better the view, and the less remorse!
In other words, I want to condense my main point/objection into a few sentences: If we think that 70AD was the fulfillment of a substantial amount of prophecy, and we rejoice because of the truth we know that those external Jews did not know… we had better be VERY careful.
Because our western civilization was built using many christian paradigms that were ALSO impure and focused on heirarchy, money, buildings, and allowed immense amounts of corruption. Just as the Jews pre-70AD. Even today, over half of the information-distribution of the gospel message is done through channels that are not supported by pure scripture, but rather are involved with doctrines that fly in the face of pure doctrine!!! So… if our external systems fail OR are JUDGED BY GOD… so too do the incomes of our teachers, and their ability to mass-produce the information that many weak believers rely on for their (shallow) spiritual sustenance.
In other words, taken as a whole… western civilization at this point resembles pre 70AD Israel, with the real organic house-church ready to be itself… but with the majority not knowing what they want or where to go or even what to think. We rely on an economy of resources, currency, and respect… that can dry up VERY fast, because it is not biblically based – and it’s coming under increasing attack from the world.
It’s better to identify oneself as One with Christ, and build a doctrine centered on straight-Bible-words, not on the creeds nor on money-making institutions. And if you have something to say, build your information-delivery system outside of the “normal,” external, prideful ways of the pulpits/creeds/sects of western civilization.
If AD70 was judgment on the Jews for rejecting Jesus and the true Temple… then we hollow & prideful “Christians (Israel) In Name Only” had better wake up & realize that our own judgements are upon us as well. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Kairos logic (eternal priority, revealed Chronologically in one Individual man, the Son of God) must take precedence over every Chronological tradition that we think we must stand for and ‘represent.’ We are called to present Jesus, and be the ambassadors of Heaven. Let the chips fall where they may. Stay close to the Father’s Heart and you will come out on top at the end.
Maybe God ends it all & remakes it all in physical fire. Or maybe it is the fire of truth. Maybe the world is re-made through God assisting us in transforming the physical (after He has affected a work in our hearts, individually and collectively). Either way, I am learning to be content as I study Protestant Historicism: I don’t need to know the future. I merely need to understand what has already been Revealed in His Story, and teach THAT.
And if we condemn the Jews and judge them, and claim vindication for what happened in 70AD… then we had better watch that our own teachings don’t come back on our own heads. We who call ourselves by the same name, Israel.
In AD70, the Jewish kosmos-structure-idea fell. Or did it really? Judaism changed for sure. But only for the intent of trying to abide with God, while their physical structure AWAITED REBUILDING. They still have priests, am I right? They just don’t have some of the physical relics.
Many contemporary Jews are against the state of Israel or “Zionism” probably because they recognize the hollow idolatry for what it is (when compared with true Christianity)… The time for physical sacrifices and a brick temple have come & gone. Jesus abolished its cultural necessity, by his very presence and completed mission.
AD70 was surely a judgement and punishment for continued idolatry, shallowness, hollowness. However, the Jews did not learn their lesson. And even many christians did not learn enough to strategically avoid being “overcome” by the man of sin sitting (in authority), coopting their faith for his own gain. He exalted his own person over all that is called God, while seated IN the temple of God (the operations of the collective Body of Christ on earth). And from then on, Christians could not have open debate, or even spirit-led councils like the apostles enjoyed…without Roman politics being at stake.
It seems as if the exact SAME error that was present pre-70AD was present in the midst of both biological Jews and true Israel…both trying to push true faith to the periphery of world-based, collective-based politicking. To see the truth of this, just compare it to the relative simplicity of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ – and then see how the apostles at first struggled with their own forms of angst, sectarianism, and collectivism…before coming to a fuller realization of the gospel message. How did THEY live – compared with those who came 200 years later…300 years later… 400 years later… 1000 years later… there is a clear falling away, and it is directly proportional to the amount of heirarchy and politics that is introduced into a situation.
I don’t think that enough well-meaning people learned the proper lesson from the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. Because it didn’t take more than 100 years before the church was already beginning to be hijacked by Rome-centric, paid-clergy, heirarchically-minded people…all that was needed was for someone to extend a welcome hand and welcome the “christians” to Rome… and 1/5 of those invited showed up at Nicaea to draft a document, that would tell the empire what is proper to believe. (Why draft a document, in the first place? Especially when the process clearly wasn’t led unanimously by the Spirit, as it had been with the apostles.)
No. Statism, even religious copy-cat statism (the kind that polices the MIND), was still in full swing in many groups at the time. To say that “christianity triumphed at Nicaea” as an absolute statement, is a little pre-mature. It’s like taking one step forward with your right foot, and one step backward with your left. It doesn’t bring unity in the Body… it provokes division. As the splintering of copy-cat denominations has PROVEN, post-Reformation. Each denomination was in reaction against the heirarchy and was forced to rigidly split fellowship. This is not the model that was set before us by the apostles. Pure christianity is that laid down in the New Testament… but let’s not pretend that the errors present in pre-70AD Israel, aren’t also present dangers in POST-30AD Israel.
This is the whole premise behind Protestant Historicism, spiritually speaking. The falling away did occur, as men exalted themselves, prostituting themselves to collectivism & statism for the sake of fame, money, influence, and authority. We should at least have the balance to indict the rest of history, if we are going to boast in the judgement that occurred in 70AD. It’s only fair, using the SAME LOGIC about Israel and the true identity of “Israel”.
If 70AD was a permanent judgement of biological Israel, they would not have continued as an earthly people AT ALL!! It was NOT a permanent judgement upon them as a people…only upon their external form of worship!! They have continued to hold themselves together, through the centuries. They could not have done this (against all odds) if it hadn’t been God’s will! God did not finish them off, like He commanded for the Canaanites. The hollow shell, the hollow form, of Judaism remains…along with those who call themselves “Jews” but don’t trust even Judaism (in its present form). Spielberg comes to mind, though he doesn’t seem like a rabid atheist. He simply is a vague “Jew” out there. He obviously takes pride in his heritage – but doesn’t seem to trust anything connected to Orthodox Judaism or at least not anything connected with the Jewish state of Israel (his donation to Obama is as high as our country allows).
Nevertheless, the Jews are people…as any other people. And they do deserve protection, no matter how they got there or for whatever reason. As long as they are peaceful people – I don’t think they should be “driven into the sea” by their neighbors.
God is keeping them around for a REASON. And that reason isn’t for a rebuilding of a third Jewish temple. That would not be THE temple OF GOD in 2 Thessalonians or Revelation. That would just be more rejection and blasphemy…a slap in Jesus’ face Who sacrificed Himself in fulfillment of their once-prophetic system.
Why is God keeping them around? So that when the fullness of the Gentiles come in (including the muslims) … it will provoke them to jealousy! The natural branch (which is now a hollow shell) will be grafted back in, to be brethren with the wild branch! The root (prophetically) is Jesus Christ. He is the vine, the root, the stem. We are the branches. His energy and power equips us from the inside out. And all of our external provisions & structures are more like houses for US than for God. God’s house is within us. He clothes us with provision, which we are to make sure is used for His glory in earthly economy (hopefully, as much as possible).
The Jews are still here (quite miraculously) for a reason. Not the Jewish state. But because God has something HISTORICAL and CHRONOLOGICAL to prove about His Power and Grace toward ALL of mankind. He doesn’t just abandon us! He loves throughout time, even those who reject Him and are not a part of His kingdom! (How this lines up with the Canaanites, I don’t know… except that in those days NOBODY was quite ready for the message of Jesus Christ. Even those most likely to accept God… sent Moses up the mountain to face God rather than be Personal with their Mighty God! The Jews weren’t ready. That’s why God gave them some ‘rules’… so they wouldn’t go partying with golden calves all of the time! He needed a culture of people TO COME TO who would understand Him when He presented Himself as He is (a Person).
Monotheism is rising. Rome was steeped in paganism, and tried to assimilate christianity into itself. Christianity rose through the centuries, and has now almost totally dethroned and de-legitimized paganism. Science itself is predicated on a uni-verse.
The muslims will soon be faced with a choice. Tyranny and a dead-end road (even if they get their caliphate). OR accept a God Who has grace and becomes One with men on the earth, via His Son. Jews will probably be the last to accept Jesus. The muslims are newcomers to this monotheism thing (historically). The Jews are the older brother, and they probably sneer at the rest of us…or stand at a cold distance from the whole thing.
One thing is for sure: the game is on! The movie TinTin (Spielberg) had a parable in the form of a myth. 3 unicorns (common atheistic symbol for monotheism) each in the hands of 3 brothers. These 3 unicorns each had a piece to the riddle. It was repeatedly said that ONLY one of the 3 “brothers” (universal brotherhood via monotheistic Father) could figure out the puzzle that led as a map to the treasure (world unity). There was a bad guy trying to capture all of the symbols for his own power and riches. The protagonist was confused & didn’t remember who he was. Right before they found the treasure… they happened upon… St. John of Patmos. (Where John received Revelation.) And they found the golden treasure, and then began a new adventure.
One of the main objections that Islam raises toward Christianity (that keeps millions of muslims from becoming christian) is how we say that God is a Trinity. Right there, we lose them. They hammer us with math, etc. They basically reject Nicaea, but accept a lot of its patterns and fruits. I reject much of Nicaea as well, and reject nearly all of its established patterns and fruits. But I accept the scriptures and the truths therein, and I accept the Body of Christ in whatever lands or institutions it expresses itself. Muslims need clarity. Soon, they may get it. It will BEGIN with a clearer portrayal of the Son of God and how God relates to individuals. That is one of the keys.
Not oneness the way the Oneness Pentecostals proclaim it, but neither a Trinity that really doesn’t make sense with co-equal partners. Where’s the justice in that? A God who has OWNERSHIP is a God who gives. A Father who has ownership over the earth He created, and then establishes ownership in a mind that is formed from a combination of the dust with His Own Spirit/Person/Self… is ONE in a very literal sense that a spectrum of wavelength is ONE. There is a HEAD/Originator/active agent…and there is the absolute inert clay… and out of the two you have a man (mind/will/emotions and terrestrial body) like no other. He was born into a body like the first adam, via his mother. But he was the result of a merger of God’s design directly with a woman. And this made a Way for the rest of us.
Recently, a discussion/debate series began called “The Elephant Room”. Christian Leaders on the Bible-believing side of the spectrum are meeting together to discuss historic differences between their brands of faith (inherited from their respective denominations). Tensions that are normally ignored (but have historically kept us seperate in our fellowship) are brought front-and-center. And the distinguished men pray together, as brothers. No script, no resolutions, no organizations… just these leaders, talking together – and it’s on video.
T.D. Jakes (it turns out) is from a background similar to mine (Oneness Pentecost). And he is neither Trinitarian nor UPCI-style Oneness. He describes his view as Pauline, and readily admits that he doesn’t think anybody has it quite figured out & pinned-down yet. In his mind: there is room for discussion among believing brethren. (I hope for the day when Oneness using Biblical terminology triumphs over non-biblical trinitarian terms. This will aid greatly in helping to show muslims the Way. Not to mention the rest of the west.)
http://www.christianpost.com/news/pastors-debate-should-denominations-go-away-67973/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+delicious%2Fgqlf+%28Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines%29
The easiest way to imagine existence, whether physical or personal (metaphysical) is by picturing a circle or a sphere. Whether it grows or diminishes, it still has the same proportions… and you can go infinitely inward and never reach the smallest point. You can go infinitely around and never reach a point. Or you can expand a sphere’s physical dimensions to encompass (theoretically) all space, and you can never reach the “maximum size” of ONE. Because ONE isn’t a physical property. ONE is metaphysical. God is ONE. Using a word-picture… before God created, there was just ONE, totally aware, no borders, lines or distinctions. Just ONE.
But as you approach the “time” when things are created… there must be a layering of existence, or you don’t have any distinctions between anything. God had to layer Himself (or existence itself) and establish boundaries, in order for different beings (of any kind) to exist. But He remains the CORE, the center. However, how do you have a God with a Perfect Will, simulteously existing with a creation that is enabled to have an imperfect will??? Apparently it’s a paradox. One side is metaphysical determinism, on the other side is open-theism. UNLESS… the Kairological (perfect priority-order) is allowed to have some kind of living connector with the Chronological (Time, in which angels, humans, and animals ACT). That living connector would become The One (not pure ONE as God is… but The One to unite ONE with many).
Everything HANGS off of God’s existence, and now he has centered all things on His Son. There is no “ground floor”…there is only an abyss. The ground is whatever GOD establishes beneath your feet (or His feet). Beneath the ground (material reality) there may very well be less empowered/animate realms that are more captive, such as hell and the abyss… in terms of Kairological (eternal power/priority/logic). Is your spirit alive in Christ (from above) or dead (from beneath, beastly, trying to “rise up” without any power)?
It’s possible that when God created the Heavens and the Earth (I’m talking material creation, now)… He was referring to creating this layering of metaphysical dimensions. And earth is simply the dimensions that are closest to physical existence, allowing matter to exist. So then, from matter God creates man…who is the outer shell to house something greater and higher than himself. Like planets are the outer shell of a solar system. Or galaxies are the outer shell of their radiant centers. While God who is ONE (the fountain of light and existence) sustains the whole thing, even now. But it centers on The One. And we are all on the periphery, as the House, looking in on eternal things. Before we were dead, and could not comprehend truth. Now we can see, having embraced the cross and the resurrection.
Picture the concentric-circle diagram. Now, make those circles SPHERES instead: of Life/animation/empowerment (in absolute terms). Assume that beings of various levels of awareness & power inhabit each realm (each of the “heavens”)…all the way “down” to material existence. You get something that looks like a Layered Pearl! Remember the Oyster (as I have been told) that secretes tears around a grain of sand, creating a pearl. A layering from the “absolute” (the oyster) down to the grain of sand (Chronological beings that can mess up) so that the Oyster can TOLERATE the grain of sand without puking it out or being infected. Now, since God is Alive and the Head of all creation… He can re-order the layers of priority that are found in the heavens and the earth (the invisible power structures). And see its corresponding effects on earth.
When he shifts around an invisible power structure in the heavens, it would have an invisible affect on what is attainable on earth (an outer realm). Spiritual power structures determine whether God is able to meet with men without condemning them immediately, or whether He judges or ‘forgets’. Sometimes there is a covering, and sometimes there is not a covering (between His Pure Center and ourselves). If there is no covering, then we are exposed to a Being that has all Power, Judgement, and Perfect Justice.
The Kairological Heavens and Earth are God’s business. The way we interact with Him FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF TIME is a lesser matter, distinct but related. We display our priorities (our images of the eternal Kairos-logic of priority/importance) by how we invest our limited time and energy. We have a limited mental image of the Kairos-order, based on what has been revealed to us (and on what society believes) and we act & plan & construct things accordingly. God never changes, relative to time. Whenever God does something, it’s established and always was, relative to time. What changes is the Kairos-logic from the vantage point of TIME. Sometimes God cannot have the relationship with man that He wants, because MAN cannot participate properly. His mental image is too skewed to appreciate the fine craftsmanship & intricacy & priority of a purely Divinely Created Order. In other words, man is immature and needs toys and crutches from time to time. So God provides them, by allowing “ages” that are imperfect, and built on shadows and images of Him that are very hazy and not as clearly defined (spiritually) as they would become. He “wraps himself in darkness”, but it is the honor of kings to search out a matter. So… the physical/metaphysical heavens and earth (that is in dimensional reality, Kairos, ennabling physical time TO EXIST) may not necessarily be the symbolic heavens (authority) and earth (economy) that men play around with in Time, with their authority structures and processes. There is an invisible Kairos economy, that God is in charge of (for Himself). And there is the chronological economy that is man’s social realm of activity. Chronological economy frequently manifests in the construction of physical structures but primarily consists of man’s FAITH, KNOWLEDGE, and IDEAS of how to properly approach the Divine and ascend in more power and authority over the earth-dimensions & life-processes (dominion).
Chronos “orbits around” the eternal (Kairos). Chronos cannot be anything but a house for deeper, eternal things. Creation can house eternal-Kairos things from above or lesser things from beneath that aren’t worth the time being spent on them. We can either be in line with true creation and house the Creator… or we can ignore our creator and turn our eyes away & gaze at the outer darkness & seek to incorporate darkness & destruction as our center and reason for being. Our lesser economy is always in jeapardy of being shown to be hollow, if it isn’t recognizing it’s proper Order of Headship, and gazing at the Son. Our lesser economy is ALWAYS about sovereigns and creators. Our lesser economy (Chronological) ALWAYS reflects the hope of comprehending & living out (maybe even arresting, assimilating) the pure Kairos-logic – into this Chronological realm. That is why we VALUE things. We VALUE things because of the invisible attributes that we think WILL BE brought TO LIFE. But sometimes the value-system that we appreciate (the Kosmos-system) is flawed. Sometimes our ways are only waiting to be exposed as hollow, dark & destructive…not originating from the Son that is approved by our ONE GOD.
I don’t think we need to shy away from the fact that we inhabit a uni-verse. Because it centers on One Order of Headship. And that order is NOT the ways of this world, that are perishing.
I disagree that 70AD was the end of the Old Covenant. The end (the purpose) of the Old Covenant is Jesus. 70AD was a judgment on external shell only…but it didn’t END the old. The old stumbled on, in different form. Both the Jews and the Christians who fled terrestrial Jerusalem – adapted their religions toward other centers… and those centers were not always CHRIST HIMSELF. In fact, historically, those who have valued CHRIST as the direct head of themselves and their families (with no religious mediators higher up)… were on the outside/periphery of society. They were IN CHRIST, and so the world tried to lock them OUT of any cohesive social system of communication. They were not ‘allowed’ to organize & communicate, even in a decentralized form (sometimes)…even by those calling themselves Christian OR Jew.
If the Devil can infiltrate people so easily, after 70AD, and tarnish the image of “the new” with the same-old… the Old isn’t gone. It’s dying, but not gone. The Old Covenant rules & sanctions simply occupy a space beneath our feet. We don’t need to pick it up again. When we are in Christ, we don’t need those old rules & punishments, because we are working out our salvation. We depend on grace to dust us off, and it’s empowerment (grace) to keep us going…and a God who has mercy, judges, and punishes as HE wills. It’s not up to us to punish ourselves or others. God will. He made a way to have mercy, and He is LOVE and all-knowing – so we can trust Him with handling world affairs. We simply need to be witnesses, and to share what we see.
We are inhabiting a space closer to the Son, than the outer darkness. Those who don’t trust the Way, and continue to try to have their own way… are those who invite God’s OT sanctions upon themselves. We don’t have to do it or force it! God will take care of that! We don’t need to figure out how to punish them or restrict them. We WILL be granted such power to judge, when our obedience is complete, when we are mature enough…we will judge the immature and the lost. But even then, it will be with God’s power, not our devising. That’s the OLD stuff. In the NEW, we are to focus more on the good of how to advance in holiness, and how to help people. Any bad that we see, we merely declare and expose. We don’t need to try to figure out how to punish it. Again, God is big & strong. He can handle it. This TRULY IS a New Time…Rome-centric humanistic-thinking christians (in Paul’s day and forward) simply didn’t understand that! They were trying to GRASP and DO and CONTROL with the human mind! They were simply dragging the true church into a kosmos-system that had nothing to do with them. In fact, they had already overcome. It was already beneath their feet. What they had already overcome was sometimes in the pulpits speaking to them and trying to tell them how to behave. But in spirit, they had pure minds, possessing all knowledge. Their simplicity of heart was a deep well… that the wise and learned failed to draw from (adequately enough) to steer clear of the fallen ways of Rome (the feet of Babylonian Empire).
We judge with God’s power, not necessarily with human-made weapons and sanctions. All we need to do is evaluate, declare, and let the Spirit direct OURSELVES in a spirit of SELF-control, leading by example. Let the dead bury their dead. Let those obsessed with control try to control a disintegrating society, if that’s the level of existence that they desire to operate in. It will never hold together, without the center – which we have within us. Even the WORLD’S LEADERS will turn to us (sooner or later) and beg, because the only way it holds together is in Christ, and He is in US. The more powerful, desperate, and reckless people become… the more apparent it becomes that it is the ideology of our desire (the kairos-logic) that steers us. And most of human history (outside of Israel) is filled with statism, and coercive collectivism. Salvation for the Gentiles may very well mean undoing the false “heaven and earth” Babylonian system that we’re still in, for the most part! And that the church-people copied! And then… after the wild branch has vacated Babylon and entered the place that was to be called ‘home’ by the natural branch of Israel, the Jews may begin to get jealous over what they COULD have enjoyed this whole time. They were sitting right on top of it. They may yet repent and come join us in the new. Because the Old has passed away, the New has come, and all that’s remaining to be un-done so the New can be seen… is the Gentile Babylonish order. There’s nowhere else to go, but Jesus. We can’t go back to Moses. It’s not possible, for many reasons.
Hello, E Harris,
You state: “Trinity is not a biblical word, and even those who profess that language still don’t understand what “trinity” truly means in all it’s detail…” I wrote a paper on that. It doesn’t really fit with the interesting article Joel wrote so I will not post it here. If you would like to read it, email me at:
riemerm@att.net
Joel – Please clarify your position on the destiny of our physical Cosmos. If we the Church are the “new heavens and new earth” spoken of in Scripture, what is the fate of our planet and the heavens that surround it?
The universe is running down, wearing out, is it not? The Earth we now stand upon – filled with sin and decay, broken and deformed by the Flood – is a sickly, disease-ridden, death-filled shadow of its original glory, full of harsh and dangerous environments, where we and all other life forms continue accruing ever more genetic defects as the generations pass, and in which our lifespan is pitiful compared to that of our Antediluvian ancestors. In your view, does the Bible describe an end to the original Creation or will this Earth continue into Eternity as it is now, forever producing an endless number of souls who will fill up the immeasurable expanse of God’s invisible realm?
“In your view, does the Bible describe an end to the original Creation or will this Earth continue into Eternity as it is now, forever producing an endless number of souls who will fill up the immeasurable expanse of God’s invisible realm?”
While I understand your question and want to answer the concern lying behind it, it is a fallacy as stated. Nevertheless, here’s what I will say for now. This physical heavens and earth will be redeemed from its present corruptions. But, the number of the elect is finite.
That’s my understanding as well but was not certain from your article if you held a similar view. I saw the fallacy in my question after writing it but was a bit rushed at the time and let it go. I knew you’d get the point.
Concerning the “reCreation”, I still wonder whether God will completely obliterate our current universe (uncreate to nonexistence) and then create a new one identical to the first, or if God will simply undo the damage done since the original Creation (repair back to perfection) and then in either case make the universe eternal such that it will never again experience decay.
Any thoughts? This topic might be an interesting theme for another article.
Amazing how beautifully it is connected through and through. Thanks for the article!
Joel,
The word you have translated “present” in 2 Peter 3:7 is a common Greek adverb. It is not an adjective as you and most English translations have translated it.
This makes the distinction between “heaven and earth” and “world” clearer. The flood did not destroy “heaven and earth.” The flood destroyed the “world.” In vs. 7, Peter said, “Presently, the heavens and the earth by the same word, are being reserved for fire, …”
Blessings.
JL Vaughn,
The word you have translated “present” in 2 Peter 3:7 is a common Greek adverb. It is not an adjective as you and most English translations have translated it.
Unfortunately, you have to consider the fact that this “common Greek adverb” has an article in front of it: οι δε νυν ουρανοι. This usage of νυν with the article sets it off as an entity unto itself. That is why, for example, the standard Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Bauer Danker Arndt and Gingrich has an entirely different section for this adverb used with the article.
The usage of the adverb with the article is most commonly substantive. In that case, it can already be adjectival [Robertson, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, p. 547]. He cites, for example, Acts 21:1:
ευθυδρομησαντες ηλθομεν εις την Κω, τη δε εξης εις την Ροδον
Very clearly, the Greek term εξης is an adverb, and yet here it means something like “the next [day],” very clearly functioning as an adjective. Luke 7:11 is also mentioned as having a similar construction. Robertson also calls attention to Ephesians 2:17:
και ελθων ευηγγελισατο ειρηνην υμιν τοις μακραν και ειρηνην τοις εγγυς
Again, very clearly, although μακραν and εγγυς are adverbs, here they are clearly meant to describe those to whom he preached peace: they were far and near.
With νυν, as BDAG and Friberg will note, for example, that when used with the article, this word can be used to describe something as present. Take, for example, PAmh 68:66 which has ο νυν στρατηγος, very clearly meaning to refer to the current chief magistrate. In fact, there are examples in the NT which wouldn’t make any sense otherwise. Consider, for example, 1 Timothy 4:8:
επαγγελιαν εχουσα ζωης της νυν και της μελλουσης
If you try to understand this in the way you have sought to understand 2 Peter 3:7, you would have, “…now having a promise of life and to come.” That makes no sense. It also doesn’t explain the article της which isn’t connected to any noun. However, if νυν is functioning as an adjective because of the article της before it, then it contrasts the current life and the life to come, “holding promise for this current life and [the life] to come.”
Thanks.
john owen wrote a preterist article about this text too
congratulations joel mcdurmon
a good work