Will heaven and earth really pass away?

Isn’t it true that some today believe that one day this world, the earth and heaven, will be destroyed when Christ returns? Isn’t it also true that they get this idea from the Bible? The answer to both questions is yes, but is this correct? Let’s take a look at the Scriptures regarding this kind of language that would suggest such a thing.

LANGUAGE AS IF DESCRIBING THE END OF THE WORLD

Many are aware of the text in 2 Peter 3:10 that says, “ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” Looking at the context in which this was said, we see that Peter was referring to the coming Day of the Lord. Let us look at another passage in Acts 2:19-21 where Peter quoted Joel 2:30, which also mentioned blood, smoke, fire and the darkening of the sun and describing the moon as colored like blood. Again, the context here is the coming Day of the Lord.

Now Peter is not the only one who has said something like this that could refer to the end of the physical world as we know it. Jesus is quoted in Luke 21:33 as saying, “ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” We can also find this same phrase repeated in Mark 13:31 and Matthew 24:35. These phrases recorded of Jesus is about the permanence of his Word, but many think he is saying in addition that heaven and earth will be destroyed one day in the future. So what is the truth?

We might remember that Jesus once said that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. This one and the ones above are idioms meaning that one thing would more likely happen than the other. In other words, Jesus was saying that it would be more likely for heaven and earth to be destroyed than for his words to pass away. When mentioning heaven and earth, he is using de-creation language in the form of these idioms. An idiom is a figure of speech and not an actual statement of fact that should be taken literally.

EXAMPLES OF DE-CREATION LANGUAGE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In the Old Testament, we have many examples of this de-creation language. To name a few we can think of Isaiah 13:10 that describes the sun becoming dark and the moon failing to shine, which referred to a judgment on Babylon. In Isaiah 34:3-5, which is referring to a judgment on Edom, the sky is described as being rolled up like a scroll; it is similar to what is said in Revelation 6:12-14, which cannot be taken literally because of all the chapters of events to follow on this earth in the rest of the book of Revelation. It was judgment language against Judea regarding its coming destruction in A. D. 70. Isaiah 24:23 referred to a judgment on Tyre with language that is clearly figurative of the moon being bashed and the sun being ashamed. Ezekiel 32:7-8 recounts the stars becoming dark and clouds around the sun causing darkness on the land and the moon will not give light. This is picturing judgment on Egypt. And finally Ezekiel 38:19-20 is about a judgment on Gog that is pictured with earthquakes and mountains shaking causing all walls to fall down. The fact is that judgment came to these nations as warned but none of these astronomical events are recorded to have ever taken place at those times. Their descriptions were all figurative of national judgment on those particular nations.

CONCLUSION

As we have shown, many have thought that Peter and Jesus were talking about the destruction of heaven and earth but that was not the case. When Peter spoke in Acts 2:19-21 and 2 Peter 3:10 he was referring to the judgment of the Day of the Lord which came about in the first century with the fall of Judah in A.D. 70. None of these scriptures tell us that heaven and earth will literally be destroyed.