Will the Earth Be Destroyed?-
by Pastor Ricky Kurth
"Pastor
Stam wrote that 'the earth will never be destroyed,' that it will be
made new instead (Rev. 21:1). What do you say about 2 Peter 3:10,11?"
"...the earth...shall be burned up...all these things shall be dissolved..." (2 Pet. 3:10,11).
Paul
uses that same word "dissolved" to describe the dissolution of our
physical bodies when we die, saying, "if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God...eternal
in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). When our bodies die, they dissolve.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, "then shall the dust return to the earth."
Yet in speaking about the day of his resurrection (Job 19:25), Job wrote, "in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another"
(Job 19:26,27). That means that the physical bodies we have now are the
same ones we'll have for all eternity, even though the Bible says they
are "dissolved" at death. Our bodies will be made new, but Job says they will be the same flesh.
We
know that our experience as members of the Body of Christ will be the
same as Job's, for our apostle tells us that at the Rapture the Lord
will "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body"
(Phil. 3:21). And in speaking of His glorious resurrection body, the
Lord echoed Job's words when He said, "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself"
(Luke 24:39). He told them to handle His hands and feet because His new
body still bore the wounds His old flesh incurred (John 20:27).
Of course, the glory of our new resurrection bodies will greatly exceed
the glory of the body we plant in the ground. It will exceed it in
glory as much as a six foot stalk of corn exceeds the kernel of corn
that farmers plant in the ground (1 Cor. 15:35-38). But it will still be
the body that is dissolved in the ground, just as the corn stalk is
still that same kernel of corn. That's the point of Paul's comparison.
So when Peter uses that same word to say that the world will be "dissolved," I have to think that the same thing applies to the earth. It will be a new earth, a much more glorious earth, but it will still be the same earth.
Someone else responded to Pastor Stam's article to point out that John saw a vision in which the first earth was "passed away" (Rev. 21:1). But in that same Two Minutes
devotional, Pastor Stam went on to cite verse 5, saying, "He didn't say
'I make all new things,' but 'I make all things new.' There is a
difference."
Les Feldick Ministries
30706 W. Lona Valley Rd.
Kinta, OK 74552
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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