Revelation 21:1-8 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.… None can deny that after the resurrection and the final judgment the just made perfect will not be, as angels, simply spiritual essences, but be endowed, as when on earth, with material bodies. Now material beings naturally presuppose a material locality; material sight would be simply useless unless there were material substances to see; material hearing, unless there were material sounds to hear. This obviates one great objection to what I am saying, that the whole Apocalyptic description is only the lowering of heavenly ideas to earthly minds. If a mere spiritual state were being described, doubtless it would be so; but when, to say the least, much that is material must be mixed up with it, the argument vanishes. Consider, again, the remarkable terms in which the abode of the elect is mentioned, after the final doom: "A new heaven and a new earth." And lest any one should think this is a mere casual expression of St. John's (granting that such things might be), St. Peter also and Isaiah speak of "new heavens and a new earth." If, now, there were no analogy between the old and the new, between the first and the second earth, to what purpose this particular and thrice- repeated expression? And most remarkably it is said, "There was no more sea." There is, therefore, so strong a resemblance between the two earths, that the absence of the sea in the second is thought a point worthy of notice. Therefore, all the varieties of natural beauty, besides this, it may be presumed, still will exist. If of one thing in a series it is recorded that it is abolished, the natural presumption about the others is that they remain. And in the mystical descriptions of heaven with which Scripture abound, we find frequent references to the other most remarkable components of earthly scenery. To trees, for there is the tree of life; to mountains, for there is the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; to lakes, for there the glorious Lord will be a place of broad streams; to rivers, for there is the river of the water of life. Surely it is impossible to believe that these things are purely metaphorical; nor can it be even said that the expressions are used in a sacramental sense. (J. M. Neale, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. |
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