First Q: Will the earth last forever?
A: Not the earth as we know it. There are quite a few passages that either imply, or explicitly state, that the earth will be dissolved: Psalm 102:25-26, Matthew 5:18, Matthew 24:35, and Second Peter 3:10, Revelation 21:1, and others.
Second Q: Then how does that square with Deuteronomy 4:40, Psalm 37:29, Psalm 78:69, Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:4?
A: The resolution consists mainly of discerning a nuance of the vocabulary used in the Hebrew text. The term olam doesnt require the sense of infinite duration; it is capable of meaning a very very very long time, or of sustained regularity, sort of like the words always or incessantly or "constantly" or the reverse of the word never ~~ Tom is never going to quit smoking. Tom smokes incessantly. Tom always carries a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. One can say these things without inferring that Tom is immortal, or that Tom never sleeps, or that Tom bathes with his clothes on.
Similarly, in the case of those references in the Psalms (37:29, 78:69, 104:5), the authors are observing a chronic/habitual state of affairs.
Deuteronomy 4:40 is different. There, God gives the Hebrews the land for all time, as the NASB puts it. But this is part of a covenant which depended in part on the faithfulness of the Hebrews to remain in effect.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 is also different, though only slightly so. The book of Ecclesiastes as a whole is a sort of spiritual diary, and as the author wraps himself in one philosophy, and then another, his diary-entries are not all intended to be didactic in content, but to be didactic as examples of the philosophical flavor-of-the-month that he has temporarily indulged in. Here in 1:4 his philosophical outlook may be summed up in one word: boredom. Nothing really changes. The universe is in a rut. Ergo the statement that the earth remains forever -- an observation of the chronic/habitual state of affairs observed from the authors perspective through the lens of the outlook he has temporarily assumed.
What does the Bible say is eventually going to happen to the earth? It will be restored to a perfect state, something like the garden of Eden on a planetary scale, and this restoration will involve a transformation so thorough and so drastic that for all practical purposes it may be considered not a re-creation of the earth, involving a step of dissolution. In scientific terms perhaps one could speak of a reduction of matter to quarks and other sub-atomic particles, at least to the extent that the entire earth will be swept clear of all effects of sin.
Second Peter 3:10 gives a brief description of what will happen. In the NKJV: The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. The NKJV features a footnote attached to the words burned up -- the critically compiled Greek text reads laid bare (literally /found/), and this reading is the correct one; the idea, based on a Hebraic idiom, is that the present earth will be exposed for what it is. (The idea of the earth and its atmosphere dissolving away is present, though, in the following two verses.)
So, we should expect a new heavens and a new earth, but this does not require that they be created ex nihilo. (Nor does this support the concept that the Jehovahs Witnesses group has advocated, positing separated classes of saints, some in heaven and some on earth.) I think that God will use material from the current earth to make the heavenly earth. To its human occupants, it will be something new, or novel (though its component-parts, at some basic level, will be recycled/rejuvenated from the world we now know -- the transformation may be comparable to the process of melting down one sculpture and using the melted-down material to make a new sculpture; one form passes away, but not the material itself). Yet it will feel like home more than this world ever could.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: Not the earth as we know it. There are quite a few passages that either imply, or explicitly state, that the earth will be dissolved: Psalm 102:25-26, Matthew 5:18, Matthew 24:35, and Second Peter 3:10, Revelation 21:1, and others.
Second Q: Then how does that square with Deuteronomy 4:40, Psalm 37:29, Psalm 78:69, Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:4?
A: The resolution consists mainly of discerning a nuance of the vocabulary used in the Hebrew text. The term olam doesnt require the sense of infinite duration; it is capable of meaning a very very very long time, or of sustained regularity, sort of like the words always or incessantly or "constantly" or the reverse of the word never ~~ Tom is never going to quit smoking. Tom smokes incessantly. Tom always carries a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. One can say these things without inferring that Tom is immortal, or that Tom never sleeps, or that Tom bathes with his clothes on.
Similarly, in the case of those references in the Psalms (37:29, 78:69, 104:5), the authors are observing a chronic/habitual state of affairs.
Deuteronomy 4:40 is different. There, God gives the Hebrews the land for all time, as the NASB puts it. But this is part of a covenant which depended in part on the faithfulness of the Hebrews to remain in effect.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 is also different, though only slightly so. The book of Ecclesiastes as a whole is a sort of spiritual diary, and as the author wraps himself in one philosophy, and then another, his diary-entries are not all intended to be didactic in content, but to be didactic as examples of the philosophical flavor-of-the-month that he has temporarily indulged in. Here in 1:4 his philosophical outlook may be summed up in one word: boredom. Nothing really changes. The universe is in a rut. Ergo the statement that the earth remains forever -- an observation of the chronic/habitual state of affairs observed from the authors perspective through the lens of the outlook he has temporarily assumed.
What does the Bible say is eventually going to happen to the earth? It will be restored to a perfect state, something like the garden of Eden on a planetary scale, and this restoration will involve a transformation so thorough and so drastic that for all practical purposes it may be considered not a re-creation of the earth, involving a step of dissolution. In scientific terms perhaps one could speak of a reduction of matter to quarks and other sub-atomic particles, at least to the extent that the entire earth will be swept clear of all effects of sin.
Second Peter 3:10 gives a brief description of what will happen. In the NKJV: The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. The NKJV features a footnote attached to the words burned up -- the critically compiled Greek text reads laid bare (literally /found/), and this reading is the correct one; the idea, based on a Hebraic idiom, is that the present earth will be exposed for what it is. (The idea of the earth and its atmosphere dissolving away is present, though, in the following two verses.)
So, we should expect a new heavens and a new earth, but this does not require that they be created ex nihilo. (Nor does this support the concept that the Jehovahs Witnesses group has advocated, positing separated classes of saints, some in heaven and some on earth.) I think that God will use material from the current earth to make the heavenly earth. To its human occupants, it will be something new, or novel (though its component-parts, at some basic level, will be recycled/rejuvenated from the world we now know -- the transformation may be comparable to the process of melting down one sculpture and using the melted-down material to make a new sculpture; one form passes away, but not the material itself). Yet it will feel like home more than this world ever could.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
