The predominant view in the Church is that the earth will be destroyed and a new earth will replace it. While this is true, it is not fully understood in a true way.
What is typically meant by this is that this physical world will be dismantled by some form of destruction and will no longer exist. Then a new world will be created. What this new world will be for is a mystery to everyone and little is said about it in Christian doctrine.
Our old nature is gone and we are new creations
What needs to be considered, however, is that the Bible says that each of us dies with Christ and are raised again with a new nature. Our old nature is gone and we are new creations. We did not die as physical people; we simply had our old nature purged and our new nature established. It would seem logical that the same would be true when speaking about the world. The creation was subjected to corruption just as we were, and just as we are redeemed so will creation.
Thus, it seems more appropriate that the destruction destined for the world will only purge the corruption leaving the incorruptible to shine forth anew, hence new earth. Hebrews 12:26-28 tells us that there will be a great shaking of heaven and of earth, but that there will also be things that remain that are unshakable. These things are true to the Kingdom’s reality and will remain forever.
The view that all will pass away soon enough creates a situation where Christians do not have to be responsible for the present life on earth. The physical will pass away, we think, so we have no responsibility to the systems, nations, or nature of this world. We have forgotten that God placed us here giving us a job to cultivate this world. We were given dominion over it. Our rendezvous with sin did not remove our responsibility. We, now being redeemed, have an even greater responsibility for we are heirs with Christ of His unshakeable kingdom. His Kingdom is not just spiritual; it is substantially tangibly real and has physical components. God created this physical world and called it good. It is to be rightly governed by the spiritual world, but that does not negate its reality.
Be responsible for the present and live in the now from a heavenly perspective.
It is unhealthy to form doctrines of the end times so firmly that one cannot see anything else, but the doctrines. Instead, be open to looking at the future with new eyes and remembering our heritage. Then we can be responsible for the present and live in the now from a heavenly perspective. There is much work to do, but his burden is light. He will be doing the heavy lifting, but we are to work in tandem with Him. We do this by seeking Him and doing what we see Him doing and saying what we see Him saying. Together we can re-cultivate the world, restoring it to its intended glory.
