New Earth

“A thoughtful reader asked me, ‘When the New Earth arrives, do you believe there will remain a Heaven that is distinct from the New Earth? Or will the “merging” of Heaven and Earth be total?’” - Randy Alcorn

“The point here is to emphasize that in the resurrection we are going to be embodied persons, and yet embodied in a way that is like, yet incomprehensibly unlike, our present bodies. He describes it as imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual.” - John Piper

“I interpret ‘every race and nation and language’ literally. God has chosen people in even predominantly pagan nations and reached them by sending men and women or angels, dreams, and visions. What people groups will be worshiping Christ on the New Earth?” - Randy Alcorn

“Once I realized that our final destination is not going up to heaven, but that a heavenly city would come down to a renewed creation (see Rev 21:10), I began to wonder what other tools, machines, and devices might be in that new city.” - Word by Word

“C. S. Lewis… asks us to imagine that the world accessible to us right now is nothing more than a black-and-white pencil drawing done by an imprisoned mother trying to teach her child what things look like beyond the walls.” - Word by Word

“It’s a narrow view of both God and humans to imagine that God can be pleased and glorified with a trumpet but not a desk, computer, or baseball bat. Will there be new inventions? Refinements of old inventions? Why not?” - Randy Alcorn

“I have noticed a striking difference when I speak to groups today….Despite the clear teaching of Scripture, the pushback against the New Earth used to be very strong, now it’s milder and some are totally onboard.” - Alcorn

“Humanity continues to strive for utopia, but original sin makes it impossible to achieve. Just like no one can get eggs out of a cake that has been baked, no one can get the sin out of us and the world; no one, that is, except Jesus.” - Colin Smith

“…we desire it precisely because God intends for us to be raised to new life on the New Earth. It is God who created us to desire what we are made for.” - Randy Alcorn

“Salvation, however, is not just a one-way bus ticket to heaven, or the earth a bus stop where it doesn’t really matter what we do while we wait for the bus.” - IFWE