Bible Synapse
Will the earth last for ever?
Hard question · Prophecy and its fulfilment · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
God “laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever”.
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Generations come and go, “but the earth abideth for ever”.
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
The heavens and earth “shall perish”; God will change them like a worn-out garment, but he remains.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
In the day of the Lord the heavens pass away and the earth and the works in it are burned up.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Christians look for “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”.
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
John sees a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away.
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.
The objection
The Psalms and Ecclesiastes say the earth “abideth for ever” and will never be moved (Psalm 104:5; Ecclesiastes 1:4). Jesus says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away” (Matthew 24:35); Peter says the earth will be burned up, and Revelation says the first earth passed away (2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1). Will the earth last, or will it end?
The answer
Both are true, in different senses, and the Bible holds them together itself. Psalm 104 praises the stability of the world God founded: the Hebrew says it will not totter (mot) from its foundations. Ecclesiastes sets the lasting earth against the short lives lived on it: “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (1:4). The Hebrew le‘olam, ‘for ever’, means for all time to come, and how far it reaches depends on what it describes; a slave who chose to stay with his master would serve him “for ever” (Exodus 21:6). Neither verse speaks of what God will do at the end, and the same Psalter says that heaven and earth “shall perish” and that God will “change them” like clothing (Psalm 102:25–26).
When the New Testament speaks of the end, it speaks of renewal, not of the earth simply ceasing to be: Peter compares the coming fire with the flood, by which “the world that then was” perished, though the earth went on (2 Peter 3:6), and he looks for “new heavens and a new earth” (3:13). John uses the Greek kainos, new in kind and quality, for the earth he saw (Revelation 21:1). The earth God made endures; its present form passes away and is made new.
Other answers Christians give
‘Laid bare’ rather than ‘burned up’
The oldest Greek manuscripts of 2 Peter 3:10 say that the earth and its works ‘will be found’, which some modern versions render “the earth and its works will be laid bare” (BSB): exposed to God’s judgment rather than destroyed. On that reading Peter’s point is judgment and cleansing.
A fresh creation
Some Christians read 2 Peter 3:10–12 and Revelation 21:1 as the end of the present universe and the making of a new one. On that view ‘for ever’ in Psalm 104:5 and Ecclesiastes 1:4 means ‘as long as this age lasts’, a sense the Hebrew word allows.
Still open
Christians differ on how far the present earth will be renewed rather than replaced. The answer above holds on either view.
From the classic commentators
In reality, both things may be said of the earth: that it stands for ever without losing its place in the universe, and that it does not stand for ever, for it will be changed and become something else.Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Ecclesiastes 1:4
As the flood was the baptism of the earth, eventuating in a renovated earth, partially delivered from ‘the curse,’ so the baptism with fire shall purify the earth so as to be the renovated abode of regenerated man, wholly freed from the curse.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, on 2 Peter 3:13
Sources
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 1, at Bible Hub
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary: 2 Peter 3, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Psalm 104 (HelloAO)