What does God intend to do with this planet that we messed up? Will He dump it and make a new one? What does His word say?
One thing God never does is resort to plan B. He never has a plan B. One thing God always does is restore…which is a part of His plan A. He restores everything that is broken.
First question… What do I mean by restore?
God does not discard what is broken and start again. He removes what has caused the brokenness and sets everything back in order as He planned in the beginning.
The amazing thing about God’s plan is that restoration was included in His plan A before anything was ever broken. From His eternal perspective, brokenness and restoration were already accomplished before He spoke one grain of sand into existence.
After His first pair defected, He told the tempter who caused the destruction, what would happen to him.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15 NIV
There…the seed of God’s word was already sown…just minutes or hours after the crown of His creation fell right out of His plan.
We have already discussed at length…in many posts…over many months…the way that God restores the broken sinner.
However, man and his environment are an integral part of God’s plan A for His people. Like love and marriage, humans and the earth go together. God always intended for His human family to live on His planet, prepared and perfected for them, to manage it for Him in partnership with Him.
The second part of God’s plan is not so familiar to us. God’s design was for heaven and earth to be one environment where He and His creatures would live together in perfect harmony. Once His people were perfected in righteousness through their loving obedience, heaven would join the earth to become one eternal home for all.
Throughout Scripture, through all the processes of His revelation…tabernacle and temple in symbolic form, and eventually His Spirit in us…God showed us that His desire was to make His dwelling with us. The final stage would be the restoration of the earth to its former perfection.
God never intended for man to live with Him in heaven. He intended to live with mankind in a united heaven and earth.
Let’s see what the Bible says.
Both Paul and John saw this end of the process clearly. Wrote Paul…
“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
Romans 8:19-21 NIV
Paul said nothing about the earth being discarded and a new one created. He spoke about the earth being liberated… delivered…exempted from moral, ceremonial, or mortal liability…set free. When man fell from his position of son to slave, the earth was also enslaved to the consequences of man’s sin. The natural world was corrupted with him.
“To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17-19 NIV
The outcome, for mankind, was a hostile environment… where sweat, toil, and hard labour would be his lot.
Now, how can a restored human creation continue to live eternally on a planet at enmity with them. Plan A must be implemented completely.
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:31 NIV
Very good! Perfectly functional! Nothing broken…nothing missing…everything working together in harmony…man, plants, and creatures all cooperating in a perfect system. That’s how it was…and that how it will be.
Second question… How will God restore?
If Jesus created the universe…
“…in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”
Hebrews 1:2 NIV
…and upholds His creation by His powerful word…
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word….”
Hebrews 1:3 NIV
…then He will surely also cleanse and restore His broken planet by the same creative, powerful word.
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
Jeremiah 23:29 NIV
Peter explained the process in greater detail…
“By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly…But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”
2 Peter 3:7, 10 NIV
We need to unpack what Peter actually wrote… not what we think.
The New King James Version is a more accurate translation than the NIV or the NLT.
“But the day of the Lord (the specific moment in time set by the supreme authority) will come as a thief (the who steals) (“in the night”…not in the text), in which the heavens (that which is lifted up…not necessarily or literally “heaven” but…in context…the
“elements”*) will pass away with a great noise (a bang), and the elements* will melt (crack, break up, dissolve) with fervent heat; both the earth (the solid part) and the works (toil) that are in it (what caused the toil) will be burned up.”
II Peter 3:10 NKJV
*“In the Bible, the word “elements” translates from the Greek word stoicheia, which generally means fundamental principles, basic building blocks, or rudimentary components.
“Meaning: In this eschatological (end-times) context, it refers to the basic physical components or material building blocks of the natural universe—often interpreted as the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) or the fundamental matter making up the earth and sky. It signifies that the entire physical created order will undergo a radical, fiery dissolution and renewal.
“Rudimentary Religious Teachings
Where it appears: Galatians 4:3, 4:9, and Colossians 2:8, 2:20 (“elements of the world” / “weak and beggarly elements”).
Meaning: In Paul’s letters, the term refers to the elementary or primary teachings of worldly or legalistic religion. This included formalistic rituals, man-made traditions, or Jewish ceremonial laws that kept people in spiritual immaturity and bondage before the full revelation of Jesus Christ.”
(Google AI)
Both Paul and Peter, together, give us the picture of what will happen when God restores creation to its original perfection. By the power of His word, Jesus will remove and destroy everything that intruded at the fall…the dysfunction of the physical planet…and the world’s systems (elements) that control by being lifted up (elevated…probably above God’s word) and distorted by selfishness and greed.
The entire universe will be purged of the effects of sin and left in its perfect and pristine condition as at creation. Then…finally…
“Now I saw a new (fresh) heaven and a new (fresh) earth, for the first (former) heaven and the first (former) earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New (with respect to age) Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4 NKJV
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)”
Revelation 19:7-8 NIV
The Holy City, the Bride, the church…perfected through Jesus…forever joined to the Bridegroom…in the environment of God’s presence…
Heaven and earth, the spiritual and the natural…reunited…as God had planned from the beginning…with God and His people together
as one forever family.