Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."
(Revelation 21:1)
The first heaven and the first earth have passed away. In our imagination let us try to see this new universe. The very foundations of the earth have been subjected to the purifying fire. Every stain of sin, every scar of wrong, every trace of death, has been removed. Out of the great conflagration a new universe has been born. It is the same heaven and earth, but gloriously rejuvenated, with no weeds, thorns or thistles, and so on. Nature comes into its own; all of its potentialities, dormant so long, are now fully realized. The old order has vanished. The universe in which the Dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and the harlot caring out their program of iniquity has vanished. The sea, as we know it, is no more. At present the sea is the emblem of unrest in conflict. The roaring, raging, agitated, tempest-tossed waters, the waves perpetually engaged in combat with one another, symbolize the nations of the world in there conflict and unrest. It is the sea out of which the beast rises. But in the renewed universe the head new heaven and earth all will be peace. The heaven and the earth and the sea as they now are shall vanish.
(William Hendriksen)
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