Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

21:2
(v. 11, 14); and it is these early Christians who are
repeatedly mentioned as actively “looking for and
hastening” the judgment (v. 12, 13, 14). It is precisely
the nearness of the approaching conflagration that St.
Peter cites as a motive to diligence in godly living.
Second, Owen cites 2 Peter 3:13: “But according to His
promise we are looking for new heavens and a new
earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Owen asks:
“What is that promise? Where may we find it? Why,
we have it in the very words and letter, Isaiah 65:17.
Now, when shall this be that God will create these
‘new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness’? Saith Peter, ‘It shall be after the coming
of the Lord, after that judgment and destruction of
ungodly men, who obey not the Gospel, that I foretell.’
But now it is evident, from this place of Isaiah, with
chapter 66:21-22, that this is a prophecy of Gospel
times only; and that the planting of these new heavens
is nothing but the creation of Gospel ordinances, to
endure forever. The same thing is so expressed in
Hebrews 12:26-28.” 6
Owen is right on target, asking the question that so
many expositors fail to ask: Where had God promised to
bring “new heavens and a new earth”? The answer, as
Owen correctly states, is in Isaiah 65 and 66 – passages
which clearly prophesy the period of the Gospel,
brought in by the work of Christ. According to Isaiah,
this New Creation cannot be the eternal state, since it
contains birth and death, building and planting (65:20-
23). The “new heavens and earth” promised to the
Church comprise the age of the Gospel’s triumph,
when all mankind will come to bow down before the
Lord (66:22-23). St. Peter’s encouragement to the
Church of his day was to be patient, to wait for God’s
judgment to destroy those who are persecuting the faith
and impeding its progress. Once the Lord comes to
destroy the scaffolding of the Old Covenant structure,
the New Covenant Temple will be left in its place,
and the victorious march of the Church will be
unstoppable. The world will be converted; the earth’s
treasures will be brought into the City of God, as the
Paradise Mandate (Gen. 1:27-28; Matt. 28:18-20) is
consummated (Rev. 21:24-27).
This is why the apostles constantly affirmed that the
age of consummation had already been implemented by
the resurrection and ascension of Christ, who poured
out the Holy Spirit. Once the old order had been swept
away, St. Peter declared, the Age of Christ would be
fully established, an era “in which righteousness dwells”
(2 Pet. 3:13). The distinguishing characteristic of the
new age, in stark contrast to what preceded it, would be
righteousness – increasing righteousness, as the Gospel
would be set free in its mission to the nations. Norman
Shepherd shows how this is foreshadowed in the
provisional new creation after the Flood: “Just as Noah
sets foot with his family after the first household
baptism (1 Peter 3:20f.) on a new earth in which once
again righteousness dwells, so also Christ by his baptism
– his death and resurrection – introduces his children
by their baptism into him, to a new existence in which
they can begin to see and participate in a new earth
characterized by righteousness and holiness. In the
power of the Spirit they cultivate the earth for the glory
of God.” 7
It is certainly true that righteousness does not dwell in
the earth in an absolute sense; nor will this world ever
be absolutely righteous, until the final enemy is
defeated at the Second Coming of Christ. The war
between Christ and Satan for dominion over the earth
is not over yet. There have been many battles throughout
the history of the Church, and many battles lie
ahead. But these must not blind us to the very real
progress that the Gospel has made and continues to
make in the world. The war has been won definitively;
the New World Order of the Lord Jesus Christ has
arrived; and, according to God’s promise, the saving
knowledge of Him will yet fill the earth, as the waters
cover the sea.
Moreover, the phrase heaven and earth in these contexts
does not, as Owen pointed out, refer to the physical
heaven and the physical world, but to the world-order,
the religious organization of the world, the “House” or
Temple God builds in which He is worshiped. The
consistent message of the New Testament is that the
House of the New Covenant, over which Jesus presides
as Apostle and High Priest, is infinitely superior to the
House of the Old Covenant, presided over by Moses
(cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:11-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:1-6).
In fact, as the writer to the Hebrews insists, “the world
to come” has come; it is the present salvation, brought
in by the Son of God in the Last Days (Heb. 1:1-2:5).
In this specific sense, righteousness does dwell in
“heaven and earth.”
2 St. John next sees, as the central aspect of this New
Creation, the Holy City, New Jerusalem. Again we
must remember that Jesus Christ has accomplished one
salvation, one New Creation, with definitive, progressive,
and consummative aspects. The final reality of the
eschatological New Creation is also the present reality
of the definitive-progressive New Creation. No aspect
of this salvation should be emphasized to the exclusion
or undue minimization of the others. The New
Testament teaches that, with Old Jerusalem about to be
excommunicated and executed for her violation of the
covenant, Christians have become citizens and heirs of
the New Jerusalem, the City whose origin is in heaven,
which comes down out of heaven from God (3:12; cf.
Gal. 4:22-31; Eph. 2:19; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 11:10, 16;
12:22-23). The New Testament then goes on to say:
All this, and heaven too! (cf. Phil. 3:21); the New
Creation is not only a state established definitively by
Christ, and progressively unfolding now; someday it
6. Ibid., pp. 134f. 7. Norman Shepherd, “The Resurrections of Revelation 20,” The Westminster
Theological Journal, XXXVII (Fall 1974) 1, p. 40.
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