PMW 2024-021 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

As we have been witnessing in Internet discussions of late, hyperpreterism is inherently Gnostic in its basic outlook. They not only do away with our physical bodies by proposing a spiritual (i.e., immaterial) body at the resurrection (or at the point of death). But many of them also teach that even Christ’s own physically-resurrected body has dissipated and been replaced with a spiritual body. Along these lines I would like to speak to a related issue regarding our eternal destiny in the new heavens and new earth.

We need to understand that with God matter matters. God created the material universe. He created a material man to rule over the material earth. He sent his Son in a material body to save his people from their sins. He resurrected Christ in a material body. And we will be resurrected in material, re-constituted bodies. And we will do so in anticipating inhabiting a perfect, material, reconstituted new earth. Truly, matter matters in the biblical worldview. Despite the Gnostic elements in hyperpreterism.

From time-to-time I make the mistake of reading hyperpreterist literature. And on occasion someone will send me a quote from their musings. Often enough I see complaints directed against me that demonstrate they are not well read or theologically trained.

The matter about which I am speaking [1] at the moment is the frequent (and frustrating) complaint that “Gentry believes Christians will not live in heaven with Christ for eternity.” What they are complaining about is my fully orthodox, widely-held, biblical view that in the eternal, consummate order believers will live on the new earth in their resurrected bodies after the physical second coming of Christ and the final judgment. We certainly do go to heaven at death now, but in heaven we await the resurrection and final judgment before our final estates are fully entered into [2]. Despite hyperpreterists’ confusion, our dwelling on the new earth will not involve our being separated away from Christ. Of course, we do not know all the particulars, but we may rest assured that there will be direct communion between heaven and earth in eternity.

This eternal dwelling on the new earth is not “Gentry’s” idiosyncratic view. Hyperpreterists try to distract their followers by arguing as if certain things I teach are newly created by me and are therefore suspect. Simply because they are creating a new theology does not mean that their opponents are doing the same!

So, I picked a few Reformed and evangelical theologies off my shelves and looked up this issue. After a quick search, here are a few statements that I found affirming the view before us:

Robert L. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology

“The doctrine that this earth is to be reconstructed after its purgation by fire, and is to become the dwelling place of redeemed men and the God-Man, in their resurrection bodies.” (pp. 850-51). This is taught partly by “the striking analogy between our bodies’ resurrection, and this paliggenesia of our earth…. Redemption proposes to restore both parts of man’s nature, spirit and body, and in spite of sin and Satan, to realize in eternal perfection God’s original conception of a holy, glorious and immortal, incorporate creature. So, by analogy, we naturally expect that when the earth, man’s heritage and home, is cursed for his sin and usurped by Satan, it is not to be surrendered to the usurpation, but to be redeemed and purged for its original destination, the eternal home of a glorified human race. This … agrees exactly with Rom. viii:19 to 23; and with Eph. i:14. The material creation is here represented, by a vivid impersonation, as interested in our redemption, and destined to share it.” (p. 851)

“This conclusion give us a noble view of the immutability of God’s purpose of grace, and the glory of His victory over sin and Satan. This planet was fashioned to be man’s heritage; and a part of it, at least, adorned with the beauties of a paradise, for his home…. {Satan’s] insolent invasion is not to be destined to obstruct the Almighty’s beneficent design. The intrusion will be in vain. God’s purpose shall be executed. The Messiah will come and re-establish His throne in the midst of His scarred and ravaged realm; He will cleanse away every stain of sin and death, and make this earth bloom forever with more than its pristine splendour; so that the very plan which was initiated when ‘the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy,’ will stand to everlasting ages.” (p. 852)

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The Climax of the Book of Revelation (Rev 19-22)

Six lectures on six DVDs that introduce Revelation as a whole, then focuses on its glorious conclusion. Provides an important, lengthy Introduction to Revelation also.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

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Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics

“The renewal of creation follows the final judgment. According to Scripture the present world will neither continue forever nor will it be destroyed and replaced by a totally new one. Instead it will be cleansed of sin and re-created, reborn, renewed, made whole. While the kingdom of God is first planted spiritually in human hearts, the future blessedness is not to be spiritualized. Biblical hope, rooted in incarnation and resurrection, is creational, this-wordly, visible, physical, bodily hope. The rebirth of human beings is completed in the glorious rebirth of all creation, the new Jerusalem, whose architect and builder is God himself.” (4:715)

“Following the final judgment comes the renewal of the world.” (4:715)

“Only such a renewal of the world, for that matter, accords with what Scripture teaches about redemption. For the latter is never a second, brand-new creation but a re-creation of the existing world. God’s honor consists precisely in the fact that he redeems and renews the same humanity, the same world, the same heaven, and the same earth that have been corrupted and polluted by sin…. Just as in the case of an individual human being, so at the end of time a rebirth of the world will take place as well…. This renewal of the visible world highlights the one-sidedness of the spiritualism that limits future blessedness to heaven…. The rebirth of humans is completed in the rebirth of creation.” (4:417)

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology

“THE NEW CREATION. The final state of believers will be preceded by the passing of the present world and the appearance of a new creation” (p. 736). “Scripture gives us reasons to believe that the righteous will not only inherit heaven, but the entire new creation” (p. 737).

John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray (vol. 1)

“Too frequently the expectation that the Christian entertains is defective in this respect. It is the bliss of what he calls ‘heaven’ and may not partake of the definiteness that characterizes the biblical representation. Or his hope may be framed in terms of bliss that awaits the believer when he departs this life and goes to be with Christ in heaven. The bliss of the disembodied state for a child of God is not to be depreciated….

[But] “preoccupation with the disembodied state fails to have prime concern for the honour and glory of Christ. The final phase of his exaltation is waiting for his advent…. He has not yet judged the world and thus executed the final assize to which he is appointed (cf. Matt. 25:31–46; Acts 17:31).” (p. 87)

“Second, the fault mentioned fails to accord to the resurrection the place it occupies in the salvation of the just. The separation of body and spirit is evil, the result of sin. Hence the termination of this evil is integral to redemption. It is significant that the term redemption should be used to designate the resurrection of the body (cf. Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:14). The hope of immortality in Scripture is not an abstract one, not one for the soul as distinct or in separation from the body, but the immortality that resurrection bestows when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up in victory (cf. 1 Cor. 15: 53, 54). It is then that mortality will be swallowed up of life (cf. Rom. 8:11). This paramount interest of the believer in the consummation of redemption is waiting for Christ’s advent. For then the dead will be raised and the living changed (cf. 1 Cor. 15:52).” (p. 88)

“A third feature related to the consummatory nature of the advent is the deliverance of the creation ‘from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God’ (Rom. 8:21). The redemption wrought by Christ is of cosmic proportions; it extends to the material creation. Redemption from sin includes deliverance from its curse. And since the curse extended to the creation (cf. Gen. 3:17; Rom. 8:20), the completeness of redemption involves the removal of creation’s curse. This is a necessary ingredient of the believer’s hope and exemplifies again the concreteness of this hope. The focus of hope is the bodily return of the Lord, a return that brings with it the redemption of the body. It is a resurrection hope. The final abode is not one unrelated to the creation, but the renovated creation without the least trace of sin’s curse. In Peter’s word: ‘Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness’ (2 Pet. 3:13).” (p. 95)

John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord

“Scripture speaks of this new reality as a ‘new heavens and a new earth’…. It is a physical reality, appropriate to our resurrected bodies… Remember, the consummation of human existence does not take us above and beyond the physical. Rather, as with Jesus’ resurrection body, our existence in the new heavens and earth will be physical.” (p. 292)

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Survey of the Book of Revelation

(DVDs by Ken Gentry) Twenty-four careful, down-to-earth lectures provide a basic introduction to and survey of the entire Book of Revelation. Professionally produced lectures of 30-35 minutes length.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

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Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology

“The Physical Creation Will Be Renewed and We Will Continue to Exist and Act in It. In addition to a renewed heaven, God will make a ‘new earth’…. Several passages indicate that the physical creation will be renewed in a significant way…. Will earth simply be renewed, or will it be completely destroyed and replaced by another earth…? Reformed scholar have tended to emphasize that verses that say simply that this present creation will be renewed. The Reformed position seems preferable here, for it is difficult to think that God would entirely annihilate his original creation, thereby seeming to give the devil the last word and scrapping the creation that was originally ‘very good.’” (p. 1160)

“In the new heavens and new earth, there will be a place and activities for our resurrection bodies, which will never grow old or become weak or ill…. Therefore we can expect that in the new heavens and new earth there will be a fully perfect earth that is once again ‘very good.’ And we can expect that we will have physical bodies that will once again be ‘very good’ in God’s sight, and that will function to fulfill the purposes for which he originally placed man on earth.” (p. 1161)

Benjamin L. Gladd and Matthew S. Harmon, Making All Things New

“There are still aspects of many end-time prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled but will be when Christ returns a second time, such as the bodily resurrection of all people, the destruction of the present cosmos, the creation of a completely new heaven and earth, the final judgment, the eternal Sabbath, and so on.” (p. 13)

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology

“There are to be new heavens and a new earth, just as we are to have new bodies. Our bodies are not to be annihilated, but changed.” (3:852) “The earth was cursed for his transgression. That curse is to be removed when man’s redemption is completed. The ktisis that was made subject to vanity for man’s sin, is our earth; and our earth is the ktisis which is to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. This change to be effected is in the dwelling-place of man…. This earth, according to the common opinion, that is, this renovated earth, is to be the final seat of Christ’s kingdom.” (3:852–54)

R. J. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology

“The full restoration of our physical life awaits the end of the world. Our physical existence is a part of God’s creation of the universe, and the restoration of our perfect bodily life awaits the restoration of the whole creation at the end of history. The present order shall be melted, burned, and recast into its perfect and final form…., at which time the resurrection of our bodies will also take place. In the beginning, God created a world which was entirely good as man’s habitat …. In the new creation, a like act occurs. The world and all creation are remade to be eternally good, to be the habitation of life, and man is given the resurrection body to be a citizen of the new creation.

“To depreciate the body is to misunderstand the faith. The body has a key place in eschatology, because God works for the redemption and regeneration of all creation. Our end-point eschatology thus calls for the care of the body as God’s handiwork, and as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and as God’ property….” (2:847–48)

Cornelis P. Venema, The Promise of the Future

“The whole creation, heaven and earth, will undergo by the Triune God’s working, a process of renewal and transformation. Through this process the creation will be wholly sanctified, cleansed of every stain and remainder of sin.” (p. 460)

“Just as the resurrected body represents the transformation of the present body of the believer, so the new creation represents the transformation, not the annihilation, of the present creation.” (p. 461)

“Considering the substantial continuity between the present and new creation, it follows that the life to come in the new creation will be as rich and full of activity in the service of the Lord as was intended at the beginning.” (p. 469)

Sam Storms, Kingdom Come

“I believe that promise [of the land] will be literally fulfilled, but not merely (or even primarily) in the land of Canaan…. The ultimate fulfillment could only be realized on the New Earth.” (p. 208)

Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future

“In this chapter we shall deal with the final state of those who are in Christ. The Bible teaches that believers will go to heaven when they die. That they will be happy during the intermediate state between death and resurrection is clearly taught in Scripture. But their happiness will be provisional and incomplete. For the completion of their happiness they await the resurrection of the body and the new earth which God will create as the culmination of his redemptive work….

The doctrine of the new earth, as taught in Scripture, is an important one…. One gets the impression from certain hymns that glorified believers will spend eternity in some ethereal heaven somewhere off in space, far away from earth…. But does such a conception do justice to biblical eschatology?… On the contrary the Bible assures us that God will create a new earth on which we shall live to God’s praise in glorified, resurrected bodies…. To leave the new earth out of consideration when we think of the final state of believers is greatly to impoverish biblical teaching about the life to come.” (p. 274)

Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology

“From 2 Pet. 3:6, 10–12, quoted before, whence various arguments to prove the renovation of the world are drawn…. Thus a new heavens and a new earth shall be made…. Now these things imply a change and not an annihilation…. From Rom. 8:19 and the following verses, the renovation of the world is collected in many ways.” (3:591)

“Now as all corporeal deliverances have been types of spiritual, temporal of eternal, the Holy Spirit refers these words to the renewing of the world … which will follow at the end of time…. Nor yet is an annihilation of the former world indicated, but only its change.” (p. 593).

“So here they are said to be new heavens and a new earth not absolutely and simply, but relatively, as to the new and purged stated of the world.” (p. 594)

Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics

“What will precede the consummate salvation of the children of God? The appearance of a new world. Scripture speaks of that very clearly. In Acts 3:21 Peter speaks of an apokatastasis, a ‘restoration of all things.’ And in Revelation 21:5 He who sits on the throne says: ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ As a matter of fact, all this is inherent in the relationship to the rest of creation in which man stands. It is given to him so that he would rule over it. It has been carried along with him in his fall. It has been subjected to the groaning of futility. It is in travail, since with the dawning of the glory of the children of God it also awaits its liberation (Rom. 8:19–22) ….

“Scripture teaches further that this new world will follow the glorification of the children of God, that is, the glorious resurrection and the last judgment.

“How are we to think of this bringing into being of the new world? Thinking on this question differs greatly. Some propose an absolutely new world, so that in substance the old does not recur in the new and a new world comes in its place. The Lutheran dogmaticians until Gerhard were devoted to this view. But in general whenever they mention the new earth as a matter of form, they do not say much about it. The Reformed, for the most part, expressed support for the opposite view, namely that the substance of the presently existing world will be preserved but will be restored, purified in glory.” (pp. 1152–53)

G. C. Berkouwer, The Return of Christ

“The discussion of the resurrection from the dead leads us directly to a consideration of the ‘new earth.’ The link between these two aspects of the eschatological promise is the fact that the resurrectio carnis [resurrection of the flesh] talks about a future for the body. This body is not an abstract, spiritual existence having nothing to do with the earth, but something that has a place and a manifold function in the earth.” (p. 211)

Berkouwer’s entire fifth chapter is on “The New Earth” (pp. 170–210) which follows his chapter on “The Resurrection” (pp. 211–234).

Robert Letham, Systematic Theology

“The renewed earth [is] the proper location of our embodied existence. The resurrection of the body should ensure that we do not understand it [our eternal existence] in a docetic, spiritual, nonmaterial sense.” (p. 900)

David Bauer, The Gospel of the Son of God

“Matthew’s portrayal of the future state emphasizes embodied existence. Thus Jesus speaks of the ‘whole body’ being thrown into hell (Mt 5:29–30), and he describes persons being thrown into the fire with two hands, two feet, two eyes, or, conversely of ‘entering life’ maimed, lame, or with one eye (Mt 18:8–9). His disciples should fear only the one who can ‘destroy both soul and body in hell’ (Mt 10:28), the ‘soul’ (psuche) referring to one’s essential being (cf. Mt 11:29; 16:25–26; 26:38).

Like the rest of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew does not think in terms of disembodied immorality but rather envisions resurrection (Mt 22:23–33). Yet resurrection existence will involve an altered state, since Jesus describes the resurrected ones as being ‘like the angels in heaven,’ in the sense that earthly human needs and desires, and even present human relationships, will be transcended (Mt 22:34). When Matthew describes the future condition of the righteous (‘they will shine like the sun,’ Mt 13:43) in much the same terms as his description of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (‘his face shown like the sun,’ Mt 17:2), which foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection, Matthew suggests that Jesus’ resurrection body is a prototype of theirs (cf. Phil 3:21; 1 Cor 15:20–23)” (p. 304)

“Matthew does not conceive of the age to come as a nonworldly, ethereal existence (he never speaks, e.g., of ‘going to heaven’), but rather as taking place in a restored or regenerated creation (Mt 19:28, paliggenesia)…. The passing away of heaven and earth apparently refers not to the annihilation of the earth but to the destruction of the cosmos as we know it, with the corollary of a restored, or reconstituted earth.” (p. 306)

I (Ken Gentry) conclude: thus, the view our eternal destiny is in the new earth. And this is not an innovative position. It is not “Gentry’s view.” It is the view of historic orthodoxy, particularly Reformed orthodoxy. I believe it will be helpful to close with a penetrating question from J. Richard Middleton:

J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth

“At this point the reader might be sensing a significant tension between the Bible’s holistic vision of the redemption of earthly creation and the way that many, if not most, Christians think about the future of the earth. How did it come about that so many in the church today seem unaware of God’s intent to redeem this world? How did the idea of an otherworldly destiny in heaven displace the biblical teaching of the renewal of the earth and end up dominating Christian eschatology?” (p. 293)

Conclusion

This is to name but a few. Orthodoxy is more widespread that Hyperpreterists realize. Gnosticism is not the order of the day within evangelical and Reformed theology. Unfortunately, Hyperpreterists operate on the Pharisaic principle pointed out by Christ: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte” (Matt. 23:15).

Note

1. I actually talk while I am typing, so I am being quite literal. My wife finds this quite annoying and wishes I would quit it. Especially since I don’t speak in a normal tone, but actually yodel the words. But try as I might, all I could do was quit moving my lips while I yodel the words aloud. Unfortunately, I could not properly throw my voice (not being a trained ventriloquist, having learned my meager skills through a surprise package in a Wheaties box). Clever woman that she is, she traced down the source of the noise that kept her awake at night. Then promptly whacked me over the head with an iron skillet that she had bought for just such occasions. But I am a problem solver: I now get off the computer by 2:00 am and am even considering moving it off the end our bed.
2. If anyone complains that I should not have ended this sentence with a preposition, then let it be known that this is the kind of errant pedantry up with which I will not put!
3. There is no third footnote. You can go back to work now.

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