Tag Archives: new creation

NEW CREATION; OLD LAW

Culture April 1, 2022 Leave a comment

Passing of earthPMW 2022-026 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I often receive queries from folks who are thinking through the issue relative to the postmillennial hope. Though not all postmillennialists are theonomic, I am. I believe our hope leads to the expectation that God’s Law will prevail in the world.

Here is a series of emails I received from a reader.

Question 1:
I have a question for you that has bothered me off and on. As a partial preterist, I defend the interpretation of “New heavens and Earth” as the figurative establishment of the New Covenant and the passing away of the old heavens and earth as the passing of the Old Covenant. But as a reluctant theonomist, this puts pressure on my understanding of Matt 5:17 (Jesus saying that the Law will not pass away until the heavens and earth pass away). Continue reading →

THE NEW CREATION IN REVELATION

New Creation August 13, 2019 Comments: 4

PMW 2019-065 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

New CreationIn Revelation 21 we read of the glorious new creation:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:1–2).

Revelation presents God’s divorce of his old covenant wife Israel in AD 70 (Rev 5 presents the divorce decree). In Rev 6-19 (with interludes and asides) we witness his adulterous wife’s capital punishment. Now in the two closing chapters, we are witnesses to his marriage to his new bride, the new covenant church of Jesus Christ. The new creation is an image of the new covenant. This new Jerusalem-bride is the “Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:26), the “heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22) to which all believers in Christ belong. Continue reading →

IS PRETERISM SPIRITUALLY DEPRESSING? (4)

AD 70, hyperpreterism, Interpretation, Revelation April 17, 2015 Comments: 4

Future lookPMT 2015-047 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

As I continue considering the question whether preterism is depressing, I come to my fourth article in answering a reader’s concern. It is at this point that we actually get to the reason that Rick sees preterism as potentially depressing. I have summarized this portion of his concern as follows:

Does preterism discount our eternal hope in a glorified estate? If the new Jerusalem and the new heavens and new earth have already begun, what comfort is that since so much in the world is in such bad shape? Such thinking has almost ruined the writer’s faith. Continue reading →

NO MORE SEA? (2)

Interpretation, Revelation July 18, 2014 Comments: 2

PMT 2014-086 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.No more sea 2

In my last article (PMT 2014-085) I opened the question regarding the meaning of John’s statement in Rev 21:1: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” Why is there “no longer any sea?” In the previous article I discounted the literal interpretation as well as the chaos approach. But now, what does it mean?

I believe the idea of the sea here pictures a barrier separating man from God. Let me explain. You have read this far, why not? Continue reading →

NO MORE SEA? (1)

Interpretation, Revelation July 16, 2014 Leave a comment

PMT 2014-085 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.No more sea 1

In Rev 21:1 an unusual statement appears at the coming of the new heavens and earth: “and there is no longer any sea.” Commentators have long debated the meaning of the absence of the sea (thalassa) in this text. Is this literal? And if it is literal, why would the sea not be part of the consummate order? Or is it metaphorical? And if so, of what is it a metaphor? Continue reading →