The Earth Made New Again
The Earth Made New AgainPsalm 78:69
“There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens,as solid and enduring as the earth.”
There are a number of passages in the Bible which state unequivocally that the earth, in some form, is going to continue eternally.
Ecclesiastes 1:4
Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes
However, this present earth and its atmospheric heavens must first be purged of all the age-long effects of sin and the curse, which now affect the very elements (or “dust of the earth”).
Therefore,
2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment
Evidently, this fiery cataclysm is not an annihilation of the earth and its atmosphere, but rather a great exchange of energies.
The earth’s very elements will probably be converted into sound and heat energies by mass-energy nuclear-conversion processes, in order to burn out the great fossil beds and all other relics of sin and the curse.
Then, however, God will reverse the process, converting these and other energies back into matter, thus “renewing” the primeval earth, which originally had been “very good”
Genesis 1:31Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
2 Peter 3:13
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness.
It is this new earth (that is, the earth made new) which will then continue forever.
Isaiah 66:22
"As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain, so will you always be my people,with a name that will never disappear,"says the Lord.“
Romans 8:21
The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
Then we shall forever “be with the Lord”
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.