New Heaven | New Earth
Everyone likes to theorize about eschatology, or if you are not familiar with the big seminary words of theologians the study of the end times. Speculation is ongoing and heated debates have raged on over whether or not there will be a rapture, if this rapture will happen before, during, or after a seven-year tribulation—there is even a claim that there will be two raptures, one before and one after this tribulation—and many others. Many spend a lot of time trying to figure out who or what “The Harlot of Mystery Babylon” is—a city, a religion, or something else. And of course there is a long list of “preachers” who have forever tainted their name and ministry because they chose to predict the date Messiah will return—and they were wrong.
But there is one event that we can speak on with some level of certainty. It is the one eschatological event that we know cannot and will not happen until after all other events of end times speculation have come and gone. This, of course, is the passing away of the current heaven and earth to give way to the new heaven and earth.
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 (TLV)
There it is, at the end of the Book of Revelation that, with a minority exception, most scholars today interpret as a picture of what is to yet come in the future. Perhaps there is no better time to talk about this than in the midst of literal worldwide chaos and uncertainty. From the outbreak of a virus to rioting in the streets to large-scale explosions to reports of various natural plagues and storms to cash shortages it seems every day there is another breaking story shaking the world and altering the course of our lives.
But this is not what I want to draw focus on, actually. The fact is that there are two things of a particular interest that are linked directly to this event spoken of in Revelation 21 where the first heaven and earth pass away and are replaced by a new heaven and a new earth.
Every Yod And Every Serif
Amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or serif shall ever pass away from the Torah until all things come to pass. —Matthew 5:18 (TLV)
This verse is part of a broader context, first the immediate paragraph to which it belongs and also the full message being delivered by Yeshua, our Messiah. In the immediate context we see in the statement before it that Yeshua came not to abolish Torah but to fulfill it. This is a statement that confuses many, but it really shouldn’t because the statement clearly presents abolish and fulfill as opposite terms. Yet so many today read into the word fulfill a meaning that is somewhat equivalent to abolish.
The reality is that abolish means exactly what anyone would think it means. Fulfill, on the other hand, in its use in Matthew 5:17 has several potential meanings, none of them saying that Torah is abolished, abrogated, voided, done away with, or in any way no longer an essential part of biblical faith practice. This is a lie of modern religion that is to be avoided.
When you look at the word fulfill in the Greek, which is still considered the language the Gospels were written in (unless an actual original Hebrew document is fully verified), it is the word pléroó. It means: accomplish, amply supplied, complete, fully carry, fully preach/teach. You can also understand the way this word is applied in the verse by breaking it into the two root words that it is made from: fill full. So basically Yeshua was saying He came not to abolish Torah but to fill us who believe in His name full of Torah.
In addition to this there is a factor that the words abolish and fulfill were being used in this passage as a Hebrew idiom, a form of slang. In this case abolish has to do with wrongly interpreting Torah and fulfill with correctly interpreting Torah. If you have every listened to someone give a public speech that does not go well, today people will say: “Boy, he/she really butchered that speech.” That’s how abolish would apply in this context—Yeshua was saying: “I did not come to butcher the Torah with wrong interpretation…” So, applying this we see that Yeshua did not come to misinterpret Torah but to correctly interpret Torah, correctly teach Torah, and once again fill us full of His Father’s Torah.
Jumping over our subject text we land on verse 19 of Matthew 5 where we see that Torah-keeping and Torah-teaching at the very least determines our place in the Eternal Kingdom of God. I say at the very least because Torah-breaking also seems to play a factor in whether or not one is admitted into the Kingdom at all. It is a couple of chapters later where, in the same teaching, Yeshua says that there will be those rejected and cast away because of LAWLESSNESS—which in context is talking about not obeying God’s Law, The Torah (see Matthew 7:21-23).
My question is: How serious is your commitment to Yeshua and The Gospel if you are not committed to this one thing that He said makes you great in the Eternal Kingdom? Think about it. If a person is looking at this passage and saying: “Well, you know, it doesn’t matter if I keep Torah—it just means I won’t be one of those ‘great ones’, whatever that means” what does that say about their commitment to God in the first place? If you were really filled with the Spirit of God as a result of salvation through Yeshua you would be saying: I don’t know what that least in the Kingdom thing is but I don’t want any part of that—show me what this Torah-keeping stuff is so I can fully follow Him.
Then we come to the point that if your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes you won’t even be admitted entry into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20). Like I said, that “least in the Kingdom” thing requires you first to be allowed to enter into the Kingdom. And we are told here that we have to be more righteous than these religious leaders who have given their entire life to studying and following Torah—and if we don’t, we won’t be admitted into the Kingdom.
I realize there are people who do not like “scare tactics” or “fear mongering” in presenting these truths, but the fact remains that Scripture is clear that there are those who will be turned away by The Master because of commandments they broke. Some might be inclined at this point to say: No, that is legalism, your salvation rides only on the name of “Jesus”. Well, yes, salvation is in the name of Yeshua alone. However, 2 Corinthians 11:4 warns us that there will be counterfeits of Yeshua, so there needs to be a little something more to it so you know you have the real Messiah.
1 John 2:4 says that whoever claims to know Him but does not keep the commandments is a liar and the truth is not in them. Psalm 119:142 says that The Torah is truth and Jeremiah 31:32/Hebrews 8:10 says that the new covenant is where Torah is put into your mind and written on your heart. So what John was actually saying is that If you claim to know Him but don’t obey the commandments you are a liar and The Torah is not in you—because The Torah is THE truth.
The text says that until heaven and earth pass away not one yod or serif will pass from the Torah. The yod is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet and a serif, some Bibles say tittle, is the accent and vowel markings on the Hebrew letters. One of my ministry friends says that serif/tittle refers to the little decorations on the Hebrew letters, though this sounds to be more descriptive of an ancient form of Hebrew known as the Ktav Ashuri (aka the Assyrian script and the Ashurit script). Modern Hebrew uses a series of dots and dashes added to the letters to denote accents and vowel sounds.
The point of this statement is to say that until this time when heaven and earth passes away The Torah remains as the standard of righteousness and holiness that the new covenant Believer is fully held to. If the “not under the law Christians” of modern religion would get an understanding of this they would not roll the dice on their eternity. And the reasons they do this is generally absurd. They are not rolling the dice on all of God’s Law—they are doing it only with parts of Torah. Most specifically, they are gambling with the Judgment Seat of Messiah because they want to eat unclean foods, they don’t want to celebrate God’s Mo’edim (the Spring and Fall Feasts), the want to hold onto their secular-pagan ‘holidays’ of Christmas and Easter, and they do not want to keep The Sabbath. And that last one, The Sabbath, leads us to the next point of discussion regarding the yet in the future passing away of heaven and earth and establishment of the new heaven and earth.
From Sabbath To Sabbath
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered or come to mind. —Isaiah 65:17 (TLV) “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“so your descendants and your name will endure.”
“And it will come to pass, that from one New Moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, all flesh will come to bow down before Me,” says Adonai. —Isaiah 66:22-23 (TLV)
Here we find the first biblical reference to this future new heaven and new earth. What’s interesting about this is that Isaiah 66 as a whole is generally accepted as a Messianic prophecy about the return of Messiah, which leads to these two verses at the end of the chapter that align with Revelation 21:1.
Of additional interest is that earlier parts of this chapter in Isaiah mirror the description of Messiah’s return in Revelation 19. So there is clearly no doubt that the whole chapter is prophetically speaking of the end of the age. I cover some of this in my article The Isaiah Factor where several detailed Messianic prophesies from Isaiah are discussed.
I want you to notice that this passage in Isaiah says that in this new heaven and new earth all flesh—those who are admitted into the Eternal Kingdom, of course—will bow down to worship God from New Moon to New Moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath. A New Moon is essentially the beginning of a biblical new month, as the Hebrew calendar system is based on the lunar cycle. But what I find most intriguing here is that this says from one Shabbat to another, or to say it another way from Sabbath to Sabbath.
The modern Christian likes to fight against The Sabbath, making the claim “Jesus is my Sabbath”. This comes from a weird interpretation of what is stated in the Book of Hebrews. Let’s take a look.
So there remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered God’s rest has also ceased from his own work, just as God did from His. —Hebrews 4:9-10 (TLV)
The modern anti-Sabbath “Christian” jumps through hoops of mental gymnastics to make this verse say that “Jesus is our Sabbath”. But the reality is that this verse does not say that at all. The writer of Hebrews was certainly familiar with the closing statements in the prophet Isaiah’s book, and well aware that the future hope was that The Sabbath will remain and in the Eternal Kingdom be kept without hindrance from the enemies of God.
It is the contention of some modern scholars who have reevaluated the traditional view of Hebrews that the letter was written after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D., when the Romans razed it. While the traditional view claims that Hebrews was written earlier, the language of the book suggests that it was actually written for the benefit of those who followed Messiah that were left with uncertainties about how to continue worshiping their God without a Temple. The idea, then, in the case of Hebrews 4:9, would be: They might be able to destroy a Temple made by the hands of men, but they cannot take away The Sabbath established in time by the mouth of God.
Let’s think about this logically for a moment. The passage in Isaiah is talking about what will happen in the Eternal Kingdom. If “Jesus is our Sabbath”, as modern religion would have us to believe, then does it make sense at all to render the Isaiah passage to say “From Jesus to Jesus all flesh will bow down before God”? Of course that sounds ridiculous!
And we can make it even more ridiculous if we do what many “Christians” would have us do in placing the name of “Jesus” into the Isaiah text, thus rendering the passage to say: “From Jesus to Jesus all flesh will bow down before Jesus”. Now, I am not at all suggesting a denial of the deity of Yeshua. However, the Isaiah passage is clearly referring to The Father—Abba Yah. I am merely pointing out just how absolutely absurd modern religion gets with Replacement Theology and Calvinist heresies.
Obviously if “Jesus is our Sabbath” then the prophetic words of Isaiah make no sense at all. Which leads us to an all important question: If Yeshua kept The Sabbath, and we know He did, and the Apostles kept The Sabbath, and we know they did, and Isaiah says that in the new heaven and new earth all flesh will keep The Sabbath, where does modern “Christian” religion come up with this idea that The Sabbath is not to be kept today?
You know, the commandment is to do no work on The Sabbath. Many debate about the meaning of a “holy convocation” and some turn to Nehemiah and debate about buying and selling on The Sabbath, points I have addressed in other messages specifically about The Sabbath. But ultimately the primary commandment, at the very least, is that we are not to work on The Sabbath. It’s funny, you know, I have never seen anyone in my life work so hard to fight against having a day off as “Christians” who are deceived into thinking they are not “required” to keep The Sabbath. I hate to keep repeating myself, but this too is absolutely absurd.
Where Righteousness Dwells
But in keeping with His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. —2 Peter 3:13 (TLV)
Here we find the last remaining reference in Scripture to the new heaven and new earth. Peter refers to this as God’s promise, indicating that this is our future hope in Messiah. Notice he says that in this new heaven and new earth is where righteousness dwells. Let’s take a moment and examine this word righteousness.
The word righteousness is an extension of the word righteous, of course. The Greek word for righteous is δίκαιος (dikaios), and part of the accepted definition of this word is: observing divine laws, keeping the commands of God. This means that righteousness, in a biblical application, is the act of following Torah.
This is interesting because The Torah will then be kept in the Eternal Kingdom—but then what do we do with the passing away of Torah at the creation of the new heaven and new earth?
The answer is simple, actually. We do the same thing we do with Torah under the new covenant. In the old covenant Torah was written on parchment and tablets of stone and the responsibility fell on the people to follow the commandments. All through the instructions of the old covenant God said “you will, you will, you will”. It was even the responsibility of the people, individually, to put Torah into their own heart and mind.
In the new covenant The Torah remained The Torah, but God took on the responsibility saying “I will, I will, I will”, even making the sign and seal of the new covenant the fact that He will Himself, personally, put The Torah in the mind and write The Torah on the heart of those who enter into the covenant. He also said that He will put His Spirit within the new covenant Believer, and His Spirit will cause the Believer to keep The Torah (see Ezekiel 36:26-27).
So when the new heaven and new earth come into being, after the passing away of the old heaven and earth, The Torah will remain The Torah but everything else will be made new. This is why, again in Hebrews, it says: “In saying ‘new,’ He has treated the first as old; but what is being made old and aging is close to vanishing” (Hebrews 8:13). A lot of people refer to this passage in an attempt to claim that the “old law” [Torah] is passed away, but that is not what it is saying at all. It was the old covenant that passed away with the establishment of the new covenant, but The Torah remained the same.
A proper approach to interpreting The Bible includes the rule that Scripture interprets Scripture. When we consider what other parts of The Bible say about something old being replaced with something new, so often we find out that it’s not what the Western/American thought of modern Christianity thinks it is. In actuality, Hebrew thought from Scripture is not the total annihilation of the old as so many think. I discuss this in greater depth in my article Will God Destroy The Earth?
Think about it. The earth was “destroyed” by a flood and everything made “new” between Genesis 6 and Genesis 9. But the earth was not really destroyed and a “new” earth replacing it, we know this.
Some people feel it is better to use the word renewed when dealing with the new covenant and the new heaven and earth. The problem with renewed is that it is often presented wrong, as there are clearly things that are new about the new covenant and there will be things new about the new heaven and earth.
Product manufacturers make their products using technical data such as engineering drawings or detailed specifications that outline instructions for those who are involved with the actual development of the item. Periodically this information is reviewed. Sometimes in the review nothing changes, other times updates are made. After that it is renewed and approved for continued use. What doesn’t change is the end product. The quality of the product might be improved, and the company may decide to do more detailed testing to ensure they are making a good product, but the new technical data still results in the same end item.
In like manner, the end item of the old covenant and the new covenant is a life of Torah-obedience. Any presentation of a biblical covenant that does not require obedience to Torah is a counterfeit of the true covenant. The new covenant is absolutely new, but there are things that never change—and the most essential thing that never changes is The Torah.
In Isaiah’s and Matthew’s record of the new heaven and new earth we see that Torah is clearly going to remain. While Yeshua said that until heaven and earth pass away not one yod or serif of the Torah will pass away, the fact is that even after this event the Torah will still not pass away. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will have a renewed Torah. It will be the same Torah, but it will be given new life. Just like manufacturers renew their technical data to continue making new products.
We see very clearly that The Sabbath will be a major part of life in the Eternal Kingdom. It will not be “every day is a Sabbath” as some people claim. I even once heard a very misguided preacher say that every day in God’s Kingdom will be “Sunday”—you know, as if God would make every day in His Kingdom the day named for sun-god worship. Isaiah’s prophecy is very clear that there will be months and weeks—from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another all who enter into the Kingdom will worship God. To say that every day will be a Sabbath would be like saying every day will be a month when you consider both weeks and months are highlighted in the Isaiah passage.
Righteousness is the act of keeping The Torah. If your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes you do not get to enter the Kingdom, but then Peter tells us that life in the new heaven and the new earth is where righteousness dwells. So we have to be righteous [Torah-observant] to be admitted into the Eternal Kingdom and then we will be righteous [Torah-observant] after we are admitted into the Eternal Kingdom. You see, the only logical conclusion in all of this is that modern religion is confused and the preachers, whether they know it or not, are lying to people and deceiving them from embracing the very keys of the Kingdom.
Always remember that Genesis 3:1-3 reveals to us that it is the serpent that leads people to questioning the commandments of God—“Hath God said?” Revelation 12:9 tells us exactly who that ancient serpent is: the devil. Make no mistake about it, Satan is the serpent and ANYONE who tells you that you do not have to keep Father’s Torah as a Christian is a servant of Satan, the ancient serpent. Let me clarify that for you: MOST CHRISTIAN PASTORS TODAY ARE SERVANTS OF SATAN PREACHING A HERETICAL MESSAGE AGAINST FULL TORAH-KEEPING.
And here’s an even more subtle deception creeping into the churches: With the growing interest in Torah-keeping, many “Christian Pastors” who want to appease the masses are teaching that it’s not wrong to follow Torah but its also not mandated. They will say that the food laws are a good idea for your health, but they will not go so far as to admit Revelation 21:8, where the abominable (or detestable in some translations) are on the list, says that eating unclean animal meats will send you to hell—as the act of eating unclean meats is repeatedly called an abomination (or detestable) in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. They will say that it’s fine to keep The Sabbath (or “a sabbath”, making it a concept where you can work in your day of rest whenever it is convenient for you), just so long as you don’t try to say it’s “mandatory” to all who follow Yeshua. They promote the Feasts as a good way to grasp the cultural context of Scripture—and some, sadly, to make them another gimmick to sway their people to give them money—but they neither “impose” them on their “Christian congregation” nor demand the abandoning of secular-pagan ‘holidays’ like Christmas and Easter.
This is extreme error as it is telling people they don’t really have to obey The Bible. You had best watch out for these wolves in sheep’s clothing that have been sent by Satan to deceive the masses. These modern preachers are not shepherds of God’s people; they are the ones sowing tares into the wheat. They preach half-truths that sound good and hype up a crowd, but they are leading billions of people on the broad path that leads to destruction.
Look, there are 2.2 BILLION people who profess Christian faith worldwide. That is one-third of the population of the earth. I assure you that the narrow path our Messiah spoke of—the one He said FEW would find—is NOT a religion that claims one-third of the world’s population. Especially when that religion is not teaching people to follow the whole Word of God. The Apostle said that ALL SCRIPTURE is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Think about that training in righteousness part of the statement. As we have already seen, righteousness is Torah-keeping. ALL SCRIPTURE is essential for training in Torah-keeping. And that would especially include Torah itself. How can you be trained, under the new covenant, in Torah-keeping without The Torah? Christianity literally wants you to believe that the very thing we are to be trained to follow, The Torah, has been abolished. This is absolute heresy!
Jewish tradition holds that Torah existed before the foundations of the world and that God looked into the Torah and from it created the world. In a Talmudic period Midrash titled Bereishit Rabbah (The Great Genesis) it is stated: “So too Hashem gazed into the Torah and created the world.” This is not to say that I endorse Rabbinic and Talmudic beliefs, but it is interesting that this is a longstanding belief among the Rabbis.
Assuming that the Rabbis are correct about this, then Torah was used to create the world we live in and is the foundation for all life on earth. The Sabbath, which is established in Genesis 2, continues into eternity. I have shown in numerous past messages that such things as the food laws, farming laws, and hygiene laws are all woven into the design of Creation and breaking these commandments negatively impacts all life on earth. Messianic Jewish author Dr. Dinah Dye, in her books The Temple Revealed In Creation and The Temple Revealed In The Garden, shows that the model of The Temple, for which more than half of the Torah commandments pertain, is woven into the design of the earth and Creation.
Simply put, the more you learn about the importance and role of Father’s Torah in the world we live in, how it is a series of instructions that are the keys to life on our planet, the more you will see how wrong modern Christianity is in rejecting it. If you want to live in God’s Eternal Kingdom, where the heaven and the earth will be made new, you need to follow Torah—for it is the narrow path that leads to life. Sadly, we live in a world where every “Christian” has it, it’s in their Bibles, and yet still few find it.
~Blessings and Shalom~
©2020 Truth Ignited Ministry
