Three Big Things

It is my opinion that a large percentage of Christians have misunderstood the Scriptures in three areas. Not only have many misunderstood these areas, I believe their teaching regarding these subjects are actually hurting efforts to bring people to Christ. The three subjects I am referring to are: Christ’s return, Hell, and Satan.

From what I have observed, most Christians don’t know what they believe regarding these subjects, they only know what they don’t believe. I have found that teaching anything that doesn’t agree with what has been traditionally taught regarding these subjects is met with swift condemnation. It does not matter what the Scripture clearly says, it does not matter that most have no firm thoughts as to what is correct.

These are subjects that can become very emotionally charged when differences of opinion are voiced. I understand this completely. I had a very emotional and angry response when someone began to partially explain some of this to me.

I was in a class on the book of Revelation 17 years ago when the teacher said he thought we were already in the ‘new heavens and new earth” spoken of in Revelation 21:1. I thought this was a ridiculous thing to say. I knew the teacher didn’t know the ramifications of this teaching. He had forgotten what I knew the Apostle Peter had said in 2 Peter 3:13 (NASB),

“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

If Peter was still looking for the New Heaven and New Earth, why weren’t we? What had happened between the time in which Peter wrote and now, that would indicate we were now in the New Heaven and New Earth? Nothing that I knew of.

I began to get my arguments together to correct this teacher that had taught something that was obviously so wrong. As I was studying over the next few days a strange thing happened. The more I studied the more I began to think he was right. This was very upsetting to me. I could not believe that not only was I wrong, but every preacher and teacher I had heard up to that point in life was wrong about this.

As I studied I began to see how this had an effect on what I thought concerning: Christ’s return, Hell, and Satan. I spent the next several years searching the Scripture regarding these subjects, trying to prove that what I had thought previously was correct. The more I studied, the more I saw that I was very wrong in what I had previously thought concerning these three subjects.

The New Heavens and New Earth

The Apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:13 (NASB),

13”But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

I had never really considered the first part of that verse. I always had only read this thinking about being in Heaven someday, after the Day of Judgement, when Jesus comes back, and the earth has been destroyed. What about the first part of this verse, “but according to His promise”. What promise? Where was that promise made?

The promise Peter refers to is found in the prophet Isaiah’s writings. Isaiah chapters 65 and 66 speak of the promise of a new heaven and earth. In Isaiah 65 the prophet wrote of God rejecting His people who have rejected Him, and allowing Himself to be found by a new nation. He said in Isaiah 65:1-3 (NASB):

1“I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me;

I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me.

I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’

To a nation which did not call on My name.

2“I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,

Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts

3 A people who continually provoke Me to My face,

Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks”

Isaiah wrote that the Jews were a rebellious people that followed their own thoughts and not God’s. From the time that the nation of Israel left Egypt, their history for the most part showed them to be disobedient to God. From the period of the wandering, through the Judges, and through the kings of Israel and Judah, there were only a few brief periods when the Jews were obedient to God. God was going to punish these people, as Isaiah went on to say in the next few verses. The Jews would be punished but His true servants, the ones who “found” Him, would be rewarded.

The Apostle Paul quoted from Isaiah 65:1-2 when he wrote Romans 10:20-21. Paul understood the fulfillment of these verses in Isaiah as the adding of the Gentles to God’s people, and the rejection of the Jewish people who had rejected Christ.

Isaiah went on to write in 65:12-16 (NASB):

12 “I will destine you for the sword,

And all of you will bow down to the slaughter.

Because I called, but you did not answer;

I spoke, but you did not hear. And you did evil in My sight

And chose that in which I did not delight.”

13Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD,

“Behold, My servants will eat, but you will be hungry.

Behold, My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty.

Behold, My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

14“Behold, My servants will shout joyfully with a glad heart,

But you will cry out with a heavy heart,

And you will wail with a broken spirit.

15“You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones,

And the Lord GOD will slay you.

But My servants will be called by another name.

16“Because he who is blessed in the earth

Will be blessed by the God of truth;

And he who swears in the earth

Will swear by the God of truth;

Because the former troubles are forgotten,

And because they are hidden from My sight!”

Again Isaiah presents a picture here of the Jewish nation being destined for punishment because they have rejected Him. Isaiah also foresaw a time in which God’s servants, both Jew and Gentile that call on Him will; eat, drink, rejoice, and “shout joyfully with a glad heart”, when “the former troubles are forgotten.”

Isaiah writes further of this time, when God’s true servants would be rewarded, as being the creation of a new heavens and earth. Isaiah 65:17-25 (NASB):

17“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;

And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.