What, If Any, Is The Continuity Between The Current Heavens And Earth And The New Ones Of 2 Peter 3?: A Study Of The

Then, Now, And Not Yet

14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (2 Pet 3)

19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Rom 8)

My Thesis

The “end of the world” (and I’m using the phrase accommodatively) “judgment-destruction-redemption scenario” mentioned in 2 Peter 3 is parallel to/with (and I’m talking “type-antitype” here) the “judgment-destruction-redemption scenario” of the Genesis flood. And because it is, there may be as much continuity between the current (or “are now”)…

My Thesis

heavens and earth and the new (or “not yet”) ones to come as there was/is between the antediluvian (or “then existed”) world that “perished” (apōleto) in the Genesis flood (2 Pet. 3:6) and the post-diluvian (or “are/is now”) one in which we presently live.

Three Worlds

the antediluvian world, called “the world that then existed” (3:6)

the current world, which is called “the heavens and the earth which are now” (3:7)

the future world, which is called the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (3:13)

The Type-Antitype Scenario

1) The coming judgment of the ungodly.2) The coming deliverance of the righteous.3) The coming destruction of the present

universe.4) The framing “by the word of God” (cf.

Heb. 11:3) of the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13).

Three QuestionsIf there is continuity between the current

H&E and the NN&E, does this have any detrimental effect on anything else taught in Scripture?

Does something being in heaven (i.e., reward, crown, treasure, etc.) necessarily mean that is where we must go to obtain it, or could it mean it is safe and secure in the hands of God?

How much bearing does the apocalyptic scenario and apocalyptic language have on the scenario described for us by Peter?