GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 25~ ~ Isaiah 25:8 ~ ~ “He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.”

From the book, We Shall See God

Homesick for Eden, part 2 ~ Randy’s comments on yesterday’s writing by Spurgeon.

RANDY ALCORN:

We are homesick for Eden.  We’re nostalgic for what is implanted in our hearts.  It’s built into us, perhaps at a genetic level.  We long for what the first man and woman once enjoyed—perfect and beautiful earth and free of unstained relationships, with God, one another, animals, and the environment.  Every attempt at human progress has been an attempt to overcome what was lost in the Fall.  If God’s plan were merely to take mankind to the present heaven or to a heaven that is the dwelling place of spirit beings, there would be no need for new heavens and a new earth.  Why refashion the stars of the heavens and the continents of the earth?  God could just destroy His original creation and put it all behind Him.  But that is not His plan.

Upon creating the heavens and the earth, God called them “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Never once has He renounced His claim on what He made.  He isn’t going to abandon His creation;  He’s going to restore it.  He won’t go to heaven and leave earth behind.  Rather, God will bring heaven and earth together in the same dimension, with no wall of separation, no armed angels to guard heaven’s perfection from sinful mankind (Genesis 3:24).  God’s perfect plan is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”  (Ephesians 1:10)

Albert Wolters says, “Redemption is not a matter of an addition of a spiritual or supernatural dimension to creaturely life that was lacking before;  rather, it is a matter of bringing new life and vitality to what was there all along… the only thing redemption adds that is not included in the creation is the remedy for sin, and that remedy is brought in solely for the purpose of recovering a sinless creation…Grace RESTORES nature, making it whole once more.

We have never seen the earth as God made it.  Our planet as we know it is a shadowy, halftone image of the original.  But it does whet our appetites for the new earth, doesn’t it?  If the present earth, so diminished by the curse, is at times so beautiful and wonderful and if our bodies, so diminished by the curse, are at times overcome with a sense of the earth’s beauty and wonder, then how magnificent will the new earth be?

Spurgeon speaks eloquently of what awaits this earth:  “Her curse shall be removed, her stains taken away, and this world shall be as fair as when God first formed her from His mind.”

Earth cannot be delivered from the curse by being destroyed.  It can be delivered only by being RESURRECTED.  Christ’s resurrection is the forerunner of our own, and our resurrection will be the forerunner of the earth’s.

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A little addition from  the book, “The Wonder of Heaven” by Ron Rhodes

Think about it.  In view of the sheer vastness of the stellar universe, it is truly amazing that God sovereignly chose our tiny planet as a center of divine activity.  Relatively speaking, the earth is but an astronomical atom among the Whirling constellations, only a tiny speck of dust among the ocean of stars and planets in the universe.  To the naturalistic astronomer, the earth is but one of many planets in our small solar system, all of which are in orbit around the sun, with any other solar systems, in many other galaxies.  But the earth is nevertheless the center of God’s work of salvation in the universe.  For, indeed, it was on the earth that God created humankind and has appeared to people throughout Biblical times.  It was on the earth that Jesus became incarnate and died for the sins of humankind.  It will be to the earth that the Lord Jesus comes again at the second coming.  And He will then create the new heavens and the new earth (Revelation 21:1-2; 22:3)

The centrality of the earth is also evident in the creation account, for God created the earth before He created the rest of the planets and stars.  Why did God create the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth rather than the first day?  Apparently because the earth is the central planet in God’s sovereign plan.

Tragically, as we think back to the scene in the Garden in which Adam and Eve sinned against God, we remember that a curse was placed upon the earth by God (Genesis 3:17-18 and see also Romans 8:20-22).  Hence, before the eternal kingdom can be made manifest, God must deal with this cursed earth.  We also remember that satan has long carried out his evil schemes on earth (see Ephesians 2:2).  and hence the earth must be purged of all stains resulting from his extended presence. 

In short, then, the earth—along with the first and second heavens (the earth’s atmosphere and the stellar universe)– must be renewed. 

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Hebrews 12:26-27

 “God will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven, and remove the things that can be shaken.”

Isaiah 65:17-19 – “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more

(Revelation 21:27).

“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” 

1 Corinthians 13:12

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

2 Peter 3:10

 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

Revelation 21:4

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

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Isaiah 53;6

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 8:20-23

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Genesis 3:1

“…..Has God really said……?”   (The lie of this fallen world ~ ~ Humanism, false religions, the occult, psychology, materialism—-all say, “….Has God REALLY said?….The Bible is just an outdated book that has been proven wrong.”   But we know better!

Genesis 3:4-5

“Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

(They say, “be enlightened—-don’t stay in the dark ages—open your eyes — get “woke”.. try this drug, you’ll understand everything.   When we die, we just cease to be, that’s all…….”)

Genesis 3:9-10

“But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

(And hasn’t the world been hiding from God ever since, lest their nakedness (sin) will show.?   They deny His existence, or change Him to suit themselves, so they aren’t found out.  Satan hasn’t changed his tactics in 4,000 years.)

Daniel 2:44

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

Daniel 7:27

Then the kingdom and dominion,

And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,

Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.

Isaiah 65:25

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

The lion shall eat straw like the ox,

And dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”

Says the LORD.

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