“the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet 3:12, NKJV)
In our discussion of what exactly is stated in 2 Pet 3:10, about what we had always thought is concerned with the heavens and the earth that would be burnt with fire, we ended the last teaching with the implications of the verses following on that, verses 11 and 12: “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”
In the Manna of Day 534 to Day 613 we examined the Word in great detail, chronicling the teaching concerning the heaven(s), and tried to eliminate all the myths and traditions that go along with it. From this Scripture in 2 Pet 3:11-12 the conclusion which had been reached is again clearly confirmed. If there are people who are already in heaven, and this Scripture needs to be interpreted in physical and natural terms, the heavens will burn and pass away, but so the saved souls in heaven will also burn and disappear into the nothing. Rev 6:14 states it categorically: “And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up …” (ASV). The heavens “departed” (KJV), “was taken away” (BBE), “was removed” (ASV), “was withdrawn” (Rotherham), “disappeared” (NJB), “snapped shut like a book” (Msg), “passed away” (WNT), “vanished” (RSV).
Think about it – according to the images of heaven carried over by Choo Thomas and Mary Baxter and others, those that are heavenly bound are occupying themselves in the heavenly garden (I guess one can’t say working in the garden, or tilling the soil, or getting rid of thistles?) Or they are playing the harp in the heavenly mansion, others are walking along the golden streets, and then the entire space slowly starts burning, before it all disintegrates. (If this is how heaven comes to an end, would you still want to go?)
OF COURSE it is completely absurd to think along these lines, but sometimes one needs to point out the absurdity of things that are naturally understood (Jude 1:10). 1 Cor 2:13-14 explains it quite beautifully: “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Obviously what is said here is quite ironic, as many people think they are very spiritual by thinking about heaven in these terms, but they are actually being led by natural, sensory thoughts, and, according to James 3:15, these thoughts are “earthly, nonspiritual, … demoniacal”( Ampl).
Read 2 Pet 3:11-12 – when the “day of the Lord” comes, in other words God’s appearance or transmutation on earth, when He becomes “visible” to those who are awaiting Him for salvation, all false thought systems, governments, powers, principalities, etc (Eph 6:12) will be destroyed in the consuming fire of his Being.
- Selah: Is this what Jesus is eagerly awaiting in Mark 9:49?
- Read: Zach 13-14; Mal 1
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Zach 13:6 (Tip: 1 Cor 11:24)
