Revelation 21: 1-2

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What if anything does the Church officially say about the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation Chapter 21?

I think I’ve heard that Heaven and Earth in Revelation 21 will no longer be separate but will be one.

Also will our minds be wiped clean so that we have no memory of this sinful creation?
 
“Also will our minds be wiped clean so that we have no memory of this sinful creation?”

I’m going to start with this, because the answer is NO.

First off, Creation isn’t sinful. God made Creation perfect. Humans (Adam and Eve) fell and made Creation fall with them, because God had given them dominion over Creation and they were at its head. But Creation itself didn’t sin; it is “fallen” but it isn’t sinful.

Second, God is never going to wipe away our knowledge of anything. On the Day of Judgment, all things will be revealed, not hidden! As long as we are saved from the second death in Hell, whatever we have learned and done during our lives will help us during our eternal life, if only because we will have learned better. (And of course, if we are unrepentant and insist on going to Hell, nothing we have done or learned, however good, will help us.)

You will notice that Jesus, in His glory, still wears His scars and wounds. His wounds are a big part of His glory! And so we can assume that we will be like Him when we receive our glorified bodies; the scars of our struggles and victories against sin will be part of our beauty. He will wipe away our tears, but not our “war stories” of how He brought us triumph. He will reveal all, so that He can praise us – as the Bible says.

I’ll post again to answer your main question.
 
“What if anything does the Church officially say about the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation Chapter 21?”
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She says a lot of things in the ordinary magisterium, which basically means you’ve got to look up all kinds of old theology and Biblical commentary books to find out. 🙂 There have also been some papal documents about heresies and errors dealing with the life to come, so you can use them.

A good place to start, however, is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here’s the section on “Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth”. There’s also Article 1060 in the “In Brief” section right afterward, which notes that the material universe will be transformed.

“Gaudium et Spes” has this lovely section recapping Church teaching and Scripture:

“We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity,(15) nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide, and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart. Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with incorruptibility. Enduring with charity and its fruits, all that creation which God made on man’s account will be unchained from the bondage of vanity.”
“I think I’ve heard that Heaven and Earth in Revelation 21 will no longer be separate but will be one.”
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Well, obviously we don’t know for sure, but the nuptial symbolism of the Bride somehow also being the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven, and of God dwelling among His people in the New Jerusalem to such an extent that He’s their light to see by, etc., etc. seems to say that Heaven and Earth will at least be joined together/wedded, if not actually smooshed into one.

Bede, for example, notes Daniel’s vision of a stone not cut by hands (ie, Jesus) turning into a mountain and filling the whole world. He sees this as a prophecy of the time of the new heavens and new earth - that Jesus will visibly fill all things in some way, as well as the City.

There are all kinds of theories, many very lyrical. However, pretty much every teaching on this subject acknowledges that we don’t know how the prophecies will be fulfilled; and that what God has coming is beyond our imagination. So it’s pretty much all educated guessing and not much formal teaching from the Church. God is telling us to wait and see. 🙂

You can look for words like “consummation,” “renovation,” and so on.
 
Weareyoung said:
What if anything does the Church officially say about the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation Chapter 21?

I think I’ve heard that Heaven and Earth in Revelation 21 will no longer be separate but will be one.

Also will our minds be wiped clean so that we have no memory of this sinful creation?
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The Catechism doesn’t mention it, only that the Heavenly Kingdom will be opened to the just.Guess we will have to wait and see! 🤷
 
Mintaka said:
“Also will our minds be wiped clean so that we have no memory of this sinful creation?”

I’m going to start with this, because the answer is NO.

First off, Creation isn’t sinful. God made Creation perfect. Humans (Adam and Eve) fell and made Creation fall with them, because God had given them dominion over Creation and they were at its head. But Creation itself didn’t sin; it is “fallen” but it isn’t sinful.

Second, God is never going to wipe away our knowledge of anything. On the Day of Judgment, all things will be revealed, not hidden! As long as we are saved from the second death in Hell, whatever we have learned and done during our lives will help us during our eternal life, if only because we will have learned better. (And of course, if we are unrepentant and insist on going to Hell, nothing we have done or learned, however good, will help us.)

You will notice that Jesus, in His glory, still wears His scars and wounds. His wounds are a big part of His glory! And so we can assume that we will be like Him when we receive our glorified bodies; the scars of our struggles and victories against sin will be part of our beauty. He will wipe away our tears, but not our “war stories” of how He brought us triumph. He will reveal all, so that He can praise us – as the Bible says.

I’ll post again to answer your main question.
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Yes, my hypothesis was maybe not God wiping our minds per se, but that Jesus’ Blood has such power that it makes original sin never actually have happened because it has power over time itself (time being the measure of change). We are made into New Creations after Judgment Day when all secrets are revealed. Heaven and Earth pass away. We are part of Heaven\Earth, therefore my hypothesis was that we pass away and become totally principally New Creations.

If our knowledge of how exactly we get to the New Heaven\New Earth does not pass away I have a hard time reconciling it with Matthew 5:18

“Amen, I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place”

What is the Law (first five books of the Bible) but knowledge written into words? If Jesus is implying that even Scripture (which contains the stories that led up to Salvation) will pass away with Heaven and Earth, then how can we retain the knowledge of our struggles?

I’m under the impression that Jesus will keep His scars, but that doesn’t mean we will know how they got there. Also I have the impression that we will be rewarded for things we did here but that doesn’t mean we will know exactly why.

No matter what happens because God will be behind the New Heaven and New Earth, it will be absolutely perfect.

Also I’m not here to argue, just here to gain knowledge. If something is infallibly defined by the Church then I must believe it.
 
It seems that this is my nitpicky weekend. It’s fun stuff to think about, though, and rest assured that I’m glad you brought up this topic. It takes someone thoughtful to come up with such interesting questions!

Well, in our human weakness, we think that original sin being made to never happen sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, God hitting the reset button like that would be violating human free will and freedom of choice (which necessarily includes stupid evil choices that make humans less free). If He were going to do that, He never would have given us free will in the first place. (This might not prevent human time travelers from going at each other with their separate free wills, but I guess that’s a bit theoretical at the moment.)

Re: “until Heaven and Earth pass away” is the Hebrew/Aramaic “until,” which strictly means “up to the point in time of,” and implies absolutely nothing about what happens afterward. This fools us, because the English “until” is often more of a “in this state up to this point, and then the opposite”. Even in English, that’s not always how we used the word, of course; but now we do, and so it colors how we read the Bible.

Like the one about how David’s queen didn’t have children “until the day she died.” She didn’t have kids after that, either. But this is a good case of when, even in English, we don’t think of “until” as “until then, but then the opposite”. Which is a bit weird, because of course lots of things could happen on the day one dies. One could easily have children, or find the hidden treasure one has kept on looking for, on the day one dies. But English takes “until the day she died” as “never.”

This pleases me, because usually I think of Japanese as a language with all sorts of implications hidden behind the literal meaning. And yet, really, English is just as much of a language of implication; we’re just so used to it that we don’t notice.

Anyway, the whole thrust of teachings about God is that we will know more and understand more deeply when we are with Him than we know now, not that we will forget anything. Part of the Beatific Vision is knowledge. Our tears will be dried and we will feel joy, but not forget. Jesus Christ is the Word of God and He is eternal; the Word of God in the Bible isn’t going anywhere.

I should probably write more, but my brain is dead! Will say more if I think of anything!
 
I was looking through the bible before Mass today and randomly came across this verse.

Isaiah 65:17

“Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.”

Anyway one of the interesting things about God is that He (and his traits) are multidimensional (although I’d think infinitely dimensional.) We’ll have to wait and see what happens. It’s gonna be so exciting!
 
Weareyoung said:
What if anything does the Church officially say about the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation Chapter 21?

I think I’ve heard that Heaven and Earth in Revelation 21 will no longer be separate but will be one.

Also will our minds be wiped clean so that we have no memory of this sinful creation?
Click to expand...
Beginning with the following paragraphs, the Catechism addresses this matter:

***VI. THE HOPE OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH

1042 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:

The Church . . . will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.631

1043 Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, "new heavens and a new earth."632 It will be the definitive realization of God’s plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth."633
**
You can enter the Catechism section that includes this teaching here:
scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a12.htm#VI
 
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