The new earth and the new heaven?

[Heaveniswaiting]

When this new earth in the bible is created, will it still be the same as the earth now, with the same countries, oceans, mountains, but just without sin and suffering?.. for example if I wanted to travel to africa, will the country, the food and culture still bethe same?

 

[Roguish]

No. The “New Earth & New Heaven” will be a completely new Creation: pristine, fresh, and paradisiac. It will have no ties, historical or otherwise, to our current world. This may seem disappointing if you’re still interested in seeing Africa and its cultures (which are indeed beautiful) and don’t expect you’ll get around to it in this lifetime. But actually it’s for the best. We need a clean break, and besides, the New Creation will trump everything this world has to offer. And if you make it there — and I hope you will — you won’t remember this problem-ridden old world anyway. (Thanks for asking the question.)

 

[SeekHisFace]

Perhaps we are already there.

I’m so glad that this is false. How horrible if this is as good as the renewed earth gets.

I am longingly looking forward to The new heaven and earth “where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13) because all around I see evidence of the creation groaning in the pants of childbirth until it is renewed (Romans 8:20-22)

 

[SeekHisFace]

When this new earth in the bible is created, will it still be the same as the earth now, with the same countries, oceans, mountains, but just without sin and suffering?.. for example if I wanted to travel to africa, will the country, the food and culture still bethe same?

I understand your longing, but all we will enjoy in the new earth will be far greater than the beauty of our earth now, and your knowledge of the cultures of the earth will be far greater than what you could experience with a brief visit on earth. The answer is “no, but it will be better! Far better!”

 

[openmind77]

The “New Earth & New Heaven” will be a completely new Creation: pristine, fresh, and paradisiac.

Does this mean the Old Earth (the current one) will be destroyed, annihilated? Is this the Church’s position or just your belief?

 

[Roguish]

mankind has learned how to harness previously hidden energy sources and has invented associated devices such as the automobile and computer.

Mankind has learned to rape the earth, destroying 85% of its forest cover in the process, polluting air and water to the point of toxicity, and turning most humans into routine operators of mechanical and electronic machines, who live their lives entirely divorced from Nature as God created it. But… to each his own. If you think this world is pretty cool and might as well be the New Earth for all you care, you’re welcome to stay put here.

 

[SeekHisFace]

Does this mean the Old Earth (the current one) will be destroyed, annihilated? Is this the Church’s position or just your belief?

I do not know how your Church interprets it, you might have to check your catechism, but you might be interested in these verses in 2 Peter

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment anddestruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed"
2 Peter 3:7-10

Also Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

 

[GEddie]

I don’t believe it is scriptural that we will not remember our human life.

And if we do remember our human life, we will remember where it was lived.

ICXC NIKA

 

[TominAdelaide]

Have checked this verse (“then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” from Revelation 21:1) with the bible commentaries I have:

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (Scott Hahn):

21:1. new heaven … new earth: Not entirely new, but entirely renewed (21:5). John sees all creation transformed and made radiant with the glory of God. It is no longer a world subject to death and decay and suffering the damaging effects of human sin (Gen 3:17-18; Rom 8:20-22). The process of cosmic regeneration has begun in the New Covenant as believers are made part of the new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), but John is presented with heaven and earth once this process is complete (CCC 1042-48). The imagery comes from Isaiah, who prophesies a new beginning for Israel and the world in terms of a new creation (Is 65:17). He envisions this in connection with the universal worship of the Lord by all flesh (Is 66:22-23). the sea was no more: The abode of death and evil will be drained away (13:1; 20:13; 21:4). In apocalyptic and poetic texts, the sea often represents chaos and the habitation of all things dreadful and demonic (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Is 27:1; Dan 7:3).

Haydock Bible Commentary:

21:1. New, by their form and qualities, but not by their substance.—The first heaven and first earth was passed away: being changed, not as to their substance, but in their qualities.

Navarre Bible Commentary:

21:1. Scripture nowhere indicates what form the new heaven and the new earth will take. However, what is clear is that there will be a radical “renewal” of the present cosmos, contaminated as it is by the sin of man and the powers of evil (cf. Gen 2:8–3:24; Rom 8:9–13); through this renewal all creation will be “recapitulated” in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10; Col 1:16–20).

Those who will inhabit this new world (symbolized by the Holy City, the new Jerusalem) are the entire assembly of the saved, the entire people of God (cf. vv. 12–14)—a holy people disposed to live in loving communion with God (as reflected by the image of the adorned bride: cf. vv. 2, 9). The promise of a new covenant (Ezek 37:27) will be fulfilled to the letter: God will see to it that none of the evil, suffering or pain found in this world will find its way into the new world. The Second Vatican Council says: “We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man nor the way the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, whose happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men. Then with death conquered the children of God will be raised in Christ and what was sown in weakness and dishonour will put on the imperishable: charity and its works will remain, and all of creation, which God made for man, will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Gaudium et spes, 39).

continued….

 

[TominAdelaide]

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

21.1. When God completes his redemption of the human race, he will radically renew creation so it can be “set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). The new Jerusalem does not remain in heaven, but comes down out of heaven and must therefore be located on the new earth. Christians are accustomed to speak of going to heaven, and that is accurate enough until Christ returns. This text indicates that God’s ultimate plan for the human race is not that we go to heaven, but that heaven, the dwelling of God, comes to a re-created earth. Revelation tells us less than we would like to know about our ultimate future, but this hint is tantalizing. When the resurrection occurs, besides receiving back real but radically transformed bodies, we will live on a transformed earth.

Sacra Pagina:

21.1. The end of this world of ours will mark the emergence of the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (3:13). But it will still be heaven and earth—a dwelling for humankind. The “new” will be a transformation of the “old.” It “is not another world (that would mean contempt for and rejection of the original good creation), but our earthly world redeemed from being out of joint—though I do not know how to imagine this” (Schillebeeckx, Church, 133) … This is not a restoration of our broken world to its imagined original state, but a transformation beyond imagining, a transformation so radical as to be a “new creation.”

Catechism of Catholic Church:

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

1044 In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.634 "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."635

continued….

 

[TominAdelaide]

1045 For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been "in the nature of sacrament."636 Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, “the holy city” of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."637 She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community.638 The beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion.

1046 For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material world and man:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God … in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay. … We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.639

1047 The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, “so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just,” sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.640

1048 "We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor the way in which the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away, and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men."641

1049 "Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society."642

1050 "When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise … according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom."643 God will then be “all in all” in eternal life:644

True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts on all things without exception. Thanks to his mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable promise of eternal life.645

http://w2.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm

 

[Crusader13]

From what I’ve read and understood with regards to this passage, the Church is the new heavens and new earth.

Meaning that the phrase is not meant to convey a literal new physical Heaven and Earth. It is referring to the temporal order of the old covenant versus the new. The old order (Heaven and earth) was that of the old covenant, the old Jerusalem.

The new covenant is that of the Church. The new holy nation, the New Heaven and Earth. This is spoken of in Isaiah 65 I believe and 66.