Novelty is a fickle temptress. We are all fascinated with new things. The promise of something new is alluring. A new restaurant, no matter what its offers, will boom for six months. Every new social media platform renders all others passé. And when Dr. Oz recommends a new product, demand skyrockets. But it doesn’t take long for the euphoria of fashionability to yield to a longing for the good old ways – the old places, the old platforms, and the tried and true products. Novelty is a fickle temptress. We love change, so long as it doesn’t actually change anything. As the excitement of discovery cools, we fear that newer may not always be better.
But novelty does offer an appeal. Businesses understand this. This is why beloved restaurants tinker with their menus and discount furniture stores are perpetually going out of business only to reopen under a new name. When market share stagnates, products become ‘new and improved’ and businesses go ‘under new management.’ The word ‘new’ pricks our attention. It arouses consumer desire, but often, not consumer discernment.
Just what is new? How is it improved? Why, if at all, did it need to be improved? Is the change an improvement? Some of us are old enough to remember the New Coke debacle of 1985, and it jaded us. The phrase ‘new and improved’ evokes suspicion. And ‘under new management’ is often an admission of serious problems.
But what is true of our economics is even more important for our theology. The Bible speaks of our final state in heaven as the New Heavens and the New Earth. Paul reminds us that in Christ we are new creations. And Revelation tells us that after the Great White Throne Judgement, the one seated on the throne declares, “Behold I am making all things new.” But what is included in “all things?” And how are all things made “new?” In what way will the earth and the heavens be made new? And what will new life be like in new bodies on a new earth?
Our suspicion of things labeled “new and improved” sometimes applies to our thoughts about heaven. Many believers view heaven with anticipated disappointment, fearing that it represents the loss of fun, food, and fellowship. Replacing the good things of this life with an unending church service and relentless boredom. Impoverished theology and superstitious, speculative teaching about heaven have robbed us of the hope and joy that biblical teaching about heaven amply supplies.
The final state of believers is a new and improved life on a new and improved earth set within a new and improved cosmos. But just what does the Bible say about the nature of the New Heavens and the New Earth? And what will life be like there?
Join us as we examine Romans 8:18-25 and consider what the Bible teaches about the nature of the New Heavens and the New Earth. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join our livestream on YouTube.
