Will We Live on Earth after the Resurrection?

Isaiah 65:17 reveals that the Lord will someday create new heavens and a new earth. Will the recreated world look anything like the planet on which we live? Today, Derek Thomas reflects on the future the state of the universe after the resurrection of the dead.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: I'm here on the Ligonier campus with Dr. Derek Thomas, one of our teaching fellows. Dr. Thomas, will we live on the earth after the resurrection?

DR. DEREK THOMAS: Yes. The closing chapters of Isaiah speak of a new heavens and new earth, and it's a theme that is picked up by Peter in 2 Peter. And then the closing chapters of the book of Revelation returns to this theme.

Lutherans and Calvinists have been on different sides as to what earth is in mind. Lutherans tended to think that the earth, this present universe, is going to be burned up and a new earth is going to be made.

Calvinists were more along the line of restoration, and that sin would be eradicated from this universe, but that the future universe, the new heavens and new earth, is essentially this universe apart from sin.

So yes, we're not talking about the intermediate state, what we sometimes call heaven. But we're talking about the final state, and that final state will look like this, except for sin.