II Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Notice the context of these verses – day of the Lord and day of God, neither of which are a 24-hour day.
The day of the Lord begins at the rapture for the saved and begins at the second coming for Israel and extends through the millennium.
The day of God is eternity which starts after the millennium.
If you define these two terms any other way, you will get away from pre-millennial doctrine.
Anyhow, the heavens (plural so that includes heaven #1 above the earth where the birds fly and heaven #2 which is the firmament of the universe where the stars and galaxies are, the “deep” which separates heaven #2 from heaven #3, and even beyond the “deep”) shall be dissolved and restored at the end of the day of the Lord, right before the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11).
That is quite the big bang! Why does all this have to be restored? – so righteousness may dwell therein.
Isaiah 51:6
but my salvation shall be for ever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Now, another big Bible statement; really big; really, really, big; so big you cannot possibly wrap your mind around it. You should be beginning to see that God and the Bible are far beyond any fantasy or mythological thoughts of man. God and the Bible are way up there beyond our wildest thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8-9 again).
OK, here it is:
Hebrews 1:10-12
10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Do you know what a vesture is? It is a garment or covering. The Lord is going to take at least the universe and fold it up and change it. He stretched it into place to begin with, so now he is going to fold it up.
Psalm 104:2
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Now, that is a big God. So the Lord God Almighty (and that’s a serious understatement), who fills heaven and earth, actually does have the whole world in his hands.
Jeremiah 23:24
Can any hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.
Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
The only other way of looking at this is that the “word of God” has the power to make these changes occur and he fills heaven and earth with his Spirit.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, .....
Hebrews 11:3
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
He spoke things into existence in Genesis 1,
so I can see how He would speak new things into existence later on. Either way, the power and its results are the
same.
I am now going to give you my personal opinion about the power of the word of God. You can call me crazy, but I am trusting my eternal soul to His word, words, and Word. The more powerful it-they-He are, the more secure I am. And, again, the word of God is not bound (II Timothy 2:9), so I am not going to try and bind it.
I have looked at the Hubble deep field images and have an appreciation for the massive things God spoke into existence. I have also thought about the healing miracles that Jesus performed while on earth and how intimate and deep an event must take place in someone’s body for a perfect healing to take place.
In John 5:8 Jesus made the lame man whole by just saying “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
In John 7:23 he said about the same man, “I have made a man every whit whole".
A whit then must be the smallest component of something, as Jesus just defined it. Do you know what the smallest component of life or an element is? Is it a protein molecule or an amino acid or a quark? We think we do, but no matter how small the component that we perceive is, there is something smaller making up that component, some whits. And these whits obey the words of God.
I have also thought about the element of life in the word of God:
Hebrews 4:12 - quick, and powerful
Galations 3:8 - scripture, foreseeing ..... preached
and the things that the word of God can do:
James 1:21 - word, which is able to save your souls
Hebrews 11:3 - worlds were framed by the word of God
All of this happens as a direct result of spoken words, words of God. There is an unbroken Spirit connection between the spoken words of God and the elements (composed of whits) obeying Him.
And the worlds were, are, and will be framed by the word of God. The frame of something is the basic supporting element that is holding something up. And our bodies are composed of matter so intricate that even the Lord refers to us as a collection of whits. But even a whit has an underlying, life-giving component of some kind.
When I get right down to it, I believe the word of God is the primary foundation for all things created and all things living. It is not bound (II Timothy 2:9) in any way. That is why inanimate things (like new heavens and a new earth) can be spoken into existence and living things (like human bodies) can be corrected by words from the Lord. Not by man’s words in the name of Jesus, by the Lord’s words from the Lord’s mouth according to his perfect will.
The spoken words of God control everything, “so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”. We can’t see the basic element of anything because “things which are seen are not made of things which do appear”.
So, atoms are not the most basic element of things. Whits are the most basic element of things. |
In their most elemental form, things are made up of whits which receive power by the word of God transported by the spirit of God, which cannot be seen.
The black and white words in a Bible are for reading and studying, but the words themselves represent the actual power of God. So say the author.
Here are the verses that help me with this belief:
Ecclesiastes 8:4, Where the word of a king is,
there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? All kings have word power,
especially the King of Kings.
Luke 4:36, And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. His words controlled spirits.
Hebrews 1:3, Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: Upholding all things by the word of his power is self-explanatory. This is easy to understand, but hard to believe.
Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God is alive and powerful, controlling spiritual things. This also applies to the Word of God, who will use the word of God as a standard of judgment.
Galations 3:8, And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. The scripture is alive – foreseeing, preaching, and saying.
James 1:21, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. When the word is engrafted (planted) into you, it (the engrafted word) can save your soul. The word is spiritually engrafted and is spiritually made the actual living power source of your salvation.
SO, again:
II Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we,
according to his promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness.
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