As St. Paul shows in 1 Corinthians 15, the risen Christ is the prototype for the new humanity. He exemplifies the “spiritual body” (soma pneumatikon)1 that believers will enjoy after their resurrection and judgment in the new heavens and the new earth. What God has prepared for the redeemed transcends human comprehension (1 Cor. 2:9). Therefore. for the most part, we must take the Bible’s descriptions of life in the redeemed state as metaphorical or analogical language.
Nevertheless, with regard to the resurrected body, we have a concrete example of what it will be like in the person of Jesus. Following the resurrection, Jesus displayed his glorified body and its capacities to the disciples, who then recorded these encounters in the Gospels. These accounts show that although the glorified body will remain physical, it will be mysteriously physical. Resurrected bodies will transcend the normal limitations of earthly bodies (1 Cor. 15:49).
Annihilationism?
Since the time of Luther, Lutheran theologians have disagreed about the nature continuity between the old and new creations. Some believed the new heavens and new earth would be the result of the destruction of the old creation and its replacement by a new creation. Others believed renewal of the original creation would form the new heavens and new earth would be.
Prior to Johann Gerhard, most Lutheran divines argued that creation would simply be renewed.2 Luther sometimes speaks of annihilation,3 and other times of renewal.4 Later, in the early-seventeenth century, Gerhard promoted the idea that the old creation would be completely annihilated and replaced by a new creation.5 This type of annihilationism largely prevailed in conservative Lutheran circles down to the present day.6
The Lutheran confessional writings do not take a particular stance on this issue. Therefore, different positions on this subject need not be Church dividing. That being said, the question of the continuation of the physical universe is not wholly irrelevant. Indeed, some answers to the question are better than others. Although we do not have the space to go through all of Gerhard’s exegetical arguments here, his main point is that the Bible contains multiple descriptions of cosmic collapse, and even annihilation, in passages dealing with eschatology.
However, as Anglican theologian N.T. Wright has shown, when read in context, verses describing cosmic collapse or annihilation usually refer to the destruction of a particular religio-political order. These passages also draw on eschatological language from Old Testament prophecies. The little apocalypses of the Synoptic tradition are a prime example of both phenomena. In the Gospels, Jesus’s words about cosmic collapse have to do with the destruction of Israel as a political entity. The language of annihilation is especially pertinent because the Temple itself was literally a microcosm of creation under the order of the law and sin. Thus, Jesus’s teaching on the End Times likely has nothing to do with literal cosmic collapse.7
Even 2 Peter 3:12’s description of the “melting of the elements” need not be taken completely literally. Such language metaphorically describes the purification and judgment of the cosmos. Throughout the Bible, fire is both a means of purification and a metaphor for judgment.8
The Final Renewal of Creation
Therefore, based on exegetical evidence, it is better to think of the present creation as glorified and renewed at the eschaton, rather than annihilated. Eschatological renewal accords better with God’s faithfulness in sustaining and redeeming his original creation than destroying and replacing it. Additionally, eschatological renewal finds support in the more literal and less analogical/symbolic descriptions of the eschaton in Paul’s epistles.
Paul writes of the subjection of creation to finitude and degradation, and its final liberation at the eschaton: “the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:20-21). As should be clear from this passage, Paul does not envision creation being replaced, so much as liberated. If God simply annihilated and replaced the creation at the eschaton, Paul’s description of its liberation makes little sense.9 Rather, creation will be renewed and sustained forever in perfect freedom from sin and death.
- See discussion in: Wright, Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3:347-356. ↩︎
- Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3:542-543. ↩︎
- House Sermon on the Creed (1537); LW 57:245. ↩︎
- Sermon on Trinity 4 on Romans 8:18-22; LW 78:153-171. ↩︎
- Johann Gerhard, On the End of the World, On Hell, or Eternal Death, trans. Richard Dinda (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2021), 62-108. ↩︎
- For example: Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3:542-543. ↩︎
- Wright, Christian Origins and the Question of God, 2:354-361. Also see: Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission, 189-190. ↩︎
- Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 179-210. ↩︎
- See: John Gibbs, Creation and Redemption: A Study in Pauline Theology (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 33-58; Moyer V. Hubbard, New Creation in Paul’s Letters and Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002); John Yates, The Spirit and Creation in Paul (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 88-173. ↩︎
From the draft manuscript for Lutheran Dogmatics: The Evangelical-Catholic Faith for an Age of Contested Truth (Lexham Press).
Cover image from James Preus, “Final Judgement: Love Christ, Love His Church,” Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, November 20, 2017, accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.trinitylutheranottumwa.com/sermons/final-judgment-love-christ-love-his-church.
I agree with you here. Here’s my take on the subject. https://jrichardmiddleton.com/2024/01/22/will-the-creation-pass-away-when-christ-returns/