Help me out here .What does it mean when Scripture refers to a “new heaven & a new earth” (Rev. 21, Isa 65, 2 Peter 3:13)? What is the implication of God as the one who makes “all things new” (Rev. 21:5)? I’m working through this for a presentation I’m making tonight. I have a few thoughts, but I’d love to hear from you. Any thoughts or insights?
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As an aside, Larry James had a great post yesterday about his New Year’s Resolutions. I encourage you to check it out.
already & not yet 
No time to post. I get back from vacation on Monday. But the short answer is that I believe it means exactly what it says.You should pick up “The Evangelical Universalist” for a great reading on hell in Revelation.
Thanks, Scott. I’d love it if more would weigh in here.
Isa 65:17 and 66:22 predict that there will be a new heavens and a new earth. In Isa 65, it is hard to tell if he is talking about heaven or a better life here on earth. It is hard because he mentions people still dying and people working. Although most of the language seems a lot like heaven.Here is what Bruce Metzger says about these verses in Rev 21,”Whether John would have us think of the new heavens and new earth as a transformation of the existing order, or whether this present cosmos will come to an end and a new creation will replace it, is not quite clear. In any case, the word new used by John does not mean simply another, but a new kind of heaven and earth. The new creation will have some continuity with creation as we now know it, yet it will be radically different. What makes it new is disclosed in the opening paragraph. Here John lays the fullest emphasis upon that without which any heaven would be but the shadow of a name – he emphasizes the presence of God. In the new order God’s home will be with God’s people.” – Breaking the Code, 98
Matt,Thanks for weighing in. I guess I should’ve posed the question earlier in the week. I came across Metzger’s quote in something I read yesterday. Basically we’re talking about a replacement heaven and earth or a renewed heaven and earth. I presented both possibilities last night. I tend to lean toward the renewal camp in light of Romans 8 and some other passages.