The heaven and the earth with which we are familiar will endure until the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age known commonly as the Millennium. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will recall from existence the physical universe and bring into view a new heaven and a new earth.

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. Looking for and hasting unto [hastening] the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (II Peter 3:10,12,13)

The noise, the melting of the elements with intense heat, the burning up of the earth and its works, the dissolving of the heavens in a thunderous conflagration, suggest an atomic chain reaction that will return matter to energy. It is remarkable that such a description was written nearly two thousand years ago.

Since John "saw" the new heaven it is likely he is speaking of the space above the earth, including the starry heavens, rather than the spirit realm of Heaven.

The manner in which the term heaven is used requires explanation.

In the Greek text of the New Testament the same term is used for both the physical heaven and the spiritual Heaven. An additional point of confusion is that our concept of the spiritual Heaven as beyond the stars is not borne out. In the New Testament, the spiritual Heaven often is presented as being at the level of the clouds.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, . . . . (John 17:1)

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, . . . . (Acts 1:10)

. . . Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, . . . . (Acts 7:55)

. . . suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (Acts 9:3)

We might conclude from these passages that Heaven is not much higher above us than the clouds. Maybe we will discover some day that Heaven is not as far away as we thought.

The new physical heaven, the new sky, no doubt will glow with a splendor quite beyond our ability to imagine at this time.

The spiritual Heaven also will undergo a transformation because God, the Lamb, and the Wife of the Lamb will emerge from the invisible spiritual Heaven and appear in the physical heaven, to the utter astonishment of the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

It is likely that the garden of Eden enjoyed a oneness, a union, of the spiritual and physical domains that was dissolved when Adam and Eve rebelled against God. God then put a wall of separation, a "heaven," between the physical and spirit realms.

To be continued.