Answer by John Mackay
No, God won’t be taking six days and resting on the seventh, like He did for the first creation mentioned in Gen 1 and Exodus 20. And no, He didn’t actually need six days to make the first heavens and earth either! In order to make sense of the next creation, let’s discuss that first one a little.
The Bible records that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) so God had already prepared a plan for salvation for his people, prior to the first 6 day creation. Those six days followed by the Creators one day of rest, was a physical reality designed with a long term spiritual purpose. It showed when God gave Moses the Law on Mount Sinai including the 4th commandment Exodus (20:9-11) Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Here we gain a glimpse as to what the purpose of these six days actually was. Any Jew working seven days and thus breaking that commandment was guilty of sin, and the wages of that sin was death. By the time we arrive in the New Testament, we are again reminded that “sin is breaking the Law” (1 John 3:4) and “the Law was given through Moses” (John 1:17) God hasn’t changed his definitions and therein we gain an even bigger insight into the time which will be taken to make the new creation in Revelation 21. You and I can think whatever we like of our own skills, our own opinions or morality, but the Lord God gave the Law through Moses, so we can measure ourselves against His standards and not against our fellow human’s opinions. Whether we fail on only one point of the 10 commandments or break all of them, we prove ourselves sinners and show we have need for a saviour. The only person in history to score 10 out of 10, has been Jesus Christ. The Mosaic Law was actually given to expose sinners for what they are and to show us who the sinless one was or as the writer to Hebrews put it; The Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24)
One purpose for Christ’s coming only after Moses gave the Law, was so that he as the man Jesus, could firstly show the nation of Israel, who had been recipients of the Law, that He did keep the Law perfectly. That made him the only one eligible to be a perfect High Priest, and the only contender for the sinless sacrifice substitute Lamb of God, the anointed Christ who alone was eligible to be Saviour of men. Therein lies the clue to the answer for this question about the time the next creation will take.
When God the Father, in the power of God the spirit through, by, and for Christ as God the Son, remakes the heavens and the earth, the One who didn’t need six days to make the first universe, the Supreme Being who had a theological purpose in using the original six days, will no longer have any ‘need’ to use “six days” to make the future heavens and earth. Never forget He had the power to make the first one in the blink of an eye, but his 6 day plan was in anticipation of every option in the future of Creation, the coming of sin, fallen man’s need for a sinless saviour and His own resurrection from the dead. All such needs will be gone in the new heavens and the new earth. In fact it will be fair to say the destruction of this planet by God’s judgment of using fire upon men also recorded in the book of Revelation, will take longer than the remaking of the new heavens and new earth by the same Jesus who turned water into wine by the power of his Word.
So challenge time! Are you looking forward to a place where there will no longer be any shedding of tears? All sin, suffering and sorrow will have gone, for the former things will have passed away and everything will be new (Revelation 21- 22). The curse will be no more and the last enemy, death, will be defeated. Your only other option is eternity in the hell prepared for the devil and his angels who rebelled against the Almighty Creator whose love for God’s people to make the 6 days of Genesis into millions of years, and encourage us to spiritualise away the new heaven and earth.
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