Shayla: Luke 21:33 says Heaven will pass away. Can you explain this?

 

Midrash:

The Bible teaches of three heavens.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:2 HCSB  (2)  I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don't know; God knows.

 

Some, coming from a Gentile background, assume that Paul meant that heaven (where God resides) has three levels. But when God’s people refer to the “first heaven”, they mean the atmospheric heavens, the sky – where birds fly.

  • Genesis 1:8 HCSB  God called the expanse "sky." Evening came, and then morning: the second day.
  • Psalms 77:17-18 HCSB  The clouds poured down water. The storm clouds thundered; Your arrows flashed back and forth.  (18)  The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the world. The earth shook and quaked.
  • Psalms 104:2-3 HCSB  He wraps Himself in light as if it were a robe, spreading out the sky like a canopy,  (3)  laying the beams of His palace on the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind,

 

The second heaven is space – where the stars reside.

  • Genesis 15:5 HCSB  He took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then He said to him, "Your offspring will be that numerous."
  • Genesis 22:17 HCSB  I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies.
  • Genesis 26:4 HCSB  I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,
  • Deuteronomy 1:10 HCSB  The LORD your God has so multiplied you that today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky.
  • Isaiah 13:10 HCSB  Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

 

Our first inclination of the relation between these three heavens comes when we read Lucifer’s rebellious declaration that he wants to be God. Notice that he wants to ascend to the heavens but he defines it as being “above the stars”?

  • Isaiah 14:13 HCSB  You said to yourself: "I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods' assembly, in the remotest parts of the North.

 

So the third heaven is the place where God the Son and the angels reside. I say God the Son because the Father, being transcendent, cannot be contained by anything – not even the entire universe.

  • Genesis 1:1-2 HCSB  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (2)  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Note: At first glance, you’d think it was simply referring to space and earth. However, the time this is referring to is prior to the creation of the planet Earth, which did not take place until the third creation day. So this is referring to heaven (where the Son resides) and the rest of the universe, the proto-Earth included.

  • Isaiah 14:12 HCSB  Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.
  • Isaiah 66:1 HCSB  This is what the LORD says: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house could you possibly build for Me? And what place could be My home?
  • Revelation 21:1-2 HCSB  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer.  (2)  I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
  • Revelation 21:10 HCSB  He then carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

Note: In Isaiah, the Father said that the universe itself could not contain Him so when John said that the New Jerusalem came “out of heaven from God” we understand that it will come from where the Son now resides with the holy angels.

 

The Apostle Peter said that when the Day of the Lord arrives, the entire universe will be destroyed.

  • 2 Peter 3:10 HCSB  But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

 

The Apostle John prophesied that after the millennial reign of Christ on this present Earth there will be a “new heaven and new earth.”

  • Revelation 21:1 HCSB  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer.

 

So when Christ said…

  • Luke 21:33 HCSB  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

He was saying that His prophecy (and we understand all the mitvot) is more enduring, more certain, than the existence of the universe itself. He was not implying that the “third heaven” would someday be destroyed.