“….Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleths
righteousness..”

“The earth also and the WORKS ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP” 2 Peter 3:10b.

Here what is to be burnt up in the Earth are specified, “the works therein”. What then are the works in the earth that needs to be burned up?
Here they are in the Book of Galatians..

Gal.5: 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So the works are not talking about natural objects as we shall see more clearly later. It is the works that constitute the Adamic life that are to be burned up not nothing more and they are found in human beings, these works are what is what is responsible for the burning up of the Earth – the Adamic man.

But why? , It is so because, man has rejected the sacrificial work of Christ, our propitiator and the redeeming power of the Holy Ghost sent by the Father, in order that our “shut up heaven “might be opened up again. Just as the word declares, “such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and IRON, because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most high; Therefore, He brought down their heart with labour,.. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works (sacrifice of Christ) to the children of men! For He hath broken the gates (heavens) of brass and cut the bars of iron in asunder….” Ps 107:17
These are the bondages that have caused our true life to be sealed up S of S 4:12, but have now been opened up, through the finished work of Christ, that once again we might enter into the inheritance ordained for man, from the time of creation – “let them have dominion” Gen. 1:26)

So you can see that “heaven” figuratively is a realm of life, therefore when we read, “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” 1 Pet. 13-4.
What we are saying is, our true life which is “inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away”. (Is) reserved (meaning -to guard from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon, in the Grk) in heaven- in the realm of God’s Spirit….”

In other words, our life is being preserved from the spirit realm of God’s heaven. Look at it;-“ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”, Col.3: 1-3.

Now, that is where you are if you are truly born again. You are in Christ in God, who also is in Heaven; so we do not necessary have to go to a place called heaven to receive our inheritance. Our incorruptible inheritance is the life of God, in case you may be confused about that. And that is the life that is being guarded in the Heavens , God’s realm of the Spirit.

But let me ask you this simple question, when you preserve your food in the deep freezer in the kitchen, do you end up eating it there or you bring it out where it has to be used or eaten? So you see, God’s life in man is to be revealed on Earth. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,’ “and ‘the Heavenly Jerusalem is seen coming down out of heaven from God” A people, the Church of the first born, that is the heavenly Jerusalem.
. It is here on the Earth that God’s life in man is to be consummated just like it was with Adam in the Garden before the fall. Please don’t you think we need some wisdom in our beliefs again?

SO, WHAT IS HEAVEN AND EARTH? (2PET. 3:10b)
“Fear before Him, all the EARTH: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved” I Chron 16:30 KJV please read from verses 23-33.
Again “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the EARTH” Ps. 96:1 KJV.

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass” (Deut. 32:1-2) Compare Ps. 50:4.

“Fear before Him all the EARTH”, do you supposed God is addressing the inanimate objects of trees and mountains to fear before him? Was God addressing these objects or a people? A people of course!

As you sit back and meditate, it will become clear to you that, the word “EARTH” refers to a society of people, this is the fact revealed in the above scriptures, especially in Deut. 32:1,for Moses was not intending to teach or talk a physical heaven up there or a literal earth, but rather, the PRIESTHOOD-‘heaven’, and THE PEOPLE-THE REST OF ISRAEL-‘the earth’. So you the priestly class of Israel was the heaven here and the Earth the rest of the Israelites. And that makes up the heaven and the Earth.

Even in Rev 17:5, we are told “mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots” is the “ABOMINATION OF THE EARTH”. Meaning the people to which Babylon, the false religious system which she represents, is controlling – “sited upon many waters” in (verse 1) is interpreted to mean “a people, and multitudes, and nations and tongue” in (verse 15).

And again to say that the “inhabitants of the EARTH have been made drunk with the wine (doctrine) of her fornication” (religious perversion) verse 1, indicates the group of people (men) who are still earthly in their nature, the low realm of the beastly Adamic-life.

Apostle Paul explained this when he said, for “the first man is of the EARTH, EARTHY” And “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy” which is a true “image” as well. I Cor 15:47a, 48a, 49a.

These are they who cannot discern the things of the Spirit because of their earthly – carnal mindedness, who “sleep” and are “drunken in the night” of the religious system of men. See I Cor 2:4, Rom 8:5-7, I Thes 5:7.

Furthermore, when we read that an “… angel came down from heaven, having great power and THE EARTH was lightened with His glory” Rev 18:1. This is no other person than Christ in His redemptive glory lightening up ALL MANKIND-EARTH, for “In Him (The Word) was life and the life was the LIGHT OF MEN (EARTH-MANKIND); that was the true light, which lighteneth everyman that cometh into the World” (Humanity) Jon 1:1-4, 9.

Even the dream of Nebuchadnezzar that he had, wherein he saw a “Tree in the midst of the EARTH” Dan 4:10-11, was interpreted to mean his “Dominion over the nations”-earth. Dan 4:20-22.

It is therefore self-evident from the above analysis that the “EARTH” speaks of a society of people.

So when we read of “The earth also and the WORKS ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP” 2 Peter 3:10b, we are talking of the works in the lives of men, human philosophies and traditions that has kept man away from attaining to the goodwill of the lord on the Earth.

To be continued…

(c) 2015 – Dr. David O. Ogaga