Will The Earth Be Renovated When Jesus Comes? by Garland M. Robinson

        When the Lord Jesus comes again, this earth and all that is in it, along with all the universe, will be utterly and completely destroyed! It will not be renovated as is believed and taught by some. It will not be a utopia wherein peace and safety abides.
        The Bible is very clear what will happen when the Lord comes again. Read it, "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. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (2 Peter 3:10-12). No one can explain away these verses! They are too obvious! They are too plain! Who would even dare try?
        There is no purpose or need for a renovated earth. Physical beings need a physical place to dwell. That is what we are now. However, at the second coming of Jesus, our life on earth will be over, we will no longer reside in a physical body. First Corinthians 15:50 says, "...that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." The saints of God will receive a spiritual body in the resurrection when Jesus comes. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44). Spiritual beings reside in a spiritual place called heaven. "The...spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
        Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica saying, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven...and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). If the saints shall "ever be with the Lord" in the air, there is no purpose for a renovated earth? The faithful have no need of it. This is the doctrine of materialism which gains no reward in heaven.
        The second coming of our Lord brings not only life to a close but the earth and all the material universe as well.