New Heaven New Earth

For over a hundred years, the future of humanity and our planet has been a burning issue.
For the Bolsheviks in Russia, the coming glorious age of communism was the redemption of humanity.

During the Cold War, there was a terrible fear that nuclear war would destroy us all.
In our time, the Greens are desperately fighting to save the planet.

The devoutly religious Muslims believe in a Golden Age, Dar Es Salaam, ‘House of Peace.’ In this fulfilment of their hopes, Islam is supposed to rule the whole world.

In the ‘New Age’ movement, there is song of a wonderful new era.

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation, Aquarius
Aquarius

Thoughts like these have been cropping up more and more frequently for over a hundred years, but as early as 150 years ago, the American poet Walt Whitman wrote a beautiful poem.

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the
         whole of the rest of the earth,
I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
And in all their looks and words.

Where do these far-reaching thoughts come from, which emerge from the depths of our hearts?
 
King Solomon reflected at length on the deep questions of life. He wrote of God:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ec 3:11 NIV

God did not create us as mere biological machines, as Karl Marx and other 19th- and 20th-century philosophers taught.

In our time, we recognise the emptiness in our hearts to which these lifeless philosophies have led.
About a hundred years ago, German poets sensed the deep loneliness of a life without a relationship with a loving Heavenly Father.

Strange to walk in the fog!
Life is loneliness.
No man knows the other, everyone is alone. (Herman Hesse 1905)

But 2000 years ago, the Son of God came into this world to reconcile us with our dear Father God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

Jesus wants to give you a new life with the good Father God.
Why?

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 Jn 4:16 NIV

But God's plans are even more far-reaching.

God wants to save this planet and restore everything, and he will do so irresistibly.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Rev 21,1 NIV

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Rev 21:5 NIV