Originally posted by Ephesian
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass awayclearly a future event because Heaven and earth have not passed away. The context jumps from the present generation to a future generation. Am I correct in that? If verse 35 is future tense, many of the others might be as well, such as verse 21 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. v22 And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved..
Christ's blessings to ya, Ephesian.
The hebrew phrase
"heavens and earth" is very often symbolic in scripture and has various uses in both the N.T. and O.T. For exampe, Jesus said we would know
"heavens and earth" had passed when the Law of Moses had been removed (Matthew 5:17-19), which was at AD 70. That's why Mark 13:1-31 about the destruction of the Temple also ties in the removal of
"heaven and earth" (Mk 13:31) where only Christ's teaching remains after the Temple is gone. The writer of Hebrews confirms this use of
"heavens and earth" by saying that the switch over of the Old Covenant system to the New Covenant System was through and by the shaking of
"heavens and earth" (Hebrews 12:18-28).
COMMON OLD TESTAMENT USES OF "HEAVEN AND EARTH"
(1) The witness to the Covenant between Jehovah and Israel was "Heaven and Earth"
Deuteronomy 31:28
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call
heaven and earth to record against them.
Deuteronomy 4:26
I call
heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it;
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call
heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
Leviticus 26:19
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your
heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Psalms 50:4
He shall call to the
heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
Isaiah 1:2
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me
(2) Israel's institution as a Nation under Moses and Joshua was the planting of Heavens and Earth
Isaiah 51:15-16
For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: Yahweh of Hosts is his name. I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, You are my people.
Deuteronomy 31:28
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call
heaven and earth to record against them.
(3) The "shaking/removal of Heavens and Earth" describes any of Jehovah's judgments upon nations and individuals
Against Ancient Babylon
Isaiah 13:13
Therefore I will shake the
heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Jeremiah 51:48
Then the
heaven and the earth, and all that [is] therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD
Against King Saul
Psalms 18:7-10
Then
the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills removed and were shaken, because he was wroth ... He
bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
Against Persia during Zerubbabel's Day
Haggai 2:21
Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the
heavens and the earth
So, getting back to the use of the phrase as it was used by Jesus and the writer of Hebrews, we can see that Jesus didn't mean the physical planet -- rather, it meant the passing away of the Old Covenant World and the planting of the New Covenant Kingdom. As the great Charles Spurgeon wrote:
C.H. Spurgeon On New Heavens and Earth (1865)
"Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer, of any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacle, or the dedication? No, because, though these were like the old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live under the new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of divine teaching is concerned. The substance is come, and the shadow has gone: and we do not remember it." (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxxvii, p. 354).