"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea." (Rev 21.1)

More than once it has been asked if this text implies that in the Millennial world of the future, when Christ reigns as king and evil is progressively eliminated from the hearts of men, the seas will disappear and the entire planet become dry land.

That cannot possibly be John's meaning here. Without the literal sea all life, human, animal and vegetable would vanish from the earth. No terrestrial life can exist without water. The rain comes down from the clouds to supply man, animals and plants. It disappears into the ground, runs into streams and rivers then flows into the sea which is the great reservoir of water. It evaporates by the heat of the sun and rises to form clouds that are carried by the wind and falls as rain again. This process must go on as long as the earth endures and there will always be sea, and no less in extent than it is at present. The writer of Ecclesiastes knew this; "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full, unto the place from which the rivers came, thither they return again" (Ecclesiastes 1 .7).

The mistake is in supposing that John in Rev. 21 is describing the actual earth. He is describing a vision that is a symbolic picture of the Millennium. He saw a new heaven and a new earth, the old heaven and earth having passed away, and a wonderful city descending out of that new heaven, to settle on the new earth, made to look like a bride ready for her husband. Such a conception would be difficult to translate into literal reality. What we have here is the fulfilment of God's promise through Isaiah (65.17-25) quoted and confirmed by the Apostle Peter (2 Pet. 3.13). It is to the effect

that the old world order dominated by evil, "this present evil world" is to be superseded by a new world order, "a new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness". It is this new world order, headed and governed by Christ, which is to have "no more sea". What does that mean?

Peter's expression "wherein dwells righteousness" gives the clue. That world is one in which evil is banished and will be no more. The Devil will be "bound" and powerless (Rev. 20) and the evil forces of this present world order overthrown and destroyed (Rev. 19). There will be no evil force or influence to deceive and injure mankind. The ancients from earliest times believed a monster personified evil, lived in the depths of the sea, and to them the sea was the home of evil. There is an allusion to this belief in Isa. 27.1 where in the time of judgment the Lord will "slay the dragon which is in the sea". John is thinking of this in that new world that he saw in symbolic vision where there was no place for the Prince of evil, no sea from which he could rise up to ravage the world and harry mankind. The power of evil will find no place in the new heavens and new earth of the future.

AOH