Does 2 Peter teach that God will one day burn up the earth and start again? Tom Wright and Mike Bird explore one of the New Testament’s most difficult passages, alongside questions about Genesis 1, creation and how Christians should choose a church.

 

Does the Bible teach that one day God will burn the entire earth to nothing and start again?

It is an unsettling possibility raised by the language of 2 Peter 3, where the heavens are described as being set on fire, the elements dissolved and a “new heavens and a new earth” promised.

In this episode of Ask NT Wright Anything, Tom Wright and Mike Bird tackle that passage alongside two other questions that regularly trouble Christians: how should Genesis 1 be read, and how do you choose a church when no denomination seems quite right?

For Wright, 2 Peter 3 should not be understood as God simply destroying creation and replacing it with something entirely unrelated.

“Creation was and is good in itself,” he says, “and is to be rescued from all that is now corrupting and decaying within it.”

A crucial part of the discussion concerns the manuscript evidence behind 2 Peter 3:10. Some translations have suggested that the earth and its works will be “burned up”. Wright points instead to an important textual reading which means “disclosed or found out.”

Tom Wright’s picture is striking:

“Somewhere in this mess and muddle of the world as we know it… there is the truth of God’s real creation.”

The fire, on this reading, represents judgement and purification rather than the annihilation of everything God has made. Wright sees a profound connection with the resurrection of Jesus: physical creation is not abandoned, but transformed beyond corruption and death.

Mike Bird describes it as “continuity within the discontinuity.”

The episode also turns to Genesis 1 and the so-called “gap theory”, which proposes a vast period of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.

Wright is unconvinced. He calls it “an unnecessary answer to an unwarranted question”, arguing that Christians can go wrong when they make Genesis answer modern scientific questions it was never designed to address.

Instead, he encourages Christians to discover the much richer theological vision within the chapter: creation as God’s temple, humanity bearing God’s image and the Creator intending heaven and earth ultimately to belong together.

There is also thoughtful pastoral advice for a listener considering leaving Roman Catholicism for Anglicanism but anxious about competing denominations.

Rather than asking which church is closest to perfection, Wright suggests asking where a family will find “the best help, friendship, fellowship, Bible teaching, and basically a happy Christian experience.”

And he offers an important warning for anyone searching endlessly for the ideal congregation:

“Don’t expect that you’re going to find the perfect church.”

Across three apparently different questions runs one theme: Christians should resist simplistic either/or answers. Whether interpreting Genesis, imagining the future of creation or choosing a church, Wright urges believers to read Scripture deeply, think beyond inherited assumptions and keep God’s larger purposes in view.

 

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  1. What happens at the End of the Age? https://www.premierunbelievable.com/ask-nt-wright-anything/what-happens-at-the-end-of-the-age/20167.article
  2. What’s the fine print on the Second Coming…https://www.premierunbelievable.com/ask-nt-wright-anything/whats-the-fine-print-on-the-second-coming-the-transfiguration-and-michael-heisers-unseen-realm/21128.article
  3. Should I use the word ‘heaven’? Will we know everything in the new creation? https://www.premierunbelievable.com/ask-nt-wright-anything/ask-nt-wright-anything-145-should-i-use-the-word-heaven-will-we-know-everything-in-the-new-creation/14366.article
 

Watch or listen to the full episode of Ask NT Wright Anything to hear Tom Wright and Mike Bird explore all three questions. 

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