After the devil is cast into the lake of fire (v. 10), John the apostle saw (in his vision) “a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them” (v. 11). Regarding this last phrase, John Macarthur commented, “John saw the contaminated universe go out of existence…The universe is ‘uncreated’ going into non-existence.”8

This destruction of the universe is also mentioned in 2 Peter 3:10, 12 as the “day of the Lord.”

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

Then also we will look at Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

There is much we could say from these verses to back up the claim that heaven and earth will indeed be destroyed, or go out of existence. Let’s examine these terms.

• “Earth and heaven fled away” (Rev. 20:11). This seems to indicate that they do go out of existence.
• “Heaven and earth will pass away” (Matt. 24:35). It seems that “pass away’ and “fled away” is the same thing.
• “The heavens will pass away with a roar…” (2 Pt. 3:10). This sounds much like an atomic reaction.
• “And the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Pt. 3:10, 12). The elements could be atomic components from which matter is composed and held together.

Total destruction of the universe seems to be the meaning of these verses; however, many scholars look at it differently. They see just the surface of the earth being renewed by fire, or made new by fire. We will discuss both interpretations later.

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8 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2006), John MacArthur’s notes of Revelation 20:11.