Question: When the bible speaks of New Heavens and a new Earth, is it to be taken as physical-material? Can this be taken also as spiritual, meaning our souls and bodies. Is it to be understood as taking place after the Last Judgment? Or can this happen following the coming Chastisement?
Answer: The New Heavens and New Earth are primarily a spiritual reality, whereby the Holy Trinity establishes its holy abode within the human soul; secondarily, it is a physical reality.
Unlike the New Jerusalem, the “New Heavens and New Earth” is not just the planet earth, but the entire cosmos with all its galactic systems transformed by God for mankind’s new modality of existence that, according to Peter occurs 4x, i.e., before the deluge (1st heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:5), after the deluge (2nd heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:6) and after the fiery chastisement (3rd heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:7), and – along with Isaiah 65:17-18, Rev.21:1-2, CCC 1045 and 1047 and Lactantius – 4th time after last judgment (the 4th heavens andearth: 2 Pt. 3:10-13).
Unlike the New Jerusalem, the “New Heavens and New Earth” is not just the planet earth, but the entire cosmos with all its galactic systems transformed by God for mankind’s new modality of existence that, according to Peter occurs 4x, i.e., before the deluge (1st heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:5), after the deluge (2nd heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:6) and after the fiery chastisement (3rd heavens and earth: 2 Pt. 3:7), and – along with Isaiah 65:17-18, Rev.21:1-2, CCC 1045 and 1047 and Lactantius – 4th time after last judgment (the 4th heavens andearth: 2 Pt. 3:10-13).