Earth

This is the physical world as opposed to the heavens, which were also created by God (Gen 1:1; Ps 115:15). Because of the curse of sin, the whole earth is functioning far below God’s intention (Gen 3:17-19; Rom 8:20-22).

The earth and all it contains is the Lord’s as He made it (Ps 24:1). God declares, “I will be

Leave the earth a better place than when you arrived

exalted in the earth” and we can respond, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth” (Ps 46:10, 57:5,11, 72:19). “The earth is full of God’s unfailing goodness...Let all the people stand in awe of Him” (Ps 33:5,8).

God said all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through Abraham (Gen 12:3). One of his descendants was Jesus – the one who provides salvation from the penalty of sin for all who desire it and live for Him.

Jesus said, we are to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). When that happens, He stated ‘the meek will be blessed for they shall inherit the earth’ (Mt 5:5).

At the end of the world as we know it, God will create a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17, 66:22; 2 Pet 3:7-13; Rev 21:1). However, before then the gospel will be preached throughout the whole world (Mt 24:14). Due to the rapid advances in technology and linguistics, this is fast becoming a reality.