Will the Earth Dissolve Like Snow?

Will the Earth Dissolve Like Snow? July 9, 2014

earth-disolveRecently I’ve found myself quite uncomfortable singing “Amazing Grace.” I find myself thinking, “What has Chris Tomlin done to this classic?!”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually like it when musicians update the classics. And Tomlin’s new chorus is biblical, catchy, and moving.

“My chains are gone, I’ve been set free.

My God, my Savior has ransomed me.

And like a flood, His mercy reigns.

Unending love, amazing grace.”

What musicians often do is rearrange old hymns or even create whole new tunes for the classics in order to connect them to the people in their generation. Chris Tomlin has done so with “Amazing Grace.”

My problem stems from the final stanza that he seems to have added to the song.

“The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God, Who called me here below,

Will be forever mine.

Will be forever mine.

You are forever mine.”

I’ll tell you what about my gripe with this stanza in a moment, but first a little history lesson.

The History of “Amazing Grace”

The original lyrics were written by John Newton and published in 1779. It gained popularity during the Second Great Awakening. We all know the tune, but interestingly, the tune we know was not connected to “Amazing Grace” until 1900, when E. O. Excell wrote it based on the 1829 tune, “New Britain”. Like I said, musicians often update our classics so that they can connect with a new generation.

In a fascinating turn, Tomlin went back to Newton’s original lyrics, published in his 1779 Olney Hymns. There we find that there is a different last line than the one with which we are familiar. The song we are used to ends with this stanza:

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise,

Than when we first begun.”

But the final stanza in Newton’s original is:

“The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who called me here below,

Will be forever mine.”

The “When we’ve been there ten thousand years” stanza was added sometime later. Wikipedia, that source of absolute truth (he says with just a little bit of sarcasm), says that this verse came from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1853 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as a part of the African-American gospel tradition.

Why did the original stanza of “Amazing Grace” fall out of our hymnals? And why did Chris Tomlin bring it back?

Well, we might never know why it was dropped. And my suspicion is that Tomlin’s understanding of eschatology (“end times”) prompted him to bring it back, though I’m not sure of that. I think it is neat that Tomlin went to the original source for his rewrite, but I kind of wish he didn’t.

I think it should be dropped again, and here’s why.

While we sometimes do well with metaphors, at other times we do not. We easily understand many of the metaphors of this hymn. For instance, Grace doesn’t actually make a “sweet sound.” Also, at the time he wrote “Amazing Grace,” Newton’s eyesight was failing, but we understand that when we sing, “Was blind, but now I see,” we are not singing about some miraculous healing of Newton’s blindness, but rather the metaphor of spiritual blindness. We are celebrating the ability to “see” the truth of the Gospel clearly.

But then when it comes to Newton’s final stanza, which Tomlin reinstalls into the song, I fear that many who sing it will fail to see the metaphors and instead understand it literally.

Things Dissolving in the Old Testament

The metaphor of things dissolving is found in a few passages of Scripture. In the Old Testament, all of the instances of things dissolving or melting are things that do not actually do so: “doubts” dissolve (Dan. 5:12), the prophet says that the palace in Nineveh will “melt” – not meaning that the actual building will somehow become liquid but that that the leaders will be utterly frightened of God’s judgment (Nahum 2:6), the Philistines “dissolve” – meaning that they “melt” in fear (Isa 4:31). In Isaiah’s apocalyptic vision in chapter 24, he uses lots of metaphorical language to picture how God will judge the world, including a house metaphor (“For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble” Isaiah 24:18) and the dissolving metaphor (“The earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved; the earth is moved exceedingly.” Verse 19). In Psalm 75, God promises that “when the earth dissolves and all of its inhabitants: it is I who keep steady its pillars.” (v. 3). The earth doesn’t really have pillars, nor does it really dissolve – this is language that tells us, metaphorically, that no matter how bad things seem to get, God is still powerful and loving and is holding all things together.

The Heavens, the Elements, and the Earth Dissolving in the New Testament

Of course, the passage from which the stanza in question draws from is most likely the one found in the New Testament, namely 2 Peter 3, where the Apostle Peter talks about “The Day of the Lord.” In the King James Version, we read

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Again, we do not do too well with metaphors. This is language that is not meant to be taken literally. The Lord is not really a “thief in the night” – none of us would say so, we know this is metaphor. But then many American evangelicals make the mistake of reading the rest of this passage very literally.

If you check your latest translations (NIV, ESV, Holman, NRSV, NLT, what have you), you’ll find that the end of verse 10 is different. Instead of the KJV’s “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up,” The ESV has “and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” The NIV has “and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

Mike Wittmer explains:

“During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the best available Greek manuscripts of 2 Peter 3:10 read that ‘the earth and all of its works will be burned up.’ This is how every translation of that period, including the King James Version, rendered this verse. It is easy to see how whole generations of Christians learned from their Bibles to expect a future fire that would annihilate the entire world.

However, scholars have since discovered older, more reliable Greek manuscripts, and these texts say that rather than burning up, ‘the earth and all its works will be found.’ Instead of being destroyed, this term ‘found’ implies that the quality of our works will be ‘laid bare,’ discovered for all to see. Much like gold passing through a smelting furnace, the good that we do will be purified while our less noble efforts will slough off. Read this way, Peter’s vision of a coming conflagration seems to be a purging rather than annihilating fire.” (Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God, p. 202)

So this is metaphor. Peter says in verse 11 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness.” In other words, the Day of Judgment will test our work, so our lives should honor God. I do not see this as our earth literally “dissolving like snow.”

Other Bible versions translate the word “dissolve” as “destroyed.” But is the earth really going to be destroyed? We should remember that Peter introduces this future Judgment by talking about an earlier judgment: the Flood of Noah. In the verses that begin 2 Peter Chapter 3, Peter says that those who scoff that Jesus is not coming again deliberately forget something: “that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3:5-7).

The world that existed in Noah’s day was, by God’s word, deluged with water and “destroyed.” And here’s the connection Peter is explicitly making: By God’s same word the present cosmos is destined for “fire.” What will the fire do? It will judge the ungodly: just like the flood judged the ungodly in Noah’s day.

The earth upon which we stand is the same earth that was “deluged with water and destroyed.” But wait! It was not actually destroyed by the waters of the flood. Water is a metaphor – it is one of the two means in the Bible by which something is cleansed from impurities. While I do believe there was an actual flood, it is the symbol of the water is what Peter is latching onto here – just as the flood cleansed the earth of evil in Noah’s day, the fire will cleanse the earth of evil some time in the future. Just as the water showed the evil of people’s deeds, so too the coming judgment will expose the evil works of the wicked in the future.

So, I believe that earth will not literally be dissolved with fire. It will be judged and made pure.

The Sun Forbear to Shine

This verse is most likely from Jesus’ words in Matthew 24. In language that makes you scratch your head, he says,

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).

Many Christians see all or most of Matthew 24 as referring to the second coming of Christ. However, many Christians see in this passage the historical events of Jerusalem’s fall to the Romans in 70 AD. And still others see a mix of the two. It is certainly a difficult passage to interpret. Perhaps the celestial events are meant to be read literally. But, as D.A. Carson states in his commentary on Matthew, “Yet this is not certain, since in some political contexts similar expressions are used metaphorically.”

Regardless of that, the sun may forbear to shine, but does this mean that our world will be utterly destroyed? It is, again, metaphorical language that is hard to understand. Jesus does say in verse 35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “ This sounds, if you are looking for literal meanings, that all of creation will be destroyed. But, again, I take this to mean, based on other biblical texts that speak of the New Heavens and New Earth in terms of “New” being something made from that which already exists, that the world as we know it—fallen, broken, disjointed, cruel, full of evil—will pass away and God will restore his creation to what he has always intended it to be.

Why Does this Matter?

Because We Need to Know that Our Labor is Not in Vain.

Because how Christians view this world and our place in it determines much about how they live and what they place as priorities. If God’s creation is destined to dissolve like snow, then why bother caring for the creation (as Genesis 2:15 says we are called to do)?

If this world is destined to burn up, then what is our purpose in the world? It gets reduced to just getting as many people out of this place and into heaven. Our creation of culture means nothing.

Our life here and now on this earth means nothing if what Carrie Underwood sings is true:

carrie“This is my temporary home,

It’s not where I belong.

Windows and rooms that I’m passing through.

This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going.

I’m not afraid because I know,

This is my temporary home.”

If this is just a stop to where we are going, if this is all just temporary, then all our work really is just in vain.

But this is contrary to what the Bible teaches, which assures you that you can “know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)


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