Isaiah 65:17 "For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth..."

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

Question:

When one dies believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, will one remember loved ones left behind or even life on earth?

Comment:

There are many beliefs about what happens when we move out of this earthly experience and return to the spiritual realm that is our true home. And there’s no concrete proof that any particular belief is correct, because we simply don’t know what happens. The question you raise about remembering our human existence is particularly uncertain. It seems to me that if we are on a spiritual journey to follow the example of Jesus Christ and express more and more of our innate Christ spirit, then being able to look back on our human choices and remember our challenges and joys would be an essential part of that process.

What’s important in this passage from Isaiah is that he’s not describing a new creation that occurs after death, but rather a new dimension of possibility to be achieved here on earth. It strongly echoes Jeremiah 31:31: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” The promise is that we are being called to a new covenant, a new understanding of our relationship to the divine, here and now. Two verses later, he declares: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Instead of collectively obeying stone-carved laws out of fear, we will obey the divine law and guidance we find in our very hearts. So the “new heaven and new earth” that Isaiah speaks of is within us, just as Jesus clearly stated, describing it as “the kingdom of heaven.” We will no longer be victims of the past, limited by old beliefs and condemned by old choices. I don’t think we’ll entirely forget the past: that might cause us to make the same mistakes again. But we will be free of its power, able to look forward and move forward in spiritual awareness.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed