Ignoring the Obvious

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!  Matthew 5:18  NASB

Pass away – When God created, what did He create?  Oh, I don’t want you to give me a list of all the specifics.  Just tell me the general categories, in two words.  Summarize the creation.  The answer is obvious—heaven and earth.  The Hebrew expression ha šāmayim v’et ha ʾereṣ is the Hebrew way of saying “everything.”  We all know that, but because it is so familiar, perhaps we’ve overlooked its implication.

“Both [heaven and earth] are equally parts of the world, because both have been created by the one God and are therefore subject to him, but also because both are transitory; for ‘heaven and earth will pass away’ (Matt. 5.18; 24.35).”[1]  Yeshua’s claim isn’t that the Mosaic revelation will last forever.  It’s that the revelation will last until heaven and earth pass away, because at some time they will pass away.  Everything will end.  Everything will be gone.  God will remain.

Of course, it’s possible to read the Greek terms hĕōs ἄν as “until if,” in which case we could argue that heaven and earth could pass away but won’t.  The statement is merely hypothetical.  God’s creation is eternal.  Yeshua’s emphasis is simply that Moses’ revelation is as permanent as the creation itself.  But then the same expression is used at the end of the verse where the condition of termination is specified.  When everything is accomplished, then everything will be gone.  When will that be?  Well, only God knows.  But it will be sometime.  There will be a point when God has finished everything He intended, just as He said at the end of the seven days, “It’s done.”  And when that happens, what’s next?  Ah, the end of everything.

It took Greek philosophy to convince us that there isn’t really an end.  Pythagoras created the idea of the eternal soul, which Christianity enthusiastically adopted as the basis for the eternal bliss of the heavenly abode.  We’re still living that dream.  But if Yeshua’s claim is correct, then when God finishes, both heaven and earth will be no more, and that means you and me.  No eternal existence lounging around in the perfect olam ha’ba.  No, in the end it’s the end.  Everything returns back to God.  The story’s over.

Do you find this uncomfortable?  Were you counting on that next life, that next eternal life that will solve all your problems and give you what you always wanted forever?  Did you ever think that maybe that wasn’t the plan?  Actually, did you ever even think about any of this?  Probably not.  It’s not your fault.  Monotheistic religion (of all types) has embraced the doctrine of another eternal existence since Hellenism.  You grew up with it.  So did everyone you know.  But now I want you to think about it.  I want you to seriously ask why there is little if any expression of an afterlife, or of heaven or hell, in the Tanakh.  Then I want you to consider what life is like when there really is an end to everything.  Suddenly our brief span here becomes radically important.  Oh, we may enjoy another world, but if that one is also destined to pass, then how does that change what you do now?

Topical Index: heaven and earth, hĕōs ἄν, until, eternal, Matthew 5:18

[1] Ernst Lohmeyer,  “Our Father”: An Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer (Harper & Row, 1965), p. 113.