Revelation 21:1; For the First Heaven and First Earth Were Passed Away

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Revelation 21:1 (KJV)  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 

Greeting the seer’s eyes are the new heaven and the new earth that replace the earth and the heaven that fled away in Revelation 20:11 – And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 

Revelation 20:11 (KJV)  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 

The new creation will appear chronologically following the Millennium and the Great White Throne and is not a picture of the present age of the Christian church. The idea of a new heaven and a new earth alludes to Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; Psalm 102:25-26 and Isaiah 51:6.

Isaiah 65:17 (KJV)  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 

Isaiah 66:22 (KJV)  For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 

Psalm 102:25-26 (KJV)  Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 

Isaiah 51:6 (KJV)  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. 

The reason assigned for the appearance of the new heaven and earth is the disappearance of the first heaven and earth. The entrance of sin and death spoiled the earlier creation and made it a place of rebellion and alienation, an enemy-occupied territory. Its replacement with a whole new order of life without death, mourning, crying, pain is a necessity.

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 438-439]