Where Are the New Heaven and the New Earth?

The Second Epistle of Peter makes an important, and in some ways unconventional con-tribution to our understanding of biblical eschatology. The main message of the Epistle is clear: this world must be destroyed by fire so that “new heavens and a new earth may take its place”. In the New Testament, only Revelation speaks so clearly about the cosmic consequences of the Day of the Lord. However, the statement about the great final conflagration raises literary, text-critical and theological questions. In this study we will approach these questions by considering the context in which the Epistle was written and by exploring the theological thread to which the motif of the final conflagration belongs.