Farewell to Shadowlands

One of the prophecies that we have repeated in numerous places in the scriptures is that sometime around the Millennium there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  Isaiah wrote, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).  He alluded to this again in the next and final chapter: “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” (Isaiah 66:22).  In the New Testament the Lord taught that it is the righteous that will inherit this new heaven and earth: “For verily there shall be new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (JST Luke 17:39).  Peter repeated that principle saying, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).  And in John’s vision he was shown this: “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 21:1).  In the Book of Mormon, Moroni told us as he spoke about the New Jerusalem, “And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth; and they shall be like unto the old save the old have passed away, and all things have become new” (Ether 13:9).  And finally in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord testified of this again when specifically discussing the Millennium: “And the end shall come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.  For all old things shall pass away, and all things shall become new, even the heaven and the earth, and all the fulness thereof” (D&C 29:23-24).  The end of the world will apparently bring the end of the earth, but that will only be the beginning of a new earth whereon the righteous will dwell in the celestial kingdom. 

                Another verse in the Doctrine and Covenants talks about this same even but in different language: “And again, verily I say unto you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law—Wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, and it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it” (D&C 88:25-26).  So just as we as humans will die and ultimately be resurrected, so too the earth itself shall die and then “be quickened”—or made alive—again.  In The Last Battle, the final in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, we see this kind of thing take place in the land of Narnia.  After the final battle and everyone was gathered out through a sort of magic door from Narnia, the humans watched as Narnia was emptied, depleted, and its sun died.  Aslan then commanded, “Now make an end” and to Peter he said, “Shut the Door,” which he did. Narnia was, it seemed them, dead and gone forever (pg. 180-181).  The group followed Aslan from that point on towards his own country for some time, when suddenly they recognized much of their surroundings and realized that where they were traveling looked just like the Narnia they knew.  As they puzzled over this, the Lord Digory gave this explanation of their experiences in the Narnia they had seen die: “That was not the real Narnia.  That had a beginning and an end.  It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will be here….  All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door.  And of course it is different; as different as a real things is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream” (pg. 195).  I have to think that this is not too far off from what will happen when our earth dies and a new earth comes; that will be the real earth, the earth that lasts forever, the one “coupled with eternal glory” (D&C 130:2).  I imagine that we will be surprised at how similar many aspects of our existence will be in that “new earth” in the celestial kingdom as compared to now.  Yet it will be different in the way that the real thing is different—and much better—than a shadow.  The last chapter of the book and series is called “Farewell to Shadowlands,” meaning that the characters left forever the “shadow” worlds where everything was only a reflection of the true place where Aslan lived.  We too only view the world “through a glass darkly” as we experience mortality, but one day we will leave this shadowland for the new earth where we will “see [Christ] as He is” and have the real life that He lives (1 Corinthians 13:12, Moroni 7:48).