This article is the first of many in a series called “A New World.” These are the early drafts of a future book by Dylan Demarsico.

Do you know what Martin Luther King Jr., Kermit the Frog, and Father Abraham (circa 2150 B.C.) all have in common?

. . . each of them were dreamers! 

Martin dreamt of racial equality.

Kermit dreamt of a beautiful “rainbow connection” between all living things.

And Abraham?

He dreamt that the whole would be personally blessed by the living God. 

“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”

– Genesis 12:3 –

This was God’s promise to Abraham . . . and Abraham was called to believe it and dream it.

In a world filled with pain, doubt, and sin, it can be easy to let the dream of God die in our hearts. Abraham himself had many reasons to give up. For example, his wife was barren for many years, even into her old age, showing no sign of promise for bringing forth even a small family (let alone multiple nations of people, as was promised to the ancient duo).

Nonetheless, he kept persevering, and in hope against hope, Abraham embraced the wild dream of God (see Genesis 22:18). 

Can we dream with God for a new world, too?

One day, God’s going to make all things new. “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:5). He wants us to have confidence in this promise. He doesn’t want us to live in fear about the destiny of this world.

He also doesn’t want us declaring that this world is headed for hell. 

The fact is, a world stifled with separation-(from God)-anxiety, depression, suicide, lust, and murder is already experiencing hell. Sure, hell is something that extends beyond this realm (for everything that clings to darkness), but its reality has been crashing into the present world for a long time. Jesus Christ came in order to annihilate it. This means He came to change the actual physical world around us, transforming it from the inside out. And He did just that when He enacted God’s dream on the earth through His death and resurrection. And while He was on the earth, He taught us to pray that God’s kingdom of heaven would continue to invade this physical planet (Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as is it in heaven).

He also declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against His people . . . His dreamers.

And such we are. We are called to dream, to believe, and to labor for God’s dream for this earth. 

“For God so loved the world, He sent His son”

– John 3:16 –

God loves this world and He wants to fill it with the leaves of the tree of life (Revelation 22:2).

And these leaves are for the healing of the nations. Do you believe that God wants to heal the nations? Do you believe that Jesus is dreaming of a new world? 

There’s been a lot of theology over the centuries persuading the church to believe that this world is going to be blasted to pieces. And there’s some biblical truth to that. However, we have to rightly discern the heart of Christ in these matters. For every Scripture that seems to say the earth will be destroyed, there’s even more that say the earth will be blessed by the living God. God’s dream is two-fold: Destroy all evil on the earth, so that the earth will be made new and beautiful. His goal is to cleanse evil from human beings, because He loves human beings more than anything else in the cosmos.

Here are some scriptures that show God’s dream for the world is not merely to destroy it, but to heal it: 

“For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.” (Isaiah 2:2)

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and His name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

“But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” (Numbers 14:21)

“Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!” (1 Chronicles 16:23)! 

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

You may have heard that one day God will destroy this earth with fire. In reality, the consuming fire of God is that which cleanses the world to reveal the gold hidden within. Have you ever experienced the fire of God? Has your sin and twisted thoughts been melted away by His warmth? Truly the fiery cleansing of God has already begun. Jesus came “baptizing with fire” according to His cousin John, and indeed, Christ is purifying the world one heart at a time (Luke 3:16). 

For now, let’s begin to dream. Let’s be like Martin, Kermit, and Abraham. Let’s dream of a world healed by God .  .  . a whole earth singing to the Lord together. Let’s imagine every human being filled with the knowledge of who God actually is. Let us be the fire of our Father, consuming everything that is false so that only these things remain: faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).  

Do you believe that God wants a world built on faith, hope, and love?

Believe it with me.

Dream it with Jesus.

He died to make the world new so that the old would “pass away” and a “new creation” would come (2 Corinthians 5:17). By the way, the word “creation” means the whole world. Yes, we are individually “new creations,” but the endgame is that the whole world would become a “new creation.” That’s why Jesus bled and died. 

Let me finish up this section with two more thoughts: Psalm 2:7-8 gives us a glimpse of the Father talking to Jesus. The Father says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:7-8). The Father promised Jesus that if He fulfilled His work (being born, dying, and rising again), that He would give Him all the nations of the world as His inheritance. We – and the world around us – are that very promise. We are a gift from God the Father to God the Son. This world is Jesus’s promised heritage.

And finally . . . we are the bride of Christ (see Ephesians 5:22-33). In the book of Revelation, we get a view of this beautiful bride coming down out of heaven for Jesus, filling the new earth with His glory.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4). 

The old heaven and old earth are passing away. The old way of the law, of sin, and of death are coming to an end. Jesus is making the world new, starting with the church. We shouldn’t only imagine that one day God is just going to magically change the world from old to new. He’s doing it now. In our hearts and minds. In society. And He will continue to transform the world, until all things are made new, and He is revealed in His second coming. He will do whatever it takes to bring this forth.

Let’s get a bigger and brighter vision. Like Martin, let’s boldly say, “I have a dream.” A dream that every human being would be healed and made whole by Jesus . . . and that the whole world would be made new.

Featured Image: A scene from “Tomorrow Land” (Bird, Brad. Tomorrowland. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2015.)

“Tree of Life” artwork by Raphaël Toussaint https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%27arbre_de_Vie_par_Raphaël_Toussaint.jpg