Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the New Testament, sums up the general belief of Christendom as to earth’s future. With reference to 2 Peter 3:10, this commentator wrote:

“The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. That is, whether they are the works of God or man​—the whole vegetable and animal creation, and all the towers, the towns, the palaces, the productions of genius, the paintings, the statuary, the books, which man has made.”

As here stated, the consensus in Christendom has long been that the time will come when the earth will no longer be the habitation of man or of any living thing. Our planet, in the view of many churchgoers, will have served its purpose, for to them the earth is just a proving ground leading either to heaven or to hell.

But what about Peter’s words that “the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire”? (2 Peter 3:7) Peter obviously cannot be referring to the literal heavens and the earth that the Bible says will remain forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4) God has no reason to bring to an end the heavens where he resides, nor all the physical heavenly bodies. And the earthly globe itself has given him no reason to destroy it, despite what men have done in corrupting and polluting its surface. Jehovah himself tells us that when earth was created in its uniqueness and beauty his heavenly sons “joyfully cried out together, . . . shouting in applause.”​—Job 38:4-7.