Questions and Answers
Will the earth be destroyed or not?
In a sense, yes. Everything on the earth will be destroyed. 2 Pet. 3:10; Heb. 1:11; Rev. 20:11 all confirm this. On the other hand, the earth with its foundations will remain to the age.
Keep in mind also that Psa. 104:5 and Eccl. 1:4 are both poetry.
Ecclesiastes in context is telling us of the temporal life of man more than making a statement about the permanence of the earth. Not contradictory, since one is talking about the surface of the earth and the other is talking about its foundations.
The same is occurring in the Psalms passage, a description from a human perspective. Therefore, the writers will see the earth abiding forever because that is exactly how it appears.
In Isaiah 65:17 and 2 Peter 3:10 the contexts are altogether different. They are speaking of the time in the future when the new heavens and new earth will be made. Since sin is in the world, the earth and all its works will be destroyed and cleansed and a new heavens and new earth will replace them.
