What do “the first heaven” and “the first earth” refer to?
Revelation 21:1 (ESV)
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
This is the heaven and the earth as God created them in the beginning (Genesis 1:1). Both of these two parts of God’s creation were deeply damaged through the fall into sin (Romans 8:19–22).
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.