The fact is that it will be after the judgment is completed that heaven and earth will end with the beginning of the new heaven and earth. For it will be by a transformation rather than by a wholesale destruction that this world of ours will pass away. This explains Paul’s words: “This world as we see it is passing away. I would have you free from care.”5 It is, to be sure, the visible appearance of the world that is destined to pass away, not its nature. CITY OF GOD 20.14.6

[The creation] will not be subjected to complete annihilation, as we learn from Irenaeus, Antipater12 and other saints. For the blessed Irenaeus writes, “For neither is the substance nor the essence of the creation annihilated (for faithful and true is he who has established it), but the fashion of the world passes away, that is, those things among which transgression has occurred, since humankind has grown old in them. And therefore this fashion has been formed temporary, God foreknowing all things.”13 Similarly, the great Methodius comments as follows in On the Resurrection: “It is not satisfactory to say that the universe will be utterly destroyed, and sea and air and sky will be no longer. For the whole world will be deluged with fire from heaven and burned for the purpose of purification and renewal; it will not, however, come to complete ruin and corruption.” And a little later he says, “And Paul clearly testifies this, saying, ‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the manifestation of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but through him who subjected it in hope. Therefore, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay’ ”14 and so on. But before these saints the holy David sang to the Lord, saying, “You sent forth your Spirit, and they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.”15 And Isaiah says, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind; but they will find gladness and rejoicing in it.”16 Certainly in the superabundance of joy and in the greatness of their rewards they will forget the struggles and pains that they endured. In another place Isaiah says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, so shall your descendants and your name remain.”17 It follows, therefore, that the creation, which was made for our sake, receives with us a change for the better, not going into nonexistence, just as we do not go into nonexistence after our death. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.11.18

BASIL: Do not think that I am threatening you with false goblins like some mother or nurse, as they are accustomed to do with small children. Whenever the children wail wildly and incessantly, they put the children to silence by means of bogus tales. But these things I am telling you are not a fiction. Rather, they are true reason publicly proclaimed with a straightforward voice. HOMILIES 5, SAYINGS FOR A TIME OF HUNGER AND THIRST 2.6

BASIL: Do not think that I am threatening you with false goblins like some mother or nurse, as they are accustomed to do with small children. Whenever the children wail wildly and incessantly, they put the children to silence by means of bogus tales. But these things I am telling you are not a fiction. Rather, they are true reason publicly proclaimed with a straightforward voice. HOMILIES 5, SAYINGS FOR A TIME OF HUNGER AND THIRST 2.6

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: If today one is cast out of the assembly of this church because of some enormity, in how much grief and tribulation will his soul be?14 If it causes unbearable pain to be thrown out of this church, where the one who is rejected can eat and drink and speak with others and has the hope of being called back, how much more pain will there be if, because of his sins, one is separated from that church which is in heaven, and eternally separated from the assembly of the angels and the company of all the saints? For such a person it will not be enough punishment for him to be cast away, but in addition he will be shut out into the night, to be consumed by an eternal fire. One whose impenitent behavior has warranted his being finally shut out of that heavenly Jerusalem will not only be deprived of divine fellowship, but will also suffer the flames of hell, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,”15 where there will be the wailing of lamentation without any remedy, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished;16 where death would be sought as an end to torment, and not found. SERMONS 227.4.17