Rev 21.1 seems to mean that in the 'new time' there will be no more
sea. Perhaps he means just the great sea, but that couldn't dry up unless as
isthmus formed across the straits of Gibraltar, as, in a past eon, when the
Meditteranean actually was dry. Or maybe it was just a pleasant thought
when he was living, or in confinement, on the Isle of Patmos, an island
about the size of Manhattan in the Aegean Sea.
Perhaps he means all the oceans of the world. It's an odd phrase;
offhand, I can't recall any scripture in the jewish bible of which it might
be consiered a 'fulfillment.' Where did he come up with this idea?
Now various people are saying that global sea level rise, due to global
warming and melting glaciers, will be anywhere from 20 feet to 200 or more
feet over as much as a century. Since one can expect a government view to be
the most modest one, I'll take the opposite, hypothetically: 500 or 600 feet
in the next year - oh, well, make that 20 years - no sense in getting anyone
upset.
I am not interested right now in finding agreements or contradictions
between Rev 21.1 and other scriptures, but in wondering how this scripture
can be reconciled with ther anticipated rise in global sea levels? If the
rise is only a few feet, then perhaps one could agree with Gen 9.15 "the
waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh," perhaps not
even regionally in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf.
Could one interpret Rev 21.1? How would this work? Perhaps magma will
rise up and first contact the sea beds. Then it will evaporate all the
oceans, and all the water will go into the atmosphere. There will then be no
global flooding, no matter how much the glaciers melt. Then people will be
entirely dependent on rainfall - Zech 14.17- but, paradoxically, it won't
rain very much. Is there any meterological support for high humidity and no
rain? Probably not. Perhaps all this moisture in the air will be a cause for
global dimming - Isa 60.2 - although air pollution seems a sufficient cause.
On a less biblical note, I wonder just where all the water in the oceans
actually came from? When it rains, the sea levels don't rise, so it would
seem logical to conclude that the oceans didn't fill up from rainfall.
If there was "no more sea" I would miss watching the the surf roll in.
Give me the old world order, boys! Perhaps the oceans will fill up again if
rain falls. Hmmm...maybe it would rain again for 40 days - Gen 7.12 - but it
would all run off into river channels and back into the ocean beds. G-d have
a'mercy on the little fish.