Day of Fire

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?  2Peter 3:10-12 (NKJV)

The final day of judgement coincides with the absolute destruction of the earth and the heavens.  The heavens is simply everything in the sky; the universe, in short.  We are told that the earth and the heavens will pass away (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33).  And Peter tells us that the elements will melt away.  Imagine, such an event that the Periodic Table ceases to exist.  Imagine a fire so hot that it melts the elements.  Its our human nature to assume that such an event has a cause that we can understand.  We could understand it, at least in part, if the Sun exploded in a supernova and consumed the earth.  For that reason, we might be inclined to think that that's what Peter is talking about.  But he says the heavens will pass away, and the elements will melt.  That means that the Sun itself will melt.  The fire that destroys the universe will be greater than any fire in the universe.  It will be hotter than the Sun, or any other star.  So what could cause such a fire?  We cannot know for sure, but we do have a hint from the book of Revelation:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.  And there was found no place for them.  Revelation 20:11 (NKJV)

If the earth and the heavens are fleeing from the face of God, don't you think that is the elements melting away?  The science behind this will never be understood, because man simply doesn't have the ability.  But God Himself will be the consuming fire that melts the elements, even the Sun itself will melt because of Him.  How do we know this?  Well, we read later in Revelation that the earth and the heavens cease to exist.  So when there was "found no place for them" I suppose that means they were totally destroyed.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  Also there was no more sea.  Revelation 21:1 (NKJV)

The old has gone and a new has come.  We have no idea what the new heavens and the new earth will be like.  There is no description of them.  We have more description of New Jerusalem, but even that is up for interpretation.  But we know that God "makes all things new".  Suppose that the Periodic Table no longer exists.  Suppose that there's totally new elements.  Or maybe, instead of elements, there is something totally different than elements.  It is completely open, as to what the new heavens and new earth are like.  There is no requirement that they be anything - anything at all - like the present heavens and earth.  Its enough to make us wonder and really set our imaginations in motion.  Yet however much we imagine, it could be that the new heavens and new earth are so totally different from the present, that we cannot possibly conceive of them, even in our imaginations.  The reason that we do not have a description of them could be that its impossible to describe with words.  Just consider the colors we see; maybe new colors will exist.  Or maybe the concept of color and sight will be completely changed.  Maybe new senses will exist.  Maybe there will be something totally different than senses.  Only God knows...

There's a greater theme to consider, which is the relationship between the physical and the spiritual.  This theme is present in the Old Testament and New Testament, which is the idea of a physical foreshadowing of a greater - spiritual - reality.  I am stepping out here, so keep that in mind.  I am speaking of things I don't understand but can only guess at.  Yet it seems to me that God likes to, in His great plan, slowly reveal great truths, and do so through a physical foreshadowing.  We know that what is spiritual is greater than what is physical, because we know that God is Spirit (John 4:24), and we know that God created the universe.  So the spiritual acts upon the physical; the spiritual dictates the physical.  The idea of a shadow describes this well.  The shadow is not the reality, but only a vague image of the reality, which is caused by the reality.  And so the physical is just that - a vague image of the spiritual, which is caused by the spiritual.  As bizarre as it might seem, I totally believe that the spiritual is more real than the physical.  With a foreshadowing, it is God showing us through the physical what is yet to come; it could be a type of what is to come.  And what is to come is greater, and spiritual, and somehow totally different than our present reality.  The Old Covenant was just that.  The promised land was a foreshadowing of heaven.  The exodus represents a spiritual journey out of bondage (sin) and into the promised land (heaven).  King David symbolizes the kingship of Messiah Jesus.  The sacrificial system was meant to symbolize the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  And there are a number of other foreshadows in the OT.  I just happen to think that God is still not done using foreshadows.  I'll leave it at that, because as I said, this is something I have only a faint understanding of.