Will There Be Winter in the Earthly Kingdom?

Question: I see many Watchtower articles depicting a lovely summer like landscape with kids playing with lions, tigers and bears, and everyone has a gleeful look on their face. We are experiencing a very cold, snowy winter so far, and the outlook seems to be more of the same. Will there be freezing cold winters in Paradise Earth?  I read: While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22 KJV)

Answer: There are three phases to the kingdom: (1) Jesus is currently ruling as king over his people and we live as subjects of the Crown in anticipation of the kingdom coming to earth, (2) Jesus will come and establish his kingdom on earth for 1,000 years, during which there will be births and deaths and a final rebellion led by Satan (Revelation 20), (3) then finally Jesus will hand over the kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:20-28) and earth will be remade with no seas and heaven. God’s abode will come to earth in the form of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21,22).

The question we must answer is whether the time frame God gives in Genesis includes the millennial kingdom (phase 2) and the eternal kingdom (phase 3). I am guessing that the millennial kingdom will still have seasons, but that with the remaking of the earth described in Revelation 21 and 2 Peter 3:10, there is a case that might be made for this promise having been fulfilled and there no longer being seasons. Could there still be seasons? I am sure there could be, and there might even be a desire for such, for in each season we see something unique and special about God’s handiwork.

 

One reader’s response: Could it even be possible that the references to no ocean/sea is a really about the removal of evil, upheaval, and the unknown/untamed elements that the sea represents in many ancient mythologies/cultures? My hunch is that we’ll have seasons and we’ll tend the earth as we were meant to in the beginning. Every current understanding of planting and reaping we have requires seasons, even if it’s just wet and dry.

My reply: I think there is symbolic meaning to the removal of oceans. The original state of earth described in Genesis 1:2 of a primeval sea covered in darkness seems to represent disordered chaos, which is the opposite of God’s creative ordering for human and animal and existence on land. We just don’t have enough information as to what the life of the eternal kingdom will look like to make many judgments.