Bible Contradiction: Will the Earth Last Forever?

The Issue

Will the earth last forever? We have two verses that seem to be saying different things. Our first verse is found in Ecclesiastes and says this:

This seems to contradict verses like 2 Peter 3:10, where we find this:

So what’s the contradiction here?

Well, in Ecclesiastes, it seems like the Bible is claiming earth will last forever, and yet, 2 Peter claims that the earth will be burned up and destroyed. How can the Bible possibly be saying both things?

Well, the first point to make is that Christianity upholds that the earth will be destroyed. This is a consistent message in the New Testament. Jesus Himself affirms this in the Gospel of Matthew:

Even if we don’t know the specifics of how it will happen, we can know with confidence that the earth as we know it will pass away. So how can Ecclesiastes say that the world will last forever?

Understanding OLAM

To understand this “contradiction”, we’re going to start by looking at the Hebrew word in Ecclesiastes that is being translated as “forever”.

This word is OLAM.

Now, OLAM is used several times in the Old Testament and sometimes does refer to forever in the strictest sense, as, “an infinite amount of time”. However, OLAM can also refer to “a long or undefined amount of time”, while not meaning literally forever. To prove that, we’re going to look at two examples of OLAM being used to describe an amount that is not literally forever.

Our first example is Genesis:

The Hebrew word being translated as “everlasting” in this verse is OLAM. We can infer here that the author doesn’t actually mean that hills go on forever, because that would be physically impossible.

We can still understand what the author is communicating. The hills go on for a long, undefined amount.

Another example of OLAM being used in this way is in Exodus:

Here in Exodus, God is laying out laws regarding slavery for the Israelite people. The topic of Old Testament slavery is complex, and is better saved for a different article. However, what we are focusing on is the last word of this verse, “forever”, which is another use of the Hebrew word OLAM.

In this verse, God lays out a legal process through which a slave could choose to serve their master “forever” or OLAM. Of course, human beings can’t literally live forever, rather we know that OLAM is used here to mean, “the rest of the slave’s life”. Another translation of OLAM is “age lasting”.

Hyperbole in the Bible

Just like our writings and conversations today, the Bible often uses hyperbole to drive home an important point. Hyperbole is simply an, “exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally”.

The Bible overall should be taken seriously and literally as the word of God. However there are many instances of hyperbole. While it may at first sound confusing that the Bible could include phrases that we shouldn’t take seriously. In almost every case we can tell when the Bible is using hyperbole because the context makes it obvious.

An example of this is found just a few verses after Ecclesiastes 1:4:

Here the writer of Ecclesiastes claims to have, “seen everything that is done under the sun”. Is it reasonable to assume that the author has literally seen everything that is done under the sun?

Of course not, that would be impossible!

Instead, we understand the author is using hyperbole to make their point. The author has seen a lot of things, and all of it is vanity.

This shouldn’t be too surprising to us, because today, we use hyperbole all the time. (See what I did there?)

For instance, if my wife and I were waiting in line to checkout at the grocery store, and the line was taking a long time. I might turn to her and say, “this line is taking forever!”

The Context of Ecclesiastes

The final thing we need to understand on this topic is how the overall context of Ecclesiates helps us to understand this issue.

Ecclesiastes is most commonly believed to be written by king Solomon. And this is extremely fitting.

If anyone could say that they “made it”, it would be Solomon. From a human perspective, Solomon had everything someone could ever want: money, power, women, fame. After experiencing every human pleasure, how does king Solomon open the book of Ecclesiastes?

If you had to summarize the book of Ecclesiastes in one sentence it would be this:

Life is short and meaningless without God.

With that being said, let’s go back to our Ecclesiastes verse from the beginning:

Understanding the context of Ecclesiastes, we can see that this verse has nothing to do with making a definite statement that the earth will last literally forever. The point is to show how temporary people’s lives are, by comparing them to how long the earth lasts.

Conclusion

The Bible is clear that the earth in its current form will be destroyed. However, Ecclesiastes 1:4 does not contradict with this reality because:

1. The word OLAM does not always refer to literally “forever”, it can refer to a long, or “age-lasting” amount of time.
2. Ecclesiastes uses hyperbole to make points, meaning not every statement is meant strictly literally.
3. The context of this passage tells us that this passage is focused on the shortness of people’s lives, not the earth literally lasting forever.

Interestingly enough, in a way, the earth will last forever, just not in the way we know it now.

The earth as we know it will be destroyed, but the book of Revelation tells us God will eventually create a new earth that will last forever.

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.