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THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE
Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully
dressed for her husband. (Rev. 21:1-2)
THE QURAN
[It will be] on the Day the earth will
be replaced by another earth, and the heavens [as well], and all creatures
will come out before Allah, the One, the Prevailing. (Surah Ibrahim
14:48)
NATIVE TRADITION
When the former world grew corrupt and
fell away, the faithful were guided through the deep places of the earth
to emerge upon a land made newpurified by spirit and remade in
beauty. (The Tradition of the Four Worlds and the Great
Purification)
BABYLONIAN TRADITION
He severed the body of the deep into
two halves; the one half he stretched forth as the firmament of heaven,
and with the other he laid the foundation of the earth, ordering the stars
and remaking the cosmic realms out of primeval chaos. (Enuma Elish,
Tablet IV:137-146)
NORSE TRADITION
After the fire and deluge of the
Twilight, the Earth rises green and whole once more from the deep sea;
unseeded fields bring forth their harvest, the righteous dwell in halls of
gold, and life is renewed beneath a clean sky. (Völuspá,
Stanzas 59-64)
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