World

The biblical concept of world falls into five categories: the physical world, the human world, the moral world, the temporal world, and the coming world.

The Physical World. The physical world at its largest extent includes the whole universe, the cosmos ( John 1:9 ; Acts 17:24 ) or the creation ( Rom 8:20 ). When biblical writers refer to the world, however, they usually mean the earth itself, not including sun, moon, and stars. No clear Old Testament references appear to the world as a planet, although Isaiah 40:22, "the circle of the earth, " is suggestive to some. Many Old Testament uses of world or earth (eres, in poetry sometimes tebel [lebeT]) could refer equally to the planet or the ground. When Old Testament writers wanted to refer to the universe, they used an expression like "the heavens and the earth" ( Gen 1:1 ) or an expansion of that expression ( Exod 20:11 ; Neh 9:6 ).

Scripture affirms first of all that God created the world ( Gen 1:1-2:4 ; Acts 4:24 ; 14:15 ; Rev 10:6 ). Because he created it, he owns it and may be addressed as its Lord ( Matt 11:25 ; Luke 10:21 ; Acts 17:24 ). The whole world is full of its Creator's glory ( Isa 6:3 ). Because God is Creator and Lord of the earth, it holds only secondary value; a believer must not swear by it ( Matt 5:34-35 ) or accumulate treasure on it ( Matt 6:19 ).

God designed the world to be fruitful. His creation includes provision for animals as well as for people ( Psalm 104:10-22 ).

God's judgment encompasses the physical world. He flooded it in Noah's time and it lies ready for his judgment at the end ( 2 Peter 3:7 2 Peter 3:10 ). The world's permanence is only relative. At the end God's angels will gather his chosen ones "from the ends of earth to the ends of heaven" ( Mark 13:27 ; NRSV ). Until that time the earth is the arena of God's activity through his people. Christians are to witness to Jesus "to the ends of the earth" ( Acts 1:8 ).

The Human World. The human world includes dry land where people can live, the inhabited earth where they do live, and by metonymy, the people who live there.

The dry land appears in contrast to the sea in Genesis 1:9-10 and Revelation 10:2. Much of this dry land makes up the inhabited earth. The inhabited earth was created with delight by God's wisdom ( Prov 8:27-31 ). Before Jesus' birth Caesar Augustus attempted to take a census of "the whole world" (really only the Roman Empire Luke 2:1 ). The tempter offered Jesus "all the kingdoms" of the inhabited world ( Luke 4:5 ; cf. Matt 4:8 ). Jesus predicted that the gospel would be preached to the whole world ( Matt 24:14 ; 26:13 ; cf. Rom 10:18 ), a prediction so successful that the early church, in its opponents' opinion, upset the whole world ( Acts 17:6 ). The whole world is deceived by the devil ( Rev 12:9 ) and will experience great trouble before the end ( Luke 21:26 ; Rev 3:10 ).