When Jesus returns, Jesus “blows the whistle” to say “Game Over!”  His arrival will pronounce an end of the world as we know it, the beginning of judgment, the separation of believers from non-believers and, according to 2 Peter 3, a restoration of our earth to its original glory, the perfect state of God’s original creation.

Peter makes this statement in Acts 3:

“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” Acts 3:17-21

Jesus will remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, wiping out sin, removing the sinners and creating a heavenly paradise. It will be changed, restored to its original created glory, untarnished by sin. The apostle Paul in Romans speaks about this truth:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:18-22

The earth itself is waiting to be liberated from sin and restored to a glorious freedom. So the world will not end, just be “reborn” in the same way Jesus asks us to do with our lives.