If you hold certain items in your hotbar (I have found torches, ladders, and saplings to do this), then switch to them, all blocks will instantly "vanish." This can only be fixed temporarily by going into "Resource Packs..." in Options. This happens in any gamemode in both Multiplayer and Singleplayer.

EDIT: Happens when both Mipmap levels and Anisotropic Filtering are both turned up to their highest.