Part 5: The New Heavens and New Earth

With reference to the image below and Label 6, it is God’s intention for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to dwell in the New Heavens and the New Earth. In this, the Present Earth we now live on will have been purified and cleansed by fire from all the man-made pollution and idolatry it has suffered over the past 6,000 years. It will be re-made to be like it was in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve cared for God’s creation prior to them sinning.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The New Earth

The New Jerusalem is a building located in Heaven. It will one day pass through ‘space’ of the New Heavens on its way to the New Earth. It is is described in scripture as follows:

"And  he...shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven  from God,"  (Revelation 21:10-22)

The Bible’s Description of the New Heaven and New Earth

Once the New Earth has been established by Christ, the New Jerusalem will then descend from Heaven and locate itself on the New Earth. Its location will possibly be over the Middle East (maybe Jerusalem) as stated below:

"And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth: for the FIRST HEAVEN and the FIRST EARTH [our Present heaven and earth that the Apostle John knew about] were passed away...there was no more sea. {2} ...I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven...And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."  (Rev 21:1–5)

The unique features of the New Jerusalem

It appears that Jesus Christ – together with His saints will be on Earth waiting to welcome the descent of the New Jerusalem.

After it arrives on Earth, a voice from Heaven will cry out:

"...Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people [the 'saints' who are there], and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."  (Revelation 21:3-4)

The detailed description as to what the New Jerusalem looked like can be read in Revelation 21:10-23.

The unique features of the New Earth

The Bible reveals the following features of what the New Earth will be like for those living outside the New Jerusalem. The following points highlight what life in the New Earth will be like for those living outside the New Jerusalem.

"And the city [of the New Jerusalem] had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. [Possibly God's glory shined for 12-hours and Christ's glory for the remaining 12 hours?] 

24 And the nations of them which are saved [that are located outside of the New Jerusalem] shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth [from these 'Saved nations'] do bring their glory and honour into it [at the prescribed times].  

25 And the gates of it [the New Jerusalem] shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there [meaning, there is only 'daylight from God and Jesus and the gates remain open and not shut].  

26 And they [the kings of the nations] shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it [the New Jerusalem].  27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."  (Revelation 21:23-27)

In this last verse (27), we can see that those natural Adamic, righteous humans who have passed from this life into the Millennium (Matthew 25:31-40) and then passed on into the New Earth – these will produce natural descendants who will still have the propensity to commit acts of sin and rebellion against God.

This claim is evidenced by the statement:

27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing [human, animal or artifact] that defileth [the morals and ethics of Biblical Christianity], neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."  (Revelation 21:27)

These statements tend to indicate the the ‘saints’ in this life who assist Christ to govern the Earth as kings and priests will serve both God and Christ in managing the affairs of the New Heavens. This means that good and faithful servants of Christ will occupy the gates of the city to ensure that no defiled individual or any contraband of any sort will enter into the New Jerusalem.

Summary

The purpose of writing about the generations of the Heavens and the Earth is to reveal God’s plan of Salvation. This salvation is not only for mankind through Jesus Christ, but for the Heavens and the Earth also. God requires ALL spiritually-minded Christians (Romans 8:6) to investigate and wrestle with this doctrine until it is resolved.

God has stated in scripture that He has always intended to dwell with His Creation on the Earth (Revelation 21:3). It is His desire to dwell with the animals, plants, birds, mankind, and angels that He created (Isaiah 57:15).

When God discovered rebellion in Lucifer, God decided to ‘filter’ His angel and human forms of Creation using truth versus lies, obedience versus disobedience and fiery trials to purify His saints. God chose these means because He gave mankind a FREE WILL to choose to do either good or evil (Leviticus 5:4; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Jeremiah 13:23; Romans 9:11).

If people chose to do ‘evil’ over ‘good’, God would be punish them as ‘correction’ (Jeremiah 5:3; 7:28). If they chose to do ‘good’ over ‘evil’, God promises they will live eternally with Him. Therefore, a lifetime for each man and woman on the Earth is God’s “filtering process” that He uses to prove everyone who names Christ as their Saviour (1 Peter 1:7).

If humans really do love their Creator, God determines from their understanding of scripture if they will OBEY His words in FAITH.

In this, Jesus said, “IF ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15

A word of Warning

If Christians prefer to NOT OBEY Christ’s words, it indicates they demonstrate to Christ and everyone else that they DO NOT LOVE CHRIST. No Christian can afford to be in any way “lukewarm” (Rev 3:16) about this. Christ considers Christians that they either LOVE or they HATE HIM by their obedience or disobedience towards His words ( Luke 11:23 ).

"For the time is come that JUDGMENT must begin at the house of God [among those who are in the churches]: and if it first begin at us [the 'born-again' Christians], what shall the end be of them that OBEY NOT the gospel of God [meaning 'Paul's Gospel' - Romans 10:16]? {18} And if THE RIGHTEOUS [Christians in the Gentile churches] SCARCELY BE SAVED, where shall the UNGODLY ['saved' Christian] and the [Unsaved] sinner [who have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ] appear?”  (1 Peter 4:17–18)

The purpose of this article is to encourage God’s people to explore topics such as this.

God has a plan for the generations of the Old, the Present, and the New Heavens and Earth. If you can accept this claim, then this should help you prove your faith.

Such knowledge provides a good basis toward understanding about the many other spiritual issues necessary to obtain Salvation. Our Creator requires His people to gain knowledge, wisdom and understanding about these things in this life (Dan 2:21). Without it, there is no eternal life (Proverbs 1:7; Psalm 5:5).

If you received something new and interesting from this article, please leave a comment below.

By clicking on the links below, this topic has been divided into five parts.

• Part 1: The Generations of the Heavens and the Earth
• Part 2: The Old Heavens and the Earth
• Part 3: The Present Heavens and Earth
• Part 4: The End of the Age
• Part 5: The New Heavens and New Earth