Revelation 21:1-8.
THAT which will take place after the millennial reign of Christ, is more fully described in the first eight verses of Revelation 21, than in other portion of the Word of God.
Much in the way of judgment and administration takes place before the eternal state is reached, for it is written of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:25 that “He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” Also we read “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands” (John 3:35) “And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:27).
The work which He accomplished when He went to the Cross laid the basis whereby every vestige of sin would be removed from God’s creation as John the Baptist testified, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
But before He begins His strange work of judgment, He will come and take His own out of the world altogether, according to His word, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; land the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). So they that are Christ’s at His coming will be safely housed before the Lord begins to shake terribly the earth.
Subsequently the Jews, the living nations, and Babylon the counterfeit church, will be judged by Him, while Heaven rejoices at the overthrow of the latter. Then the marriage of the Lamb is celebrated in Heaven, and the rider upon the white horse comes out in righteousness, to judge and make war, a sharp sword proceeding out of His mouth “that with it He should smite the nations... and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” His great adversaries, the beast, and the false prophet, are taken and both are cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. This we find in Revelation 19.
Afterward as we find in Revelation 20. Satan is bound and cast into the abyss, shut up and a seal set upon him for a thousand years; after which he is let loose for a little season, and goes forth to deceive the nations. The rebels are destroyed, and the devil who deceived them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Every enemy is now laid low, with the exception of death, who still holds the wicked dead in his iron grasp, the righteous having been raised at the commencement of the millennium.
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). So now John says “And I saw the dead... stand before God,... and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works,” being held up in space before the great white throne; the earth and the heaven having fled away, which is in keeping with 2 Peter 3:10. The heavens where Satan as the accuser of the brethren has access, and the earth where sin reigned unto death are utterly destroyed. “And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev. 20:14). Death referring to the body, and hades, to the soul, which are re-united, and consigned to their eternal doom.
All evil will then be forever gone and a new creation established. When, all enemies shall be thus disposed of, and sin forever removed from before God, by the Son of Man, (who as the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world) “then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him, that put all things under Him, that God [The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost] may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
In the new heaven and new earth, there shall be no more sea. That which today separates the nations will be gone, and all national distinctions disappear, only MEN people the new earth. Their physical condition too will have undergone a change, which is consistent with this new order of things.
Then the Holy City, New Jerusalem comes down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. After being in Heaven for a thousand years, the church is seen in all her bridal beauty and attractiveness. Thus the tabernacle of God is with men, and God comes out of His dwelling place, and tabernacles with men on the earth, and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
It would appear that the symbol of the tabernacle is used, it being a movable structure, to denote that the heavenly saints will not permanently occupy the new earth, otherwise we would have expected to find the temple used as a symbol, it being an abiding structure.
The heavenly saints coming down to earth would show that the new earth was entirely freed from sin, and that the heavenly company and the earthly could be brought together, whereas in the millennial scene the heavenly saints are seen reigning with Christ ABOVE OR OVER the earth; and however beautiful and beneficent that glorious reign is sin is still there, and whenever it appears, it is immediately judged, because righteousness reigns.
Heaven is the home of the heavenly saints. They are “not of this world” (John 17:14) and our resurrection bodies are called “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). So in eternity distinction between the heavenly and earthly peoples will be preserved.
The earthly people who fill the new earth are those who live on earth to the end of the millennium as seen in Revelation 7, and 14. And those who have been martyred during the persecutions, after the church has been caught up will come in for heavenly blessing, and are thus gainers by suffering martyrdom.
God Himself proclaims from the throne, “Behold I make all things new.” He alone is the source of all blessing and action in the eternal state. The Lamb is stiff there for He is the one indicated as the Husband of the bride (in vs. 2) and Man He still remains, but He does not appear in these verses. All evil having been put away by Him, He is subject to Him who put all things under Him.
All is now fixed, settled, and sinless, where righteousness forever dwells. God rests in His love, and the heavenly saints eternally dwell in the new heavens.
In keeping with the “tabernacle” as a moving structure, it would be consistent for the heavenly saints to visit other parts of God’s creation as it is said, “All things are yours,” yet the new Heavens will ever be their Eternal Home.
To use a simple illustration, the Prince of Wales with his attendants may visit the various dependencies of the British Empire, but England is their Home.
W. DUNS.