Part 9 The Millennium New Heaven & New Earth
The Nature of the Kingdom on Earth
So let us take a look at some of the features and descriptors of this Kingdom period commonly referred to as The Millennium.
Gen 13:14, 15 − The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.
Gen 17:8 − "I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
2 Sam 7:16 − Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' "
How will David’s throne be forever if it is destroyed in fervent heat in favor of a later New Earth?
Remember, David's throne was never in Heaven.
Psalm 89:29-37 − I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. "If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness-- and I will not lie to David--that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." "Selah"
Ezek 37:24, 25 − "'My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever.
Luke 1:30-33 − But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
Isaiah 65:17-25 − "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
Now, if this "new heavens and a new earth" are AFTER the millennium as most typically interpret Revelation 21, which is AFTER the Great White Throne judgment, how can you have someone accursed? Let's continue the Isaiah passage:
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.
Sounds like as with all things that the Lord wills, He speaks into existence just as with His original creation. Is he going to wait to do this after the Millennium? How is this description different than what we know of the Millennium? Again, if there is no difference, why destroy it all to make it “new”?
Note a couple things here. In all passages we see Millennial Kingdom references and the operative word is "forever." In the Isaiah passage John quoted in Revelation 21 is the KINGDOM!! It is NOT some post fiery 2 Peter 3 literal annihilation and top-down re-creation!
Note verse 17 that we have the New Heaven and New Earth. Then what? We see children and old men. People on the earth building and gardening. We see the wolf and the lamb lying down together. This is perhaps the most famous Millennium passage in all of scripture! And it is after the New Heaven and New Earth, making Revelation 20 the parenthetic chapter.
I did not place the famous Isaiah 65 passage in this order. The Holy Spirit did so. This further illustrates that it is a mistake to put the popular 2 Peter 3 passage in a gap between Revelation 20 and 21. After all, John did not put it there. The 2 Peter passage is about the swiftness and sureness of judgment. It is not a glowing beautiful recreation passage at all, in its context.
Throughout many of these passages, how can we not be struck by all the things the Lord says “will” or “will not” happen. Many of these are reminiscent of our Lord speaking creation into existence with a simple “Let there be” as in Genesis 1. Are these merely predictive or instructive, or are they, as with Genesis, part and parcel of the creative process wherein our Lord wills things to happen or not. And can there be a distinction where our Lord is concerned? For all things he has purposed or permitted, to be sure, but in either case, all outcomes ultimately are planned. Not that we can be ardent where this is concerned, but one may make the argument that this is the very creative process with an outcome ultimately being a New Heaven and New Earth. Note that John said, “And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth.” He did not say, “And I saw the Lord beginning to make a New Heaven and New Earth.” John is testifying of what he saw, not an event.
As mentioned previously, I had often heard how the Lord would roll up the heavens like a scroll and consume the entirety of His creation in fire and brimstone and begin anew “from scratch.” I’d assumed that somehow the Lord takes His remnant miraculously out of the way, under protection somewhere, speaks a new creation into being and then puts all us back into this new creation. But where do we read anything like that? Sure, we can attempt to shoe-horn 2 Peter 3 into Revelation like some futuristic Gap Theory, but it is not in there.
Indeed, where we read in 2 Peter 3 and Revelation of the heavens being rolled up as a scroll is way back in the Seal Judgments of chapter six. We still have the trumpet and bowl judgments over a period of years to go before we reach the end of this time of horrific tribulation. Nowhere is an event such as this described in either Isaiah or Revelation. That reality added to the weight of Old Testament prophecies, adds weight to the notion that the 2 Peter 3 passage in particular is hyperbole. Synthesis demands it.
Potentially more remodeling here:
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; or the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. -Isaiah 11:6-9
The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that men can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt. -Isaiah 11:15, 16
Good possibility this is what John was referring to in that puzzle of the ages verse in Revelation 21:1 “and the sea was no more.” From the perspective of where he stood in Jerusalem witnessing all this, he may have simply been reporting the same thing we read in Isaiah 11 above. The "King's Highway" that allows all nations to walk where that sea was, into Jerusalem to worship.
In that same passage, verses 12, 13 is well worth noting:
12 “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
-Isaiah 11:12, 13
Ezekiel 47:8-12 − Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
"It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
Zechariah 14:8 − On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.
Psalm 67:6 − Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.
Note again, these are Kingdom conditions prior to Satan being freed after the thousand years for a brief moment, followed by the Great White Throne Judgment that precedes eternity future. Also note, that while one sea is no more and there is a highway, there are many rivers leading into seas in those passages. If you doubt these are Millennial Kingdom passages, what would further off future beings need with "healing leaves?"
Quick summation again:
The extent of destruction extant upon the world by the end of the Great Tribulation reveals there can be no paradise on earth without a recreation.
The testimony of the Greek language of the original prototype earth passing away with the new heaven and new earth.
The timing of the bridegroom’s presentation of his bride to the public after the huppah where she is hidden for seven days. (Not after the Millennium).
The parentheticals already in play as evidenced within the context of the next two chapters.
The fact that the place of the millennial temple is forever.
The nature of the re-creation and re-ordering of all things from the beginning of the Millennium, and those events described as forever.
So we see an awesome time before us! There is judgment and wrath as described from Revelation 6 through 20 and Jesus on the Mount of Olives, and don't forget 2 Peter 3 and elsewhere. Christ will return with his Bride, now wife, who comes down in New Jerusalem.
Jesus puts down Antichrist's armies at Armageddon and his holy angels separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. When his foot touches down on the Mount of Olives it spits north and south and pure, healing water flows into the Dead Seas and outward.
Following this week of years of Tribulation will be an awards ceremony for believers at the Bema Seat, not unlike an Olympic awards ceremony. Jesus will establish his throne and kingdom and will himself build a new Temple as described by Ezekiel.
Jesus will be remaking the scorched, polluted, decimated earth and heavens. Old men will not die at a hundred without being thought a child. Infants can play with vipers, wolves and lambs nap together, as well as cattle and lions. Trees will yield fruit and healing leaves. All gardens will produce high yields of crops as will grape vines produce perfect wine.
Only believers will enter this Millennial Kingdom and these mortals will bear children. Some will not be believers although Satan is bound for a thousand years. The Antichrist and False Prophet are already in the Lake of Fire even before the Great White Throne Judgment. Jesus will release Satan and permit a very brief rebellious uprising after a thousand years, reminiscent of Gog and Magog in scope. Jesus will put them down with but a word. Then after this mop up process, all unbelievers will be judged and cast into outer darkness, the Lake of Fire, at this last great judgment. All now glorified, immortal believers will continue into Eternity Future in Paradise Found "forever and ever" as Isaiah and other passages describe it.
The Millennial Dispensation remains intact as a thousand year period unique in the Kingdom era where man is tested one final time, in a paradise, where all begin as believers and no satanic influence. It is an idyllic time when we, the bride of Christ, reign with Christ, the Bridegroom. Grace and mercy abounds and newly born children are born and have every opportunity to turn to Messiah, but after a thousand years, rebellion and sin see some march to Jerusalem like Gog and Magog did and try to overthrow the Kingdom before Christ puts them down with a word. At the end of this era, this dispensation, comes the final judgment. Then we enter into a future within the Kingdom that we only know as Eternity Future. It is a mystery. It is interesting to note that many of the passages we ascribe to life in "Heaven" is actually describing life in the Kingdom and/or the New Jerusalem.
Do you realize, when one thinks about it, we are only in the realm of God we know as Heaven for just seven years before coming to dwell Forever with Jesus where he is to sit on David's throne, Forever? We tend to think of "going to Heaven" but Heaven is where Jesus is and his Kingdom is where he dwells. And wherever we are with him, that is the Kingdom of Heaven.
In this next installment we will look at some of these "Forever" and "Everlasting" passages and see how they demonstrate 2 Peter 3 must be hyperbole.