Part 10 The Millennium New Heaven & New Earth
How Long Is Forever and Ever?
If you have been following this Massive 10 Part series you probably have an idea of how long is forever! But this is the last in this series. I pray your patience is rewarded as you mull this concluding thought.
Again, I know this seems tedious, but words mean things. We are looking at further transition here. Are we not? And how can this be “everlasting” if it is at some point “cut off” for even a new creation? Yes, God can do anything though, we must admit. But in the past we may have exercised more eisegesis than exegesis.
Psalm 105:6 − O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! 7 He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. 8 He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, 9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. 10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance"
Jer 7:7 − then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
Notice it did not say, the recreated land similar to what I gave to your fathers.
Jer 30:3 − `For behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, `when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.' The LORD says, `I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.' "
Jer 30:18 − "Thus says the LORD, `Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob And have compassion on his dwelling places; And the city will be rebuilt on its ruin, And the palace will stand on its rightful place.
Isaiah 9:7 − There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
Isaiah 27:6 − In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, And they will fill the whole world with fruit.
Isaiah 35:1-10 − The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you." Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 55:13 − Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will
not be destroyed."
Did you catch that? If we take a literal rather than hyperbolic view of 2 Peter 3, it will be destroyed. Yet here from the prophet Isaiah, it will not be destroyed!
Ezekiel 34:13, 14 − "I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.”
Ezekiel 37:24-28 − "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25 "They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. 26 "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. 27 "My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 "And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.""'
Amos 9:11-15 − "In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name," Declares the LORD who does this. 13 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the reaper of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. 14 "Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 "I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God.
Joel 3:20 − Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations.
Micah 4:7 − "I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation, And the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on and forever.
Isaiah 65 stands as a famous Old Testament passage (v. 17) about the Lord making a New Heaven and a New Earth. Review the passage and see how the Lord is talking about the troubles leading up to that time. If the New Heaven and New Earth are after a thousand years of paradise on earth, the descriptors seem misplaced. Let us merely look from verse 17—19:
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying. -Isaiah 65:17-19
A couple things jump out at me in just these verses alone. First, He creates new heavens and a new earth. Then, the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. Why would we not wish to remember the millennial kingdom? Well of course this makes sense if this is from the perspective of people coming right out of God’s wrath on earth. There is of course the argument that, regardless of when this creation is made, we will not remember the old, original world. But to be fair, this is yet another example of hyperbole. There will be many memories, particularly our testimonies and friendships in Christ, that we will wish to remember. For how else do we so appreciate what Christ is doing and who he is, without the contrast? But those memories will no longer be painful as we will have eternal context.
But as this is one continuous paragraph, that former statement does not seem to square with a sequence of events, for next He transforms Jerusalem into a rejoicing and her people with joy. No more weeping. Was there weeping during the millennium? By no means can we say this. The weeping was in coming through the time of Great Tribulation; not in the enjoyment of the Millennial Kingdom.
How about that original promise to Abraham? Do we read of any interruption or transplant to a new and improved land made after the old is consumed and rolled up like a scroll, consumed in cosmic fire and something else entirely created instead? Thus this informs our interpretation of 2 Peter 3.
Gen 13:15 − All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.
Genesis 17:8 − The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
Isaiah 60:21 − Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.
Jeremiah 7:7 − then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.
Ezek 37:25, 26 − 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. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.
Again, how can a completely new earth be “where your fathers lived”?
Somehow we got to a place wherein we thought “forever” was sort of a euphemistic way God was telling Israel they will eventually get what was promised and it will be for a really long time. For those who tend to take a less literal approach to scripture, particularly prophecy, they will have no problem with this sort of fuzzy ambiguity. It ought to surprise those with a more literal bent that we can take such a sloppy approach. A “forever and ever and from generation to generation” type statement should eliminate all ambiguity.
Paul wrote in Romans:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. - Romans 8:19-22
Romans indicates not that creation is looking forward to complete and utter annihilation, but rather a time when it is set free from corruption.
In summary, we ought to examine for re-thinking both the timing of the New Heaven and New Earth, as well as the process:
The extent of destruction extant upon the world by the end of the Great Tribulation.
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.
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.
The future Kingdom promised to Abraham's children is forever and where their forefathers walked.
What does this do to a biblical time line? Generally, the chronology is as follows:
The great tribulation (the marriage celebration and feasting in Heaven)
The second coming and 1st Resurrection
The bride comes down (in New Jerusalem) and is presented to the world
Satan bound in chains, Antichrist and false prophet thrown into the lake of fire
Even now, Jesus is renewing the world.
The sheep, that believing remnant coming through the Tribulation, enter the Millennium
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb commences
The new heavens and the new earth begins right away as a process, even before the 4th temple
Jesus rules with a rod of iron over the mortal remnant and their descendants for a thousand years
Satan released for a season and finds sympathizers among the mortal descendants and are put down
The 2nd Resurrection and The Great White Throne Judgment
Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire
Eternity Future
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. – 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
Conclusion
It can be difficult to keep the controversies of some of these teachings distinct from the over-arching presentation of the chronology of the New Heaven and New Earth, but it would seem to be worthy of a more thorough examination. For instance, there are two classifications of people during the Millennial period. We see the immortal folks, we his bride who reign with Christ, but there are also mortals ushered into this time. These are the survivors from the Great Tribulation, and their offspring. Of these there are two subsets. We see the nations, and Israel.
This is not a critical issue. Salvation does not hang in the balance depending upon our conclusions.
Throughout my Christian walk certain perspectives and time-lines were laid out in a proscribed way with little question. And for fair reason, really. Godly men have gone before and reasoned it all out. We are firmly instructed to beware of “novel” teachings (novel being anything that questions what is set in stone). This is generally a good rule of thumb. But for me, it provided little in the way of tying up those loose ends or smoothing those bumps.
Let us quickly review those 7 Problems With The Traditional Time-line:
Sweeps God's promises to Israel under the rug.
(We have seen that God's promises are now taken fully into account).
Makes presumptions upon the chronological order of Revelation 20 & 21.
(The model presented with chapter 20 as parenthetic solves the problems listed).
Selective eisegesis when approaching text where hyperbolic language is concerned.
(Old Testament “eternal” language alone fully confirms 2 Peter 3 as hyperbolic).
Ignores the ancient wedding tradition so frequently used by Jesus about the end times.
(The traditions fall in with complete accuracy within the new model).
Almost entirely ignores the “eternal” nature of O.T. descriptive language.
(The new model works perfectly well within Revelation 21 without eisegetically plugging 2 Peter 3 between chapters 20 and 21 or Revelation).
Makes a broad assumption about the word “new” in Revelation 21 and unjustly shoe-horns 2 Peter 3 into the passage without sufficient precedent or cause.
(“New” solves the Genesis Gap Theory and the Revelation/2 Peter 3 Gap Theory).
Ignores entirely both the necessity and fact of Christ's renewal after the destructive Great Tribulation.
(Now, all those passages from Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets are a little more “at home” as the solution to the mess left behind after the Great Tribulation).
Many will disagree. It is in man's nature to resist change. One day soon we will learn the truths that we have missed. But I contend the Biblical evidence shows us that:
The destructive contamination from the Great Tribulation means we must have a renewed creation.
The Bible reveals Jesus will be renewing creation with rivers that flow, trees that heal, Jerusalem raised, the King's Highway raised that eliminates the sea between Egypt and Israel, and more.
2 Peter 3 is about the certainty and thoroughness of God's Judgment upon the ungodly during The Day of the Lord, which is in fact the seven year period known as the Tribulation or Daniel's 70th Week, and that the passage reads like Revelation 6, and because of the weight of passages to the contrary, it is written as hyperbole for effect.
The ancient wedding imagery so often used by Jesus matches a time-frame of New Jerusalem and us within it coming down at the 2nd Coming, not at the end of the Millennium.
Not just pattern in topic shift reveals Revelation 20 is parenthetic, but also the shift in perspective from Earthly to Heavenly and back again speak to a parentheses (as well that it ends in the Great White Throne Judgment while later verses talk about evil people).
The purpose of chapter 20 as parenthetic is to offer a run-down on the disposition overall of the Satanic Trinity and the believers during the Millennium.
God's eternal promises to Israel are myriad and run contrary to the complete destruction of all creation at any time whatsoever.
The nature of the 4th Temple in Ezekiel as an eternal establishment speaks to this.
The Old Testament prophecies about the nature of the Kingdom confirm the world will not be completely and utterly destroyed, so the purpose of a New Heaven and New Earth is much needed post-tribulational Renewal and not utter destruction.
The language of the promises within the land where their father's walked, etc. as “eternal,” “forever and ever” and “everlasting” mitigates against utter destruction, confirming 2 Peter 3 is hyperbole and not appropriate for a sort of Gap Theory in Revelation 20 & 21.
I hope this large series has been encouraging for all who read, even if you disagree. May it encourage you to dig... To be as the Bereans! Dig into the Word and prove me wrong. You will be blessed in the reading!