Revelation Chapter 21:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” (Revelation 21:1) Following the final testing of mankind during the thousand-year reign of righteousness and peace, and following the final judgment of all unbelievers at the Great White Throne, there will be the need for a new heaven and new earth that will be pure and clean. Jesus prophesied of this when He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Also, Isaiah 65:17: “For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Peter explains how the earth shall pass away. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3: 10) The words “pass away” mean, “to pass away from one thing to another.” The main thought is transition rather than extinction. In other words, heaven (that which is the present abode of Satan and his evil angels) and earth, which has been defiled for so many years by sin, will be purged by fire and made completely new.
In the new earth, there will be no sea. This is interesting, because at least two-thirds of the total surface of the earth today is water. The sea gives life as we know it today. However, in John 4: 14, Jesus told the woman at the well: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Natural water will no longer be needed to sustain life in eternity. There is no way we can comprehend with our finite minds all that these scriptures relate, but as we meditate on them, we begin to get just a glimpse of what God has prepared for them that love Him!
“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) This verse, along with verses 9 and 10, introduces us to the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal abiding place of both Old Testament and New Testament believers. Jesus has been preparing a place for His people all during this present Grace age (John 14:2, 3), and this chapter gives a description of that beautiful city.
In point of time, verse 2 takes us back to the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ, for it is at that time that Jesus will have come to this earth in power and great glory and will establish a reign of righteousness and peace on the earth. He will then appoint ones to rule from earthly Jerusalem before ascending up into the New Jerusalem with all His saints. He will reign as King of kings from heavenly Jerusalem, having ones ruling under Him on the earth. The saints that will ascend up to the New Jerusalem will include all of those who have been with Him in heaven before He descended to the earth for the Battle of Armageddon, as well as the Old Testament saints, and the martyrs from the latter part of the Tribulation, both groups of which are mentioned in Revelation 20:4.
There will remain on the earth at this time those Israelites who were miraculously protected by God during the last half of the Tribulation, known as the “woman in the wilderness,” and also those who looked on Christ and accepted Him as their Messiah when He returned in power and great glory to fight for His people (chapter 19:11-16). These are the believers who will remain on the earth during the Millennium. As mentioned in our last chapter, life will be prolonged during this time, and there will be many births. Therefore, by the end of the thousand years, the population will have become very large.
At the end of the Millennium, the unbelieving dead will be raised to stand before the Great White Throne and be judged, and the believers who are alive shall be changed from mortal to immortal. At that time, death will be swallowed up in victory! See 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. These believers are the ones who will inherit the earth in fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel many years ago.
I have said that Jesus, with His saints, will set up a righteous kingdom on the earth and then He will ascend up into New Jerusalem to abide. I realize that this is in disagreement with many Bible scholars who believe that Jesus and His saints will remain bodily on the earth during the Millennium. While it is true that there are many scriptures which seem to indicate that He will rule on the earth, I do not believe it would be necessary for Him to be here bodily in order to reign as King. His place of residence could be in the New Jerusalem, which will be over the earth, probably visible from the earth, and yet He would still be ruling with a rod of iron, causing His will to be done. It is possible He could come and go at times, as He did after His resurrection.
My objection to the thought of Christ and His saints dwelling on the earth during the Millennium is that once God’s people have been either translated or resurrected, they will have received their glorified bodies. They will be holy and undefiled. Many of them will have been enjoying the pleasures of heaven for some time. It is hard to imagine people in that position being placed on the earth again where, even though righteousness and peace will reign, there will still be sin, rebellion, and death. The Millennium is a final testing time for mankind, giving them an opportunity to reject sin and accept God’s plan of salvation. The saints who have already enjoyed the blessings of heaven will not need this testing.
When John saw the holy city come down from God out of heaven, he heard a great voice say that God would now dwell with men. So God Himself shall dwell in that heavenly city. Oh, what will it be to be there, where God will dwell with us to fellowship and commune with us forever and ever! We are told that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Some have said this simply means that there will be no tears in heaven. However, the wording seems to indicate that there will be tears for God to wipe away. If so, they are probably the result of our realizing just what Jesus did for us, and how little place we really gave to Him in our lives here. Death, sorrow, crying and pain, all a result of sin, shall be no more! What we are seeing here is the eternal state of the heavenly believers, which they will enjoy from the time of their translation or resurrection—although those still on the earth during the Millennium will not enjoy their eternal blessings until the end of the thousand years.
“It is done” in verse 6 means, “These things will come to pass.” Then Jesus confirms once again that He is the First and the Last (see chapter 1:8, 11, 17). From the beginning of time and throughout eternity, He remains the Beginning and the End. Jeremiah called Him the “Fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13). He is the source of life and He gives freely to all who will receive. This is a call to those who have been born on the earth during the Millennium, but have not yet received Jesus as their Savior. Even during the Millennium, salvation is obtained by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 7 is a call to people on earth for a personal relationship with God, and verse 8 is a warning to those who will not believe.
Then we have the description of the New Jerusalem which John saw descending out of heaven from God. Verse 2 describes the city “as a bride adorned for her husband.” This shows the beauty of that city, for nothing is more beautiful than a bride adorned for her husband. Further, the city is called, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Jesus said to the overcomers of the Philadelphia church of Revelation 3:12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name.” The overcomers of this church are a type of those who will become the bride, the Lamb’s wife. We realize from the description of this city that it will be made up of many more than the wife of the Lamb. However, even as citizens today will often honor men by naming their city after someone who has played an important part in its history, even so the New Jerusalem will be called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” to honor her.
Verse 11 says the brightness of the city is like a clear jasper stone. This stone is said to be gold in color, but it will be clear as crystal. There will be a wall around the city with twelve gates, on which are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. This reminds us that all divine blessings to the entire world have come through the nation Israel (Genesis 22: 18; Romans 11: 12), and it also reveals the fact that there will be people in heaven from all of the twelve tribes of Israel. Not all of Israel looked for an earthly inheritance. Note Hebrews 11: 10, 16; 12:22, 23. And there will still be angels ministering to God and His people in this city.
Verse 13 tells us that there will be three gates each on the north, south, east, and west. When God gave instructions for the order of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, He told Moses to have three tribes camp on each side of the Tabernacle, north, south, east, and west. That was a pattern of the eternal order! (Hebrews 9: 23, 24)
The names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are in the twelve foundations of the wall of the city. Jesus told the twelve apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel—so they will have an important place in this city.
The city lies foursquare, the length, breadth and height being equal. Some have thought it will be in the shape of a pyramid, but most Bible scholars believe it will be in the shape of a cube. We read in Amos 9:6: “It is He that buildeth His stories in the heaven…the Lord is His name.” The word “stories” means “chambers, elevation, a journey to a higher place, stair, story.” It appears that there will be something similar to this in the New Jerusalem, since it will be as high as it is long and wide. However the city will be fashioned, we know that every detail is ordered by God.
Twelve thousand furlongs is approximately 1,500 miles, or the distance from the eastern coast of the U. S. to the Mississippi River, or from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico. There is no comparison of the size of this city to any now in existence. The wall is 144 cubits high, or approximately 216 feet.
Jasper is mentioned again regarding the wall, and the city itself is said to be “pure gold, like unto clear glass.” In other words, this city and everything in it will be so dazzlingly beautiful, it is beyond description. The foundations of the wall are garnished with all manner of precious stones. The twelve gates are large pearls, and the street is pure gold. Precious and costly jewels will be in abundance. Instead of concrete and blacktop, precious metals will beautify the New Jerusalem, which will be enhanced by a river of water and luscious fruit trees. (Chapter 22:1-2)
There will be no need of a temple as a place for men to go to worship God, for God Himself, and the Lamb are the Temple of it. Their presence will always be in our midst. And there will be no need for the sun or moon to give light in this city, for the glory of God and the Lamb will be the light thereof. In 1 John 1: 5, we read that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all—and there will be no night in New Jerusalem. We won’t need to rest, for we will never be tired! This dazzling city will reside over the earth and become the light for the earth.
“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour unto it.” (Verse 24) Zechariah 14:14 tells us that the nations which are left after the Battle of Armageddon will go up to earthly Jerusalem to worship the King. This will bring glory and honor unto New Jerusalem where the King resides.
The fact that the gates are not shut at all makes us know this is a heavenly city, for verse 27 tells us that only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of Life can enter, and there will still be people on the earth during the Millennium who are not saved. Verse 27 assures us that there will never be anything that defiles allowed to enter New Jerusalem. We might have the question as to whether or not an angel in heaven could rebel as Satan did long ago, bringing defilement to the city. But that will never be the case. We will reign in that magnificent city with our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, forever and ever.
What a hope is set before all believers! And what a glorious hope is set before the overcoming Christians of this Grace age, to reign as joint-heirs with Christ, the wife of the Lamb. Let us watch and be ready for His coming!
Peter explains how the earth shall pass away. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3: 10) The words “pass away” mean, “to pass away from one thing to another.” The main thought is transition rather than extinction. In other words, heaven (that which is the present abode of Satan and his evil angels) and earth, which has been defiled for so many years by sin, will be purged by fire and made completely new.
In the new earth, there will be no sea. This is interesting, because at least two-thirds of the total surface of the earth today is water. The sea gives life as we know it today. However, in John 4: 14, Jesus told the woman at the well: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Natural water will no longer be needed to sustain life in eternity. There is no way we can comprehend with our finite minds all that these scriptures relate, but as we meditate on them, we begin to get just a glimpse of what God has prepared for them that love Him!
“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) This verse, along with verses 9 and 10, introduces us to the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal abiding place of both Old Testament and New Testament believers. Jesus has been preparing a place for His people all during this present Grace age (John 14:2, 3), and this chapter gives a description of that beautiful city.
In point of time, verse 2 takes us back to the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ, for it is at that time that Jesus will have come to this earth in power and great glory and will establish a reign of righteousness and peace on the earth. He will then appoint ones to rule from earthly Jerusalem before ascending up into the New Jerusalem with all His saints. He will reign as King of kings from heavenly Jerusalem, having ones ruling under Him on the earth. The saints that will ascend up to the New Jerusalem will include all of those who have been with Him in heaven before He descended to the earth for the Battle of Armageddon, as well as the Old Testament saints, and the martyrs from the latter part of the Tribulation, both groups of which are mentioned in Revelation 20:4.
There will remain on the earth at this time those Israelites who were miraculously protected by God during the last half of the Tribulation, known as the “woman in the wilderness,” and also those who looked on Christ and accepted Him as their Messiah when He returned in power and great glory to fight for His people (chapter 19:11-16). These are the believers who will remain on the earth during the Millennium. As mentioned in our last chapter, life will be prolonged during this time, and there will be many births. Therefore, by the end of the thousand years, the population will have become very large.
At the end of the Millennium, the unbelieving dead will be raised to stand before the Great White Throne and be judged, and the believers who are alive shall be changed from mortal to immortal. At that time, death will be swallowed up in victory! See 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. These believers are the ones who will inherit the earth in fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel many years ago.
I have said that Jesus, with His saints, will set up a righteous kingdom on the earth and then He will ascend up into New Jerusalem to abide. I realize that this is in disagreement with many Bible scholars who believe that Jesus and His saints will remain bodily on the earth during the Millennium. While it is true that there are many scriptures which seem to indicate that He will rule on the earth, I do not believe it would be necessary for Him to be here bodily in order to reign as King. His place of residence could be in the New Jerusalem, which will be over the earth, probably visible from the earth, and yet He would still be ruling with a rod of iron, causing His will to be done. It is possible He could come and go at times, as He did after His resurrection.
My objection to the thought of Christ and His saints dwelling on the earth during the Millennium is that once God’s people have been either translated or resurrected, they will have received their glorified bodies. They will be holy and undefiled. Many of them will have been enjoying the pleasures of heaven for some time. It is hard to imagine people in that position being placed on the earth again where, even though righteousness and peace will reign, there will still be sin, rebellion, and death. The Millennium is a final testing time for mankind, giving them an opportunity to reject sin and accept God’s plan of salvation. The saints who have already enjoyed the blessings of heaven will not need this testing.
When John saw the holy city come down from God out of heaven, he heard a great voice say that God would now dwell with men. So God Himself shall dwell in that heavenly city. Oh, what will it be to be there, where God will dwell with us to fellowship and commune with us forever and ever! We are told that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Some have said this simply means that there will be no tears in heaven. However, the wording seems to indicate that there will be tears for God to wipe away. If so, they are probably the result of our realizing just what Jesus did for us, and how little place we really gave to Him in our lives here. Death, sorrow, crying and pain, all a result of sin, shall be no more! What we are seeing here is the eternal state of the heavenly believers, which they will enjoy from the time of their translation or resurrection—although those still on the earth during the Millennium will not enjoy their eternal blessings until the end of the thousand years.
“It is done” in verse 6 means, “These things will come to pass.” Then Jesus confirms once again that He is the First and the Last (see chapter 1:8, 11, 17). From the beginning of time and throughout eternity, He remains the Beginning and the End. Jeremiah called Him the “Fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13). He is the source of life and He gives freely to all who will receive. This is a call to those who have been born on the earth during the Millennium, but have not yet received Jesus as their Savior. Even during the Millennium, salvation is obtained by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 7 is a call to people on earth for a personal relationship with God, and verse 8 is a warning to those who will not believe.
Then we have the description of the New Jerusalem which John saw descending out of heaven from God. Verse 2 describes the city “as a bride adorned for her husband.” This shows the beauty of that city, for nothing is more beautiful than a bride adorned for her husband. Further, the city is called, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Jesus said to the overcomers of the Philadelphia church of Revelation 3:12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name.” The overcomers of this church are a type of those who will become the bride, the Lamb’s wife. We realize from the description of this city that it will be made up of many more than the wife of the Lamb. However, even as citizens today will often honor men by naming their city after someone who has played an important part in its history, even so the New Jerusalem will be called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” to honor her.
Verse 11 says the brightness of the city is like a clear jasper stone. This stone is said to be gold in color, but it will be clear as crystal. There will be a wall around the city with twelve gates, on which are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. This reminds us that all divine blessings to the entire world have come through the nation Israel (Genesis 22: 18; Romans 11: 12), and it also reveals the fact that there will be people in heaven from all of the twelve tribes of Israel. Not all of Israel looked for an earthly inheritance. Note Hebrews 11: 10, 16; 12:22, 23. And there will still be angels ministering to God and His people in this city.
Verse 13 tells us that there will be three gates each on the north, south, east, and west. When God gave instructions for the order of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, He told Moses to have three tribes camp on each side of the Tabernacle, north, south, east, and west. That was a pattern of the eternal order! (Hebrews 9: 23, 24)
The names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are in the twelve foundations of the wall of the city. Jesus told the twelve apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel—so they will have an important place in this city.
The city lies foursquare, the length, breadth and height being equal. Some have thought it will be in the shape of a pyramid, but most Bible scholars believe it will be in the shape of a cube. We read in Amos 9:6: “It is He that buildeth His stories in the heaven…the Lord is His name.” The word “stories” means “chambers, elevation, a journey to a higher place, stair, story.” It appears that there will be something similar to this in the New Jerusalem, since it will be as high as it is long and wide. However the city will be fashioned, we know that every detail is ordered by God.
Twelve thousand furlongs is approximately 1,500 miles, or the distance from the eastern coast of the U. S. to the Mississippi River, or from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico. There is no comparison of the size of this city to any now in existence. The wall is 144 cubits high, or approximately 216 feet.
Jasper is mentioned again regarding the wall, and the city itself is said to be “pure gold, like unto clear glass.” In other words, this city and everything in it will be so dazzlingly beautiful, it is beyond description. The foundations of the wall are garnished with all manner of precious stones. The twelve gates are large pearls, and the street is pure gold. Precious and costly jewels will be in abundance. Instead of concrete and blacktop, precious metals will beautify the New Jerusalem, which will be enhanced by a river of water and luscious fruit trees. (Chapter 22:1-2)
There will be no need of a temple as a place for men to go to worship God, for God Himself, and the Lamb are the Temple of it. Their presence will always be in our midst. And there will be no need for the sun or moon to give light in this city, for the glory of God and the Lamb will be the light thereof. In 1 John 1: 5, we read that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all—and there will be no night in New Jerusalem. We won’t need to rest, for we will never be tired! This dazzling city will reside over the earth and become the light for the earth.
“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour unto it.” (Verse 24) Zechariah 14:14 tells us that the nations which are left after the Battle of Armageddon will go up to earthly Jerusalem to worship the King. This will bring glory and honor unto New Jerusalem where the King resides.
The fact that the gates are not shut at all makes us know this is a heavenly city, for verse 27 tells us that only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of Life can enter, and there will still be people on the earth during the Millennium who are not saved. Verse 27 assures us that there will never be anything that defiles allowed to enter New Jerusalem. We might have the question as to whether or not an angel in heaven could rebel as Satan did long ago, bringing defilement to the city. But that will never be the case. We will reign in that magnificent city with our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, forever and ever.
What a hope is set before all believers! And what a glorious hope is set before the overcoming Christians of this Grace age, to reign as joint-heirs with Christ, the wife of the Lamb. Let us watch and be ready for His coming!