New heavens, new earth, new Jerusalem

At your right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11 The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Dan. 2:45 Heaven is a place as real as Chicago. Dwight L. Moody

Here starts a new age. And the last age. One that lasts forever.

This one always gets superficial treatment for some reason. Maybe because it's last. Or so incredibly good that it's hard to relate to. Or sooo distant, being aaalllll the way over on the other side of the millennium. But let's take a very close look. This is your home. So the "eternal-ness" shouldn't put anyone off. It's a home of perfect love. And "perfect love casts out fear."1 This is going to be a good time after all.

It starts off with a bang. A quite literal bang.

"But the day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as the thief, and the the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up."2 "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth."3 The day of the Lord includes everything from the beginning of the Great Tribulation to the new heaven and the new earth.] We know that only a nuclear explosion causes simultaneous noise, heat and melting this way. God will release the power in all the atoms of the universe, and turn it all into energy that will be spent, thus clearing the way for the new creation.

And he will comfort anyone who needs comforting as the former things pass away. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And, after that, there shall be no more death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain. Because everything becomes new.

Your new home

Your city, Jerusalem, is 1,500 miles in each direction -- a perfect cube. This allows for some pretty amazing skyscrapers.

The basic building material of the new Jerusalem is transparent gold, for buildings and for streets, a special kind of monochromatic splendor.

The city is surrounded by a wall that is 144 cubits, or 300 feet high. This wall is made of jasper, again a clear diamond-like substance. It has twelve foundations. The twelve foundations of the wall of the city are decorated with all manner of precious stones.4

The first, jasper.

The second, sapphire.

The third, chalcedony.

The fourth, emerald.

The fifth, sardonyx.

The sixth, sardius.

The seventh, chrysolyte.

The eighth, beryl.

The ninth, topaz.

The tenth, chrysoprasus.

The eleventh, jacinth.

The twelfth, amethyst.

The wall has twelve gates, each made of pearl. And on the gates are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. At these gates stand twelve angels.

You can imagine that all the buildings in new Jerusalem will be architectural wonders. But one building will be conspicuous by its absence.

There will not be a temple

The magnificent palace-sanctuary of the millennium will be gone, burned up with the old earth. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb will be the Temple, Revelation tells us.

Something else will be conspicuous by its absence. No sun. No moon, either. God's own glory will lighten Jerusalem, both God the Father, and God the Son. And so there will be no night as we know it.

Does this all sound just a little bit austere? God. Shining powerfully, almost audibly. No night. A city made up of building blocks of gold. With transparent, shining walls. Does it sound too sterile? Too divorced from life as we know it? Too, too . . . cold?

It really won't be. After all, by this time you will have worked side-by-side for 1,000 years with your brother Jesus Christ in government service. You will know him very well, and continue to know him as your brother. And you will then relate to God, your Father, face-to-face as your Father. It will be a time of indescribable family joy. You'll have all the feelings of love, happiness, joy that you may ever have yearned to have and share with others . . . but maybe never did, or never could. And you'll have these feelings to live and repeat forever and ever. Affection, approval and recognition. In abundance. In extravagant abundance. From God himself, Father and Son.

You'll have lots of friends there, too. All the 'nations of the saved' will be there, on the new earth, and be bringing their own glory and honor into new Jerusalem. All the people from the kingdom age, and all your friends from the government.

A bigger blue marble

The Bible doesn't really say, but we can imagine that if new Jerusalem itself is a 1,500-mile square city, the new earth would be much larger than the present earth to accomodate it proportionally. And after all, if the nations of the saved bring their glory into the new capital, they must be coming from somewhere. So we can imagine that they are coming from their own nations and cities in the rest of the new earth.

Some remarkable dimensions

Various scholars at various times have calculated:

* If we took all the cities of the world, and gathered them together, we would get only a 300-mile cube (compared to the new Jerusalem's 1,500-mile cube).

* Allowing fifteen feet to the story, new Jerusalem would be 5,028 stories high. This would equal the distance from Dallas to Washington D.C. or Tampa to Des Moines. Each of these 5,028 stories would contain 2,250,000 square miles; and all the stories combined would total 11,313,000,000 (11.3 billion) square miles.

* Were the city to be divided into blocks as in our American cities, there would be at least 625 million blocks. But since it is as high as it is wide long, and to accomodate the highest buildings yet erected in New York, there would be at least 7,500,000 streets and 937 billion blocks. In such a city there would be ample room for 10 million houses, each large enough for 12,500 denizens (perhaps an entire family) measured by today's standards, or a total population of 125,000,000,000 (125 billion).

Creationist scientists estimate that only about 80 to 100 billion humans have been born since Adam.

* If the world stood as it is for 100,000 years, and a billion people died in each generation, there would still be more than enough space for all -- another 5,000,000,000,000 (5 trillion) in the heavenly city.

And this is just the city! There is still the new earth as well!

Rivers and trees

There will also be some rather lush and exquisite vegetation in the new city, a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. This river runs right out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, just as the millennial river flowed out of the sanctuary, east and west. (So even though there is no Temple as such, there will be a very special palace for our Father and oldest Brother, and that's where the river will come from.)

And just as in the kingdom age, this miraculous, spiritually-enlivened river of water gives life to remarkable vegetation, the tree of life, just as was in the Garden of Eden. The tree of life gives twelve manner of fruits, and yields the fruit every month. And the leaves will be for the health or the "benefit" of the nations.5 That's how the word "healing" should be translated here.

We'll eat the fruit of the tree that is nourished by this river of living water, and so be nourished in our family relationships with our Father and Brother. This tree of life in the new city assures us of eternal fellowship and closeness with our family.

And even though the Bible doesn't say it explicitly, we can imagine beautiful forests and mountains in the rest of the new earth. Meadows of grass, meadows of flowers, all different kinds of flowers. And animals. Fountains. Waterfalls. And other cities in the nations, each with its own personality and character. Lots of places to go and things to do.

Serving the Lord
You've heard about the beatific vision -- the reward of the believer supposedly to sit around all day and stare at God. While it will be a thrill to see him face-to-face at last,6 and while his face will be exquisite, and something to behold for a long time, indeed, he is not that narcissistic, to say the least, to have us staring at him -- and doing nothing else -- for eternity. While he does want our adoration, he also adores us with a perfect love.7 And he has much more in mind for us to do.

We will serve him.8 And we will reign forevermore.9 We will reign over the new earth, the universe. We will rule angels, as well, meaning serving, befriending, helping them, just as they have helped us in times past.10 Perhaps we'll also administrate the cities and the nations of the myriad of saved from the kingdom age, the second-born, to our being first-born from the old world.

We will minister to the Lord God our Father, and to the Lord God our Brother. (And they will minister to us, as well.) One way to do this, submitted here as a thought-starter, is through music. We know God likes music.11 We know Jesus sang psalms. We even know he breaks out in song for joy when his millennial kingdom is established. So in the eternal age, can you see Bruckner's Symphony No. 8? or 880? Can you hear Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand? Or 100,000?

Music is one service. Imagine dance as well. And drama. And art. And the written word. And the spoken word. Imagine creativity. Drama. Excitement. And electricity in the air. Imagine worshipping the Father face-to-face, there thanking him afterwards, in person for your salvation and all your gifts and blessings.

And doing it all in the most remarkable physical (and spiritual) circumstances. The heavenly new Jerusalem. Your home forever.

Not a one-dimensional life
Some private time. And then after the joy and excitement of serving the Lord as part of a chorus, or part of a symphony, or a chamber group, or in some other artistic event, or having an exciting talk with him, there will be a release. There will be some rest to make the excitement meaningful.12 Maybe this is a Godly nap. Or a vacation. Or walking in a meadow, or sitting under a tree all alone, some private time for some very private meditation. Or time with old friends or new friends. Or other family. Or reading. Or working on your job. Whatever you like to do. Whatever you do to recreate.

A life full of knowledge. We will have full and perfect knowledge at that time. As Paul says, " . . . . now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."13 Most importantly, we will know, firsthand, face-to-face, no longer by faith alone, just how much we're loved, each one of us, individually by God. Loved for our personalities. For our individuality. For what we are as perfected by the Holy Spirit. Because we'll hear God say it. We'll feel his own arms around us. His kiss will be on our cheek.

Many (most?) Christians never quite fill up that void in them that is a God-placed void for fellowship with him. They never fully accept themselves or God's love for them. But in that day, actually starting in the kingdom age, they will be sated on the love of God they crave. They will be fully cognizant of their stature as princes and princesses of heaven. It won't be an idea any more. It will be reality.

A holy life. Nothing of Satan will be in the new Jerusalem or the new earth, or the new universe. Satan will be in hell, burning. And with him all pain, sickness, lies, murder, hatred, poverty, loss, grief, death, tears, sorrow, and crying. All these former things will be passed away.14 And holiness, a life of real separation unto God will result.

Joy. When you go to the left, when you go to the right. Joy of abundance. Of family, friends, people. Of wealth. Of power. Joy, spilling over, like a river.

And glory. Earlier we cited a quote which said that how human beings handle their hunger for glory explains all psychological problems, all spiritual sickness, and all human sin.

We all need and crave and must have divine dignity. The glory of God. That is God's will for us.

And we will have it in full in the new Jerusalem.

As Paul says:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."15

And:

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."16

And as John says:

"We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him."17 Eternal, sinless, deathless, victorious, loving, joyful, powerful, wealthy, creative, experiencing the absolute perfection of development.

You, yourself, will experience that. Forever!

You will be so new at that time that you'll need and have a new name!18

Do you ever feel like you'll never be what you want to be? Whatever that is?

Do you ever feel that all the best parts of your life are behind you instead of in front of you?

Do you ever want to just start over? Or did you ever feel that way?

Good news.

Your real life is still ahead of you.

Because after this age of grace is over, and when the kingdom age is over, you will come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and to God himself, your Father.19

He'll welcome you home.

And you will live there, with him, and the Lord Jesus, forever.

You'll be home.

Really home.

FOOTNOTES
Chapter 17
NEW HEAVENS, NEW EARTH, NEW JERUSALEM
1. 1 John 4:18
2. 2 Peter 3:10
3. 2 Peter 3:12, 13
4. Rev. 21:19
5. Rev. 22:2
6. 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2; John 14:3; Rev. 22:4
7. Eph. 1:11, 3:18-20
8. Rev. 3:22
9. Rev. 22:5
10. 1 Cor. 6:3
11. Zeph. 3:14-18
12. Rev. 14:13
13. 1 Cor. 13:12
14. Rev. 21:27
15. 2 Cor. 4:17
16. Col. 3:4
17. 1 John 3:2
18. Rev. 3:12
19. Heb. 12:22-23

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