The City Of Perpetual Blessing:
(Part of a sermon By Dr. Paul Fedena - CLICK)
1. Outside the City the “nations” and “kings” reside, but since only the redeemed survive the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium, the question is who are these people?
2. Perhaps they are those who have mansions in the city, but have estates and governments and activities outside the city.
3. Perhaps they are humans in an innocent state like Adam before the fall continuing on the earth after the Millennium (if so they would have had to have been “raptured” off the planet before it was purged by fire, and glorified ).
4. This would place a very literal interpretation on the Abrahamic Covenant which promised that his seed would be as the sand upon the seashore and the stars in the heavens.
5. It would also help us envision the fulfillment of the Messianic promise in Isaiah 9:7 that “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.”
6. Also, if the nations of the saved were to continue to multiply, as would Adam and Eve, if they had not fallen, God’s command to “fill the earth” and “subdue it” would be finally accomplished.
7. Think of the productivity and promise of the planet where sin has been banished forever and where the nations can develop and expand infinitely.
8. Neither the kings of the earth nor the nations will seek their own glory, but “bring their glory and honor” into the city to the Lord of Glory!
(This is one of the Greatest Mysteries of Bible Prophecy)
(Part of a sermon By Dr. Paul Fedena - CLICK)
1. Outside the City the “nations” and “kings” reside, but since only the redeemed survive the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium, the question is who are these people?
2. Perhaps they are those who have mansions in the city, but have estates and governments and activities outside the city.
3. Perhaps they are humans in an innocent state like Adam before the fall continuing on the earth after the Millennium (if so they would have had to have been “raptured” off the planet before it was purged by fire, and glorified ).
4. This would place a very literal interpretation on the Abrahamic Covenant which promised that his seed would be as the sand upon the seashore and the stars in the heavens.
5. It would also help us envision the fulfillment of the Messianic promise in Isaiah 9:7 that “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.”
6. Also, if the nations of the saved were to continue to multiply, as would Adam and Eve, if they had not fallen, God’s command to “fill the earth” and “subdue it” would be finally accomplished.
7. Think of the productivity and promise of the planet where sin has been banished forever and where the nations can develop and expand infinitely.
8. Neither the kings of the earth nor the nations will seek their own glory, but “bring their glory and honor” into the city to the Lord of Glory!
(This is one of the Greatest Mysteries of Bible Prophecy)
Human Reproduction in Eternity
I believe that human reproduction will take place in eternity. This is a controversial conclusion, but I believe that it is firmly warranted by the Scriptures. I am not alone in holding this. Dake's Annotated Reference Bible (which is unsound on some major doctrines) and some other Classic Dispensationalists taught this.
Now, we all know that those who are resurrected do not marry (Mark 12:25). However, nowhere are we told that the faithful of the Millennium will be resurrected. Death comes to an end after the final judgment. However, there is no mention of a Resurrection for Millennial believers. We are told in Rev 22:2 that:
In the midst of the street of it, and on the either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
We have in this verse two significant facts- the restoration of the Tree of Life of Eden and the need of the nations for healing. This suggests the restoration of the Edenic order in which man had not life in himself, but it was communicated by divine sustenance through the Tree of Life. Thus, it seems that the nations are, like Adam and Eve in Eden, existing in earth, non-glorified bodies that are free from decay through God's communication of life.
The nations are clearly distinguished from the resurrected saints for they dwell in the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:3-5, Hebrews 11:10, 12:22, Galatians 4:26). It is the great truth of Classic Dispensationalism that the Church is an heavenly not an earthly people. Of the nations we are told in Rev 21:24:
And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Thus, the nations dwell outside the city, they are distinct ethnic groups (unlike the Church which is a supranational body without national disitnctions in its heavenly essence) and they have kings.
Likewise Daniel 7 distinguishes between the saints who rule and the those nations who are ruled:
Verse 14
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Verse18
But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
While Revelation 21 and 22 do not in themselves prove that marriage and childbearing will exist in the eternal state, they do establish the possibility.
There are some statements in Scripture that do indicate the likelihood of eternal reproduction.
Genesis 9:12
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
Here we have reference to a 'perpetual' number of generations. See also Psalm 100:5, 45:17, 119:90
Genesis 15:5
And he brought him forth abroard, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
So Abraham's descendents are innumerable. It is possible that this has been fulfilled or that it will be fulfilled in the Millennium, but I rather think it suggests that Abraham' children will multiply forever.
Some Dispensationalists like Charles Ryrie see the promises to Israel being fulfilled only in the Millennium. However, I do not believe that this is satisfactory. I belive that the the family inheritance of Israel is too last forever. Israel receives an earthly promise which is fulfilled in an earthly fashion (Ezekiel 37:25-28, Jeremiah 31:36). In Isaiah 66:22, the national existence of Israel is mentioned in cconnection with the New Heavens and New Earth:
For as the new heavens and then new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.
On this view, the Millennium is a transitional period of which the eternal state is essentially a continuation of the same programme.
I would suggest that there are other advantages to the view that I am advocating. This view upholds the blessedness and essential goodness of marriage and the family. It seems peculiar that something so blessed as marriage and childbearing would be lost after the destruction of sin and death. The conventional view of the eternal state makes out the earthly paradise of Eden to be a only a transitional stage in God's plans which could be discarded. This seems to give the victory to the devil in destroying paradise. I suspect a little Platonic influence may have kept the Church from embracing the glory and hope of an eternal earthly paradise, including the continuation of the human family.
I believe that human reproduction will take place in eternity. This is a controversial conclusion, but I believe that it is firmly warranted by the Scriptures. I am not alone in holding this. Dake's Annotated Reference Bible (which is unsound on some major doctrines) and some other Classic Dispensationalists taught this.
Now, we all know that those who are resurrected do not marry (Mark 12:25). However, nowhere are we told that the faithful of the Millennium will be resurrected. Death comes to an end after the final judgment. However, there is no mention of a Resurrection for Millennial believers. We are told in Rev 22:2 that:
In the midst of the street of it, and on the either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
We have in this verse two significant facts- the restoration of the Tree of Life of Eden and the need of the nations for healing. This suggests the restoration of the Edenic order in which man had not life in himself, but it was communicated by divine sustenance through the Tree of Life. Thus, it seems that the nations are, like Adam and Eve in Eden, existing in earth, non-glorified bodies that are free from decay through God's communication of life.
The nations are clearly distinguished from the resurrected saints for they dwell in the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:3-5, Hebrews 11:10, 12:22, Galatians 4:26). It is the great truth of Classic Dispensationalism that the Church is an heavenly not an earthly people. Of the nations we are told in Rev 21:24:
And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Thus, the nations dwell outside the city, they are distinct ethnic groups (unlike the Church which is a supranational body without national disitnctions in its heavenly essence) and they have kings.
Likewise Daniel 7 distinguishes between the saints who rule and the those nations who are ruled:
Verse 14
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Verse18
But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
While Revelation 21 and 22 do not in themselves prove that marriage and childbearing will exist in the eternal state, they do establish the possibility.
There are some statements in Scripture that do indicate the likelihood of eternal reproduction.
Genesis 9:12
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
Here we have reference to a 'perpetual' number of generations. See also Psalm 100:5, 45:17, 119:90
Genesis 15:5
And he brought him forth abroard, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
So Abraham's descendents are innumerable. It is possible that this has been fulfilled or that it will be fulfilled in the Millennium, but I rather think it suggests that Abraham' children will multiply forever.
Some Dispensationalists like Charles Ryrie see the promises to Israel being fulfilled only in the Millennium. However, I do not believe that this is satisfactory. I belive that the the family inheritance of Israel is too last forever. Israel receives an earthly promise which is fulfilled in an earthly fashion (Ezekiel 37:25-28, Jeremiah 31:36). In Isaiah 66:22, the national existence of Israel is mentioned in cconnection with the New Heavens and New Earth:
For as the new heavens and then new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.
On this view, the Millennium is a transitional period of which the eternal state is essentially a continuation of the same programme.
I would suggest that there are other advantages to the view that I am advocating. This view upholds the blessedness and essential goodness of marriage and the family. It seems peculiar that something so blessed as marriage and childbearing would be lost after the destruction of sin and death. The conventional view of the eternal state makes out the earthly paradise of Eden to be a only a transitional stage in God's plans which could be discarded. This seems to give the victory to the devil in destroying paradise. I suspect a little Platonic influence may have kept the Church from embracing the glory and hope of an eternal earthly paradise, including the continuation of the human family.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
THE APOCALYPSE Lectures on the Book of Revelation by J.A. Seiss
Perpetuity Of The Earth And The Race Of Man — “End Of The World” Not The Extinction Of The Earth — Continuous Generations — The Redeemed World — The Scene Of It — The Blessedness Of It — The Occupants Of It.
Revelation 21:1-8. And I saw heaven new and earth new: for the first heaven and the first earth are gone, and the sea no longer is. And I saw the city, the holy, new Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God, with the men [or mankind], and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and he, the God with them, shall be their God. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall no longer be, neither sorrow, neither crying, neither pain, shall any longer be; because the first things are gone. And the Sitter upon the throne said, Behold, new I make everything. And he saith, Write, because these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, They are accomplished. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I to him that thirsteth will give out of the fountain of the water of the life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be God to him, and he shall be son to me; but the cowardly, and unbelieving, and polluted, and murderous, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the false, their part [shall inherit] in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the death the second.
HUMANITY was created and constituted a self-multiplying order of existence, — a race, — to which this earth was given as its theatre, possession, and happy home. God created man in his own image; male and female created he them, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over it. When sin first touched man, it found him thus constituted and domiciled. Had the spoliations of sin never disturbed him, humanity, as a race, must needs have run on forever, and been the happy possessor of the earth forever. Anything else would be a contravention and nullification of the beneficent Creator’s intent and constitution with regard to his creature man. Meanwhile came the fall, through the Serpent’s malignity; and then a promise of redemption by the Seed of the woman. If the nature of the fall was to destroy the existence of man as a race, and to dispossess him of his habitation and mastery of the earth, the nature and effect of the redemption must necessarily involve the restitution and perpetuation of the race, as such, and its rehabilitation as the happy possessor of the earth; for if the redemption does not go as far as the consequences of sin, it is a misnomer, and fails to be redemption. The salvation of any number of individuals, if the race is stopped and disinherited, is not the redemption of what fell, but only the gathering up of a few splinters, whilst the primordial jewel is shattered and destroyed, and Satan’s mischief goes further than Christ’s restoration. I therefore hold it to be a necessary and integral part of the Scriptural doctrine of human redemption, that our race, as a self-multiplying order of beings, will never cease either to exist or to possess the earth. There is a notion, bred from the morbid imagination of the Middle Ages, which has given birth to many a wild poetic dream, which has much influenced the translators of our English Bible, which has unduly tainted religious oratory, song, and even sober theology, and which still lingers in the popular mind as if it were an article of the settled Christian creed, that the time is coming when everything that is, except spiritual natures, shall utterly cease to be, the earth consume and disappear, the whole solar and sidereal system collapse, and the entire physical universe vanish rote nothingness. How this can be, how it is to be harmonized with the promises and revealed purposes of God, wherein it exalts the perfections of the Deity, there is not the least effort to show. The thing is magniloquently asserted, and that is quite enough for some people’s faith, though sense, reason, and Revelation be alike outraged. There is indeed to be an “end of the world.” The Bible often refers to it. But men mistake when they suppose the world spoken of in such passages to be the earth as a planet. Three different words have our translators rendered “world” gh, which means the earth proper, the ground, this material orb which we inhabit; kosmov, which means what constitutes the inhabitableness, the ornamentation, beauty, cultivation, external order, fashion of the world, but not the substance of the earth as a terraqueous globe; and aiwn, which is used more than one hundred times in the New Testament, but always with reference to time, duration, eras, dispensations, — a stage or state marking any .particular period, long or short, past, present, or future, — the course of things m any given instance, rather than the earth or any theatre on which it As realized. It may be earth or heaven, time or eternity, a material or an immaterial world, it is all the same as to the meaning of the word aiwn, which denotes simply the time-measure and characteristics of that particular period or state to which it is applied.f158 And this is the word used in all those passages which speak of “the end of the world.” It is not the end of the earth, but the end of a particular time, age, condition, or order of things, with the underlying thought of other orders of things, and perpetual continuity in other forms and ages. AEons end, times change, the fashion of the world passeth away, — but there is no instance in all the Book of God which assigns an absolute termination to the existence of the earth as one of the planets, or any other of the great sisterhood of material orbs. So in those passages which speak of the passing away of the earth and heavens (see <400518>Matthew 5:18, 24, 34, 35; <411330>Mark 13:30, 31; <421617>Luke 16:17, 21, 33; <610310>2 Peter 3:10; <662101>Revelation 21:1), the original word is never one which signifies termination of existence, but parercomai, which is a verb of very wide and general meaning, such as to go or come to a person, place, or point; to pass, as a man through a bath, or a ship through the sea; to pass from one place or condition to another, to arrive at, to go through; to go into, to come forward as if to speak or serve. As to time, it means going into the past, as events or a state of things once present giving place to other events and another state of things. That it implies great changes when applied to the earth and heavens is very evident; but that it ever means annihilation, or the passing of things out of being, there is no clear instance either in the Scriptures or in classic Greek to prove. The main idea is transition not extinction. Some texts, particularly as they appear in our English Bible, express this change very strongly, as where the earth and heavens are spoken of as perishing, being dissolved, flying away ( <233404>Isaiah 34:4; 54:10; <660614>Revelation 6:14; 20:10); but the connections show that the meaning is not cessation of being, but simply the termination or dissolution of the present condition of them to give place to a new and better condition. At least one such perishing of the earth has already occurred. Peter, speaking of the earth and heavens of Noah’s time, says: “The world that then was being overflowed with water, PERISHED.” (<610305>2 Peter 3:5, 6.) But what was it that perished? Not the earth as a planet, certainly; but simply the mass of the people, and the condition of things which then existed, whilst the earth and race continued, and have continued till now. Equally strong expressions are used with regard to the destruction or passing away of the old in the case of one born again to newness of life in Christ Jesus; but no one therefore supposes that the bringing of a man from Satan to God is the annihilation of him. It is simply the change of his condition and relations. And so in the case of the earth and heavens; for the same word which describes the change in the individual man is used to describe the change to be wrought in the material world. It is regeneration — paliggenesia — in both instances (Matthew 29:28; <560305>Titus 3:5), and therefore not the putting out of existence in either case. The dissolving of which Peter is made to speak, is really a deliverance rather than a destruction. The word he uses is the same which the Savior employs where he says of the colt, “Loose him;” and of Lazarus when he came forth with his death-wrappings, “Loose him, and let him go;” and of the four angels bound at the Euphrates, “Loose them;” and of the Devil, “He must be loosed a little season.” It is the same word which John the Baptist used when he spoke of his unworthiness to unloose the Savior’s shoestrings, and which Paul used when he spoke of being “loosed from a wife.” It is simply absurd to attempt to build a doctrine of annihilation on a word which admits of such applications. The teaching of the Scriptures is, that the creation is at present in a state of captivity, tied down, bound, “not willing, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope;” and the dissolving of all these things, of which Peter speaks, is not the destruction of them, but the breaking of their bonds, the loosing of them, the setting of them free again to become what they were originally meant to be, their deliverance. (Compare <450819>Romans 8:19-23.) And as to the flying or passing away, of which John speaks, a total disappearance of all the material worlds from the universe is not at all the idea; for he tells us that he afterwards saw “the sea” giving up its dead, the New Jerusalem coming down “out of the heaven,” the Tabernacle of God established among men, and “nations” still living and being healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life. Great changes in the whole physical condition of the earth and its surrounding heaven are everywhere indicated; but the idea of the extinction of the material universe amid “the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds,” is nothing but a vulgar conceit, without a particle of foundation in nature, reason, or Scripture.f159 Things have no more tendency to annihilation than nothing has a tendency to creation. There is no evidence that a single atom of matter has ever been annihilated, whence analogy would infer that such a thing is not at all in the will or purpose of God. On the contrary, the teaching of Revelation is, that “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but The Earth abideth forever.” ( <210104>Ecclesiastes 1:4; <191505>Psalm 15:5; 119:90.) Whatever new cataclysms or disasters are yet to befall this planet, we are assured that they wilt not be as destructive even as Noah’s flood; for God covenanted then, and said: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, neither wilt I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.” ( <010821>Genesis 8:21, 22.) It is specifically promised that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” and that “the righteous shall dwell in it forever.” (<400505>Matthew 5:5; <193709>Psalm 37:9, 11, 29; <236021>Isaiah 60:21; <450413>Romans 4:13.) And if the righteous are to inhabit it forever, it must exist forever. The kingdom of which Daniel prophesied is to be an everlasting kingdom, which shall stand forever. That kingdom is located “under the whole heaven,” and takes in among its subjects “peoples, nations, and languages,” and has its seat upon the earth. (<270244>Daniel 2:44; 7:14, 27.) But if the earth is to have an indestructible kingdom, it must itself be indestructible. John describes the sovereignty of this world as finally assumed by the Lord, even Christ, who is to hold and exercise it to the ages of the ages. (<661115>Revelation 11:15.) But how can Christ reign forever in a world which is presently to cease to be? God has specifically and repeatedly covenanted and promised a certain portion of the earth to a certain people for “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 48), in which they are to “dwell, even they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever” (<263725>Ezekiel 37:25), and not cease from being a nation before him forever. (<243136>Jeremiah 31:36.) How can this be fulfilled if the earth is to be annihilated? There is also a peculiar consecration upon the earth which makes it revolting to think of its being handed over to oblivion. The footsteps of the Son of God upon its soil, the breathing of its atmosphere by his lungs, the saturation of its mould with his sweat, and tears, and blood, the wearing of its dust upon his sacred person, the warming of its fluids in his arteries, ought to be enough to satisfy us that neither the Devil nor destruction shall ever possess it. It is the place where God’s only begotten Son was born and reared, and where he taught, and slept, and suffered, and died. It is the territory on which Divine Love and Mercy have poured out the costliest sacrifice the universe has ever known. It is the chosen theatre of the most momentous deeds that ever attracted the adoring interest of angels. It has furnished the death-place, the grave, the scene of the bruising and the triumph of Jesus Christ. And how can it ever be delivered over to everlasting nothingness? Perish what may, a world so consecrated can never be blotted out, or cease to be one of the most cherished orbs in God’s great creation. And with the continuity and redemption of the earth, goes the perpetuation and redemption of the race. For why is the one continued if not for the other? As surely as “the earth as filled in with unceasing generations. ( <010822>Genesis 8:22, 23; 9:8-16.) Joel tells of generations and generations for Jerusalem through all that “forever” in which cleansed and ransomed Judah is to dwell in the covenanted land. (<290320>Joel 3:20, 21; <263725>Ezekiel 37:25, 26.) Eternal generations were certainly provided for when humanity was originally constituted and made the possessor and lord of earth; eternal generations certainly would have been the effect of God’s constitution and commands had sin not come in to interfere with the wonderful creation; and as surely as Christ’s redemption-work is commensurate with the ruinous effects of the fall, eternal generations must necessarily be. Earth and multiplying man upon it surely would never have passed from living fact into mere legend had sin never come in. Much less, then, can they now pass into mere legend, since the new and more costly expenditures of redeeming love have been superadded to the original gifts of creative wisdom and beneficence. We thus reach the underlying foundations and background of the sublime presentations of the text. The Apostle here beholds the final redemption of our earth and race, the restitution of all things accomplished, the damages, disorders and spoliations of sin repaired, the glorious picture of The Redeemed World. I. OBSERVE THE SCENE OF THAT WORLD. “Heaven new;” — not blotted out; not swept into nothingness; but retouched, changed, renovated, cleansed, and brightened up from all its old disorders and imperfections. The heaven over us now is very charming and beneficent. How beautiful and blessed the never-ceasing procession of sun, and moon, and stars, and clouds, and seasons, and days, and nights, and showers, intermingled as they are with heat and cold, storm and calm, gloom and brightness! This old garment of things is still full of rejoicing, and glory, and scenes and themes to touch, inspire, and lift, and discipline, and make glad the heart. What, then, will that new investment be, to which it is to give place! We cannot describe the meteorology of that new heaven; but it will be a heaven which no more robes itself in angry tempests and menacing blackness; nor ever flashes with the thunderbolts of wrath; nor casts forth plagues of hail; nor rains down fiery judgment; nor gives lurking-place to the Devil and his angels; nor is disfigured with dread portents; nor is subject to commotions breeding terror and disaster to the dwellers under them. We often look at the blue sky that arches over us, at the rosy morning’s welcome to the king of day, at the high noon’s flood of brightness, at the mellow glories of the setting sun, at the solemn midnight lit all over with its twinkling star-gems, and we are thrilled with the perfection and beauty of Jehovah’s works. What, then, shall it be when the great Architect, set to do honor to the love and faithfulness of his only begotten Son, shall put forth his hand upon it the second time, to renew it in a fresh and eternal splendor! “And Earth new.” The earth now is full of ailments and disorders, and in deep captivity to corruption, yet it has much attractiveness. Most men would prefer to stay in it forever, if they could. Ah, this homestead of our fathers for so many generations, carpeted with green and flowers, waving with pleasant harvests and shady trees, girded with glorious mountains, gushing with water-springs, gladdened with laughing brooks, ribboned with rivers that wind in beauty about the rocky promontories, varied with endless hills and valleys, and girthed about with the crystal girdle of the ruffled seas, — these numerous zones, and continents, and islands, — these youthful spring times bursting out with myriad life under all their dewy steps, — these blazing summer glories, — these gorgeous mellow autumns, — these winters, with their snowy vestments, and glazed streams, and glowing firesides, — and living Nature in its ten thousand forms, singing, and dancing, and shouting, and frisking, and rejoicing all around us, — what pictures, and memories, and histories, and legends, and experiences have we here, to warm our hearts, and stir our souls, and wake our tongues, and put fire and enthusiasm into our thoughts, and words, and deeds! But this is only the old earth in its soiled and work-day garb, where the miseries of a deep, dark, and universal apostasy from God holds sway. Think, then, what its regeneration must bring! — an earth which no longer smarts and smokes under the curse of sin! — an earth which needs no more to be torn with hooks and irons to make it yield its fruits, man earth where thorns and thistles no longer infest the ground, nor serpents hiss among the flowers, nor savage beasts lay in ambush to devour, — an earth whose sod is never cut with graves, whose soil is never moistened with tears or saturated with human blood, whose fields are never blasted with unpropitious seasons, whose atmosphere never gives wings to the seeds of plague and death, whose ways are never lined with funeral processions, or blocked up with armed men on their way to war, — an earth whose hills ever flow with salvation, and whose valleys know only the sweetness of Jehovah’s smiles, — an earth from end to end, and from center to utmost verge, clothed with the eternal blessedness of Paradise Restored! And the Sea new, for I take the specification of it here the same as in the third commandment, where it is said, “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” (<022011>Exodus 20:11; also <661006>Revelation 10:6.) It is not mentioned to indicate for it a different fate from that of heaven and earth, but because it is so conspicuous and peculiar a part of them. The sea is not heaven, neither is it earth; hence in God’s enumeration of the first creation-work he mentions heaven, earth, and sea,” and so in the new creation-work, we have again heaven, earth, and sea. It is the literal sea, just as the heaven and the earth are literal; but the non-existence affirmed of it is the same that is affirmed of the first heaven and the first earth. In other words, it undergoes the same Palingenesia which they undergo, and comes forth a new sea, the same as the old heaven and earth come forth a new heaven and earth. There is renewal, but no annihilation. Some say there was no sea in the pristine condition of the world, and hence none will be in the finally redeemed world. But they are mistaken in both instances. The first chapter of Genesis tells of the formation of the seas contemporaneously with the formation of the dry land. ( <010109>Genesis 1:9, 10.) When the flood came we are told that “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,” and that “the sea broke forth.” (<010711>Genesis 7:11; <183808>Job 38:8.) There must then have been a sea from the beginning. It existed when Adam was in Paradise, as well as since Noah came out of the ark. And so there will be a sea in the new world, the same as a new heaven and a new earth. If not, this is the only passage in all the word of God that tells us anything to the contrary. We read of a river in the new earth, as of rivers in the original Paradise; and where there are rivers there are seas. When Christ as the cloud-robed Angel (chap. 10) set his feet on the earth in the solemn act of claiming and appropriating it as his own, “He set his right foot upon the sea,” and thus claimed and appropriated it the same as he claimed and appropriated the ground.f160 Many passages also which refer to Israel and the kingdom of God in the blessed times to come, distinctly speak of the sea as being turned in their favor, and as taking part in the general acclaim over the ultimate accomplishment of the mystery of God. (See <234210>Isaiah 42:10; 60:5, 9; <192402>Psalm 24:2; 96:11; 98:6,7; <141603>2 Chronicles 16:32; <660513>Revelation 5:13.) When the time to which the text refers arrives the present sea “no longer is,” just as the first heaven and the first earth “are gone.” There is no more left of the one than of the other, but likewise no less. Just as much of the sea as of the earth abideth forever. The Re-Genesis touches both alike, just as the first Genesis. As there is a renewed eternal heaven and earth, so there is a renewed eternal sea also, for one is a part of the other. Then, however, it will be no longer a thing of danger and dread, but only of beauty, joy, and blessing. Some of the old Rabbins taught that, in the new world of Messiah, men shall be able to walk the surface of the sea with equal ease that they now walk the earth. Nor is this unlikely; for the Savior, as a man, walked on the sea, and did not sink; and so did Peter also, until his faith and courage failed him. The regeneration is the making of Christ’s miracles universal. The miracles of Christ were the pre-intimations and beginning of the great Regeneration to come, and the new creation is simply those miracles carried out into universal effect. Why not then also this with regard to the sea? At any rate it will be subdued and rebegotten to Him who maketh all things new, and become a joy and service without being as now an unmanageable and dangerous hindrance and barrier. People only misread the text, and load themselves with endless perplexities, when they interpret it to mean the total abolition of all seas. As the old sea it is abolished, just as the old heavens and earth; but, as in their case, it is an abolition which eventuates in a more congenial sea, even a new sea. A new City. Occasion will offer to consider this when we come to the special vision of it in the after portions of the chapter; but it here presents itself as the crown of the regenerated world. It is called by the old Hebrew name of Jerusalem (JIerousalhRevelation 21:24), but quite distinct from the royal Church of the first-born, which is the New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Wife. Likewise the whom analogy of the Scriptures, from first to last, bears along with it this implication. There is not a word which asserts any purpose of God to terminate the perpetuity of humanity as an ever-expanding race. It was constituted and given command for unending perpetuity before sin touched it. If it fails to go on forever, it can only be in consequence of the introduction of sin. But there has been promised and constituted a Redeemer to ransom it from all captivity to sin and corruption. And if his redemption does not go far enough to exempt the ongoing race from being finally extinguished, then it is not redemption, and the Destroyer beats out the Almighty Redeemer. There is no escape from this alternative if we do not allow that the race of man as a race continues in the new earth, and there realizes its complete and final recovery from all the effects and ill consequences of the fall. Ransomed nations in the flesh are therefore among the occupants of the new earth, and the blessed and happy dwellers in it, as Adam and Eve dwelt in Paradise. The Sitter on the throne saith, “Behold, new I make everything.” That everything includes heaven, earth, and sea, and by necessary implication, had we no other proofs, the race of humanity is also included as a subject of the great Re-Genesis. Hence said the Almighty to Isaiah,” Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” ( <236517>Isaiah 65:17-25.) Men may think we dream when we thus propose to read God’s word as it is written; but he has anticipated all their rationalizing and skepticism. The Sitter upon the throne saith, “WRITE, BECAUSE THESE WORDS ARE FAITHFUL AND TRUE.” There can be no mistake about it. God knew how to say what he meant, and he knew the meaning of what he did say. And to that which he has said, he affixes his own infallible seal, that the words are “faithful and true.” Here, then, let us rest till their fulfillment comes.
Perpetuity Of The Earth And The Race Of Man — “End Of The World” Not The Extinction Of The Earth — Continuous Generations — The Redeemed World — The Scene Of It — The Blessedness Of It — The Occupants Of It.
Revelation 21:1-8. And I saw heaven new and earth new: for the first heaven and the first earth are gone, and the sea no longer is. And I saw the city, the holy, new Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God, with the men [or mankind], and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and he, the God with them, shall be their God. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall no longer be, neither sorrow, neither crying, neither pain, shall any longer be; because the first things are gone. And the Sitter upon the throne said, Behold, new I make everything. And he saith, Write, because these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, They are accomplished. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I to him that thirsteth will give out of the fountain of the water of the life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be God to him, and he shall be son to me; but the cowardly, and unbelieving, and polluted, and murderous, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the false, their part [shall inherit] in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the death the second.
HUMANITY was created and constituted a self-multiplying order of existence, — a race, — to which this earth was given as its theatre, possession, and happy home. God created man in his own image; male and female created he them, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over it. When sin first touched man, it found him thus constituted and domiciled. Had the spoliations of sin never disturbed him, humanity, as a race, must needs have run on forever, and been the happy possessor of the earth forever. Anything else would be a contravention and nullification of the beneficent Creator’s intent and constitution with regard to his creature man. Meanwhile came the fall, through the Serpent’s malignity; and then a promise of redemption by the Seed of the woman. If the nature of the fall was to destroy the existence of man as a race, and to dispossess him of his habitation and mastery of the earth, the nature and effect of the redemption must necessarily involve the restitution and perpetuation of the race, as such, and its rehabilitation as the happy possessor of the earth; for if the redemption does not go as far as the consequences of sin, it is a misnomer, and fails to be redemption. The salvation of any number of individuals, if the race is stopped and disinherited, is not the redemption of what fell, but only the gathering up of a few splinters, whilst the primordial jewel is shattered and destroyed, and Satan’s mischief goes further than Christ’s restoration. I therefore hold it to be a necessary and integral part of the Scriptural doctrine of human redemption, that our race, as a self-multiplying order of beings, will never cease either to exist or to possess the earth. There is a notion, bred from the morbid imagination of the Middle Ages, which has given birth to many a wild poetic dream, which has much influenced the translators of our English Bible, which has unduly tainted religious oratory, song, and even sober theology, and which still lingers in the popular mind as if it were an article of the settled Christian creed, that the time is coming when everything that is, except spiritual natures, shall utterly cease to be, the earth consume and disappear, the whole solar and sidereal system collapse, and the entire physical universe vanish rote nothingness. How this can be, how it is to be harmonized with the promises and revealed purposes of God, wherein it exalts the perfections of the Deity, there is not the least effort to show. The thing is magniloquently asserted, and that is quite enough for some people’s faith, though sense, reason, and Revelation be alike outraged. There is indeed to be an “end of the world.” The Bible often refers to it. But men mistake when they suppose the world spoken of in such passages to be the earth as a planet. Three different words have our translators rendered “world” gh, which means the earth proper, the ground, this material orb which we inhabit; kosmov, which means what constitutes the inhabitableness, the ornamentation, beauty, cultivation, external order, fashion of the world, but not the substance of the earth as a terraqueous globe; and aiwn, which is used more than one hundred times in the New Testament, but always with reference to time, duration, eras, dispensations, — a stage or state marking any .particular period, long or short, past, present, or future, — the course of things m any given instance, rather than the earth or any theatre on which it As realized. It may be earth or heaven, time or eternity, a material or an immaterial world, it is all the same as to the meaning of the word aiwn, which denotes simply the time-measure and characteristics of that particular period or state to which it is applied.f158 And this is the word used in all those passages which speak of “the end of the world.” It is not the end of the earth, but the end of a particular time, age, condition, or order of things, with the underlying thought of other orders of things, and perpetual continuity in other forms and ages. AEons end, times change, the fashion of the world passeth away, — but there is no instance in all the Book of God which assigns an absolute termination to the existence of the earth as one of the planets, or any other of the great sisterhood of material orbs. So in those passages which speak of the passing away of the earth and heavens (see <400518>Matthew 5:18, 24, 34, 35; <411330>Mark 13:30, 31; <421617>Luke 16:17, 21, 33; <610310>2 Peter 3:10; <662101>Revelation 21:1), the original word is never one which signifies termination of existence, but parercomai, which is a verb of very wide and general meaning, such as to go or come to a person, place, or point; to pass, as a man through a bath, or a ship through the sea; to pass from one place or condition to another, to arrive at, to go through; to go into, to come forward as if to speak or serve. As to time, it means going into the past, as events or a state of things once present giving place to other events and another state of things. That it implies great changes when applied to the earth and heavens is very evident; but that it ever means annihilation, or the passing of things out of being, there is no clear instance either in the Scriptures or in classic Greek to prove. The main idea is transition not extinction. Some texts, particularly as they appear in our English Bible, express this change very strongly, as where the earth and heavens are spoken of as perishing, being dissolved, flying away ( <233404>Isaiah 34:4; 54:10; <660614>Revelation 6:14; 20:10); but the connections show that the meaning is not cessation of being, but simply the termination or dissolution of the present condition of them to give place to a new and better condition. At least one such perishing of the earth has already occurred. Peter, speaking of the earth and heavens of Noah’s time, says: “The world that then was being overflowed with water, PERISHED.” (<610305>2 Peter 3:5, 6.) But what was it that perished? Not the earth as a planet, certainly; but simply the mass of the people, and the condition of things which then existed, whilst the earth and race continued, and have continued till now. Equally strong expressions are used with regard to the destruction or passing away of the old in the case of one born again to newness of life in Christ Jesus; but no one therefore supposes that the bringing of a man from Satan to God is the annihilation of him. It is simply the change of his condition and relations. And so in the case of the earth and heavens; for the same word which describes the change in the individual man is used to describe the change to be wrought in the material world. It is regeneration — paliggenesia — in both instances (Matthew 29:28; <560305>Titus 3:5), and therefore not the putting out of existence in either case. The dissolving of which Peter is made to speak, is really a deliverance rather than a destruction. The word he uses is the same which the Savior employs where he says of the colt, “Loose him;” and of Lazarus when he came forth with his death-wrappings, “Loose him, and let him go;” and of the four angels bound at the Euphrates, “Loose them;” and of the Devil, “He must be loosed a little season.” It is the same word which John the Baptist used when he spoke of his unworthiness to unloose the Savior’s shoestrings, and which Paul used when he spoke of being “loosed from a wife.” It is simply absurd to attempt to build a doctrine of annihilation on a word which admits of such applications. The teaching of the Scriptures is, that the creation is at present in a state of captivity, tied down, bound, “not willing, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope;” and the dissolving of all these things, of which Peter speaks, is not the destruction of them, but the breaking of their bonds, the loosing of them, the setting of them free again to become what they were originally meant to be, their deliverance. (Compare <450819>Romans 8:19-23.) And as to the flying or passing away, of which John speaks, a total disappearance of all the material worlds from the universe is not at all the idea; for he tells us that he afterwards saw “the sea” giving up its dead, the New Jerusalem coming down “out of the heaven,” the Tabernacle of God established among men, and “nations” still living and being healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life. Great changes in the whole physical condition of the earth and its surrounding heaven are everywhere indicated; but the idea of the extinction of the material universe amid “the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds,” is nothing but a vulgar conceit, without a particle of foundation in nature, reason, or Scripture.f159 Things have no more tendency to annihilation than nothing has a tendency to creation. There is no evidence that a single atom of matter has ever been annihilated, whence analogy would infer that such a thing is not at all in the will or purpose of God. On the contrary, the teaching of Revelation is, that “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but The Earth abideth forever.” ( <210104>Ecclesiastes 1:4; <191505>Psalm 15:5; 119:90.) Whatever new cataclysms or disasters are yet to befall this planet, we are assured that they wilt not be as destructive even as Noah’s flood; for God covenanted then, and said: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, neither wilt I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.” ( <010821>Genesis 8:21, 22.) It is specifically promised that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” and that “the righteous shall dwell in it forever.” (<400505>Matthew 5:5; <193709>Psalm 37:9, 11, 29; <236021>Isaiah 60:21; <450413>Romans 4:13.) And if the righteous are to inhabit it forever, it must exist forever. The kingdom of which Daniel prophesied is to be an everlasting kingdom, which shall stand forever. That kingdom is located “under the whole heaven,” and takes in among its subjects “peoples, nations, and languages,” and has its seat upon the earth. (<270244>Daniel 2:44; 7:14, 27.) But if the earth is to have an indestructible kingdom, it must itself be indestructible. John describes the sovereignty of this world as finally assumed by the Lord, even Christ, who is to hold and exercise it to the ages of the ages. (<661115>Revelation 11:15.) But how can Christ reign forever in a world which is presently to cease to be? God has specifically and repeatedly covenanted and promised a certain portion of the earth to a certain people for “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 48), in which they are to “dwell, even they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever” (<263725>Ezekiel 37:25), and not cease from being a nation before him forever. (<243136>Jeremiah 31:36.) How can this be fulfilled if the earth is to be annihilated? There is also a peculiar consecration upon the earth which makes it revolting to think of its being handed over to oblivion. The footsteps of the Son of God upon its soil, the breathing of its atmosphere by his lungs, the saturation of its mould with his sweat, and tears, and blood, the wearing of its dust upon his sacred person, the warming of its fluids in his arteries, ought to be enough to satisfy us that neither the Devil nor destruction shall ever possess it. It is the place where God’s only begotten Son was born and reared, and where he taught, and slept, and suffered, and died. It is the territory on which Divine Love and Mercy have poured out the costliest sacrifice the universe has ever known. It is the chosen theatre of the most momentous deeds that ever attracted the adoring interest of angels. It has furnished the death-place, the grave, the scene of the bruising and the triumph of Jesus Christ. And how can it ever be delivered over to everlasting nothingness? Perish what may, a world so consecrated can never be blotted out, or cease to be one of the most cherished orbs in God’s great creation. And with the continuity and redemption of the earth, goes the perpetuation and redemption of the race. For why is the one continued if not for the other? As surely as “the earth as filled in with unceasing generations. ( <010822>Genesis 8:22, 23; 9:8-16.) Joel tells of generations and generations for Jerusalem through all that “forever” in which cleansed and ransomed Judah is to dwell in the covenanted land. (<290320>Joel 3:20, 21; <263725>Ezekiel 37:25, 26.) Eternal generations were certainly provided for when humanity was originally constituted and made the possessor and lord of earth; eternal generations certainly would have been the effect of God’s constitution and commands had sin not come in to interfere with the wonderful creation; and as surely as Christ’s redemption-work is commensurate with the ruinous effects of the fall, eternal generations must necessarily be. Earth and multiplying man upon it surely would never have passed from living fact into mere legend had sin never come in. Much less, then, can they now pass into mere legend, since the new and more costly expenditures of redeeming love have been superadded to the original gifts of creative wisdom and beneficence. We thus reach the underlying foundations and background of the sublime presentations of the text. The Apostle here beholds the final redemption of our earth and race, the restitution of all things accomplished, the damages, disorders and spoliations of sin repaired, the glorious picture of The Redeemed World. I. OBSERVE THE SCENE OF THAT WORLD. “Heaven new;” — not blotted out; not swept into nothingness; but retouched, changed, renovated, cleansed, and brightened up from all its old disorders and imperfections. The heaven over us now is very charming and beneficent. How beautiful and blessed the never-ceasing procession of sun, and moon, and stars, and clouds, and seasons, and days, and nights, and showers, intermingled as they are with heat and cold, storm and calm, gloom and brightness! This old garment of things is still full of rejoicing, and glory, and scenes and themes to touch, inspire, and lift, and discipline, and make glad the heart. What, then, will that new investment be, to which it is to give place! We cannot describe the meteorology of that new heaven; but it will be a heaven which no more robes itself in angry tempests and menacing blackness; nor ever flashes with the thunderbolts of wrath; nor casts forth plagues of hail; nor rains down fiery judgment; nor gives lurking-place to the Devil and his angels; nor is disfigured with dread portents; nor is subject to commotions breeding terror and disaster to the dwellers under them. We often look at the blue sky that arches over us, at the rosy morning’s welcome to the king of day, at the high noon’s flood of brightness, at the mellow glories of the setting sun, at the solemn midnight lit all over with its twinkling star-gems, and we are thrilled with the perfection and beauty of Jehovah’s works. What, then, shall it be when the great Architect, set to do honor to the love and faithfulness of his only begotten Son, shall put forth his hand upon it the second time, to renew it in a fresh and eternal splendor! “And Earth new.” The earth now is full of ailments and disorders, and in deep captivity to corruption, yet it has much attractiveness. Most men would prefer to stay in it forever, if they could. Ah, this homestead of our fathers for so many generations, carpeted with green and flowers, waving with pleasant harvests and shady trees, girded with glorious mountains, gushing with water-springs, gladdened with laughing brooks, ribboned with rivers that wind in beauty about the rocky promontories, varied with endless hills and valleys, and girthed about with the crystal girdle of the ruffled seas, — these numerous zones, and continents, and islands, — these youthful spring times bursting out with myriad life under all their dewy steps, — these blazing summer glories, — these gorgeous mellow autumns, — these winters, with their snowy vestments, and glazed streams, and glowing firesides, — and living Nature in its ten thousand forms, singing, and dancing, and shouting, and frisking, and rejoicing all around us, — what pictures, and memories, and histories, and legends, and experiences have we here, to warm our hearts, and stir our souls, and wake our tongues, and put fire and enthusiasm into our thoughts, and words, and deeds! But this is only the old earth in its soiled and work-day garb, where the miseries of a deep, dark, and universal apostasy from God holds sway. Think, then, what its regeneration must bring! — an earth which no longer smarts and smokes under the curse of sin! — an earth which needs no more to be torn with hooks and irons to make it yield its fruits, man earth where thorns and thistles no longer infest the ground, nor serpents hiss among the flowers, nor savage beasts lay in ambush to devour, — an earth whose sod is never cut with graves, whose soil is never moistened with tears or saturated with human blood, whose fields are never blasted with unpropitious seasons, whose atmosphere never gives wings to the seeds of plague and death, whose ways are never lined with funeral processions, or blocked up with armed men on their way to war, — an earth whose hills ever flow with salvation, and whose valleys know only the sweetness of Jehovah’s smiles, — an earth from end to end, and from center to utmost verge, clothed with the eternal blessedness of Paradise Restored! And the Sea new, for I take the specification of it here the same as in the third commandment, where it is said, “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” (<022011>Exodus 20:11; also <661006>Revelation 10:6.) It is not mentioned to indicate for it a different fate from that of heaven and earth, but because it is so conspicuous and peculiar a part of them. The sea is not heaven, neither is it earth; hence in God’s enumeration of the first creation-work he mentions heaven, earth, and sea,” and so in the new creation-work, we have again heaven, earth, and sea. It is the literal sea, just as the heaven and the earth are literal; but the non-existence affirmed of it is the same that is affirmed of the first heaven and the first earth. In other words, it undergoes the same Palingenesia which they undergo, and comes forth a new sea, the same as the old heaven and earth come forth a new heaven and earth. There is renewal, but no annihilation. Some say there was no sea in the pristine condition of the world, and hence none will be in the finally redeemed world. But they are mistaken in both instances. The first chapter of Genesis tells of the formation of the seas contemporaneously with the formation of the dry land. ( <010109>Genesis 1:9, 10.) When the flood came we are told that “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,” and that “the sea broke forth.” (<010711>Genesis 7:11; <183808>Job 38:8.) There must then have been a sea from the beginning. It existed when Adam was in Paradise, as well as since Noah came out of the ark. And so there will be a sea in the new world, the same as a new heaven and a new earth. If not, this is the only passage in all the word of God that tells us anything to the contrary. We read of a river in the new earth, as of rivers in the original Paradise; and where there are rivers there are seas. When Christ as the cloud-robed Angel (chap. 10) set his feet on the earth in the solemn act of claiming and appropriating it as his own, “He set his right foot upon the sea,” and thus claimed and appropriated it the same as he claimed and appropriated the ground.f160 Many passages also which refer to Israel and the kingdom of God in the blessed times to come, distinctly speak of the sea as being turned in their favor, and as taking part in the general acclaim over the ultimate accomplishment of the mystery of God. (See <234210>Isaiah 42:10; 60:5, 9; <192402>Psalm 24:2; 96:11; 98:6,7; <141603>2 Chronicles 16:32; <660513>Revelation 5:13.) When the time to which the text refers arrives the present sea “no longer is,” just as the first heaven and the first earth “are gone.” There is no more left of the one than of the other, but likewise no less. Just as much of the sea as of the earth abideth forever. The Re-Genesis touches both alike, just as the first Genesis. As there is a renewed eternal heaven and earth, so there is a renewed eternal sea also, for one is a part of the other. Then, however, it will be no longer a thing of danger and dread, but only of beauty, joy, and blessing. Some of the old Rabbins taught that, in the new world of Messiah, men shall be able to walk the surface of the sea with equal ease that they now walk the earth. Nor is this unlikely; for the Savior, as a man, walked on the sea, and did not sink; and so did Peter also, until his faith and courage failed him. The regeneration is the making of Christ’s miracles universal. The miracles of Christ were the pre-intimations and beginning of the great Regeneration to come, and the new creation is simply those miracles carried out into universal effect. Why not then also this with regard to the sea? At any rate it will be subdued and rebegotten to Him who maketh all things new, and become a joy and service without being as now an unmanageable and dangerous hindrance and barrier. People only misread the text, and load themselves with endless perplexities, when they interpret it to mean the total abolition of all seas. As the old sea it is abolished, just as the old heavens and earth; but, as in their case, it is an abolition which eventuates in a more congenial sea, even a new sea. A new City. Occasion will offer to consider this when we come to the special vision of it in the after portions of the chapter; but it here presents itself as the crown of the regenerated world. It is called by the old Hebrew name of Jerusalem (JIerousalhRevelation 21:24), but quite distinct from the royal Church of the first-born, which is the New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Wife. Likewise the whom analogy of the Scriptures, from first to last, bears along with it this implication. There is not a word which asserts any purpose of God to terminate the perpetuity of humanity as an ever-expanding race. It was constituted and given command for unending perpetuity before sin touched it. If it fails to go on forever, it can only be in consequence of the introduction of sin. But there has been promised and constituted a Redeemer to ransom it from all captivity to sin and corruption. And if his redemption does not go far enough to exempt the ongoing race from being finally extinguished, then it is not redemption, and the Destroyer beats out the Almighty Redeemer. There is no escape from this alternative if we do not allow that the race of man as a race continues in the new earth, and there realizes its complete and final recovery from all the effects and ill consequences of the fall. Ransomed nations in the flesh are therefore among the occupants of the new earth, and the blessed and happy dwellers in it, as Adam and Eve dwelt in Paradise. The Sitter on the throne saith, “Behold, new I make everything.” That everything includes heaven, earth, and sea, and by necessary implication, had we no other proofs, the race of humanity is also included as a subject of the great Re-Genesis. Hence said the Almighty to Isaiah,” Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” ( <236517>Isaiah 65:17-25.) Men may think we dream when we thus propose to read God’s word as it is written; but he has anticipated all their rationalizing and skepticism. The Sitter upon the throne saith, “WRITE, BECAUSE THESE WORDS ARE FAITHFUL AND TRUE.” There can be no mistake about it. God knew how to say what he meant, and he knew the meaning of what he did say. And to that which he has said, he affixes his own infallible seal, that the words are “faithful and true.” Here, then, let us rest till their fulfillment comes.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.