After the great white throne judgment, that will occur at the conclusion of Jesus thousand year reign and Satan being thrown into the lake of fire, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. With Satan and his demons being cast into the lake of fire, where they will be captive forever, Jesus can now do a new thing. With all His creative power, He will now create a new heaven and a new earth, where it will never again be corrupted or influenced by the adversary know as Satan. It will be a different world. It will be a world of true peace, for the agitator will no longer be around to cause his deception and lies to produce strife among the people. This time Jesus will create a new heaven and a new earth that he knows will be around forever. John starts off in Chapter 21 with this in verses 1-4;
(1)"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.(2) And I saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride
adorned for her husband.(3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,
'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall
dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God
himself shall be among them,(4) and He shall wipe away
every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any
death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or
pain; the first things have passed away.'
The holy city that we see coming down out of heaven from God is the new Jerusalem. This is the very city known as Mount Zion, that Jesus and His saints were ruling from during Jesus' thousand year reign over the earth. The heavenly Jerusalem was referred to as the Mountain of God, in the Old Testament, because it was above the mountains in Israel. I wrote a blog that covered all Old Testament writings that showed this. If you have not read the blog it would help to do so to understand more about this. It will be a new heaven and a new earth because the heavenly kingdom will come down out heaven to the earth making heaven different and coming down to the earth making the earth different. God's dwelling place will be among men.
There will be no more death because Jesus won victory over death when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. Jesus finalized it when He threw death into the lake of fire. There will be no mourning because there will be no more death or suffering to mourn. There will be no more crying because there will be no more pain or suffering or death because the first things have passed away. There will only be life because Jesus is the Life and the Life will be among men. Their will be peace because Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the Prince of Peace will be among men.
John continues Chapter 21 with this in verses 5-6;
(5)"And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold I am making all things new.' And
He said, 'Write , for these words are faithful and true."(6) And He said to me,
'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
the end, I will give to the one who thirsts from the springs of
the water of life without costs.'
In these verses, and the ones that will follow, there are some very important insights that are revealed. This is why the one who sits on the throne said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true', making special notice of what He was about to say. He says 'It is done.' After the great white throne judgment, eternity destinations will be settled. Those who chose Jesus for eternal life will be with Him in His kingdom. Those who chose not to chose Jesus to gain eternal life, would have instead chose the consequence, which would be eternal death in the lake of fire. Likewise, Satan and his demons will be there in the lake of fire for their rebellion against the Most High. Then the One on the throne says, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.' This is how we know that the One on the throne is Jesus. In the first Chapter of Revelation, verse 8, John hears this;
(8)"'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and
who is to come, the Almighty.'"
In the first Chapter of Revelation, verses 17 and 18; John is told this;
(17)"Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,(18) and the living One; and I was
dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades."
It is what follows in Chapter 21, verse 7, that reveals something very interesting as to who Jesus is, when He says the following;
"He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and He will
be my son.
If you remember back when we covered, in Revelation, the letters to the seven churches, Jesus finished each letter with, "He who overcomes".......and then the reward. These are all the rewards for the saints who overcame and remained faithful to the end, even unto death. Here Jesus tells the overcomers that he will be their God and they will be His sons. This is the first time that Jesus came right out and said that He was God. Even more revealing is that if the ones who overcome will be His sons then Jesus is revealing that He is their Father. I am going to do a whole section in my blog that will show in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that Jesus is God and Father. Not common thought, but if I can't show you, don't believe me.
When it says that the overcomers will inherit all these things, all these things are the new heaven and the new earth. The apostle James wrote this in his letter, Chapter 2, verse 5;
(5)"Listen, my beloved brethren; did not God choose the poor of this world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who
loved Him?"
The ones who chose Jesus will inherit the kingdom of God and the other groups destiny is described in Revelation 21, verse 8;
"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and
immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be
in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Cowardly- Those who were not willing to be persecuted or die for their faith in Jesus.
Unbelieving- Those who chose to reject the truth of Jesus.
Abominable- Those who mock Jesus, the saints and the truth.
Immoral people- Those who corrupt themselves and others.
Sorcerers- Those who corrupt the minds of people with drugs.
Idolaters- Those who chose to put their security and trust into anything else but Jesus.
Liars- Those who don't speak truth and purposely lie for an advantage.
The first death is the death of the body, the second death is the death of the soul. I have written before that the souls of men are eternal, having one of two eternal destinies, eternal life or eternal death.
Again as always, when I talk about the eternal death or the lake of fire, I have to emphasize that this was never God's plan for man. The lake of fire was intended for Satan and the demons, never the souls of men. When Jesus conceived the plan of creating man, where in their souls He would offer to create an eternal being that would live forever with Him, He thought it would be a no brainer and many, if not all, would choose Him. What he saw after He put it in motion was probably very disheartening. It is His desire for all to come to Him, just as the apostle Peter wrote in his second letter Chapter 3, verse 9;
"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance."
If you have not turned to Jesus, please consider it. If you have, please remain faithful to the end.
Main Jesus' peace and strength be with you.
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