Let me make a few quick observations of what Randy Alcorn said: First, it’s obvious that Paul’s passage in 2 Corinthians 5:8, to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord, is seen in these martyrs who are representative of all believers who have ever or will ever go to the Present Heaven. It’s also obvious that there is a continuation of life from this earth to the Present Heaven, and then on into the Future Heaven, the new earth. We will be the same people. God will also grant to those in the Present Heaven memory, and those in the Present Heaven will be remembered by those left behind for the works they have done. One beautiful thought is that God will grant those in the Present Heaven the privilege to communicate with Him, personally. He promises that those in the Present Heaven will have voices to speak, will be rational, can communicate, will feel emotion, and even be passionate people. Those who make it into the Present Heaven will be conscious and aware of each other, of God, and of the situations still going on here on earth. Those in the Present Heaven can still ask God to intervene in injustices that will go on here on earth. I don’t know just how this will happen, but it appears to me they will be aware of what is going on here on earth. Now, I hope, thus far, that you have already realized that the Present Heaven is not a place of soul-sleep, or even a place where disembodied-spirits float around on clouds all day. One of the most important things I have gleaned from this passage is that those in the Present Heaven can and will see what’s going on here on earth, and will pray for their loved ones who are still living here on earth. Let me shift gears a little and look at the physical. This passage leaves little doubt that those in the Present Heaven will have physical bodies. Exactly what kind of body, I don’t know, but I do know that white robes were given unto every one of them to put on some kind of body. I also know based on these three verses that time will still be running because the martyrs ask, “How long, O lord,” and it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little season. This indicated “time”. Finally, these verses make it clear that God is sovereign, and He knows exactly what is happening in the Present Heaven as well as here on the present earth. God is still working in the affairs of men, here on the present earth as well as those who are already in the Present Heaven. That’s comforting! To me it’s comforting to know a little about what we will be like in the Future Heaven. I think it’s good to know that the future heaven, the new earth, is a continuation of life on the present earth. Now, the believers who are now in the Present Heaven will one day enter the Future Heaven. Christ will one day return with His saints all the way down to this earth to establish His Millennial Kingdom. After the 1,000 years Kingdom has ended and been taken somewhere off this earth, the earth will be renovated and purified by fire. Look at two (2) verses of Scripture: 1), 2 Peter 3:7 says this: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Then 2), Revelation 21:1-4 says this: 1 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. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. It’s pretty obvious that after the 1,000 years Kingdom has ended and been taken somewhere off this earth, the earth will be renovated and purified by fire because John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. If it was coming down from heaven, it had to have been taken off the present earth to somewhere into the heavens. Right? Right! Now, Believers will be living in their resurrected, glorified bodies, their perfect bodies on the New Earth. The Apostle Paul tells us about that in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and in the great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:44-50: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. These two passages are talking about the saints, both living and dead, as they receive their resurrected, glorified bodies. Paul was talking about receiving a resurrected, glorified body, likened to His glorious body. Now, this study is not about the Millennial Kingdom. The Millennial Kingdom is a study all by itself, and I’ll try to handle that sometime in the near future. But this study is all about the Future Heaven. What will the Future Heaven be like? What will we be like when we get to the Future Heaven? Well, let’s see. First of all, the Future Heaven is called Paradise in the Scriptures. Remember that Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Paradise, from freedictionary, is defined like this: 1. The Garden of Eden. 2. The abode of righteous souls after death; heaven. 3. A place of ideal beauty or loveliness. 4. A state of delight. Even these definitions fall exceedingly short of what our future home on the new earth will be like. Paradise Lost is an epic poem written by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The poem concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a picture of the future Paradise. Many Christian apologists see the Future Heaven as Paradise Regained and Restored. So, to get a more complete picture of the Future Heaven beyond what I’ve already told you, one needs only to see the conditions that existed in the Garden of Eden, the original Paradise; the perfect Paradise. The word paradise is only recorded in the Bible three times: a) In Luke 23:43, Jesus spoke to a thief on the cross and said to him, “… Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”: b) In 2 Corinthians 12:4, Paul spoke of himself when he said, “How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” c) In Revelation 2:7 Jesus said, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” All three of these passages speak of a place that is like the Garden of Eden before the fall, before Paradise was lost, while the Garden of Eden was still perfect. Perhaps one of the best ways to see what the Paradise Regained and Restored will be like is to see what the Garden of Eden was like before the fall. The first thing we might notice about the Garden of Eden before the fall was that God planted the garden. The Garden of Eden was not the result of the skills and abilities of man. God was the sole architect and builder of the Garden of Eden. It had to be perfect if God designed it and built it. Just what did God design, build and plant? Well, the name of the garden tells us something about it. It was named the Garden of Eden; it was a garden. The word Eden means “pleasure”. The Garden of Eden was a garden of “pleasure”. We are told in Genesis 2:9 that out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of course, Jesus said in Revelation 2:7 that He would give to the overcomer “to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Genesis 2:9 was referring to the Garden of Eden while Revelation 2:7 was referring to the Future Heaven, the New Earth. So, apparently the Future Heaven will have growing in it all that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, in addition to the tree of life. Since the Scriptures say nothing about the tree of knowledge of good and evil being in the Future Heaven, and since that tree was the source of temptation, we can surmise that there will be no more temptation in the Future Heaven. Without temptation, there can be no more sin. We know from Revelation 21:4 that on the new earth there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain and, I suspect no more temptation. Eden was truly a paradise, an extreme example of enrichment. Everything in that garden was placed there for the benefit of man. God caused to grow there every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. God also caused a river to go out of Eden to water the garden. Genesis 2:15-17 says this: 15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. God made sure that everything was in the Garden of Eden that man would ever need. God even satisfied man’s need for companionship. He Himself came down in the cool of the day to walk and talk with Adam (Genesis 3:8). He also met Adam’s need for human companionship when He created a woman and brought her to him (Genesis 2:21-25). He even placed in that garden the tree of choice, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He certainly didn’t want man to disobey Him by eating of the fruit of that tree, but He didn’t want man to be a robot either. Therefore, He planted in the garden the tree of knowledge of good and evil so man could choose for himself whether to eat of that fruit or not. Now, before the fall, the Garden of Eden, a perfect place of extreme beauty, was occupies by people who themselves were perfect. In that garden was everything that could ever be needed by Adam and Eve. And one of the most important things within the Garden of Eden was companionship with God Himself. By the way, what is just said about the Garden of Eden can also be said about the Future Heaven, the new earth. We are told in Revelation 21:3 that … God himself shall be with them... My friends, that’s what will make it heaven. Now, don’t think for a minute that Adam and Eve, before the fall, had nothing to do in the Garden of Eden except sit around all day, twilling their thumbs. Oh, no! Genesis 2:24 says that the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Adam’s job before the fall was to dress it and to keep it the garden. Now, I know nothing about farming, but I do understand that the first thing a farmer does in the spring is to prepare the soil. My Father-in-law loved his garden, or better, his small farm of about 2 acres. I saw him every spring for years as he prepared his soil for planting. Friends, it takes work to plow, harrow, and prepare soil for planting. I also saw him as he fertilized the soil and then plant the seeds. In other words, he dressed it. But, his job was not finished. He still had to keep it. He had to plow it and weed it. Without keeping it, the weeds would soon take over the garden. The difference between before the fall and after is that the work that God gave man to do before the fall was not exhausting. Why? Well, let me tell you why! Because man was in the Paradise of God and was himself perfect. His body was perfect. His mind was perfect. His soul was perfect. Even his attitude was perfect. My, what a wonderful and beautiful place that Garden was. In short, the Garden of Eden was a for-view of the Future Heaven, heaven on the new earth. It was a picture of Paradise Regained and restored. The only thing that was not transferred from the Garden of Eden to the Future Heaven was the Serpent and the temptation. Even though the Garden of Eden was a perfect place to live, the inhabitance still had things to do. Friends, that’s sort of like life on the new earth. Even though the Future Heaven on the new earth will be beyond our greatest expectation, and perfect in every sense of the word, there will still be things the inhabitance will do, but without getting exhausted and tired. There will be plenty to do when it comes to city life as well as country life, and both will be on the new earth. Let’s look at a few verses of Scripture that might give us a hint about what the Future Heaven will be like. Hebrews 11:16 says this: But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Two words in this verse of Scripture tell us something about what we can expect in the Future Heaven, the New Earth. First, it says that we desire a better country. As a retired Professional Land Surveyor, I used to survey a lot of farmland. That was one part of surveying I truly enjoyed doing. I learned to love the country. This word country, even today, conjures up in my mind beautiful and serene pictures of pasture scenes. I can see in my mind a beautiful country house painted all white with a red roof. I can see a long winding driveway with beautiful flowers and flowering shrubs on each side of the drive. I can see a beautiful little stream winding its way through a green pasture. Out in the distance I can see a beautiful little farm just before the harvest of all kinds of vegetables. It’s such a beautiful and serene scene that I wish I could be a part of the family that occupied that beautiful countryside picture. Even though the word-picture I just painted of that country scene seemed to be perfect in every respect, just remember that that scene didn’t just happen. It took hard work to get that country scene in the condition that I just word-painted. Someone had to keep up that beautiful white house. I had to be painted every so often. Someone had to keep the lawn manicured and the flowers and shrubs watered, fertilized, and trimmed. Someone had to plant the little farm, keep it, and harvest it. This is just a few people that was needed for that country scene to be so beautiful. If fact, I could just keep going and it would never come to my mind all the outside labor that would be needed. Heaven can be pictured as a better country, a country to be desired. I don’t have to just wish I could be a part of that better country. By the grace of God, I’m going to be! Through the death and resurrection of my Savior I will be part of that better country. But even in the Future Heaven, there’ll be plenty to do, but without getting tired, because we will be in a perfect body. The Lord Jesus Christ went away to prepare that better country for us, and He has promised that He would come again to receive us unto Himself, that where He is, we shall be also. Second, in this verse, the Future Heaven is also describes as a city. I don’t think that when we hear the word city, we’ll scratch our heads and say, “Well, what’s that all about?” I think we can picture in our minds what is involved in a city. We can think of streets, walks, buildings, houses, recreational buildings and parks, arts, music, and all kinds of things, right? By the way, we can also think of all the different people living inside the city limits that it takes to keep up a city. (Revelation 22 pictures much of that on the new earth.) I can hardly wait, can you? Third, in Revelation 21:1 we read: 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. John tells us here that our new home will be located on the new earth. Now I’ve got to tell you, God made man to be an earthly creature. God made everything that He made to either grow in the earth or roam on the earth. In other words, all that God made and declared “good” was attached to the earth, earthy. It seems to me that since God made man to be earthy, the new earth that God will prepare for man to inhabit in eternity will be very similar to this earth, only perfect. So, I believe that life on the new earth will be more or less a continuation of life on the old earth. We’re just going to move from one location to the other, and the scenes, in many respects, will be familiar to us. “And I saw” is the often repeated statement of John to remind us that he was a spectator to all of these scenes. They were real to him. He was a witness to the panoramic final scene which ushers in eternity. John saw! The Scripture clearly teaches that this present order of creation is to pass away in order to make room for a new heaven and a new earth. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away …” (Matthew 24:35). The old creation was made for the first Adam. Christ, the second Adam, is making a new creation for His new creatures. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17). “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain” (Isaiah 66:22). There’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth made just for new people. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The new creature that is in Christ will someday inhabit and work the new earth. Then John sees a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:1-4). Now I want take time to analyze these verses completely, but let me give you a brief summary of what we can look forward to in the Future Heaven, on the New Earth. John makes it clear that the New Heaven, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem are not going to be built by human hands. They will be made by the hands of our Savior (John 14:2-3) and will then be transported down to the new earth from God out of heaven. The New Earth will have a new capital city, New Jerusalem, and will be occupied by a new community of people. God will come down here instead of us going up there. All sorrow will be removed. God Himself will satisfy all the needs of His children. All evil will be removed. Everything that will cause hurt will be gone. Whoa! There will not be any need for the sun or moon, or any artificial light, because the new capital city, the New Jerusalem, and the New Earth will be lighted by the Glory of God (Revelation 21:23). There will be a great wall surrounding the new capital city. That wall will be a real wall, but it will not be for protection. It will be a reminder to everyone on the new earth that there they will enjoy peace and safety. There will be no sin on the new earth so no one will rob or steal. No one will feel uneasy. What a day, glorious day, that will be. The wall will have twelve gates, three on the north side, three on the east, three on the south, and three on the west. Each gate will be made of one giant pearl. That wall will be so gigantic that it will have twelve foundations, all made of precious stones. The walls will be made of Jasper. The city itself will be made of the purest of gold. The city streets will be paved with pure gold as clear as crystal. Unbelievable? Well, you can believe it! All the nations and cities that are outside the city limits of the New Jerusalem will have access through one of the twelve gates. The gates will never be closed for fear. All evil will be gone. God will provide for our sustenance with the River of Life and the Tree of Life, or may I say, trees of life. There will be no need for a temple to represent God because God Himself will be there to dwell among men. Thank God for the Future Heaven! Now, God had promised Abraham a land forever and David a throne forever. Daniel prophesied of “… a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed …” (Daniel 2:44). The new earth will see the total fulfillment of these prophecies. Consider the faith of the Old Testament believers: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13–16). “Heavenly” does not mean they are going to heaven, but that heaven is coming to them. This is what we mean when we pray the so-called Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come … in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). In his second epistle Peter declares plainly that the present earth on which we live will be purified by fire: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men…. 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 3:7, 10–11). After the purification by fire, John saw the newly renovated heaven and earth, coming down from God out of heaven. This is the place Jesus promised He would go to prepare for us in John 14:2b and 3: I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. I think I need to stop here and pick up in the next Bible study entitled HEAVEN, I’M SO GLAD IT’S REAL, Part Three. I hope you are now so stimulated that you can hardly wait for your time to go to the Present Heaven to await the resurrection of the saved dead, receive your new body, and then be transported to the new heaven and the new earth. God bless you as we continue this study about our future home, the FUTURE HEAVEN. Unless otherwise noted, the KJV of the bible was used in this Bible study. See Thru the Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee. See the book entitled Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Also see Biblical Answers to Common Questions about Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Some of this study was taken from a sermon by my pastor, Dr. Danny Dwyer, the sermon entitled STUDIES IN REVELATION, The New World.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:37:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015