1. The Destruction
This earth will never cease to be. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour: and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from the youth; neither will I again smite anymore everything living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:21&22. But this earth is certainly not the earth spoken of by Isaiah in the Book of Isaiah 65:17 to 25 and by John at Revelation Ch.20. Both say it is a new earth with a new heaven (Isaiah 65:17 and revelation 21: 1). One says 'the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind (Isaiah 65:17) and the other says, 'for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away', (Revelation 21:1). Both refer to it as 'Jerusalem'. Isaiah says it is 'Jerusalem, a rejoicing'(Isaiah 65:18) and John calls it 'the holy city, new Jerusalem' ( Revelation 21:2); for their earth is a new earth with a new heaven and so different that the former shall not be remembered. Toiling and planting and building (v. 21) are of the former world. What are new are justice and peace and reassurance (v. 22, 23 & 25).
It is unlikely that there are horses in heaven (Revelation ch. 19). Our Lord is not really leading an army of sword wielding soldiers on horse-back, to a war (v.11 & 14). He does not smite the nations with his sword but with words of his mouth (which sword proceeded out of his mouth, v. 15 & 21).The battle is won not by literal sword but by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. (Revelation 12: 11). Similarly, Isaiah does not speak of a world where people will toil in their vineyard, but of a world where there will be no injustice (Isaiah 65:21 & 22). He does not say that the wolf and the lamb shall literally feed together. He rather says that it will be a world of peace, love and reassurance, (Isaiah 65:25). John's holy city is not really a big walled city with a huge gate on each of its four walls. Rather it is a city whose foundation and protection are the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. He does not speak of a city of pure gold whose walls are studded with all kinds of precious stones like, Jasper, Sapphire, Chalcedony, emerald, Sardonyx, Sardis, Chrysolyte, Beryl, Topaz, Chrysoprasus, Jacinth, and Amethyst. He only speaks of a city of great glory and splendour. Truly, how fascinated will the righteous inhabitants of the city, who have renounced the world and all its glory, be by these precious stones? This new heaven and new earth has no sea, no sun, and no moon to shine on it (Revelation 21: 1 & 23). This is not even a physical realm. It is altogether a different plane, a plane beyond the grasp of our five senses, a plane akin to the one where the angels tread. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven, Matthew 22:30. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there, Luke 17:20 & 21. The kingdom of God is within you, Luke 17:21. It is the righteous who make up the kingdom of God. 21:1. It is actually the Lamb's wife. And there came unto me one of the seven angels ... ... and talked with me, saying, Come hither I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Revelation 21: 9 - 11.
The Bible speaks of two worlds after resurrection. One, the new Jerusalem, where those whose names were found in the book of the Lamb, found their place and the other the hell, where both death and hade exists (Revelation 20:14) and where the fearful, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars found their place, a place which has still been burning with fire and brimstone and will do so forever and ever, since the time the wheat and the tares have been separated. I ask myself how our earth is different from the hell.
I fear, the thought could be outrageous. Please show me how I am wrong.
