REVELATION 21:
NOT CONCERNING THE CHURCH!
PART I
REVELATION 21:
NOT CONCERNING THE CHURCH!
JAN LILLEBY
As a matter of fact, nothing written in Revelation concerns the Church, the ‘One new Man’ as we find this in Eph. 2:14, 15.
Revelation is all about the restoration of Israel as a nation for God, to become the Holy Nation and the Royal Priesthood told in Ex. 19:5, 6.
And Rev. 21 is a description of a future household of God for Israel, post-Millennia. The 1000 years of Christ as King in Jerusalem is over, ending with the judgement against Satan and the anti-Christ, as well as the False Prophet, Rev. 19-20.
Rev. 21 is showing that the New Jerusalem is coming down, upon a freshly restored earth – actually – a restored/re-arranged, re-created solar system. The Sun is gone, even the Moon, and all light shall come from the Lamb, Jesus Christ in His glory.
Rev. 21:10 is a key verse to understanding, NASB,
“ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”.
When the Church-dispensation is concluded, shortly before God sends His two witnesses in Rev. 11 to chastise Zionist-Israel prophesying judgement and doom, we find that the Church, the ‘One new Man’ are taken into the Epiuranos Heaven, - in English – Super-Heaven; the heaven up above the heavens. And so the saints of this Church dispensation shall be appearing with Christ in glory (in heaven).
So, therefore we find that we are not at all into that narrative shown in Rev. 21, of the New Jerusalem upon a restored/re-arranged earth.
For it says clearly (v. 10) that this New Jerusalem was coming DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN FROM GOD.
This means: As God makes His great moves, sending this down from heaven, WE, THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN, remain in heaven. We are in no manner sent down from heaven together with this New Jerusalem. This city of God is the very city which Abraham was seeking, says Heb. 11:16…and concludes with saying that God had PREPARED A CITY FOR THEM. Not the old earthly Jerusalem, but this new city coming down from heaven. Thus it seem clear that Abraham will not be raised to live in the Millennia, but will be raised in due time as the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, post-Millennia.
But we, the Body of Christ, we shall for ever have the heaven-up-above the heaven as our home.
The Church is in no way mentioned or displayed in any narratives found in Revelation.
The book is all about Israel’s future existence – and that is why we find this bright shiny description of the ancient nation of God being PROMOTED to live on the new earth (no oceans) with its new heaven (no Sun, no Moon). But Israel will not be alone on this new earth; there will be nations there as we read verse 24: “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it”. They shall bring costly things (tax payment?) into the New Jerusalem, told in plain English.
Rev. 21:14-17, NASB, specific measurements are mentioned as well,
“14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.
16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.
17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.”
Thus it portrays either a cube or (as some scholars thinks) a pyramid. But it is as wide as it is tall: 1500 miles (2478 kilometers).
This will of course have an immense gigantic weight, and may be compared to a very, very big mountain as such. Mount Everest is around 8 kilometers tall. This city described, would never be possible to place down on our present earth. But on that future re-created/re-arranged earth (with no oceans, therefore no tidewater or things like that) – and with no hot Sun influencing such huge structure, it will fit well into the grounds. This New Jerusalem – if the new earth’s oxygen standard hold our standard – those people living in the top floors would die from lack of it! So God will create another oxygen type with which one can breathe regardless of heights. We must conclude that the humankind there is a regular one, and not having super-natural heavenly bodies.
Notice the all-Jewish context: The foundations are inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles!
However, it does not say that the twelve were present in this glorious city. Rather, it proves to us as if the mentioned inscriptions are a memorial for Christ’s apostles, since they are not there.
They will be among US SAINTS OF THE CHURCH DISPENSATION! Up there in heaven with Christ. Remember that when God shifted dispensation in that He revealed the new one to Paul, it automatically included ALL believers on earth at that time, including the apostles as well as the entire Acts-body of believers. The Millennial kingdom was postponed due to the unbelief of Israel as a nation. But all the Messianic believers, by their faith in Christ, were included into this new dispensation. God had made ONE BODY as He let Christ cancel the Law and thus remove the enmity between Jews and Gentiles, Eph. 2:14, 15.
Since we find regular human populations on this future New Earth with its New Jerusalem, we must understand that it is a society of families living and working, and are cared for/pastored by the Lamb, Jesus Christ and His close ministers. Among whom we will surely find Abraham, no doubt.
Have you read my article recently published, “Several Times in Bible History, God Made Serious Adjustments in the Solar System”?
In that article I explain how God in old times operated by so-called ‘Polar Shifts’ to get the seafloor on earth to rise and become dry land. He thus created a sort of ‘New Earth’ by His intervention. Gen. 1 tells of an earth which was entirely covered by water, and no dry land.
This idea of re-creating/re-arranging a present planet, so it will become a suitable place for life, may be the very essence of God’s action when He will do much likewise, as described in Rev. 21.
The words recorded in Revelation 21 gives room for an understanding in this line of earlier interventions by God.
The New Earth/New Heaven is in the sense of God making huge adjustments on this planet – removing all the oceans, sending the earth into another orbital system away from the Sun – and in all of this He will manage to keep the population here away from any dangers when this will be done. I am sure.
Notice that in Revelation, God is in no way explaining by which methods He will do all this. He simply tells us in short terms that IT WILL BE DONE. And not how He will do this. Remember, He has an enormous incomprehensible creative power and might…as well as He has an enormous army of angels serving at His command. We cannot understand these things with our limited brain-capacity. We must understand that God has ALL POWER AND ALL MIGHT in His great actions. And Christ is of course likewise.
But conclusively, none of the narratives in Revelation has anything to do with the Church, the ‘One new Man’ in Christ.
We are hidden with Christ in God, says Col. 3:1-4, and we shall be revealed with Him when He receives us into the heaven at the day of redemption.
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