Whenever we come to Revelation chapters twenty-one and twenty-two in our reading of the Bible, we immediately sense that we are entering another realm, another sphere. The reason for this is that in these chapters the entire universe is renewed. Not only the believers in Christ, but also the heaven and the earth are renewed. In this message we shall consider the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:1-8).
Because God’s dispensations are not completed until chapter twenty-one, the new heaven and the new earth do not appear before that time. Before the end of chapter twenty God’s dealing with His creatures is not completed. The coming of the new heaven and the new earth in 21:1 indicates that God’s dispensations have been completed.
In eternity past God purposed to have a corporate expression that He might be fully expressed and glorified (Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-11). For this, He created the heavens, the earth, and mankind. Since the creation of man, there have been four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5:14); the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ (John 1:17); the dispensation of grace, from Christ’s first coming until “the restitution of all things” at Christ’s second coming (Acts 3:20-21); and the dispensation of the kingdom, from Christ’s second coming to the end of the millennium (Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6). God has used these four dispensations to accomplish His purpose by perfecting and completing His chosen people that they may be His eternal corporate expression. All four dispensations belong to the old heaven and old earth. Although the dispensation of the kingdom will be the dispensation of restoration, it will still transpire in the old heaven and old earth, because God’s perfecting and completing work in His chosen people will not be accomplished until the end of that dispensation. When God finishes this work, by the dispensation of the kingdom, the old heaven and old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), where the New Jerusalem will come for God’s eternal expression.
Let us consider these four dispensations in more detail. Most Bible teachers say that from Adam until the end of the thousand years there will be seven dispensations. I agree with this. However, these seven dispensations are somewhat of a man-made design. According to the Bible, there are not seven dispensations from Adam to the end of the millennium; there are four. The first dispensation is from Adam until Moses (Rom. 5:14). This is the biblical way of marking the first dispensation. Some divide the first dispensation into various other dispensations: the dispensation of innocence, the dispensation of conscience, the dispensation of human government, and the dispensation of promise. But all these should be treated as sections of one dispensation, not as four separate dispensations. In each dispensation certain people have been completed by God. In the first dispensation the patriarchs were completed. They are signified by the stars of the crown upon the head of the universal bright woman (12:1).
The second dispensation, from Moses to Christ, is the dispensation of law. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). In the dispensation of law God produced the Old Testament saints and perfected a number of them, such as Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Samuel, David, and the prophets. These saints are signified by the moon under the feet of the bright woman in Revelation 12.
The third dispensation, from Christ’s first coming until the restoration of all things at Christ’s second coming (Acts 3:20-21), is the dispensation of grace. In this dispensation God produces the New Testament believers and perfects many of them. They are signified by the sun which clothes the woman. Therefore, in the first three dispensations, God perfects the patriarchs, some Old Testament saints, and some New Testament believers.
The fourth dispensation is the dispensation of the kingdom, the dispensation of restoration. This dispensation will begin at Christ’s second coming and last until the end of the millennium (11:15; 20:4, 6). During the dispensation of the kingdom, God will perfect the remnant of Israel and the immature believers. God is wise. In the second dispensation, the dispensation of law, He did not complete the perfection of the children of Israel because they did not give Him the opportunity to do this. They refused to allow God to perfect them. Thus, God has postponed the perfecting of the children of Israel until the fourth dispensation, at which time it will be fully accomplished. During the dispensation of the kingdom God will also complete the perfection of the immature Christians. Many Christians will not allow God to perfect them during the dispensation of grace. Therefore, the Lord will be forced to postpone their perfection until the next dispensation. Thus, one function of the dispensation of the kingdom is to complete the perfection of the children of Israel and of the immature Christians.
According to the Bible, these are the four dispensations in the old universe. After these dispensations, the perfection of God’s people will be wholly accomplished, and God will have a perfect and complete universal woman, the New Jerusalem. How enlightening it is to see these dispensations!
After these four dispensations, that is, after the absolute perfection and completion of God’s people, God will have no further use for the old heaven and the old earth. At that time, the old creation will be over. God will use many things to perfect His people: Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet, weakness, hardship, and various other difficulties. After we have been perfected, God will no longer need the negative things of the old creation; therefore, He can say, “Satan, I don’t need you any more. Go to the lake of fire. Sickness, sorrow, and tears, because My people have been perfected, I don’t need you either. I don’t need anything old. I don’t need the old heaven and I don’t need the old earth. All the old and negative things were instruments used by Me to perfect My people. Now that My people have been perfected, all these things may be put into the universal ‘trash can,’ the lake of fire.”
In building our meeting hall in Anaheim we had a use for many different utensils. When I was about to throw some of these utensils away, the brothers asked me not to do it, because they still had a use for them. Unhappily, I agreed to keep them. One day, the building was completed, and all those old utensils were thrown into the trash can. In like manner, when God’s people have been thoroughly perfected, He will have no further use for the old heaven and the old earth. Therefore, at that time, the old heaven and old earth will pass away, and the new heaven and new earth will come in. God will say to the old creation, “My people have been perfected. Because they are all matured, you need not remain any longer.” Thus, the old heaven and the old earth will be put away.
There is one aspect of the putting away of the old heaven and the old earth that I find difficult to understand. According to Hebrews 1:11 and 12, the earth and the heavens will “become old as a garment,” and the Lord “shall roll them up” and put them away. But 2 Peter 3:10-13 indicates that the heavens and the earth will be burned. According to these verses, the elements will burn and melt. Will the old heaven and the old earth be rolled up or will they be burned? Perhaps they will be rolled up first and then burned.
Another question I have concerns the nations on earth at the end of the millennium. When God rolls up the earth and burns it, where will the nations be? I cannot answer this question. My mentality, like yours, is too limited to know the answers to such questions. There are certain things we simply cannot figure out. Take, for example, the appearing of the resurrected Christ to His disciples on the evening of His resurrection (John 20:19). The disciples were in a room, and all the doors were shut. Suddenly, the Lord Jesus appeared in the room with a touchable, physical body. How did He get there? Furthermore, the prints of the nails were still in the Lord’s body. Why did His resurrection body still have in it the marks of the nails? Just as we cannot explain this, neither can we explain the various matters related to the passing away of the old heaven and the old earth. Nevertheless, according to the Bible, the time is coming when the old heaven and the old earth will be rolled up and burned.
The old heaven and the old earth actually will be burned to become the new heaven and the new earth. By being burned, the old heaven and old earth will be renewed. Just as we have been renewed, so will the heaven and the earth be renewed. We are the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The fact that there will be a new creation does not mean that God will again create something out of nothing. Rather, it means that the old creation will be renewed to become the new creation. However, I cannot explain how God will do this. Nevertheless, we must believe in God’s sovereignty.
Many scientists do not believe that God created everything. They say, “How could God just speak a word and cause something to come into being?” But the Bible says that God “calls the things not being as being” (Rom. 4:17) and that “the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not come into being from things which appear” (Heb. 11:3). God is the creating God. As the creating God, He does not need any material; He can create something out of nothing. Likewise, God has a way to make the new heaven and the new earth. Eventually, not only will we, the people of God who have been born again, be the new creation; the entire universe will be renewed and become the new creation. As we have seen, this will take place after God has completed the perfection of His people. Everything is waiting for us to be perfected.
Few Christians pay attention to the matter of perfection in life. But, under God’s enlightenment, we have seen that unless we are perfected in life, God does not have a way to accomplish His eternal purpose. If you do not allow Him to perfect you today, He will be patient and wait until the next age, the dispensation of the kingdom, to complete His work in you. Do not think that when you die all your problems will automatically be solved. If you have problems when you die, you will also have these same problems when you are resurrected. You may be surprised and say, “Dear problems, I thought that by dying I had escaped from you. Now, after I have been resurrected, I must face you again.” This is correct. We all must finish our lessons; otherwise, we cannot graduate. Nevertheless, many Christians still mistakenly think that by dying they will be rescued from their problems. But the truth is, once you die, you lose the opportunity to be perfected in this dispensation, and you will have to be perfected in the coming dispensation. We all must pray to the Lord, “Lord, I want to be perfected before I die. Don’t let me die without this. If I die without being perfected, I am certain that I will be perfected in the next dispensation. Lord, keep me on earth and grant me the mercy and grace I need to give You the complete liberty to do everything necessary to perfect me today.” We must be desperate to be perfected before we die and to give the Lord the full liberty to perfect us today. This is a matter of great significance.
According to the clear vision in the whole Bible, we not only need redemption, forgiveness, and regeneration; we also urgently need perfection. We need to be brought on to maturity. If we are not completed, perfected, and matured in this dispensation, we shall be dealt with in the next dispensation so that we might mature. This postponed perfection will not be very pleasant. We all need to place ourselves in the Lord’s hand that we may be perfected today. As you find yourself in various circumstances, do not blame anyone or anything. Rather, you should say, “Lord, thank You for this situation. It is Your instrument and Your way to perfect me. Lord, thank You for the excellent wife and children You have given me. They are helping me to mature. Lord, I also thank You for the many peculiar, strange, and difficult brothers and sisters that surround me daily in the church life. O Lord, I know Your purpose. All these situations and all these brothers and sisters are helping me to be perfected. Lord, how I thank You!”
There is only one place where we can be perfected today, and that place is the church life. In other Christian groups, if you are not happy with those around you, you can easily leave them and go elsewhere. However, once we have truly come into the church life, there is no exit, no fire escape. There is no way to get out. Instead, we must stay here and be burned and dealt with for our perfection. Praise the Lord, we can be perfected in this age!
Every divorce is an escape from the limitations of married life. When the worldly people are unhappy with their marriage, they simply seek a divorce and run away from their problems. By doing this, they escape the dealing, the burning, and the perfecting. But we, the children of God, should never divorce ourselves from the church life. After we have entered into the marriage of the church life, we must stay in the oven until we have been completely baked. The day is coming when we shall no longer need the oven, for we shall be perfected, and everything will be new. At that time, all the old things of the first heaven and the first earth will be terminated. Today we have many ovens — our husband or wife, our children, and the brothers and sisters in the church. In the church life we are burning and baking one another. We shall not be released from this oven until we have been perfected. How we thank the Lord that He is using the church life to perfect us in life!
Verse 1 also says, “And the sea is no more.” The sea is the result of the waters of judgment, the waters which God used to judge the pre-Adamic world. (See Life-study of Genesis, Message Two.) The work of God’s re-creation was to recover the land by restricting the waters which were the result of this judgment (Gen. 1:9-10; Jer. 5:22). The living creatures of the pre-Adamic world, after being judged by the waters, became the inhabitants of the sea. After they are dealt with by Christ and His believers (Matt. 8:29-32; Luke 10:17; Acts 16:16-18; 19:12) and the sea has given them up to the judgment of the great white throne (20:13), there will be no more need of the sea. From the time of God’s work of re-creation, God has intended to abolish the sea by dealing with Satan and his demons. Hence, to say “the sea is no more” indicates that Satan and his evil followers have all been dealt with and will not be found in the new heaven and new earth.
Isaiah 65:17 says, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Here we see that the former things will not be remembered. God has a great ability to forget.
The new heaven and the new earth will remain before the eternal God, that is, remain forever (Isa. 66:22). To remain forever means to remain for eternity.
Second Peter 3:13 says, “But according to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Here we see that righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth. This means that everything will be right, proper, and fitting and that there will be no more friction.
Verse 2 says, “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” The New Jerusalem will come down to the new earth. After all God’s redeemed saints have been raptured to the heavens, they will be in the New Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven from God. This indicates that our dwelling place for eternity will not be heaven, but will be the New Jerusalem on the new earth.
The New Jerusalem will come down as the Bride for Christ. This indicates that the New Jerusalem is not a material city; she is a corporate person, the Bride. This city will also be the tabernacle of God for His dwelling with man (v. 3). To Christ, this new city will be the Bride for His satisfaction; to God, it will be the tabernacle in which He will dwell and through which He will express Himself.
Verse 3 says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them.” The “peoples” in this verse will be “the nations” in verse 24. There will be several peoples, and each corporate people will be a nation on the new earth. These nations which will surround the New Jerusalem will be restored, but they will not be regenerated. At that time, their rebellious nature will have been purged away. As the restored and purged nations, they will live outside the New Jerusalem and they will enjoy the common blessings in the new heaven and the new earth.
These common blessings are mentioned in verse 4: “And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain — they shall be no more; for the former things have passed away.” In the new heaven and new earth there will be no tears, no death, no sorrow, no crying, and no pain. In the new heaven and new earth there will be full satisfaction and rest; there will be no more cause for tears. Since death will be wholly swallowed up by life (1 Cor. 15:54) and cast into the lake of fire (20:14), in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more death. Death will be thrown into the “trash can,” the lake of fire, and the elements of death — sorrow, crying, and pain — will be abolished.
Verses 5 through 7 speak of the sons of God in eternity. Verse 7 says, “He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he shall be a son to Me.” The meaning of overcome here differs from its meaning in chapters two and three, where it is used seven times. Here it means to overcome by believing, as in 1 John 5:4 and 5. The overcoming in chapters two and three qualifies the overcoming believers for participation in the enjoyment of the millennial kingdom as a particular reward in God’s dispensational administration, whereas the overcoming here qualifies all believers for participation in the New Jerusalem with all its enjoyment as a common portion of God’s eternal salvation.
The “son” in this verse is the believer who will dwell in the New Jerusalem. The sons of God in the New Jerusalem are the constituents of the New Jerusalem. They are the regenerated believers who have the divine life and the divine nature. The New Jerusalem is constituted with all these saints who have been born of God. As we shall see, the New Jerusalem is a composition of all the reborn children of God. Every reborn child of God is a part of this living composition. Because the sons of God are the constituents of the New Jerusalem, they will also dwell in the New Jerusalem.
The sons of God will participate in all the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, especially the enjoyment of the water of life (v. 6). Many Christians have confused the enjoyment of the nations with the enjoyment of the saints. The nations will enjoy the common blessing, but the saints will have a particular enjoyment. Mainly, we shall enjoy the life supply of the water of life (22:1). Furthermore, we in the New Jerusalem shall serve our God and the Lamb in His presence for eternity (22:3-4). This is one of the blessings of God’s redeemed in eternity. At the same time, we shall reign forever and ever (22:5). We shall be kings not only for the thousand years; we shall be kings for eternity. All the saints will be matured, perfected, and qualified to enjoy the eternal New Jerusalem.
Revelation 22:3 says, “And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His slaves shall serve Him.” Notice that the pronouns in this verse are singular, not plural. This verse says, “His slaves shall serve Him”; it does not say, “Their slaves shall serve Them.” The singular pronoun, which refers to both God and the Lamb, proves that God and the Lamb are one. We should not consider Them as two.
Revelation 21:8 says, “But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all the false, their part shall be in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” In the old heaven and old earth there was the sea of water to contain the result of God’s judgment, whereas in the new heaven and new earth there will be the lake of fire to replace it. All negative and filthy things, after being judged by God, will be in the lake of fire for eternity. According to Rev. 22:15, the lake of fire will be outside the New Jerusalem, just as Tophet, where the filthy things were (Jer. 19:11-13), was outside the old Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33). The lake of fire is much more restricted than the sea of water. To suffer the second death, the lake of fire, is to be burned with fire and brimstone for eternity (Rev. 14:10-11).
