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Far Distant Future
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I'd like to talk about what the Bible says about the
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far distant future.
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The Bible ends with a look at the future.
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Everyone who takes the Bible at face value understands we're headed for a time when
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an antichrist rules the earth and God judges it with seven years of tribulation.
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This ends with the second coming of Christ, followed by a thousand-year reign of Christ
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on earth, followed by a great white throne judgment.
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But then what?
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In Revelation 21 and 22, God seems to be giving us the introduction to his new book, the one
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he'll write in the far distant future.
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The dynamic contribution Jesus made to prophecy was to add an eternal perspective.
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Although the Old Testament allows for an eternal hope, its primary perspective of the
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future is a kingdom on earth which fulfills God's promises to Abraham.
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The author of Hebrews tells us by faith Abraham was looking for a city which has foundations
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whose architect and builder is God.
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Like the Old Testament prophets, Jesus taught the same sequence of events listed in Matthew
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24 and 25, but Jesus pushed the perspective of believers beyond that of an eternal city,
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which is not on this earth.
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What Jesus and the apostles talked about was not just an eternal perspective, but an eternal
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place, a heavenly city in New Jerusalem.
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John 14, 2 and 3, In my Father's house are many dwelling places.
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If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, I go to prepare
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a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to myself there where I am, there
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you may be also.
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Galatians 4, 25 and 26 says, Jerusalem above is free, she's our mother.
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Hebrews 11, 6, But as it is, they deserve a better country, that is a heavenly one.
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Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for
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them.
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And then Hebrews 12, 22 to 23, You have come to Mount Zion to the city of a living God,
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the heavenly Jerusalem.
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And one more, Revelation 3, 12, For whoever overcomes, I'll make him a pillar in the temple
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of my God, and he'll not go out of it anymore, and I'll write on his name my God and the
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name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God.
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So we're going to look at three different things that we see in the new far distant
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future, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, and something about the people on that new earth
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and new Jerusalem.
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So first of all, here's some things we know about the new earth.
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Revelation 21, 1 says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the
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first earth passed away.
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There'll be a new earth, and the new earth will not be a revision or renewal or rebuilding
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of this earth with more solar panels and windmills and flying machines, but the first heaven
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and the first earth pass away.
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Peter said in 2 Peter 3, 10, the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be
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destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
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There are some confused teachers saying heaven is a place on earth, title of a 2009 book
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by Michael Whitmer, although several others also promote this confusion.
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The idea they have is that the earth is our final dwelling place, so we need to take care
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of it and protect it and so forth.
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This teaching is supported by skipping clear statements that this earth will pass away
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and taking millennial passages about Christ's reign on earth as referring to the eternal
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state.
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It seems these teachers think they have a better understanding of the biblical text
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than the great teachers all through history, say Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley,
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Edwards, Moody, Lewis, Ryrie, Walvoord, Pentecost, and McGee.
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I know of no biblical scholar at any other time in history who taught heaven's a place
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on earth.
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This earth operates with the laws of thermodynamics, and the second law shows that everything is
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wearing out, slowing down, and dying.
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The new earth operates by completely different laws, allows for eternal existence.
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The new earth will be surrounded by a new heaven.
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In the Bible, the word heaven is used three different ways.
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One, the atmosphere surrounding the earth.
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Two, the universe of stars, galaxies, and constellations.
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And three, the place of the presence of God.
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Here it probably refers to the atmosphere surrounding the new earth, although if in
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the distant future there are things like stars and galaxies, they'd probably surround that
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new earth too.
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So the new heaven may be a reference to the new atmosphere or the new stars.
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The new earth has no sea.
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The only descriptive comment we're given about the new earth is that there's no longer
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any sea.
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Undoubtedly, that means there's no large bodies of water.
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It could just mean that there's no salt water, but the word sea is not confined to
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salt water in the Bible.
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The absence of large bodies of water is a huge difference between this earth and the
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new one.
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On this earth, the oceans cover 71% of the earth's surface, and it contains 97% of
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the earth's water.
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All the details are not necessary for our description here, but suffice it to say that
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on our planet, on our earth, the seas are crucial for our existence.
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Life here depends on huge bodies of water.
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There is water in the new earth, at least in the New Jerusalem.
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John said, then he showed me a river of water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne
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of God and of the land.
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But it does not accumulate into large bodies of oceans.
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The new earth is very large.
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The New Jerusalem, as translated by the New American Standard Bible, is 1,500 miles.
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Its length, its width, its height are equal.
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That's an approximation, of course, but it's not a metaphor.
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It means it's a cube or a pyramid, something like a mountain, maybe.
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Its base would be approximately the distance from Detroit to San Antonio to San Francisco
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to the Canadian border, and then back to Detroit, but the city 1,500 miles high would never
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fit on this earth.
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Satellites orbit this earth between 80 and 1,200 miles high, but most satellites orbit
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at around 200 miles above the earth.
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That means that the New Jerusalem is seven and a half times higher than where the satellites
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orbit the earth.
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Airliners fly at approximately, well, their maximum height is 40,000 feet, which is eight
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miles.
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The New Jerusalem is about 200 times higher than that.
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So you take a long trip on an airliner, look out the window, and imagine the top of the
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New Jerusalem being 200 times higher than you are.
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The new earth is lighted by the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21, 23 to 25.
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The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated
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it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
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The nations will walk by its light in the daytime, for there'll be no night there.
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John does not say there's no sun or moon, but it doesn't sound like there is, or they
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aren't significant.
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The old earth's orbit around the sun has what gets us warmth and light from the sun, but
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the sun's light also emits radiation, which is lethal for most planets close enough to
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a star to be warmed by it, like Mars, except our earth has a magnetic field that deflects
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the radiation, allowing us to be warmed safely.
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All that is completely different with the new earth, where it needs our being met by
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the light supplied by the New Jerusalem.
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Now some things we can know about the holy city.
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The New Jerusalem, the holy city, comes down out of heaven from God, John 14, 2 to 3, I
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go to prayer place for you.
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If I go to prayer place for you, Jesus says, I'll come again and receive you to myself
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there where I am, there you may be also.
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It seems that between his first and second coming to earth, Jesus is preparing a place
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for his disciples.
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The point is not that it takes a certain amount of time to do that, but rather that there
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will be a place prepared for believers, presumably from all ages, by Jesus in some heavenly realm.
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We also know that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, will be the dwelling place of God.
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Revelation 21, 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle
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of God is among them, and he'll dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God
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himself will be among them.
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John reported, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
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A temple is a place for worshiping God when God's not personally manifested in that place.
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But in the holy city, sitting in the new city, in the new earth, God's dwelling among his
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people, so God's pictured as a tabernacle, a temple.
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We are also told that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, will be a place without suffering.
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Revelation 21, 4 says, You'll wipe away every tear from their eyes, there'll no longer
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be any death, there'll no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, the first things have passed
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away.
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In 22, 3 to 5, it says there'll no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the
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Lamb will be in it, and his bondservants will serve him.
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John heard a loud voice from the throne reminding him that the first things had passed away.
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We already know that means the first earth, the first heaven passed away.
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But now John is told it also includes the curse on the first earth.
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The fall of Adam and Eve was accompanied by death and suffering.
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We live on an earth which, although magnificently balanced, is also a place of suffering.
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But in the vision of the apocalypse, John received word that this present suffering
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would all pass away.
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Specifically, he is told four things will pass away, death, mourning, crying, and pain.
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We also learn that the new Jerusalem will be very colorful.
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We're told the new earth is very large compared to ours because we know the size of the new
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Jerusalem, 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles high.
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But we know more.
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We know that in 2 Corinthians 21, 11 to 14, her brilliance was like a very costly stone
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as a stone of crystal clear jasper.
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In 2 Corinthians 18 to 21, the material of the wall was jasper and the city was pure
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gold like clear glass.
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Foundation stones of the city, the wall were adorned with every kind of precious stones
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and then he lists all the stones.
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The 12 gates were 12 pearls.
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Each one of the gates was a single pearl and the streets of the city were pure gold like
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transparent glass.
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We also learn that the city has a wall around it, it says it's 72 yards or meters.
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Whether that means the height or the thickness is unknown.
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If it's the height, it'd be like about a 20-story building.
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By the way, this is not the first time God created something like that.
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Speaking about Satan before he fell, Ezekiel tells us that God said, you are on the holy
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mountain of God.
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You walked amidst the stones of fire.
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And when Satan sinned, God said, I've destroyed you, a covering cherub, from the midst of
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the stones of fire.
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It also appears that the phrase stones of fire is a description of the Jerusalem.
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New Jerusalem will also be a place where there's measurable time.
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Revelation 22, 1 and 2 says, then he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal,
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coming from the throat of God and the lamb.
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And in the midst of the street, on either side of the river was a tree of life bearing
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12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.
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So in the New Jerusalem, there's a tree, apparently large enough for a river of water of life
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to flow through it, and it's bearing 12 kinds of fruit.
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The 12 kinds of fruit are clarified with the information that the tree is yielding its
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fruit every month.
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Twelve seems to be equated with every month, which would seem to imply 12 months, which
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would be a year.
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So there's time in the New Jerusalem measured in months and years.
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In addition, we learned earlier that time was measured in hours around the throne of
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God.
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In chapter 8, verse 1, the lamb broke the seal.
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There was silence in heaven for about a half an hour.
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And we learned that in other kinds of measurements, human measurements were also the same as angelic
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measurements in Revelation 21, 17.
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The New Jerusalem is not a place without time.
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It's just that those living there don't run out of it.
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There's some things we can know about the people in the New Jerusalem and on the new
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earth.
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There seems to be three groups of people associated with, or at least mentioned, in connection
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with the new earth.
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First there are the people who live permanently in the holy city, Revelation 21, 3, and I
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heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among them,
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and he'll dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among
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them.
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The first people described in the far distant future are those living in the New Jerusalem,
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the place where God himself will be among them.
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There are also other people for whom he'll wipe away every tear from their eye, and there
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will no longer be any death, and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.
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Who are these people, and where did they come from?
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If the comments of Jesus to his disciples in the upper room refer to this city, when
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he said, I go to pray a place for you, then we can assume these people are believers like
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the apostles in their eternal resurrected bodies.
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We also learn about a people called the nations.
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In Revelation 21, 24 to 26, it says, The nations will walk by its light, and the kings
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of the earth will bring their glory into it in the daytime, for there'll be no night there.
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Its gates will never be closed, and they'll bring the glory and honor of the nations into
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it.
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22, 1 and 2 talks again about the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations.
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22, 14 says, Blessed are those who wash their robes, for they may have the right to the
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tree of life and may enter into the gates into the sea.
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The word for nations is a very common word, ethnos, which can mean a race, Gentiles, or
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nations.
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Ethnos is the Greek word the Jews use for Gentiles, and the word Jesus used for those
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he commanded the apostles to go make disciples of in the Great Commission.
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So who are these people?
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Where did they come from?
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Well, there's a lot we don't know about them, but let's look at a few things we do know.
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They're true believers in God and Jesus.
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At the end of chapter 21, we're told they are those whose names are written in the Lamb's
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Book of Life.
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They're those who wash their robes so that they have the right to the tree of life and
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may enter the gates into the sea.
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They live outside the sea, but close enough to walk by its light, the earth big enough
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to support the New Jerusalem.
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That's a huge area.
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At any rate, they live in the light of the city and the outer darkness.
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They come in and go, and they come and go in the sea, but when they come in the city,
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they will bring the glory of the honor of the nations into it, and they might do that
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at any time because there's no night there and the gates are never closed.
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There are many believers living outside the city in the area of the light provided by
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the city who bring some glory into the city and take some healing from the city.
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The word healing, Walvoord tells us, can be understood as health giving.
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So it does not necessarily mean they're sick, but they're receiving ongoing health obtained
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from the tree in the city.
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There's a third group of people we learn about, a people called the immoral persons.
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Revelation 21, 27, nothing unclean, no one who is practicing abomination and lying shall
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ever come into it, only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
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22, 15, outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers
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and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying.
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So there is also this third group of people mentioned who are clearly unbelievers, which
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seems strange in light of the fact that we're talking about an eternal state with a new
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Jerusalem located on a new earth.
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Again, I ask, who are these people and where they come from?
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It would be easy to say they're just off in the same distance of hell, disconnected
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from the earth.
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But why are these people mentioned here?
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Well, we know unbelievers from this earth are cast to a place that Jesus called a fiery
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hell.
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Apostle John told us, if anyone's name is not found written in the Book of Life, he's
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thrown into the lake of fire.
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But there's an additional description of this lake of fire or dwelling place of unbelievers.
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Three times Jesus refers to it as the outer darkness, that place where they'll be weeping
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and gnashing of teeth.
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Peter also saw hell as a place of darkness.
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Speaking of demons, Peter said God cast them into a hell and committed them to pits of
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darkness reserved for judgment.
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Darkness is used elsewhere in Scripture as a judgment of God.
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There's no way to fill in all the blanks, but we can observe that of a huge earth compared
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to ours, lighted by a holy city, there's a mention of a people who are outside the city
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without access to it.
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And if the new earth was spherical like our old one, but lighted by a holy city rather
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than the sun, then it would be reasonable to assume that on the opposite side from the
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city is a place of outer darkness or pits of darkness, which like a lava flow at night
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could also be a lake of fire.
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We cannot know this for sure, but we do know that contrasted with those whose names are
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written in the Lamb's Book of Life, who will bring their glory and honor of nations into
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it, no one practices abomination, lying, or shall ever come into it.
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Well thank you for listening.
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A longer paper and more references are available on our website relationalconcepts.org.
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That website also has our study book on prophecy, if you're interested in a more thorough study
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of the subject.
