We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

The New Earth? And who Adventist believe will dwell there

Having in our previous post taken a look at John 14:2, 3 concerning how after our Lord’s resurrection and ascension he went about preparing a dwelling place for the Church in heaven, we would now like to present a bit more evidence to this fact.

According to the scriptures the faithful footstep followers of Jesus have been invited to forsake all earthly hopes and strive for a heavenly inheritance.

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:1-3)

“Here the Apostle reminds’ us that we are called to a heavenly inheritance, and if we shall attain it, it is necessary we shall recognize that as human beings we died when we made a covenant of sacrifice, and placed ourselves on the altar of the Lord, and when we did thus die as human beings, we were from that moment to be inspired with spiritual hopes, spiritual aspirations, spiritual longings; and we were to let these spiritual thoughts so thoroughly permeate our minds that we would be properly said to be thinking and doing so far as possible along spiritual lines, even while we are in this present life.”

“In the wilderness the Lord set the Levites apart for His service. Thenceforth they were to represent the first-born of all the tribes. These were typical of the Church of the First-born. (Heb 12:23) They were given title to no land, thus illustrating the fact that the antitypical Levites would be without earthly inheritance, but would be called to a heavenly inheritance.

The condition of God’s acceptance of their consecration was their “death” to ALL the human rights which would accrue to them otherwise, in the Millennial Age, as a result of the ransom sacrifice of Christ. The grace of justification was granted to them to enable them to offer up these rights by sacrifice, thus becoming “dead with Christ.” These rights, once given up, cannot be taken back again. None of the spirit-begotten, therefore, can be reinstated to earthly hopes or human life, for all rights to these were sacrificed at consecration.”

All the consecrated are called to heavenly conditions; and therefore, they are cut off from their earthly rights as men, that they may have the heavenly rights as New Creatures. The Apostle says God has “called us with a holy calling,” a “heavenly calling,” a “high calling.”–2 Tim 1:9; Heb 3:1; Phil 3:14.

Some have supposed, from Isa. 65:21, that the saints; those who, having received Christ, with him become heirs of all things, and kings and priests of the Most High; are to “build houses, plant vineyards, and long enjoy the work of their hands.”

Do spirit beings sit under fig trees? Is that the promise made to the house of sons of the present time?

No, no! To the kings and priests, the Church of Christ now being chosen, the blessings are spiritual, of a heavenly kind.

That such is the heaven (an earthly paradise) for the glorified saints, is believed by the half of Christendom. A heaven no better than is promised the Jew in the flesh. “The earth was made for man,” and the meek shall inherit it; but the saints, the seed of Abraham, the heirs according to the promise, although they possess the kingdom under the whole heaven, look for an “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled; reserved IN HEAVEN; ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Pet 1:3, 4)

These new creatures are spiritual, and spiritual promises apply to them and belong to them. But God has a special blessing also for the dichotomy; not a blessing with the church, for only those begotten of the spirit shall attain spiritual blessings; they will not share in the first resurrection, because in the latter only the kings and priests of this gospel age shall have any share (Rev. 20), but there is a glory of terrestrial, earthly nature, which is to be attained by the natural man in the later resurrection.”

We will address this later resurrection, the resurrection of condemnation a bit later, but for now we would like in our next post to consider the “new heavens and new earth” a bit more.