We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

The New Earth? And who Adventist believe will dwell there

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…” (Isa 65:17)

The following excerpts were taken from an article entitled, “Behold your King”

“As we learned in a previous study, the symbolic heavens and earth (the present ecclesiastical and social order) over which Satan is presently the supreme ruler, are rapidly passing away; and to the thoughtful mind this focuses interest more, than ever on the hope centered in God’s promise to “create new heavens and a new earth.” When the apostle referred to this promise of God, he evidently had in mind the one which is recorded in Isaiah 65:17-25. Turning to this wonderful chapter we read:

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain [kingdom], saith the Lord.”

No amount of explaining could make this wonderful promise of God concerning blessings which will come to the people under the rulership of the “new heavens and new earth” more complete or realistic. In keeping with the picturesque language of the East, the hope of blessings to come is set forth in word pictures, but there is no escaping the glorious meaning of the symbols used. In plain phrase, the prophet is telling us that when Christ is King there will be health and everlasting life for all the obedient; that all will be given at least a hundred years of trial, and if then they die because they are incorrigible sinners, they will be but babes in comparison to the lasting life which they might have enjoyed. There is building and planting, and an economic security attached to the labor of the people that is dreamed of today, but seldom if ever experienced. There is peace and tranquility among all.

These are the evidences which just beyond the present time of distress will convince the whole world that Christ is indeed reigning, and acclaiming him as the mighty Ruler of that time, they will say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him…we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” It will be then that Christ, as the “arm of the Lord,” will be revealed “in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” (Isa. 25:6-9; 52:10) What a prospect!

And what are the new heavens and new earth which the Lord has thus promised to create?

They are the governmental arrangements of Christ’s kingdom. In the prophecy concerning their creation another name is given; namely, “Jerusalem” — “Be-hold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” (Isa. 65:17-18) The Apostle John, on the Isle of Patmos, was given various visions of the new kingdom arrangements, and says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” and he also says that he “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” — Rev. 21:1-2

In Verses 9 and 10 of this chapter, John identifies the “new Jerusalem” as the “bride, the Lamb’s wife.” This is the key to the understanding of the symbol.

Many erroneously conceived that this new Jerusalem coming down from heaven is as an actual city, a literal city, that is not the case. As stated above the new Jerusalem or Holy City represents or pictures the Church, the glorified Christ, head and body members. It’s coming down from God and from heaven represents its divine origins and it’s coming into ruler-ship and power over the world, the establishment of the kingdom.

“In the symbolism of scripture, a city represents a government…symbolic Babylon, for instance is called that great city or government which rules over the kings of the earth. Rev 17:18. The New Jerusalem, as a symbol, represents the new spiritual government of the Millennial Age. It is not earthborn. It is not reared by men, but as here pictured, it descends from God out of heaven. It is for this Kingdom, the government, that our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done it heaven.”

Jesus is to be the great King in the divine kingdom soon to bless all the families of the earth, and he is to reign with and through his church, who, in the “first resurrection” becomes his bride. Jerusalem of old was the capital city in Israel, where the kings had their headquarters, their “throne.” So, the Lord uses these circumstances as a picture of the kingdom of Christ, and calls it the “new Jerusalem.”

And this new Jerusalem is also, as we have seen, the “new heavens and new earth” which God has promised-in other words, the kingdom of the Lord in which Jesus reigns supreme as King.

The combined symbolism of “heavens” and “earth” illustrates what is otherwise plainly taught in the Scriptures; namely, that the kingdom of Christ will be of TWO PARTS (the two phases of the kingdom), the spiritual and the human; the invisible and the visible. Jesus, the divine King, and his church together with him, will be the spiritual phase of that kingdom, and the resurrected Old Testament worthies will be their human representatives.

This, briefly, is the organizational arrangement of the symbolic “new heavens and new earth.” And it is because God has promised to complete the creation, the bringing into being, of this effective kingdom arrangement for the blessing of all nations, that we can now rejoice to realize that Satan’s empire is crumbling.”

We will take a look at our Adventist friends quote of Isaiah 35:9-10 in our next post.