davidbowerkingwood

The Final Preparation for Eternity, the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment

There are two final steps that must be taken before the New Heaven and the New Earth can become a reality; the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment! These events come after the completion of the 1,000 year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and are described in Revelation 20:11-15 where it is written:

“¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Finally, after thousands of years, the redemption of the heavens and the earth will have been fully accomplished by the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The words in verses 11-15 describe a scene so terrible, the human mind is incapable of fully processing what is happening! God’s hatred of sin is revealed to the reader in calm, understated words which remind me of the account of Noah’s flood where the death of billions of people and uncounted billions of animals is described in calm, understated words in Genesis 7:21-23 where it is written:

“²¹ And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

²³ And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.”

I have found it interesting to note the earth was drastically reconfigured at the flood, but it was still the same earth which had been totally revised. I believe this same principle will be followed at the creation of the new heaven and the new earth when the heavens and earth will be purified by fire; I will discuss this point more in the last section.

While we live in what’s left of the Age of Grace, it is the ultimate in foolishness and self-deception to think God doesn’t hate sin! The repercussions of rejecting God’s gracious offer of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ are horrible to the extreme. I urge you to avoid the Satanic distortions, so prevalent today, and receive the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior!

The New Heaven and the New Earth

There is an ongoing debate concerning the creation of the new heaven and the new earth as to whether the Lord creates a completely new heaven and earth or re-configures the present heaven and earth.

God can do whatever pleases him, but at this point in my thinking, I’m inclined to believe the old heaven and the old earth will be given a divine purification and become the New Heaven and the New Earth. I base this conclusion, in part, on Romans 8:18-23 where it is written:

“¹⁸ Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. ¹⁹ For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. ²⁰ Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, ²¹ the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. ²² For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.”

God shows an amazing love for his creation and I’m inclined to think this present creation will be subjected to a refining process that will ultimately produce the new creation, think in terms of refining gold to purify it. In my mind, the sentence which includes verse 21 clinches the matter: ^“But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. ”

I have great difficulty believing that God, who has allowed the creation to have an eager hope and the looking forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay, would, at the very last minute, annihilate it!

While the Genesis creation account of creation is “ex nihilo” out of nothing, I suspect the New Heaven and the New Earth will be “ex materia” out of something. I’ll freely admit this is just my speculation on the subject but I feel good about it and believe it conforms better to the nature of God as revealed in the Bible.

In Part 2 we will reflect on eternity with God.