Heaven: A Negative Perspective
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Rev. 21:1-5, RSV.
Jesus has returned (Rev. 19) and taken His people, who have been caught up in the air to meet Him, back to heaven with Him (1 Thess. 4:17; John 14:1-3). There they spend the 1,000-year period known as the millennium fellowshipping with God and one another and becoming absolutely convinced that God had done the very best thing in the face of the crisis caused by sin (Rev. 20:4-6). When all are satisfied, sin and sinners and Satan himself are put to rest in what John the revelator calls "the second death" (Rev. 20:7-15).
It is at that point in time that the new Jerusalem descends to a re-created earth (Rev. 21:1, 2 Peter 3:13). The book of Revelation describes that re-creation as the restoration of Edenic conditions. Sin is only a memory as God's saints who have been saved through the varied work of Jesus spend the eternal ages headquartered on Planet Earth.
One of the most interesting things about that heavenly place is that Jesus reveals it to John in the negative. There is a good reason for that. Part of it is that the human mind with its limited experience cannot grasp the glories of God's realm. It is beyond the scope of their thinking and thus impossible to describe.
But we earthlings do know what we have to face in this earth and what we would like to escape from.
As a result, we find the book of Revelation telling us that the heavenly realm will have no more tears, or any pain or death or mourning. It even tells us that there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1)--representing in symbolic terms that the entire earth will be agriculturally fruitful--that there will be no more hunger.
I am glad for the negatives. I look forward to an existence not bounded by death and not interrupted by illness. But such negatives provide only the slightest glimmer of what awaits those who choose to live with Jesus throughout infinite time.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Rev. 21:1-5, RSV.
Jesus has returned (Rev. 19) and taken His people, who have been caught up in the air to meet Him, back to heaven with Him (1 Thess. 4:17; John 14:1-3). There they spend the 1,000-year period known as the millennium fellowshipping with God and one another and becoming absolutely convinced that God had done the very best thing in the face of the crisis caused by sin (Rev. 20:4-6). When all are satisfied, sin and sinners and Satan himself are put to rest in what John the revelator calls "the second death" (Rev. 20:7-15).
It is at that point in time that the new Jerusalem descends to a re-created earth (Rev. 21:1, 2 Peter 3:13). The book of Revelation describes that re-creation as the restoration of Edenic conditions. Sin is only a memory as God's saints who have been saved through the varied work of Jesus spend the eternal ages headquartered on Planet Earth.
One of the most interesting things about that heavenly place is that Jesus reveals it to John in the negative. There is a good reason for that. Part of it is that the human mind with its limited experience cannot grasp the glories of God's realm. It is beyond the scope of their thinking and thus impossible to describe.
But we earthlings do know what we have to face in this earth and what we would like to escape from.
As a result, we find the book of Revelation telling us that the heavenly realm will have no more tears, or any pain or death or mourning. It even tells us that there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1)--representing in symbolic terms that the entire earth will be agriculturally fruitful--that there will be no more hunger.
I am glad for the negatives. I look forward to an existence not bounded by death and not interrupted by illness. But such negatives provide only the slightest glimmer of what awaits those who choose to live with Jesus throughout infinite time.
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