Chapter 21 continues with the time line of events and explains what some scholars claim will never happen, a new beginning with a new heaven and a new earth. In recent times people have been trying to apply the term renew instead of brand new. However, the term doesn't mean a renewed heaven and earth, it means exactly what it says, brand new and Jesus himself said the same thing.
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Rev 21:1 |
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Mat 24:35 |
The sea is nothing more than the population at large who make up nation after nation. What it means by saying there was no more sea is that there will be no more governing by the people, no division by the nations. God and Jesus will do the governing.
God said at the beginning of creation the earth's time was limited.
While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease. Gen 8:22 |
On the new earth will be a New Jerusalem. Why God can't rename a city is beyond me, but he apparently is insisting the new city be named after the old one. Either way, this verse is self explained.
Then I, John, 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 heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. Rev 21:2-3 |
This is saying that God himself will be present in the new heaven and earth. That tells us the new heaven and earth will be absolutely massive compared to this one. Think about it, how long would it be before the people would grow restless in this tiny world with a 20 billion plus population? This world cannot sustain life for all eternity under the condition that exist now.
A New Jerusalem will be placed on the new earth. If you think about it, this earth sort of resembles a prototype of the next world. What didn't work in this one will now work in the next.
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. Rev 21:2-3 |
Again, he who sits on the throne is God and not Jesus as you learned in chapter 5. Jesus stands beside the throne and will be physically seen here and on the new earth. God is a spirit, and although he resembles a stone, we have not seen him because we have never been to heaven and we cannot see him now because his spirit is invisible to us, just like all other spirits. It was God who said he is the beginning and the end, not Jesus.
Jesus even expresses it when he talks about Gods house.
In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2-3 |
Then John tells us what he saw and then learns that there is no temple or place of worship on the new earth. This only makes sense because God does not condone places of worship.
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Rev 21:22 |
Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? Is 66:1 |
The temple of God is within a person and not within a place of worship. John then sees the all the kings of the earth that walked with God and tried to do right bringing their glory with them. This glory is the fact that despite they were rulers in this world alongside Satan, they overcame him by their faith in Jesus.
And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Rev 21:24 |
The rest of chapter 21 merely describes the basic size and appearance and then ends with the same message of how no person set on the things against God will dwell in the new land or be allowed to enter into the new temple.
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rev 21:27 |