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Message Subject JESUS CALLED FOR ELIJAH ON THE CROSS
Poster Handle Anonymous Coward
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Look around you, has heaven and earth passed away?
 Quoting: Nada Khazar


A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH

The approach we have been using to interpret these portions of the book of Revelation can be used with the remaining passages, interpreting all of the symbols and imagery with consistency and relevancy. This level of consistency cannot be approached by any futurist or mystic interpretation of the book. In fact, most futurist commentators on the Revelation readily admit to their lack of complete understanding of it. They assert that where their interpretation falls short of a consistent explanation, those parts they could not decipher must be beyond our ability to know! They close up and seal what Jesus Christ has opened up and revealed, because they have placed the symbols in the wrong time frame of history.


Placing something out of place in time is called anachronism, and, as Wallace put it, “the theory that switches the events of Revelation to the future is the greatest anachronism of all time.”


The imagery of the final two chapters of Revelation are particularly misunderstood by a majority of believers and Christian teachers today. The traditional image of heaven that most modern Christians have grown up with and accept without question, has its source here in the last pages of the Apocalypse. If, however, the symbols and the theme of the book relate completely to the events of A.D. 70, how do we interpret these heavenly images of gates of pearl, streets of gold, no night, and no tears?


Once we come to understand the spiritual nature of the coming of Christ against his enemies, and the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of God which was established on Pentecost, we can understand at last what Jesus tried to tell his Jewish brethren almost 2,000 years ago.

He told them:

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
[John 4:24]

and he told Pilate,

“My kingdom is not of this world…Now is my kingdom not from hence.
[John 18:36]

He told the disciples in John 12:26 –


“If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be….”

If we follow Jesus Christ today, then we are where he is. We are in that spiritual realm or kingdom where God makes his true abode. This is not a physical realm on the planet Earth, but a universal spiritual realm whose only physical attributes are the human bodies of the people who are members of that spiritual realm of God. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 6:19, and 2 Corinthians 6:16 –

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

“…For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Knowing these things, we can look with fresh eyes of understanding at the beautiful images of the last two chapters of the Bible. In the first verse of chapter 21, John says:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

Now, the first heaven and earth – the religious system and authorities (high priest, Sanhedrin, etc.), and the place where it existed (the country of Judea) – were “passed away” by the events of the war. They were literally wiped out and taken away from that land. John sees the true nature of this event. The old nation and the old law were finished and the new nation and new law were taking its place. The new heaven” was the spiritual Kingdom of God which had been redeemed from its mortal enemies and was now ready to grow and spread throughout the world of men. The “new earth” was the place and the people of that kingdom – that is, it was the very flesh and blood of those people. God’s kingdom is not a physical land like Judea was, but a spiritual kingdom that exists within the hearts and minds of believing men and women. Jesus told the Jews:

“Behold, the kingdom is within you.”
[Luke 17:21]

John saw the New Heaven and Earth taking precedence over the old ones, and then says “there was no more sea.” As we discovered in chapter 6, the symbol SEA refers to a large group of people, usually a nation. This time it refers to the Jewish nation, which had been utterly destroyed and removed from their land. There was no more “sea” of Jewish peoples in the old “earth” of Palestine.


Now, in verses 2-3, we read:

“And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

We know that this is not some future event, for we are a part of the New Jerusalem. It is the same thing as the Kingdom of God, or the Church. Hebrews 12:22-23 makes this plain:

“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant….”
[NIV]

This New Jerusalem was coming down out of God’s heavenly realm, signifying that it was a spiritual city. Now, the people of God would dwell in assurance, peace, and victory over the persecuting enemies. This is the true meaning of the next verse in Revelation 21, verse 4:

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The great tribulation was finally ended. Although pagan persecutions would continue for many years, the Church would never again be threatened with total annihilation. To be understood, this passage must be placed in the context of the victory over the Jewish persecutions. This is made plain by the phrase, “for the old order of things has passed away.” It was the passing of the old Jewish order, and those who were erroneously following the old Law of Moses, that brought such relief to the Christians. There would be no more persecutions from them – no more death, crying, or pain – because they had been removed out of the way.

Now, in verses 5-7, God speaks of this new order of things:

“And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will he his God, and he shall be my son.”

God had taken the old order out of the way by using the Roman army to destroy his former people. Now, he had made “all things new – the new spiritual realm of Christ had been established and redeemed. Now, God said, “It is done”! If it is not yet done, then we must still live in the old order of things, and God is not our God and we are not his children.

Here, God has stated that the “fountain of the water of life” is freely given for anyone that asks for it. In chapter 22:17, John restates this in an invitation:

“And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

We should consider carefully that if God has not completed these things that are envisioned in the Book of Revelation, then this offer cannot yet be extended to humankind. We would not be able to freely take of eternal life with God, for these things would not be “done” until some future time! God, however, has made this abundantly clear – this offer of life is available now to whosoever will. This is the essence of Christian evangelism and the good news which is the Gospel! These visions and this offer are tied together in time. If the visions are yet future, then so is the offer.
 
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