We all know Christian’s go to heaven when they die, but is floating around in heaven our final
destination? Definitely not! It is abundantly clear from Revelation chapters 21 & 22 that our final destination is a renewed Earth, and yet this thought is remarkably absent from many Christian’s
awareness. At the end of Revelation we see that the final state is literally “heaven on earth”.
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.
(Revelation 21:3)
God makes his home amongst mankind. Heaven and earth are brought into one. The physical
becomes eternal. This is the ultimate fruit of all that God set out to do. Having raised up a family for himself of his own kind, he then brings into existence a suitable world for them to inhabit with him.
This new Earth is in many ways parallel to the body of the risen Christ in that Christ’s risen body was both spiritual and physical. He could eat fish on the beach and ascend to heaven, all in the same
body. His risen body was ultimately fitted for an Earth that is also a merger of the physical and the eternal. Our new bodies will be of this type also, for they will be the same type of body as that of the risen Christ, “the firstborn from the dead”. Thus we also will possess bodies fitted for the new Earth, the physical yet also eternal Earth.
When this comes to pass the saying will be fulfilled:
…the meek shall inherit the earth…
(Psalm 37:11, and in Matthew 5:5 reworded)
As we consider the nature of the new Earth it’s interesting to observe that it has some differences from this Earth. For example Revelation 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.
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(Revelation 21:1)
This clearly refers to a physical characteristic however from about this point on it starts to get quite hard to discern between the physical and the spiritual in applying the descriptions in the passage.
We are told that a great city descends out of heaven from God, and that this is “the bride of Christ”.
Paradoxically this is given dimensions and appears to be physical, yet we know that “the bride of
Christ” speaks of all the saved in Christ. Perhaps, like the body of the risen Lord and the new Earth itself this city is in some way both spiritual and physical. While some relate this city only to the church, it should be noted that the city not only has the twelve names of the apostles in its
foundations, but that the 12 gates of the city are named after each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Thus the two parts of the bride (or the two brides if you like) are seen here brought together into one. And really, were they ever as separate as some bible teacher’s suggest? Wasn’t the church
grafted onto the stock of Israel and the prophets? In that metaphor at least they are seen as all part of the same tree.
STREETS OF GOLD AND PEARLY GATES
Now we come to a point where the narrative contains symbols well known in popular culture
concerning heavenly things. Therefore we need to ask whether the common understanding of these
things is correct, or not, in terms of the true heavenly city shown to us in the bible. In particular, are the streets really paved with gold and does heaven (or at least the heavenly city) have pearly gates?
Concerning the streets of gold, John in his vision appears simply to be grasping for a likenesses, since what he actually says is:
…the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
(Revelation 21:18)
…the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
(Revelation 21:21)
Taking these together you can see it may not be entirely literal since gold does not look like
transparent glass.
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What about the pearly gates? Well, it does say that each gate of the city is made of a single pearl, so this is accurate (though may still just be metaphorical of its beauty – i.e. that they look like pearls, rather than actually coming out of an oyster as such). However the idea of Peter meeting people as
they turn up at the pearly gates is nonsense. Believers go straight to heaven as Jesus told the thief on the cross when he said “today you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). In two places in
Revelation we see believers “clothed in white raiment”. They have died and are in heaven awaiting
the marriage of the lamb. At the time of the marriage they return with Christ at his coming
(Revelation 19) at which point they are clothed in their new bodies like those of the risen Christ1.
(Bodies able to enter the physical realm once again.) Believers then rein with Christ for 1000 years during the millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:6). All of this occurs before the time of the new
heavens and new earth and the descent of the heavenly city. Unbelievers on the other hand never
turn up at the pearly gates to be rejected. When they die they go to Hades to await the second
resurrection, the resurrection of the unbelieving dead to the judgment of the great white throne
from where they are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).
When it comes to the glorious promise of the new earth and the heavenly city it’s sad to say that
myth abounds far more than biblical truth. What is true is that God’s children will dwell with God on a new Earth. This is wonderful for the Earth we live on now, where unspoilt, is a place of such
fantastic beauty and really is a very good dwelling place. This understanding also carries with it the likelihood of animals and other aspects of creation being present on the new earth, though the
whole state of man and creation is to be fundamentally different since:
…there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain…
(Revelation 21:4)
Even during the millennial kingdom this state does not exist in as much as Christ still rules with a
“rod of iron” (Revelation 12:5) and there is still mention of men dying.
So it’s only in the final state, in the new heavens and the new Earth, that the ultimate fulfillment is brought to the saying, “death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54). Thus in the closing passage of Revelation we have a prayer of the bride and the spirit for the hastening of these things, along with an invitation for all who would to come and partake of them:
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who
thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
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(Revelation 22:17)
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