From Eternity to Eternity Part 2

The point from eternity to eternity must be emphasized. Although man is a created being in time, he was eternally in the purpose of God. Hence, the elect having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world are redeemed and regenerated in time. All blessings hang on election, and election itself is fastened to the sovereign God. Therefore, election is the first moving of God’s grace looking to our salvation—the first step of God’s love. Paul said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6).

There is a double “in-ness” between Jesus Christ and the believer. Christ is in the believer, as the sap is in the vine and as the Spirit of life is in the body. But the Christian, in a very real and blessed sense, is in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must not lose sight of the positive side of our salvation. Moses learned in a typical way, when the LORD said, “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers. So the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us” (Deut. 6:20-25).

The glory of Jesus Christ is incomprehensible. His praises are unutterable. What was His glory which the favored people saw? It was not the glory of potentates they saw—the only begotten was “full of grace and truth.” Therefore, the glory which we behold is described by Paul when he said, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Cor. 3:18). Beholding Christ’s glory by faith sanctifies; the glory of “grace and truth” attracts the regenerate. Music is no pleasure to the deaf, and a beautiful sunset means nothing to the blind.

The battle between literalizing and spiritualizing Scripture will never cease as long as men are in time. All Christians believe that some prophecies are to be understood literally and others spiritually. The reality of both cannot be ignored. There are both literal and spiritual descendants of Abraham. Paul said, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but through Isaac your descendants will be named” (Rom. 9:6-7). Christ said to the Jews, who were debating Him concerning Abraham’s seed, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. They answered Him, We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, you will become free?” (John 8:31-33). Prophecies must be interpreted in harmony with God’s prophetic program. Therefore, to take the prophecy of the new age and spiritualize it to mean the assembly, makes as much sense as spiritualizing the incarnation. Would those who spiritualize the kingdom to be the assembly go so far as to say Christ had a spiritual body during the days of His flesh on earth? Was Christ’s death only spiritual without a physical demise?

Many are categorized under the spiritualistic interpretation of the Scriptures. They believe the kingdom is the reign of God in the heart. Thus, to them the kingdom is soteriological. They use Luke 17:20-21 as their proof text: “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Look, here it is! or, There it is! For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

“When the kingdom of God was coming” determines the answer to the question raised by the Pharisees. Would Christ give information to His enemies that was denied the disciples? (Read Mark 13:1-10, 24-37; Acts 1:7.) No one will be able to observe the coming of the kingdom, because it will come suddenly and unexpectedly at the second advent of Christ. This fact is illustrated by lightning and the days of Noah (Luke 17:24-27; Matt. 24:39). If the kingdom is the reign of God in the heart, what is the meaning of Matthew 3:2 and II Timothy 4:1?

Realized millennialism has a false premise. The concept of one thousand years of a non-utopian reign of Christ as a present reality will not withstand the test of Holy Scripture. The concept of eschatology that maintains the first nineteen and part of the twentieth chapters of Revelation are history is unthinkable. There is no possible way for realized millennialists to make one thousand years to mean two thousand. Furthermore, the kingdom is connected with the second advent, not the first advent of Jesus Christ (Luke 17:22-37).

The major difference among premillennialists concerning the new heaven and earth is whether they precede or follow the millennium. Those who advocate the former say that heaven and earth must be renewed in preparation for Christ’s righteous reign on the earth. Those who embrace the latter ask how can there be death and people subject to deception in the new heaven and the new earth. Others, caught in a dilemma between two undesirable alternatives, say there will be a partial renewal at the beginning and a final renewal at the conclusion of the millennial renewal. Hence, they believe the fire of II Peter 3:10-13 is in part premillennial and in part postmillennial—the latter being the most destructive.

Christ’s coming will be in flaming fire (II Thess. 1:3-10). Some interpret the fire as postmillennial and others interpret it as premillennial. The fire is explained as the purifying influence—moral, mental, and political (Is. 66:15; Mal. 4:1; II Thess. 1:8). Fire cannot destroy those whom God has ordained to save. John saw that all things would be made new by the conclusion of the millennium.

The Bible speaks of three heavens (II Cor. 12:2), but only those associated with time shall be created anew. The heaven of God’s abode is eternal; therefore, it cannot be contaminated. Hence, it needs neither creation nor renovation. Satan, the fallen Lucifer, is the prince of the power of the air, and the sphere which has been contaminated by him must be created anew. That which shall be created anew had its beginning with time and in time.

The eternal residence of the elect will not be altogether spiritual without materiality. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea” (Rev. 21:1). The verb translated “passed away” of Revelation 21:1 is an aorist active indicative of the compound verb aperchomai. The preposition apo means from, and the verb erchomai means to come, to go, or to pass. This compound verb is used many times in the New Testament. John saw that what once had been under the curse had been delivered by being renewed. The Greek word in this verse for “new” is kainos. It does not denote something entirely new, but often describes a renewal or restoration of something already in existence. Thus, the meaning in this verse of “new” can be of something already in existence. The other Greek word for “new” is neos, which means new, recently born, or youthful.

Some say the old physical world is gone; therefore, this is not a renovated earth. Others believe the new heaven and the new earth of Revelation 21 is not something brought into existence which did not previously exist. Two Biblically historical facts should be the means of forming the correct conclusion: (1) The reconstruction of the formless waste of the original creation of Genesis 1 should give some idea of what God will do. (2) When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He did not lay aside His material body. His prepared body of “flesh and blood” was transformed into a body of “flesh and bones.” The Lord Jesus not only walked the earth in a glorified material body (Luke 24:13-53), but He has taken that material body into the very presence of God the Father. This is not intimating that Christ’s prepared body, like the original earth, was corrupted. Christ’s holy body must be understood as something that could not be contaminated, but it is mentioned to show that materialism is not obliterated.

The new heaven and the new earth seen by John do not signify that the old heavens and the old earth will be swept into nothingness. They indicate that they will be changed, cleansed, and made ready for Jesus Christ and His people. The new heaven (singular) will no longer be heavens (plural), because the planetary and atmospheric realms will then become one. Heaven and earth will not then be separated as they now are separated.

The world of the original creation was not annihilated. Its substance remained, and its quality was changed. Peter said, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (II Pet. 3:10). Due to man’s sin, the earth must undergo another change. Paul writes about the earth in Romans 8. He said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Rom. 8:18-22).

Two dangers must be avoided: (1) One must not depersonalize eschatology by speaking of the end time events apart from viewing Jesus Christ in them. (2) One must not personalize eschatology to the extent that he speaks of Christ but disregards what the Bible says about the new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem.

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.