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Chapter
8: The
New Creation I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more—Rev 21-1
The
Father gave instruction to His Son, and Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Let
there be lights in the heavens, and let the number of
galaxies be infinite, much more the stars, planets and moons they contain, and
My God will inhabit them all, so the stars will never burn out; He will inhabit your
planets that they may support life and moons that they remain in their proper
orbits forever. My Father will inhabit each atom and subatomic particle so none
of them go awry or take from each other, but give instead.'' Suddenly whole
galaxies of stars appeared, and the saints and the angels oohed and awed as
though watching fireworks. God created the universe for His people, made of the
same stuff that composed their resurrected bodies, for they were the first
fruits of the new creation (Rom 8,20-23). Jesus was resurrected first of all,
His body made of a material that God Himself inhabits, and galaxies that
stretched across the universe forever were made of that stuff. Jesus
spoke the words that His Father put in His mouth; and as He spoke, the Father
did His work through Him. Jesus spoke galaxies full of stars into existence. He
didn't create these things on a whim; God planned them all from eternity past
and decided that all these things should be just as He made them. Jesus turned
to His angels and to His people who were all in attendance, who witnessed the
new creation being born. They saw their Lord and Master judge the wicked; they
witnessed Him destroy the old universe and create a new one in its place.
They were all stunned by His awesome power. Heaven was quiet. All creation was
looking at Him like His disciples did in the boat on the Sea of Galilee after He
quieted the storm; they were coming to the realization that God could do
anything. Moreover, they were still astonished at His judgment on the wicked. There
was an occasional whisper; otherwise both
man and angel were silent in amazement after seeing and hearing all these
things. No one spoke to Christ;
everyone was too afraid, but later heaven slowly emerged from its dazzled
bewilderment. After given time to absorb these events, the mood transformed to euphoria. Calvin,
a brother of the Son, came and bowed before Jesus and asked Him a question: why
did you send all those people to hell, and weren't their bodies destroyed in the
flames?'' Jesus answered, “They were not worthy to witness My Father's
glory; and as for their bodies, let Me ask you a question, could your body be
harmed by a flame?''' Calvin said, “No”. Jesus continued, “Their
resurrection was no different than yours, in that they are just as physical as
they are spiritual, except that My Father does not dwell in the atoms and molecules that
make up their bodies, as He dwells in yours. In all other ways they are
indestructible as you are indestructible, their bodies made subject to their
spirits. Since their spirits are eternal and cannot die, so their bodies are
eternal and cannot die. This is by evidence that their bodies took on the contours of their spirits,
and for that reason they were grotesque in appearances. Calvin interrupted, “But Lord, if l
were thrown into the fire I would not be harmed, nor would I feel any pain; why
then were the people screaming as they entered the fire?” Jesus answered, “The
sting of hell is sin” (1Cor 15-56). Calvin
asked another question, why must they suffer forever?'' Jesus answered, “They
refused to bow their knee to My Father; should He therefore reward them? To do
that would be to renege on making them eternal spirits.'' Calvin persisted,
“Then why did He create them in the first place?” Jesus answered, “If He
wouldn't have created them, He couldn't have created you, and you are far too
important to My Father not to have created you, for He knew you from eternity
past and has been thinking about you through the eons and is glad you are here.
As for the wicked, when their mothers conceived them, it was the will of their
parents that they should exist, and God honored that and placed an eternal
spirit within the womb. The fact that the wicked refused to worship God was none
of His doing. Why should God not make man in His own image just because they
refused to worship Him?” Calvin was satisfied with the Lord's answers and
resumed his place in thoughtful worship. Maribeth stood bowing low and asked Jesus a question: “Lord why did God make hell?'' Jesus answered, “Refusing to worship God does not give our Father a reason to annihilate them. He made them eternal spirits; therefore, to annihilate them would be rewarding them for their rebellion. Why should God reward the wicked for not serving Him, and what would that communicate to His creation? My Father made all things so that anyone who opposes Him should become His opposite; that is, they become sin, and sin needs a place to dwell separate from Him and His kingdom. There is no place for them except under My feet, where I can keep an eye on them.
Let's say
He gave them a beautiful planet of their own where they
could live; they would just turn it into a hellish place, so He saved them the trouble.
Whoever rebels against good is evil; whoever rebels against right is wrong;
whoever rebels against truth is false; whoever rebels against light is darkness.
This brings us back to a discussion about the Father. He never asked you to do
anything that I personally would not do. He placed you in a world of evil, and
then sent me to that world to rescue you, and I showed you how to live, and in the process died
for your sins. The same is true for the wicked; My Father would not make them do
something that He Himself would not do. Therefore, from eternity past He has
dwelled in an environment of fire and smoke for your sakes, not theirs. You exist,
therefore so do they. You could not exist without them. They are your
counterpart, the other side of the proverbial coin. He wanted a people who were free, who knew about sin, and He knew
that many would choose sin over the righteousness of faith. Recall that whenever
My Father visited mankind, He dwelled in smoke and fire, such as
appearing to Moses in the burning bush and appearing to Israel on Mount Sinai
(Exodus 19-18,19; Exodus 20:18,19; 1Kings 8-10,11; Isaiah 13,9-13; Joel 2,28-32; Joel 3,14-16;
Mat 24,29-31; Rev 6,12-14; Rev 8-12). The Father continually dwells in smoke and
fire, but He is not suffering or in pain, because He
is without sin, and sin is the sting of death and hell (1Cor 15-56).'' After
His dissertation, the people worshipped Jesus as the Creator of heaven and earth
and as the judge of all creation and of His coming kingdom. They worshipped Him
for what seemed a long time, which in eternity refers to billions of years. It
was a long party where everyone got to know each other before God would unveil
His purpose to them. People
of the New Jerusalem worshipped God for billions of years, and the angels
alongside them worshipped God with their whole hearts, and it made Jason wonder
what travesty they suffered that made them so thankful to be in God’s grace.
It must have been as tragic as man suffered. The angels were created eons
before man; their worship revolved around their salvation that Christ provided
for them, as it was for man, including the cherubim and seraphim, the
greatest of all the angels. Their inheritance was the entire universe,
and their purpose was to serve both God and man, while man’s inheritance was
initially the earth only; God called Adam and Eve to rule over the plants and
animals and to subdue the curse, making the earth a garden planet, but after the fall
of both angels and man everything changed: man has now become
magistrates of His kingdom and rules with Christ (1Cor 3,21-23), and angels are
their helpers. Perhaps the aspect of heaven
that Jason found most intriguing was that there was no class distinction between
man and angel. God didn’t have to think long and hard about how to build a
kingdom that would last forever; it came naturally to Him: He exalts servants
above leaders. The angels were honored for their service, not pretentiously, but
sincerely appreciated.
Therefore, when Lucifer rebelled and took many angels with him, seeking to unseat Jesus from His throne and put himself in His place, he was behaving opposite the way God created him, which defines the mystery of lawlessness. God cursed Lucifer and removed him from heaven with violence and cast him to the earth, his rank pulled as the lead cherub. The greatest of all the cherubs, and cherubs are greater than angels and seraphim, lost his inheritance (the entire universe), and it was tarnished with a curse. The curse is defined as God removing Himself from the His own creation, and entropy and chaos immediately rushes in to fill the void. The angels who stayed with Christ were saved and delivered from Lucifer’s appalling deception.
This was a great angelic culling, and those who were spared from so
great a peril of death worshipped God fervently as man, and have been
worshipping Him for billions of years. They have fashioned musical
instruments that fill heaven with wonderful sounds of victory over the monstrous
creature that tempted them to revolt against God who loved them. Some of these
musical instruments are very loud, like thunder, yet it doesn’t hurt their
ears. There are stringed instruments and wind instruments of all kinds. Many
angels have perfected the art of music and can do some rips on guitar-like
instruments that cannot be matched, stirring the inhabitants of heaven to
worship God. The cherubim and seraphim who stand before God’s throne fall on
their faces and worship God who created heaven and earth crying, “Holy, Holy,
Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come,” and their
worship sweeps over the congregation and inspires both man and angel to worship
God, being profound witnesses of His glory. God
created the angels first, and then He created man in His own image. Most people
say that angels are mere messengers and servants, which is true, but angels also
know good and evil, which exceedingly bumps up their importance to God. Angels
were given one choice: to continue following God or to follow a new leader who
had just introduced himself to them, Lucifer. In the same manner, Adam and Eve were given
a single choice: eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or don't eat
from it, as they were commanded. The heavenly angels sided with God, and the
Luciferian angels (fallen angels) were immediately condemned as reprobate
creatures without hope of redemption. The same was true with Adam, who
personally knew God and rebelled against Him, but not necessarily Eve, who
indirectly knew about God through her husband. Adam and Eve’s descendants did
not rebel in the presence of God, but sinned in the likeness of
Eve’s sin, indirectly, and for this reason they were given the opportunity of
redemption. Heavenly angels know about good and evil, based on a single choice
they made, but have never done evil, whereas people have done both good and evil
and have made dozens of choices every day, accumulating thousands of decision
points throughout their lives, and in that way increased their understanding of
good and evil, thus emphasizing the fact of being made in the image of God, who
values this one characteristic above all others. Amazingly, God values the
knowledge of good and evil above His ability to create an infinite universe, and He
values it above His omniscience. Therefore, the working definition of “good”
is: worshipping God; and the working definition of “evil” is: coveting
His throne. In other words, God values His knowledge of good and evil above all
else, so no one rises against Him and seeks His
throne.
That’s
a snapshot of God’s creation of man, but what about His creation of the
heavens and the earth? Jesus said, “When Lucifer sinned by organizing a
rebellion and made a physical attempt to dethrone the Most High, My Father
cursed Him by removing His Holy Spirit from Lucifer and his inheritance, that is to the entire universe, from stars, planets and galaxies to
atoms:
electrons and subatomic particles that compose the nucleus. Before the
curse, atoms freely gave their electrons to other atoms in order to bond with
them and form substances that we use every day, but after the curse (removing His
Spirit from creation), the opposite occurred. Instead of atoms freely giving
their electrons to other atoms, larger atoms took electrons from smaller ones,
sometimes violently. Bigger atoms dominated over smaller ones, and by that they
bonded with each other to create the substances of the natural realm. After God removed His Spirit from the creation, it went from a giving universe
to a taking one. The entire creation went to war with itself, from the
miniscule atoms that form the basis of all things to stars and galaxies. Instead of peace and love, there was war.
These forces had a bearing on every living thing; but now He has done away with
the old creation and created a new one, and since then the Holy Spirit has come to
inhabit the universe from atomic and subatomic particles to stars and galaxies.
Now it has become a giving universe instead of a taking one. He has returned
it to its original state, and now He is set to fulfill His original plan. After
He made the earth, He created a new universe with galaxies, stars, planets and
moons, and God Himself inhabits them. They celebrated the end of the old and the
beginning of the new (Rev 21-5), dwelling in the New Jerusalem with His
people and with the holy angels. Normally you hear of a party lasting all night,
sometimes all weekend and occasionally all summer, but this party lasted
billions of years. People and angels worshipped God, though many were coming and
going. No one was required to remain there; they could get an
idea and embark on an adventure, leave without having to check-out, and they could
go anywhere they wanted in the universe and stay as long as they wanted. They
would eventually return and enter the chorus of worship, and other people would
leave. Some explored deep space in far reaches of the universe and visited
galaxies billions of light-years away. They found planets and explored them to
see what life forms existed there. The Lord provided a stellar map of the new
universe, which would never change, and every person memorized the map and had a
beacon that always pointed the way home, no matter how far they wandered or how lost and turned-around they got. We think the present universe doesn’t change, but it does, just very slowly on a timescale far greater than our own. There are changes to the universe happening all the time, but with the new creation nothing ever changes. For example, we can still use the North Star to guide our way at night, just like people did in ancient times, yet the North Star is moving. All the stars are moving, and so are all the galaxies, but they are so far away that their movements do not make a noticeable difference. New stars are being born and old stars die. Occasionally stars explode in a supernova, and galaxies sometimes run into each other over a course of billions of years, but in the new creation none of these things happen. Stars in the new creation never burn out, because the Father inhabits them; He fuels the stars and all things, and He is inexhaustible. As they are now, so they will be. Stars continue in their existence; Galaxies don’t run into each other, quasars don't pulsate destructive rays. God’s new creation is full of life. Go to one planet and you will find life; go to another planet and find completely different life forms, but there are no humans on any of them, not yet. Jason
wasn’t interested in other galaxies or solar systems in deep space; He wanted
to know more about his own solar system, and especially about the New Earth, and
so he visited his future home planet with some friends. The earth was positioned at the
center of the universe, though the New Jerusalem was still disconnected from it,
knowing that God would one day bring them together, and they were
greatly looking forward to it. They found waterfalls on the New Earth and
crystal clear lakes, tropical areas and forests that filled millions of square
miles, and they saw amazing creatures. The air was fresh with the fragrance of flowers
blooming on the forest floor, some on vines creeping up tree trunks thirty feet
wide. There were animals everywhere, and they came right up to us. They didn’t
understand fear; they were neither wild nor tame; they were free, and they
didn’t have enemies. We met some friends who were also exploring the New
Earth, and we discussed the differences between it and the old one, so many
interesting and beautiful places to visit, rivers and lakes but no oceans, and
they discussed particularly how much bigger the New Earth was than the old one.
Life was everywhere, and it would only get better. One
of the rewards of heaven is that every gifted person received a planet of their
own, according to the design that was in each person’s heart, but those
who were complacent in their former lives regarding their faith in Jesus were unable to
visit their inherited planet. That is, they didn’t know how to disappear and
then reappear in a different location irrespective of distance (teleportation).
They never learned how to pray, so they had to get in line and speak to the Lord
in person. The owner of their planet could do whatever he wanted with it; Jason
built a humble abode next to a waterfall and invited friends to sit and chat and
explored his personal island in space, and others invited him to their retreat
planet. Jason visited a few other planets in the solar system and a couple moons, but nothing compared to the earth. Jason returned to the New Jerusalem and there joined in songs of praise to God. He met some friends he made earlier, and they shared stories of their latest adventures and shared some of the most recent things they had come to understand about God, helping each other come to a fuller knowledge of Him. There were billions of people, and they had billions of years to become acquainted with each other and form relationships. Most
Christians remained babes in Christ throughout their former lives, who
barely grew in their faith, rarely read their Bible, rarely prayed and scarcely
served the Lord, but were only interested in squeezing through the pearly gates
into the Holy City. They didn’t know how to travel by thought to other
locations, visiting other lands on planets in distant galaxies, but were limited
to the New Jerusalem, which was everybody’s home and where everyone
spent most of their time anyway. Their lives in heaven resembled their former
lives in the flesh,
except that they never got old or tired, and they couldn’t die, and they lived
in paradise and looked upon the face of their Lord and Master, and they
witnessed God sentence the wicked to eternal damnation in the lake of fire, and most
importantly they bore witness to God creating the new heavens and the New
Earth. They worshipped the Creator for saving them from such a peril of death, who offered them forgiveness of all their sins through the
blood of His Son, which they all gladly received.
They worshipped God who sat on the throne. Behind him was smoke and fire and
sounds and peals of thunder (Rev 4-5). Everyone knew it was the Father who orchestrated
all things and divulged His vision to His Son, and His Son implemented His plans
and brought about the worlds and all living things (Jn 14,10-15). They worshipped God for His justice, righteousness and truth, and for his compassion and mercy, and for His power to create an endless universe. The Cherubim and Seraphim led the chorus of worship, continually crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and who is to come,” and they drew the rest of the assembly into continual worship of God for billions of years. In the process of worshipping Him and sharing their faith with each other and going on distant journeys and adventures together, they came to know each other. Individuals met groups, and groups met other groups that merged to become larger groups, and they met other larger groups. People were making connections, talking about Jesus and spreading their knowledge far and wide and worshipping God for all the things He has done, and for judging the wicked. Those assembled in heaven slowly and steadily came to a single realization that anybody who refuses to worship God belongs in hell. That is how great an infraction it was to refuse to worship God, a crime punishable by eternal damnation, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2The 1,5-10).
They
steadily came to realize these things, though they didn’t fully understand
them at the time; and the more they came to know God, the more they believed in
Him. His point of view is Truth, since He created the heavens and
the earth, and He has a bird’s eye view of all things, whereas man’s view is
highly limited, relative and meaningless by comparison. God’s view is the Truth,
for no one is bigger or lived longer than Him, and no one can prove Him wrong in
anything He thinks, says or does. When Jesus lived in the flesh, many people
challenged His views, but in heaven, His views are
unchallenged; instead, everyone in heaven comes into agreement with Him. The
citizens of heaven instinctively know that He is right about everything; and
what they don’t understand they trust, because they see Him in all His glory
and power. Every week Jesus gave a sermon to the saints and used His weekly
sermons to keep in touch with His people. Everyone stopped what he was doing,
sat at His feet and listened to His word. Afterward, they broke into
groups and talked about what they heard, and it stimulated vibrant conversation
throughout the week. Jesus kept the minds of His people busy digesting the word
of God. The knowledge of God came naturally to them, expanding His sermon a
million times over by the people’s thoughts and ideas. “Belief” involves trust through limited knowledge, whereas God is all-knowing, but it is not the same with Jesus. He only knows what the Father tells Him, which is a lot, but it is not everything, so even with Jesus there is an element of trust involved. He is confident in His Father’s ability, knowledge and perspective and fully trusts in Him, and in this way He is like His brethren, who also trust in the Lord through limited knowledge. The heavenly assembly steadily took on His perspective regarding all things over a course of billions of years, and this knowledge continued to increase throughout the eons in the recognition of His love and acceptance of them and in the understanding of their own need to worship Him. Their divine worship defined them as His children, but monsters lived under their feet, who thought they were gods.
Slowly
and steadily the people were weaned off their immediate family members: their
mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles of their former
lives, and they began to cleave to their new family, considering each of them
equally important. They were all brethren, and the people networked together in
an environment of love, harmony and worship, and the fruits of the Spirit weaved their lives
together to become a single people called the body of
Christ. They became united, so they could share their
thoughts with those who may not be in proximity of each other. They
could be a hundred miles apart, or a million miles, and be able to carry on a
conversation with each other in the Spirit, because of their unity. They became
as it were one person. However, the influence of their former lives, which acted
as their critical period, made certain people forever special to them, for just
as the memory of childhood followed us throughout our adult lives, so our former lives will follow us throughout eternity.
Jason
went to his house in the New Jerusalem, pulled the rock from his pocket that he
found in his former life at the age of three that He recovered from his house on
earth during the Millennium where he once lived. The Lord let him keep it as one
of his only possessions (besides this mansion). He opened the top dresser drawer
that was in his room and dropped it next to the stone with His new name written
on it that he received from the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ. It occurred
to him that he was poorer than he was in his former life; in fact, if he were
still in the flesh, he would be the poorest person on earth, because technically
he didn’t own anything, except this giant house that he never used and these
two silly rocks. Then again, he didn’t need anything. His only real possession
was his body. However, if he counted the New Jerusalem and Jesus and all his
friends as part of his
possession, he saw that he possessed all things, just like the Bible said (2Cor
6-10). He didn’t need to eat or sleep, and he didn’t get cold or hot.
“What do I need this house for?” he thought to himself. He closed the
dresser drawer, ran out the house, swinging the door closed behind him and
joined his friends in praise and worship of God. |