The question is, does the new Jerusalem descend after the earth is recreated or before.
Throughout the Bible God's people, those who put their faith in him have been illustrated as the wife of God, or the bride of Christ. Did this all change in the last couple pages of the Bible? Where it says: Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, PREPARED AS A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND.....9 And there came to me one of the seven angels...., and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
It certainly did not change. Not only have the people of faith always been illustrated as the wife of God. But also, in that same Bible prophecy of the Old Testament, as a city called the New Jerusalem.
Isaiah 60:14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
In fact every single verse in Revelation about the New Jerusalem comes from the OT's prophecy about an age where the earthly promises of God begin to be fulfilled in the lives of believers. That is, in nations they are influencing to meet certain basic conditions. So how is this confusion about what is being illustrated by a city coming about? Very simply; because so many Bible readers are ignorant of, or, not heeding the Bibles own interpretations of its own prophecy.
There are very clear lines of demarcation in the scripture about differing ages or eras. The old covenant age that began with Moses and ended in 70 AD had a very large body of end time prophecy dedicated to it. The new covenant age starts where the old ends and has no prophesied end. But then there is the age of the four gentile empires that began Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judea around 600 BC. It did not end until 1453 AD when what had been the capitol of the Roman empire since 333 AD, Constantinople, was conquered and the last Roman emperor killed. This was prophesied to be an age of horrible oppression, persecutions, slavery and genocide for true believers. A time period in which they were told they would not be able to overcome the despotic nature of the world. There are 11 chapters of the end time prophecy in Revelation about this time period of these four gentile empires.
Then there is the age of promise that was to follow the age of the four gentile empires. An age that has no prophesied end as it is encompassed in the NT age. In this age the influence of the invisible kingdom of God was to start a notable rise to dominance in the world. So influential that despotic human government begins to fall. Human slavery becomes illegal. Things like famine, short life spans, plagues, successful wars of conquest by the wicked. Things that were the norm for the ancient world become rare. Of course this does not just come of itself. This better world has to be won by Gods saints. By individual conversions, then cultural and political influence and even, yes, sometimes ending in war. Impossible without the Bible being in the hands of the general population. Which, stranger than fiction; began to happen for the first time in human history right after that fourth empire fell.
This is what seen in Bible prophecy about the New Jerusalem. A time period or age of great oppression and tribulation followed by an age where all the Bibles earthly promises made to hundreds of generations of saints finally start coming to pass in the world. Notice how in Hosea 2, the wife of God isn't prophesied to be taken to heaven but to be sown in the earth. To bring a harvest. 19 And I WILL BETROTH YOU TO ME for ever; yes, I WILL BETROTH YOU TO ME in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. 20 I WILL EVEN BETROTH YOU TO ME in faithfulness: and you shall know the LORD. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. 23 AND I WILL SOW HER TO ME IN THE EARTH; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, You are my God.
Not that believers won't go to heaven when they die. But they have a purpose on the earth to transform it. Here in Isaiah chapter 54 it says the same
54:1 Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of THE MARRIED WIFE, said the Lord.
Paul quotes this in Galatians. The way he is interpreting it is that the Mosaic Law and the physical city of Jerusalem were the married wife that bore many children. The people of faith though, few and for most of the history of ancient Israel persecuted and murdered by the faithless; these are the children of the desolate woman. However with the coming of the messiah the children of the desolate woman, in this case the children of the Jerusalem from above, the New Jerusalem, as per Galatians, would bear more children than the earthly city would. The rest of the prophecy in Isaiah 54 will say more of this.
2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes; 3 For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your descendants shall inherit the Nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
A truly amazing prophecy exhorting the faithful with the promise that lay ahead. That the people of faith soon to be of all nations will grow and expand. So much so that it will be said the descendant of Abraham, the Messiah, through them will inherit the nations. That the fruit of this will be prosperous civilizations. (The desolate cities will be inhabited.)
4 Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. 5 FOR YOUR MAKER IS YOUR HUSBAND; the Lord of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; THE GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH WILL HE BE CALLED....
This prophesies how God's wife will forget the oppression lived during the age of the gentiles and that all the pagan, pantheistic nations of their day would one day call the God of the Bible, the God of the whole earth.
11 O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones. 13 And all your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children. 14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you. 15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
These verses are directly quoted in Revelation 21-22 about the New Jerusalem. Notice how it is not prophesying a utopia. Because the wicked do gather against them. It simply is pointing out that they will emerge victorious over their enemies in that age of promise to come. There was no way for this to happen unless the saints, able to read their own Bibles, are a primary influence in nations. It is how it has been coming to pass and is expanding in today's world.
But this is just the beginning of just three chapters of the dozens of the most radical good news for the world chapters about the New Jerusalem in the Bible. Which you will see if you follow the link. Chapters that contain most of the verses in Revelation and cannot be mistaken as speaking about a new physical planet. But rather one transformed by the Gospel, the Word in peoples hands, Gods providence, his invisible kingdom and its influence in the world. It is high time God's people start to throw off their false prophecy that came to them in the guise of end time prophecy teachings. False prophecy that has robbed them of a scriptural vision for the future. This good news prophecy MUST be embraced by faith as that scriptural vision for the future. If that is, we are to intelligently pray and labor with God like Jesus said to pray: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, like it is in heaven.
http://wordservice.org/Bible%20Prophecy/bp4000.htm