This is how you can rest assured that it is not the end times.
By understanding the last chapters of the Bible. God does not want his people in the dark on this matter. He gave us dozens of chapters of prophecy about the New Jerusalem in the Bible. Not just the last two chapters in Revelation. All of the chapters combined paint a picture that clearly show that not only are we not in the end times. But the end times themselves have been grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted in a such a way as to cause great harm to the cause of Christ in the earth.
Lets just start with 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......
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.
Anyone familiar with the Bible knows that Gods people have always been illustrated as God's wife in the Bible's prophecy. As a bride. That is the first clue and it is the one most people notice right away when they read these chapters. When did this change? So that now a physical city is being represented as the bride, the lambs wife? It didn't.
In Galatians 4:26-27 The Apostle Paul declares Isaiah 54 to be a prophecy about the New Jerusalem.
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..... 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 shall he be called.....
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.
Notice how Revelation 21-22 quotes these verses. Illustrating Gods people as his wife AND illustrating them as the heavenly city. As important as this is though it is the prophecy in it that is relevant. Because it prophesies a time period that lays in the future of those to whom it was first written when the people of God would no longer be oppressed by the wicked. Not a utopian world where there is no oppression. Because the wicked in verse 15 gather together to conquer and oppress God's people, but fail. That is the age we live in now. An age of promise were a free world has been growing and expanding for 5 centuries now. Bible reading people created the free world and everywhere that freedom reigns real Christians live free of the oppression's of despotic government. Let look at this in some other verses in Revelation 21-22 that show how this happened. How we got this free world where for the first time in human history the earthly promises of God were able to be fulfilled in the lives of God's people, as a general rule rather than a rare exception.
Revelation 21:6.....I will give unto him that is athirst of
the fountain of the water of life freely. 22:1 And he showed me
a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
This river of life has always illustrated the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, Gods Word going forth into the hearts of people. When did this common Biblical illustration become a prophecy about a physical river in the future? It didn't. That is silly.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. 11 The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then have you that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Psalm 46: Selah. 4 T
here is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
1John 7:37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. 38. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39. (But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Ezekiel 47:1 Afterward he brought me again to the door of the house; and, behold,
waters issued out from under the threshold of the house.......
(God's people are the house of God.) 7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 Then said he to me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea,
the waters shall be healed. 9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves,
wherever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither:
for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live where the river comes. ....12 And by the river on the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary:
and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same
brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing....7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. 8
Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.....
This is how the free world was created and exists. The free world is the nations being healed. Via the Gospel, God's Word in peoples hearts, The works of the Holy Spirit, God's providence and his people bearing fruit. That is how the nations are being healed. Wherever the influence of God's invisible kingdom goes. It heals, restores, transforms. To the extent that even the wicked feign obedience to the principles of Gods Word.
In the article linked. Every verse is illuminated in much greater detail than these above. There are a dozens of chapters of Bible prophecy shared that explain exactly what every verse in Revelation 21-22 illustrates and exactly how they are being fulfilled before our eyes as prophecy. If you take the challenge to read through them and all their corresponding links. You will find there is no room for argument. They are not talking about heaven, a new physical planet, or a physical city. They are talking about a time period promised throughout the scripture that we are living in right now. A time period that began exactly when the Bible prophesied it would. With the fall of the last of four empires named in scripture. This occurred in 1453 AD. That is when what had been the capitol of the Roman Empire since 333 AD, Constantinople fell and the last Roman Emperor was killed. That date was precisely the beginning of the time period when for the first time in human history. The Bible began to get into the hands of the general public, to read for themselves. These Bible reading populations were the ones who created the free world. The Word of God in their hands and in their hearts was what gave them the power no other generations had to overcome the despotic nature of the ancient world with its slavery and darkness. This is a continuing process. As prophesied. A contest between the influence of God's invisible kingdom in the nations and other influences that oppose it. To what degree the influence and righteousness in the Bible will drown out the influences contrary to it I do not know. The Bible does not say. It only says. Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
This article contains the scriptural vision for the future God's people have been robbed of with the rise of the progressive movement that corresponded with modern pop culture end times teachings. Teachings that took the end time prophecy of the last two ages and placed them in this age. The design of this false prophecy about our future was to get God's people to not continue to build and expand the free world and not resist the progressive movement that threatens it. This scriptural vision for the future found in this article is what will eventually give real Christians and those non Christians who work with them the power to once more be the dominate influence in guiding the world towards a better and just future. This is hard work. Requires real sacrifice. A depth of knowledge and character that is rare today. Why should people sacrifice if it is all going to be destroyed? Well that was the power of the false prophecy in the guise of end time prophecy teachings. God's people have not been making the sacrifices necessary to develop in such a way as to be able to overcome the evil of their day. They have had no motivation to. They were robbed of the divine motivation that comes from God's Word. Change is coming, but not without God's Word on the matter being spread.
The New Jerusalem
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