3. The form of government will not be monarchic. democratic, or autocratic, but a theocratic form of government ie; God reigning through;
Jesus Christ , his only begotten son, 2 Samuel 7; Psalms 2, 89:35-37; Isaiah 2:2-4; 4:2-3; 9:6-7; 11:2-15; 16:5; 24:23; 32:1-4; 40:9-10; 42:1-4; 52:7; Jeremiah23:5-8; Ezekiel 43:7; Daniel 2:44-45; 7:13-14; Micah: 4; 5:1-7; Zechariah 6:12-13; 14:1-21; Luke 1:32-35; Revelation 11:15; 20:1-10.
David the King of Israel; Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:24; 37:24-28; Hosea 3:4-5.
The apostles and all saints from Adam to the Millennium; or those who have part in the first resurrection Psalm 149:5-9; Daniel 7:18-27; Matthew 19:28; 1 Corinthians 4:8;6:2; Ephesians 2:7; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrew 11; Romans 8:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-7; Revelation 1:6; 2:26-27; 5:9-10; 11:15; 12:5; 20:4-6; 22:5.
Not so!
Hebrews 11:17 tells us that we have
“a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Galatians 3:16-18 declares:
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”
This passage says it all! The Premils and their fixation with the land and with the old covenant is rebuked time after time in the New Testament. It shows Christ as the inheritance. It shows Christ as the promise. It shows Him as the Promised Land.
Hebrews 3:14-15 says speaking of the salvation that believers have entered into today “in Christ,”
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Hebrews 3:16-19 immediately continues, comparing the physical, temporal earthly land in the Old Testament,
“For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
The rest desired by God’s people in the Old Testament was always associated with occupying the land of Israel. This reading also tells us that the two blockages to that rest for the children of Israel were sin and unbelief.
I am convinced that every true child of God has left Egypt (being a picture of the world), however, many still haven’t entered into the fullness and joy of the Promised Land that is here described as have departed been delivered from
Hebrews 4:1-3 says,
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest.”
And continues in Hebrews 4:9-11
“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
· The place of rest is “
a promise” for all God’s people (Hebrews 4:1). However, like every promise that God gives us, it must be received and used.
· That land can only be entered by faith or “with faith” (Hebrews 4:2).
· When a man enters into that place of rest he ceases “from his own works” (Hebrews 4:10). He abandons every confidence in himself.
Canaan was always viewed as the Promised Land – the earthly place of rest of the people of God in the Old Testament; however, it was not viewed as the eternal rest.
Hebrews 11:8-10 describes how our great father of the faith, the Patriarch, Abraham looked for that great heavenly city, saying,
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
It would seem right to regard God's future inheritance for Israel as relating to the heavenly abode and the prepared city the New Jerusalem. The Patriarch’s earthly abode in Canaan is depicted here as a temporary sojourn and “a strange country.” This was not Abraham’s eternal abode or was it his true home. Like us, he looked for the New Jerusalem that would last forever. Man’s ultimate hope (whether Old Testament or New Testament) is when Jerusalem from above comes down to the earth to dwell forever.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says, specifically speaking of the great Old Testament champions of faith,
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Here, in easily comprehensible language, we see the focus and overriding desire of these Old Testament heroes of the faith (nearly all of whom had accessed the old Jerusalem in their lifetime) revealed. They plainly desired a “prepared” heavenly city.
The Old Testament saints, like those in the New Testament, looked forth to a “prepared” eternal heavenly city, not a physical temporal earthly one. Their eyes were therefore not below but above. Scripture plainly tells us that that “place” is called the New Jerusalem – the eternal home of the beloved. The Premillennialist that looks for old Jerusalem at the Second Coming is evidently focused upon the wrong city.
Like Abraham and the Old Testament saints of old, our eyes should be fixed upon another country, not an earthly, and a city that is not built with hands or can be touched or visited in this fleeting life.
Whilst earthly Jerusalem may be the hope today of the Christ-rejecting Jew, the heavenly New Jerusalem was the desire of the believing Old Testament saints.
That “place,” which Christ is preparing us, and for which His people are patiently waiting, is identified as an actual city in Hebrews 13:14. Notwithstanding, it is not a physical temporal earthly city sitting in the centre of natural Israel, but rather a heavenly eternal city. The passage says,
“for here (that is on this earth)
have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” That city is the New Jerusalem, which Christ is presently preparing. Earthly Jerusalem is clearly with us now, whereas the New Jerusalem in all its glory is still to come!!!
During our Lord’s earthly ministry He made a very significant statement about the heavenly abode, which many modern-day eschatology students tend to overlook. Jesus said, in John 14:1-3,
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Something we should establish here due to the array of false teaching floating around on the subject: whilst this eternal abode Christ is currently preparing for His people is now in heaven there is no proof in this text that this city will remain in heaven after His Coming. Jesus simply promises:
“I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Where Christ is at His appearing is where the heavenly city with its many mansions will be. This closely connects Christ to the holy city. One could take from this statement that the New Jerusalem will appear with Christ. It would be wise to see whether there is other Scripture to support or negate such a hypothesis.
Christ here directly addresses the undoubted concern of His disciples just prior to His heavenly removal. He clearly intended to convey a real sense of hope and comfort to His troubled disciples, in this reading, who were evidently concerned at the thought of the His impending departure. In doing so, He advanced some precious Divine truths, which are deserving of our careful consideration and note, none more so than the fact that He was assuredly returning for His saints. He plainly and succinctly declares, “if I go…I will come again.” This is the great assurance for every believer, that, yet, for a short season he is faced with earthly trials, tribulations and separation, it is but nothing in comparison to that place and condition which awaits God’s heavenly people.
The next thing of note we see is that Christ was, shortly after this incident, going to His “Father’s house” – heaven – to “prepare a place” for His people. That “place,” which was undoubtedly heavenly, and its final manifestation, is clearly identified here with the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word rendered “prepare” here, in the King James Version, is the Greek word
hetoimasoo which simply means ‘to make ready’. Therefore, Christ is presently preparing, or making ready, a heavenly abode for the redeemed of God, which they will inhabit at His glorious final all-consummating Second Coming.
That “prepared” city is repeatedly described in Scripture as the New Jerusalem – the heavenly city. In a parallel passage in Revelation 3:11-12, Christ promises His people, while also speaking of His glorious all-consummating Second Advent,
“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
This Second Coming passage confirms our notion. The heavenly city comes down from heaven with Christ when He returns.
This reading informs us that this “place,” which Christ spoke of has a name; being described as the New Jerusalem and that it “cometh down out of heaven” at His appearing. This truth should help those who struggle with the meaning and timing of Revelation 20, because Revelation 21:1-2 (which all commentators agree) appears immediately after the happenings of Revelation 20. Therefore, it places its appearing, which we have already established coincides with the Second Coming of the Lord, at the end of the millennium thus revealing a postmillennial appearing of Christ. Christ connects the appearance of the New Jerusalem at His Coming, declaring, “Behold, I come quickly.” It is at this all-consummating event that the New Jerusalem comes “down out of heaven from my God.”
Note that the exact detail described as occurring at the Second Coming – namely:
The “new Jerusalem” appears.
The “new Jerusalem … cometh down”
The “new Jerusalem … cometh down out of heaven.”
The “new Jerusalem … cometh down out of heaven … from God.”
Further evidence that the prepared New Jerusalem is coming down to the new earth is found in Revelation 21:1-4. It declares,
“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. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 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.”
The New Jerusalem does not stay in heaven. At the end of the millennium it descends to the new earth. We should not overlook: the detail described elsewhere in Scripture as occurring at the Second Coming of the Lord carefully matches that which takes place at the end of the millennium (definitely not the beginning). It is the “holy city, new Jerusalem” that is figuratively “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” and which corresponds with the Lord’s teaching in John 14. This city is the only “prepared place” alluded to in the whole of the New Testament. This city, which appears with Christ at His Coming, is undoubtedly a heavenly “place” and is the single focus of every true saint of God – the place of eternal peace and rest from sin, the effects of sin (including death), and all sinners forever.
Knitting all these passages together reinforces the Amillennial and Postmillennial positions that Revelation 20 is speaking about a current period of time. It is clear Premillennialism has a major problem here. First, John 14:1-3 ties Christ to the heavenly city and presents that city, which is being prepared, as the eternal hope of the saints. If that city does not appear until after the millennium as a Premillennial reading of Revelation 20 would require then the saints will not experience that prepared city for over 1,000 years.
Premillennialism divorces Christ from the eternal city He is preparing now. It also evacuates the New Jerusalem at the Second Coming and forbids the saints entry to it for 1,000 years. Why would Christ emphasise the eternal glory and comfort of this city He is preparing for His people if they were not going to immediately enjoy it when they die or when He appears? The whole promise of John 14:1-3 is negated by this theological school of thought. Premillennialism must also ignore Revelation 3:11-12, which, whilst speaking of the Coming of Christ, describes the accompanying descent of the heavenly abode.
No wonder 1 Corinthians 2:9 says,
“as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
I guess if I was to sum up the great difficulty I have with Premillennialism on this matter, it is its constant focus upon the natural city Jerusalem, and their notion that God's favour is upon this Christ-rejecting people, rather than focusing like Abraham upon that city that embraces the true chosen of God – the New Jerusalem. The New Testament constantly directs our eyes toward the heavenly Jerusalem, whereas Premils are constantly speaking of, and speculating about, the old Jerusalem, which we know is likened today unto Sodom and Egypt (Revelation 11) and is now "in bondage with her children" (Galatians 4:22-26).
It is only after the judgment that we learn:
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
The prepared kingdom and the prepared city are indivisible. Inheriting one means inheriting the other. This is seen to occur when Christ appears.
This temple within the city – the New Jerusalem – is Christ. Revelation 21:22 says, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” The New Jerusalem represents the wider kingdom wherein the temple centrally resides.