So in your view we are all on the new earth. Can you please tell me where you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will rule and reign in the new heavens and new earth?
As BABerean keeps showing you and you keep ignoring: the New Jerusalem.
Before His death, in Matthew 23, we see Christ condemning the Jews rejection of Himself (and His impending atonement). He thus pronounced eight ‘woes’ upon them, and declared,
“ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
He continued,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
This was a prologue to what He was going to say, in Matthew 24. After all, there is no chapter divisions in the original. The next verses and chapter – Matthew 24:1-2 – then significantly commences,
“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Luke’s account embodies both the end of Matthew 23 and the beginning Matthew 24, saying,
“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). The disciples asked two important questions in response, in Matthew 24. Christ then said,
“if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:42).
And continues,
“for the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:43-44).
Christ’s denunciations are in full keeping with the New Testament’s view of earthly Jerusalem. Old Jerusalem is likened in this new covenant period unto Sodom and Egypt in Revelation 11. Revelation 11:8 describes physical Jerusalem today as:
“the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” This description was definitely not intended to be a commendation of Jerusalem, but to describe it for exactly what it was/is. Many modern pro-Israel commentators today would probably throw the charge of anti-Semitic at such a charge, however, this indictment came from the Holy Spirit.
Jerusalem, Sodom and Egypt are three very prominent biblical places, all of which are notable for their great rebellion against Almighty God and His repeated warnings. Notwithstanding, they are all especially remembered for the terrible judgment that befell them as a consequence of their iniquitous transgressions. All, significantly, stand to this day as a solemn and perpetual warning of how God deals with the wicked and their gross disobedience against His precepts.
As you get into the New Testament you quickly realize that physical Jerusalem is no longer considered true Zion (or Sion). Under the new covenant, Zion is heavenly, spiritual and eternal not earthly, physical and temporal. Natural Jerusalem was decimated because of the rejection of their Messiah in AD70. Christ-rejecting Israel was stripped of its favored position by rejecting its Messiah. It is depicted in Scripture as an example of religious apostasy and stubborn rebellion.
Paul (that Hebrew of the Hebrews) says of earthly Jerusalem, in Galatians 4:25,
“Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
We see the two Jerusalems compared and contrasted here, representing two different distinct peoples – God’s elect and the lost. The earthly city is a symbol of bondage, ruin and rebellion, whereas the heavenly city is used as a picture of freedom and spiritual prosperity. Unfortunately, many today look to the wrong Jerusalem and elevate the wrong Israel. They seem to forget: the old temporal earthly type has been replaced by the new heavenly eternal reality.
Paul continues,
“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [Jerusalem below and her offspring]: for the son of the bondwoman shall NOT be heir with the son of the freewoman [those who belong to Jerusalem above].
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman [Jerusalem below]
, but of the free [Jerusalem above]” (Galatians 4:28-31).
The offspring of the bondwoman relates to the natural progeny of Abraham “after the flesh.” The Holy Spirit instructs: “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” Why? “For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” The fact is, they are not the children of promise. Under the new covenant, natural Jerusalem is no longer the Zion of God. That city and its children (natural Israelis) are considered to be in religious bondage. Those who belong to true Jerusalem (heavenly Jerusalem) are all those that know Christ. Those who do not know Christ are in bondage and are of their father the devil.
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.”
The Greek word for “strange” here (as in “strange country") is
allotrios which actually means another's, or not one's own; by extension foreign, not akin, hostile. The earthly Promised Land was not the true home of God’s Old Testament people. It was not the place of true peace and rest. Many enemies resided within those borders, and much trouble and strife continued there even when Israel took her promised borders. The children of Israel were indeed “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” This world was not their home. Basically, they were strangers in a strange land.
Hebrews 11:8-10 is clearly talking about Old Testament earthly Israel. It is talking about the ancient promised land. The text is talking about the patriarchs’ sojourn in the earthly Canaan land. It notably describes Abraham’s experience there as “a stranger in a foreign country.” There is no other interpretation. It also describes his honorable son Isaac and grandson Jacob’s experiences to be the same as his own. This totally blows apart the premillennialist fixation with the Old Testament promised land. This shows that physical Israel and its ancient boundaries were never intended to be the true promised land or the eternal inheritance. It confirms that it was never envisioned to be the eternal possession of natural Israel or God’s people. It was clearly conditional and temporal land.
Hebrews 11:9 tells us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were “the heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:9). What promise? The next verse explains: “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
The Patriarchs eyes were on higher, better and longer-lasting things than Canaan. This is something our Dispensational brethren would be wise to imitate. The Patriarchs eyes were on the heavenly city that Christ is preparing for those that are His. Their eyes were upon eternal matters. Their focus was heavenly. Even though they were promised an earthly piece of real estate their hope was always heavenly. It says here that Abraham: “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” That city was clearly the New Jerusalem. The possession of this city has been the goal of every believer from the beginning.
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. 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. This is repeated throughout the New Testament. The children of God regardless of their birthday are born from above.
It wasn’t just Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that were strangers in their ethnic homeland; so were all the rest of the old covenant saints who populated national Israel. Hebrews 11:12 describes Abraham’s natural seed as “so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. the sand of the sea.” And even though most of them at some juncture populated the area promised from the Euphrates River to the River of Egypt, the Hebrew writer testifies to the fact that “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” (Hebrews 11:13).
Obviously, the taking of the natural, earthly, temporal land was not what it was all about. There was something better, higher and longer-lasting that was promised to them that would fulfil Israel’s deepest desires – something greater than real estate in the Middle East. It was the Messiah Jesus Christ and the perfected state that comes at His appearing in the form of the new corrupt-free, sin-free, death-free, wicked-free, eternal perfect earth.
Even though the Old Testament giants of the faith are described as “not having received the promises,” the Scripture say that they “seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.” What is more, they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”
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.
When Hebrews says: God has “prepared” for them (the Old Testament saints) a city (Hebrews 11:16), it is not talking about earthly carnal man-made Jerusalem, that has rejected and killed Christ, the prophets and the Apostles. It is not talking about a city that is denounced under the new covenant by the Holy Spirit as “spiritually … called Sodom and Egypt” (Revelation 11:8) and is further condemned as being “in bondage with her children” in Galatians 4:25. This is speaking of the heavenly city, which we belong to today, which is “free.” This is the only city that God is preparing! It is unbiblical and nonsensical to believe that he is preparing earthly Jerusalem for the saints. The new Jerusalem is being prepared in heaven, as we can see through many Scriptures.
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. 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. The passage says,
“for here (that is on this earth) have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” The city we look for is not a physical temporal earthly city sitting in the center of natural Israel, but rather a heavenly eternal city. It is the New Jerusalem, which Christ is presently preparing. Earthly Jerusalem is clearly with us now, and under judgment, whereas the New Jerusalem in all its glory is still to come.
