What Lies Ahead: the Eternal Kingdom

As promised, I do want to lay out what I’ve come to understand about God’s eternal Kingdom He will establish once this reality has completed its usefulness.  Most people call it heaven, but the Lord God calls it the New Heaven and Earth.  It is the replacement for the current Heaven and Earth God created in the beginning.  Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Because He uses the same terminology for the New as He used for the present one, I assume the words mean the same things.  As I pointed out before, the charter to Adam and Eve was to rule over the original creation which strongly implies that it will be what will be recreated in the new one. 

While the new universe will look similar to what we see now the physics and chemistry will be very different.  They will have to be since the new universe will last for eternity.  So, there will have to be some mechanism to overcome or offset entropy and compensate for energy losses.  The same for aging.  We’ll need something to continuously regenerate our bodies.  Of course, God has all that covered.  The original universe in which we live once had all those features.  I can’t give you a chapter and verse in the Bible for that, but it is implied in God’s statements in Genesis 1. 

The earth will look different because there will be no seas.  Death will have been eliminated so we’ll need the space for the growing population.  Presently, we’re running about 130 million births a year.  That’s offset by around 70 million deaths per year.  That birth rate would add another billion people in less that 8 years if not for the number of deaths.  While the new earth will start with a lower base population, we’ll still need a lot of space to handle population growth.  And eventually that will mean expanding out into the rest of the Universe!  Intergalactic space travel will become a necessity.        

The Bible does indicate space travel will be a common thing in the new universe.  Jesus Christ said believers from this universe will have their homes in God’s house.  John 14:2-3 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. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

In Revelation we learn God’s house is the New Jerusalem that is described as coming down out of Heaven (Rev. 3:12, 21:2 & 10). 3 times the new Jerusalem is said to be descending out of heaven.  It doesn’t ever say it lands on the earth.  Instead, we have this in Revelation 21:34 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.  There will be nations of saved people living on the new earth and they will have the light of the New Jerusalem shine on them.  That sounds to me like the New Jerusalem will be orbiting the earth.  It will be a second moon, occupied by the Resurrected believers from this Universe. The light that shines from it is the manifestation of God’s presence in the New Jerusalem. 

Why don’t you read Revelation 20-22 for yourself.  Check it out before my next post where I’ll share more of what I believe it is saying.