AND I SAW A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH!

 

Image: Phillip Medhurst Collection

AND I SAW A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH!

I dedicate this Exposition to my friend in the US, Lou Wachsmuth who inspired this whole thrill by a minute adventure into the mind of God. Lou messaged me on Facebook the very first four verses of Revelation 21 and simply prefixed: For this I do wait. These verses pressed all the right buttons in my spirit and immediately felt like Lou was daring me to dream along with him. Well my friend in the US had no idea that Revelation 21 shares the best part in my heart and I was moved to tears as I read the whole chapter again, like I’ve never read it before. It rekindled the hope in me.

Lou in the middle with his sister and friend.

I believe it will make more sense if we dial back to the Garden of Eden, where it all started and I hope we’d do well. The Garden of Eden was immaculately beautiful and designed by God to be man’s Paradise on Earth surrounded by nothing less than peace. Let me just sound ridiculous for a minute and use this analogy in my futile attempt to sail inside the mind of God. We all know how every woman prepares their home for their first child: by decorating and reserving a special place for their unborn child. I bet you my last penny that 99,99% have no idea why their women go into this a frenzy of dreaming about this beckoning day in their sleep and even in their state of alertness throughout the day. Everything they see around reminds them of the coming baby. Well I think I have found out why God said these these word:

Genesis 1:26,27

26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Believe me, every time God breathes a woman gives birth. A woman stands as a complete extension of God’s creation hence their inexplicable bewilderment when it comes to their unborn babies. An unborn baby to most men means just that, not here and not within until they see them in real time after birth. Men don’t jump up and down with their women singing: Lalala/Our baby is coming soon/Just around the corner/Lalala. 

I pretended to be enjoying the kicks of my unborn son every time my wife invited me to touch her bloated tummy; but the Lord knows that scared me to death. See that, as she pointed at wavelike movements from inside her tummy  which reminded me of some horror movies I had seen: about the creature trying to break free from a water filled bubble ready to burst. It was very creepy and I couldn’t understand why she thought getting my ear pressed to her tummy was a good idea. Then came my unborn daughter who was kicking like Bruce Lee. I thought she was very angry at me gettin closer. I literally got the shivers but hid them from my wife: as I pretended to be enjoying the horse show! Get the drift? Okay enough with digression.

ZOOMING INTO THE MIND OF GOD

Before Adam’s Fall in the Garden of Eden, God used to visit His creation at every sunset of each day. The Bible doesn’t give us any clues in which form did God come to Adam and this will remain a mystery throughout eternities. Let us make man in our image and likeness, Genesis 1:26 reveals this deep emotion of God as He began to salivate on the thrill of the unending fellowship He stood to enjoy with Adam and Eve. This feeling left a tinge of excitement in the heart of God. It had to be.

Remember at this time, God had already created everything including the Garden of Eden. He didn’t say to Adam and Eve after creating: Well, stand back folks while I get down in my overall and build for you this paradise. My Bible says, God brought them into the Garden, they didn’t wake up there one fine morning as if they were in a fantasy and found themselves thinking: Wow, what a syrene and a beautiful place, where are we?

Isn’t funny just how Evolutionists laugh the Creation Story to scorn and make a mockery of what the Bible presents as the Beginning of all life forms. Charles Darwin (12 February 1809-19 April 1882) is credited as the Father of Evolution. His theory is based on his preposition all species of life have descended from Common Ancestors. Charles Darwin forgot to tell us just how these Ancestors began to exist before they were crowned as parents to all the species which became their descendants? I will not venture out to explore the Big Bang Theory which believes that everything we see, touch, taste and feel: was the results of the greatest collision resulting into this orderly universe complete with Four Seasons, etc but, without some imaginary God the Bible claims He’s the Creator thereof.

I’ve just given you different takes on what people from different walks of life believe in when it comes to the origin of life. Those who believe in Genesis are labeled as Creationists and as people who believe in a “sky god”. This sounds all too complicated for some of us since we live in a material world where life is based on theorems based on Mathematics and Science thus making it all too hard for a regular to argue their case for their chosen God who created Heaven and the Earth. We cringe out and hide among the mocking crowds for fear of being ostracized.

Genesis 1:26,27

26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Let us make man in our image and  after our likeness. In this part of the Scripture, you must realize that God wasn’t talking about cloning Himself, as in designing a man that was capable of destroying God in any kind of rebellion. In short, I am suggesting to you, that God did not design man to have the capacity of understanding and know Him as God knows Himself. In other words, to be in the same class as God. Man is not equal to God, will never be in millennia of eternities to come. Man doesn’t have any capacity to understand, period. 

Illustration by Robert Crumb

When the beautiful world of Adam and Eve came to a crashing end because of sinning against God: they were driven out of the Garden of Eden into the land of thorns and hard labour. What a pity. Adam, look at what you’ve done to yourself? God’s scheduled sunset visits also came to an end: and how this frustrated the heart of God. It was a lingering pain that stood for thousands of years and God vowed to fix this dilemma for eternity, once for all. I feel it’s almost impossible for me to paint a perfect picture in your heart and soul where you can find yourself congenitally fantasizing about this promised world to come: where God lives in perfect harmony with His creation. We find these thoughts all spread around the Bible where God muzes about the world to come.

GOD’S AMUSEMENT PARK

Haggai 2:6

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth,and the sea, and the dry land.

Ezekiel 37:27

My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Isaiah 65:17

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Just take a break and listen to this sweet melody by Paul Hardcastle

Remember, music is one of the greatest gifts to men: it’s all too mystical and yet very soothing to shooting nerves sometimes.

John the Apostle Image by Chip Brogden

SOME HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT JOHN, THE APOSTLE

1. John the Apostle was one of the original disciples of John the Baptist.

2. He and James  were sons of Zebedee, usually referred to as “Sons of thunder”.

3. John was one of the two disciples who followed Jesus when John pointed and the latter and said: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. The second disciples was concluded to be James, his brother.

4. He was one of the two disciples whose mother asked Christ to sit them at His left and right when Jesus gets to His Kingdom.

5. He was the youngest among the Disciples of Christ and was deeply fond of Jesus and referred to as “the disciple whom the Lord loved”.

6. He’s the disciple Christ predicted he’ll outlive all the others and wait for Jesus’ Return at the Isle of Patmos.

7. Like all the Apostles, John was persecuted and tortured for his witness and faith in Jesus Christ and the only one to have died from natural death.

8. He’s the Apostle who received Revelation from Christ and His Angel while thrown out into the Isle of Patmos which is located in Asia Minor,  what is now known as the Levante.

9. Among other tortures John was subjected to, was when they threw him alive inside a drum boiling with oil and left overnight to die. His tormentors were surprised and scared to death when they discovered the old man alive, unscathed by the boiling oil.

10. He had his eyes gouged out since they could not kill him and banished in the Isle of Patmos and left there to die in oblivion. He was the last Apostle to die marking the end of the Apostolic Era in earnest. Today’s self-professed apostles have no Divine Mandate from God: they’re in for the love of money. God did not anoint nor send them. John the Apostle was the Epitome.

Image by University City United Church

After the fall of Adam in the Garden, God promised and looked forward to even something greater than Eden. He had His Plan right under His sleeves and always knew that in the end, the fellowship He was deprived of in Eden due to sins, the New Heaven and the new Earth was the Ultimate. God was not entirely surprised when Adam fell into the Devil’s trap to disobey Him. If you think Eden was the ultimate paradise for man, I urge you to wait for it just like my friend Lou. There are thousands of Scripture verses which are misquoted every day by Christians all around the world and most of these are in the past or future tense. How often do we quote verses and based on our misguided belief that they were meant for our use today just as they were intended to be sell-by-date in terms of contents and chronology. No one verse in the Bible is meant to be understood and dissected in a thousand different ways and still be relevant and practical by way of application, no.

Isaiah 64:4

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

I have heard thousands upon thousand variations of this verse, how some were even using it as one of their prayer weapons as they decree and declare this over that: multiplying their blessings untold. I believe that this complicated verse has nothing to do with you or me but God kept it as the preserve for Christ. It begins with all men who have not understood anything about God since the Beginning of the World to our present day, then zooms into God as the Keeper of this knowledge ending pointing down to Christ for whom all things exist. This ain’t no grab and run verse.

John the Apostle was by now had both of his eyes gouged out and was led like a child just as Jesus predicted this would be the case in his twilight years. But, wait a minute, didn’t he just say he was already in Patmos and left to die when he saw Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God? John the blind old man saw Jesus. John the blind old man saw God lowering the New Heaven and the New Earth. John the Apostle saw all these without eyes. He trembled and felt down on his face because this was no longer the same Jesus he followed and knew all his life. His memory failed him as his mind began to search through all the images contained in his database. This was no longer the same Jesus who came through the wall after Resurrection. This was not the same Jesus whom he and other Apostles witnessed as He was whisked up into Heaven fully in the view till they saw two men standing before them in awe of their affixation towards Heaven. Hello, attention disciples of Christ, the two men said to them as they tried to revive them from their trance.

Revelation 21:1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was no sea.

After all the drama and the melodrama which took place between the Fall of Adam, the Birth, Works, Death, Resurrection and Return of Christ not forgetting the Preaching of the Gospel in between, followed by the Judgement White Throne of Chris: John the Apostle, saw. Wow, it was imperative for John to notice and report that there was no sea. Why no sea? Because the sea divides our continents. Now, in hindsight, I began to understand the reason why we have the sea in our world.

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.

After all the all the hullabaloo of false teachings down the years and unrelenting mind twisting from indoctrination: God was preparing all these things for Christ His Only Begotten Son and His Church which is His Bride. As you can see we’re in the thick of things when it comes to understanding the mind of God reading Isaiah 64:4 upside down. Oh God, now I can hear, I can see and my ear can understand what you have in store for the One who waited for You: Jesus Christ, God’s Begotten Son.

Revelation 21:3

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 he his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

This is not your Alice in Wonderland or some typical fairytale of  Cinderella: it’s reality which is inviting every man and woman still walking this physical world. Apparently all The Invitations to this auspicious Marriage of the Lamb have already been issued to all those who have heard the Preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Finally in this Epic Story, sees Himself as the First and the Last Hurray. The last thing I’d like to emphasize while I still have your diminishing attention, is the fact that God never ever intended for man to live eternally in His Heaven. I’d’ go on and on hence He’s prepared the New Heaven for Himself and the New Earth for us (all those who believe in the Saving Grace of God through Christ). All those who shunned The Invitation will live to regret it throughout eternities. Words are not enough to describe the suffering and the punishment awaiting the damned.