NO. 656 IN THE PARADISE OF GOD

“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. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be my Son." (Rev. 21:1-7)

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:22-27)

Paradise, the garden of God, was applic­able as a name to the Garden of Eden, in which our first parents resided while they were still in harmony with God, before their diso­bedience. The same term is scripturally applied as a name to the new earth. When restitution blessings shall during our Lord’s second presence (the Millennium); be brought to perfection as the fit abode of those who, under Divine favor, shall then prove worthy of life everlasting. It was to this paradise that the Apostle Paul was in vision “caught away” when given a glimpse of various features of the Divine plan, not then due to be understood by the Church in general; “things not lawful to be uttered.” (2 Cor. 12:4)

John the Revelator was similarly caught away in vision, and shows some of these wonders of the paradise epoch; but only in symbols, which he was per­mitted to report, and which have been comparatively misapprehended until now, in the Lord’s due time, the Holy Spirit guiding his people into the truth on this subject, as well as others, because it is now nigh at hand, and “meat in due season” for the “household.”

Our Lord refers to this paradise in language which iden­tifies it with the first para­dise of Eden, saying:

“To him that over­cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:7)

It will be remem­bered that all the trees in Eden were trees of life, but the one in the midst of the garden was then a tree bearing forbidden fruit. The disobedient eating of which brought death on Adam and his race. That tree in the midst of paradise was called the tree of the know­ledge of good and evil, and our Lord’s promise is that the overcomers of this present age shall have full liberty to par­take of that tree of knowledge, and under most blessed and satisfactory condi­tions, when the knowledge will be of ben­efit to them under Divine approval, and not bring a curse. It is the same paradise of the future on this earth that our Lord referred to when addressing the penitent thief, he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in paradise.” (Earthly)

This paradise, we recall, is elsewhere refer­red to by the Apostles as “the third heaven”—“a new Heavens and a new earth.” (2 Cor. 12:2; 2 Pet. 3:13) They are not referring to new worlds, nor to heavens ranged one above another, as many have supposed, but, as already shown,* what is termed the first heavens and earth or order of things, passed away at the flood; and that the heavens and earth “which are now,” the present order of things, are reserved of God to pass away with a great fire of trouble, revolution, etc., which shall utterly destroy them—the present spiritual powers and the present earthly or social arrangements. “Neverthe­less, we ac­cord­ing to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right­eousness.” (2 Peter 3:13)

This will be the third heavens, and third earth, or the new heavens, and new earth, which will differ from the present condition of things in that it will be righteous, whereas the present is unrighteous, im­perfect. The “new heav­ens” will consist of the new spiritual ruling powers of the future, Christ and the glorified Church. The present heavens consist of the nominal religious sys­tems, which claim Christ for their Head. But in a very large degree bow to Antichrist, the god of this world, the prince of this world, “who now worketh in [through] the children of disobedience” and who is captivating and blinding the whole world with the exception of the few, the eyes of whose under­standing have been opened, who are under special blessing and leading, and are taught of God,—the “Little Flock,” “heirs of the kingdom.” (Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Thes. 2:9)

*Studies In The Scriptures, Vol. 1 pp.66-70, 318, 198-200

It is to this new heavens and new earth condition, this paradise, that our lesson intro­duces us. As the “new heav­ens” does not mean a new place of God’s throne, and a new throne of God, but new conditions, and signify the spiritual power and control of Christ and his Church in glory. So the “new earth” does not mean another planet, but a new social order on this planet. The declaration is that the former heavens and former earth (which are now) will then have passed away and be no more. All present institutions are to utterly perish in the great Time of Trouble with which this age is very shortly to end. “And there shall be no more sea.” (Rev. 21:1) As we have already seen, the sea is a symbol of the masses of people in a restless and unstable anarchistic con­dition, just as the land represents the social order, and as the moun­tains represent the kingdoms of the present time. As there is no reference to the physical earth and physical spiritual powers, the recon­structed social order will be so satis­factory, so complete, so thorough that there will be no more sea-class, no more restless people, no more dissatisfac­tion, no more anarchists. Everything will be reduced to law and order and law and order will under the new regime se­cure justice to every creature, oblit­erating the differences of wealth and power as they now exist.

THE NEW JERUSALEM

In the symbolism of Scripture a city represents a government; as for instance, symbolic Babylon is designated “that great city [govern­ment] which ruleth over the kings of the earth.” The New Jerusalem, as a symbol, repre­sents the new spiritual government of the Mil­lennial Age. It is not earth-born, it is not reared by men, but, as here pictured, it de­scends from God out of heaven—it is spiritual in every sense of the word—of God and not of men. It is for this kingdom, this government, that our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy king­dom come—thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” The declaration that the city is adorned as a bride for her husband implies its grandeur and beauty and perfection, as a bride’s adornment on such an occasion is particular and elab­orates to the last degree. But additionally, to this it reminds us that in the government of the future, the judges of the world are the Saints, selected through faithfulness in trial and tribulation, and that these are frequently called the Bride, the Lamb’s wife and joint-heir in the Kingdom. The Revelator elsewhere strikingly brings this thought to our at­tention: the angel calls to him, “Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. 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, having the glory of God.” (Verses 9-11) We are not to think of this holy city as being composed of literal stones, coming down through the air; we are to remember, on the con­trary, that the Saints of this present time are “living stones,” as Apostle Peter explains. (1 Pet. 2:4-7) This glorious city will not be visible to the natural eye. Neither Christ nor the Saints in glory can be seen of men; only those “changed” from human to spiritual nature see these matters in the full; but the whole world will be quickly made aware of the fact that a new govern­ment has been instituted.

A government of righteousness, and with all power, and that thereafter whosoever doeth right­eous­ness shall be blessed, and whosoever doeth evil shall be punished.

THE GLORIFIED TEMPLE

The third verse of our lesson associates this city with the other figure of a symbolic Temple, which the Lord is now preparing, of which the Saints will constitute the “living stones” and “pillars.” For it is declared that the tabernacle (dwelling) of God shall be with men in this city (government or kingdom). God will dwell in this glorious city or government. It will be his Temple, and the world of man­kind will approach God in it to receive the Divine bles­sings, as Israel approached the typical Tabernacle and the Temple in their typical religious services. Thus God, represented in his Church (the Christ, Head and Body) will dwell with men (the world of mankind during the Mil­lennial Age) and they shall be his people. All mankind will be treated from the standpoint of reconciliation, the propitiation price for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2) having been paid at Calvary, and the due time having then come for the manifes­tation of Divine favor. All peoples shall be treated as the Lord’s people; none of them shall be treated as aliens, stran­gers, foreigners from God and his promises and his blessings.

While the Millennial Kingdom will be the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, it will also be the Kingdom of God, because God’s dear Son and his joint-heir, the Church, will be in absolute accord with the Father. All that shall be done under their control, fully and completely represents the Divine will re­specting men. Nevertheless, it will be a separate Kingdom from that of the remainder of the universe, as the Apostle Paul indicates. (l Cor. 15:24, 25, 28) “He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet... And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subject to him that did put all things under him. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,”—at the close of the Millennial Reign.

Since God is the Author of all the blessings of redemption and restitution, and since every good and every perfect gift cometh down from our Father in heaven, it is with appropriateness that the record declares that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”—from the eyes of mankind. Though it will be Christ and the Church who will be doing it, never­theless, the heavenly Father will be recognized as the first cause, the fountain of every blessing. The wiping away of tears implies a gradual work, such as we see will be the process of that glorious time. Man will not be exempt from every weakness and trial and difficulty at the beginning, but if he will conform to the laws of the Kingdom, all cause for distress will gradually pass away, as restitution blessings will lift him out of death into perfect life. “They that hear [obey] that prophet [teacher, the Christ, Head and Body] shall live; but it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hear that prophet [not render hearty obedience to his require­ments] will be cut off from amongst the people [in the Second Death]” (Acts 3:23)

Other Scriptures show us that the work of the Kingdom will begin with those who remain over at the time of its establishment. These, under condemnation of death, will at once be blessed with the knowledge and opportunities provided through the ransom. If they accept these they will immediately be released from condemnation. They may at once go on and upward on the way of holiness to­ward perfec­tion. Subsequently those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” shall come forth to more or less of shame and lasting con­tempt, as they begin to realize their mental and physical decrepitude, the results of their depra­vity. However, these also, under the blessings of the Kingdom, may make progress up to perfec­tion, losing their sin-blights, and simultaneously losing the “shame and con­tempt,” whose last­ing will be only so long as their cause continues. Thus these may progress in the way of right­eousness, so that only those who sin willfully shall die, and then each for his own sins, not the father for the son’s sins, or the son for the father’s. (Jer. 31:20, 30; Dan. 12:2)

The whole work of the Millennial Age is summed up in few words, and we are brought to its culmination in the dec­laration, “There shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” What a glorious sun­burst of bless­ing is in these words! What a grand fulfill­ment will be there of the Apostle’s declaration respecting “times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began!”

This declaration, however, applies to the very end of the Millennial Age, and not in full to any previous time in that Age, for other ac­counts show us unmistakably that there will be imper­‑

fec­tions and chastisements and stripes throughout the Age, while mankind is being lifted up; or as our Lord expressed it, the raising up of mankind throughout the Millennial Age, step by step, will be a “resurrection by judgment,” chastisements, disciplines (John 5:28,29). And even at the close of that Age we are shown, in another pen-picture of that time, that there will be a severe trial and testing to demonstrate to what extent the enforced obedience of that Age shall have rightly affected the hearts of those who experience its bless­ings, so that their love will be for right­eousness, and that they will hate iniquity. (Rev. 20:7,8)

All who in that final test shall manifest that his heart contains anything aside from full loyalty to the Lord and the principles of righteousness will have his part in the Second Death.

“BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW”

The fifth verse of our lesson comprehen­sively grasps the entire Millennial Age; our Lord Jesus, then in the throne of earth’s dominion, declaring, “Behold, I make all things new.” This expression does not relate merely to rocks and trees, etc., but to the great work which our Lord undertook; viz., the regeneration of humanity. So many of Adam’s race as would, under favorable conditions of knowledge, experience and assis­tance, develop characters in full accord with the Divine will.

The end of the Millennial Age will see the work com­pleted. All the wicked destroyed, all who will not hear the voice of that prophet, teacher, governor, cut off from amongst the people in the Second Death. All the willing and obe­dient made new, brought to the complete perfec­tion contem­plated in the original Divine Plan.

John was to write this matter, because the testimony is true, is faithful, as is the One who has promised. This positive affirmation of faith­fulness and truthfulness implies what we see to be the case. Present conditions seem so con­trary to all this grand restitution outcome that it cannot he fully believed and trusted by any except those who have. To all others these things will appear untrue, and God will appear unfaithful, and the matters which we are here dis­cussing will seem “idle tales,” as fables and golden fancies: but to us who believe these promises are precious, and he from whom we receive them is precious, cor­respond­ingly as we know him and trust him. (l Pet. 2:7)

The One enthroned (The Christ) declares at the conclusion of the Millennial Age, “It is done;” my great contract is ac­complished; “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the A and the Z], the beginning and the end.” It was the Father’s good pleasure that the blessed One, the Only Begotten of the Father, should accomplish the entire pro­gram of redemption and restitution; and that incidentally, by his obedience in the things which he suffered that he should prove himself worthy to be forever the associate and representative of the Father, through whom and by whom all things should con­tinue, as he was the one through whom all things were made that were made. It is this One who, during the Millennial Age, will extend to all the willing and obedient the water of life, everlasting life—the privilege of perpetual existence. But they must thirst for it, must desire it; and this desire must be manifest in obedience to the terms, the laws, upon which it will be supplied freely. Our Lord declared to Mar­tha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and anyone  believing him, trusting him, though he were dead, yet should he live, attain to perfect life, escap­ing from death conditions, until at the close of the Millennium he shall have life in the full, unre­stricted sense. He who thus liveth (attains to life) and still believeth, trusteth in the Life-giver, and is obe­dient to his directions, shall never die.

Our Lord adds, “He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be to him a God, and he shall be to me a son.” Those addressed are not the Bride Class, selected dur­ing the Gospel Age, but the sheep classes of Matt. 25, such of mankind as during the Millennial Age become the Lord’s sheep and obey his voice. To these at the end of the Millen­nial Age, in harmony with the Father's plan, he says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” They are not invited to inherit the Kingdom prepared for those in joint-heirs with the Lord, the heavenly Kingdom. But they shall inherit the earth, the purchased possession—they shall come back into all the good estate of father Adam, which he lost for himself and his children through disobe­dience, but which Jesus re­deemed with his own precious blood, and will restore at the close of the Millennium to all the children of Adam who shall have accepted his gracious favors and been re­gen­­erated by him, and thus become his sons, and he their God—their “Father.”  (Isa. 9:6)

THE HEAVENLY CITY RESPLENDENT

Here our lesson turns to a consideration of the City, the glorified Church, the Kingdom Class, who, during the Millen­nial Age, will be “kings and priests unto God, and reign upon the earth,” “a thousand years.” (Rev. 5:10; 20:4) This City, Class, the glorified Church, it is declared will have no need of the sun or the moon. Nothing in this statement in­dicates that the world will not have and need both sunlight and moonlight during the Millennial Age, and subsequently, “as long as the sun and moon endure.” (Psa. 72:5) And while it will be true that the Church, as spirit beings, will not have need of literal sunlight and literal moonlight, nev­ertheless, this is not the thought. The sun and the moon here are symbolical, as in Chapter 12:l; the sun signifies the light of this Gospel Age; the moon signifies the typically re­flected light of the Gospel in the law and the prophets of the previous dispensation. The glori­fied Church will have no need of the light which in the present time she so much enjoys through the Word and Spirit, the law and the pro­phets. She will have, instead of these, a much more excellent glory to which the Apostle refers when he says, “Now [with all the light, privileges and oppor­tunities which we enjoy, both as respects the representations of God through the law and the prophets, and through the instruc­tions and leadings of the Spirit in the present] we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now  we know in part; then we shall know even as we are known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

The Church, the Temple of God, will be so filled with all the fullness of God when made like unto the glorious Lord, nothing could add to their blessing of knowledge and Divine favor; will be so filled with the glory of God that from her, as from the Sun of Righteousness shall proceed the light of the glory of God, which shall heal and bless the world during the Millennial Age. This is the Sun of Righteousness to which our Lord referred in Matt 13:43, “then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”—our Lord Jesus, the Head of the Church, of course being included. The same Sun of Right­eousness is mentioned by the Prophet, saying, “The Sun of Righteous­ness shall arise with healing in his beams.” (Mal. 4:2) Nev­ertheless, while so filled with the Lord’s glory we are not to lose sight of the fact which the Apostle impresses upon us saying that Christ is the Head of the Church, even as the Father is the Head of Christ Jesus. Hence the Lord Al­mighty and the Lamb will always be an inner Temple in this great Temple, which God has provided for the world’s bless­ing during resti­tution times (Verse 22).

When this Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth, its bless­ings of healing, refreshment and life, mental, moral and phys­ical, upon the world of mankind, the nations shall walk in the light of it. (The words “of them that are saved” are not in old MSS. Indeed, it is because they are not saved that they need this special light during the Mil­len­nial Age, in order to their enlightenment, their salva­tion, their restitu­tion.) “And the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it.” (The words, “and honor” are not found in old MSS.) The expressions “nations” and “kings” are not to be under­stood as signifying that the world of mankind during the Mil­lennial Age will be divided into nationalities and kingdoms as at present: the word “nations” here signifies peo­ples, and is intended to show that all peoples, and not merely the peo­ple of Israel, will be thus favored under God’s Kingdom. The word “kings” represents those princes or chief ones of the earth who, during the Millennial Age, will be the chief rep­resentatives of the heavenly, spiritual, invisi­ble Kingdom of Christ. These princes, as we have already seen, will be Abra­ham, Isaac, Jacob and all the faithful prophets of the previous dis­pensation, who, loving God before the call to the Kingdom and to the Bride Class, cannot be of it, but because of their faithfulness will be the princes whom the Lord will establish in all the earth—first making them perfect indi­viduals, and qualifying them for their office, as a reward for their faith­fulness to God in the dark times in which they lived—their manifestation of love for righteousness and trust in the Om­nipotent One.

The bringing into the City, the Kingdom, signifies their acknowledgement of the heavenly Kingdom, their rendering of tribute of praise, thanks, worship and obe­dience to it as God’s agency. And this rendering of glory to the King­dom will continue throughout the entire Mi­llen­­nial Age, as the princes throughout the earth will make known to the people that not in their own names or authority do they rule and execute judgment and establish righteousness, but in the name and as the ministers and representatives of the glorified Christ. The result will be that all the people will ascribe honor and praise and majesty and glory to the Lord’s Anointed, through whom their redemp­tion and resti­tution was and is being accomp­lished; and this is indicated in Verse 26.

What a warning against the slightest sym­pathy with anything un­clean, untrue, or in any­­wise con­trary to the Divine standard of holiness! If we appreciate the glorious things of the Di­vine provision for the Church and for the world, these prom­ises and offers will have their influence upon us, and under their influence we are expected to keep our garments unspotted from the world; to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; to hate every contamination of the flesh upon our robe of righteousness; and to seek immediately in prayer for the removal of any spot or wrinkle or any such thing from our wedding garment, that thus we may abide in the Lord’s love, and in the due time be “meet for the inheritance of the saints  in light.”

(Reprints 2832-2834 – June 15, 1901)

god’s children

The human race is God’s children by crea­tion, the work of his hands. His plan with reference to them is clearly revealed in HIS word. Paul says that the first man (who at his beginning was a sample of what the race will be when perfect) was of the earth, earthy; and his posterity, with the exception of the Gospel Church, will in the resurrection still be earthy, human, adapted to the earth (1 Cor. 15:38,44). 

David declares that man was made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory, honor, dominion, etc. (Psa. 8:4-8). And Peter, our Lord and all the prophets since the world began, declare that the human race is to be restored to that glorious perfection, and is again to have do­minion over earth, as, Adam, had before he diso­beyed God (Acts 3:19-21).

It is this portion that God has elected to give to the human race. And what a glorious portion! Close your eyes for a moment to the suffering scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin, and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin mars the harmony and peace of a perfect society; not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word; love, welling up from every heart, meets a kindred res­­ponse in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. There sickness shall be no more; not an ache nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay—not even the fear of such things.

Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect hu­man­ity will be still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance. Such will earth’s society be; and weeping be­reaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they realize the resurrection work complete (Rev 21:4).

And this is the change in human society only. We call to mind also that the earth, which was “made to be inhabited” by such a race of beings, is to be a fit and pleasing abode for them, as represented in the Edenic paradise in which the representative man was at first placed. Paradise shall be restored. The earth shall no more bring forth thorns and briers, and require the sweat of man’s face to yield his bread, but “the earth shall [easily and naturally] yield her increase.” “The desert shall blossom as the rose”; the lower animal creation will be perfect, willing and obedient ser­vants; nature with all its pleasing variety will call to man from every direction to seek and know the glory and power and love of God; and mind and heart will rejoice in him. The restless desire for something new, that now pre­vails, is not a natural but an abnormal condition, due to our imperfection, and to our present unsat­isfactory surroundings. It is not God-like to crave restlessly something new. Most things are old to God; and he rejoices most in those things which are old and perfect.

So will it be with man when restored to the image of God. The perfect man will not know or appreciate fully and hence will not prefer the glory of spiritual being, because of a different nature. Just as fishes and birds each, for the same reason prefer and enjoy their own nature and element most. Man will be so absorbed and enraptured with the glory that surrounds him on the human plane that he will have no aspiration to, nor preference for, another nature or other condi­tions than those possessed. A glance at the present experience of the Church will illustrate this. “How hardly,” with what difficulty, shall those who are rich in this world’s goods enter into the kingdom of God. The few good things pos­sessed, even under the present reign of evil and death, so captivate the human nature that we need special help from God to keep our eye and purpose fixed on the spiritual promises.

That the Christian Church, the body of Christ, is an exception to God’s general plan for mankind is evident from the statement that its selection was determined in the Divine plan before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4, 5).

His Son, to be partakers of the Divine nature and to be fellow-heirs with Christ Jesus of the Mil­lennial King­dom for the establishment of univer­sal right­eousness and peace (Rom. 8:28-31).

 Taken from Studies in the Scriptures, Series One, “The Divine Plan of the Ages” first para­graph Page 191 through the first paragraph of Page 193.