The New Heaven and the New Earth

Revelation 21:1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there.

For a thousand years following the Battle of Armageddon, the human race will have worked together to create an idyllic homo sapiens society based on Torah, peace, and dignity. The homo diablos manufactured mRNA replacement species will be no more. Genetic humans will have been unfettered by considerations of death, ignorance, disease, poverty, race, ethnicity, economic status, religious affiliation, gender inequality, or any of the other divides that separated them in the past. At their hands, under the direction of HaMelekh ben David, the world will have become a true utopia, a haven beyond anything known before once Death and Sheol are thrown into the Lake of Fire, as we will discuss soon at 20:14.

But then, as discussed before:

Revelation 20:8 [Lucifer] will come out [of his imprisonment] to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the War; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Greed, jealousy, and hatred will again rear its ugly head. Everything the Children of the Eternal have created over the thousand years will be destroyed!

Or so it will seem for those still devoid of emunah (faith in HaShem).

HaShem is gracious and merciful, and the human test was not for nothing! Our collective victories and failings have demonstrated that we do better when we live in harmony with the Great Unifier and His Guidelines for human beings to thrive as a species. HaShem alone is our strength and our safety.

Jeremiah 14:8 O the Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble, why should You be as a stranger in the land, and as a traveler turning in to lodge?

Psalm 59:9 O my Strength, let me look to You, for God is my strong tower.

Psalm 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my tower; I shall not be moved.

Embracing HaShem as our strong tower, our rock (Genesis 28:22), our ONLY Savior, human beings can reach incredible potential creativity beyond anything we currently conceive (Psalm 82)! Throughout human history, we have constantly proven that without HaShem at the center, we eventually fail. And thus will Lucifer's challenge fail:

Romans 11:32 For God has disqualified everyone due to unbelief so He might show mercy to all.
11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

The Eternal does not need humanity. Our need for God will now have been conclusively demonstrated. This collective realization will be the pivotal point of human history and our future.

With the "court case" or "rebellion" now resolved, HaShem will perform an amazing feat of mercy and undeserved kindness for His creation. Since the beginning of the age, the Shevirat haKeilim (i.e., the shattering of the vessels) has left the earth fractured. Genesis 36:31 is a significant Torah keystone on this concept if you are interested.

God chose Israel to practice Tikkun Olam, which is to say, to help restore harmony to the earth (Genesis 12:3), but Israel failed. Our failing of this high calling (Exodus 19:6) is one of the causes of anti-Semitism, as the Powers of Darkness struggle against Earth's redemption throughout our history. And yet HaShem assures us:

Ezekiel 34:16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Throughout human history tzadikim (i.e., the righteous among us) have been seeking to bless the earth (Genesis 12:3), to gather together that which was broken and to hinder the negative influences seeking to separate us from our birthrights as the children of the Eternal (II Thessalonians 2:6, Psalm 82). But now, in the End of Days, everything is shattering. HaShem will provide the Redemption and restore our brokenness from this desecrated, shattered condition! Why? As Yochanan's rabbi put it:

Matthew 24:22: "Unless those days are cut short, no life will survive, but for the sake of the elect [i.e., the Jews], those days will be cut short."
That the Elect are the Jews is abundantly certain: Genesis 12, 15, Deuteronomy 7:6-8, Numbers 23:19, Ezekiel 36:22-24, 32, Malachi 3:6 etc.

Now the Eternal will activate the Ten Points of Light to re-create the world afresh according to His original design. The New Heaven and New Earth - the original heavens and the Earth as intended initially will be restored! As it was in the beginning, so will it be in the end and throughout all eternity. Understanding these things in greater depth will require one to delve into topics not addressed directly in this study. However, what I present in this study is sufficient for those wishing to go deeper and KNOW God.

Numbers 14:21 But as truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of Adonai.

Another way of putting this: 'I tell you this on my life!' NOW, this will happen. HaShem created humans to dwell on a paradise Earth (not in the celestial realms), and those who find favor in the eyes of the Eternal will do just that in the World to Come (the Olam Haba). Yochanan describes the beginning of the Olam Haba, where God's Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Of this time, his Jewish godbrother Paul tells us:

I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of anyone, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

We continue now with Yochanan's presentation of the Revelation:

Revelation 21:2 And I, Yochanan, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband.
21:3 And I heard a great voice out of the heavens saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with humanity, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

Scripture is crystal clear that no one has ever seen God nor will anyone ever see the Holy One, Blessed be He (Exodus 33:20, John 1:18, I John 4:12). As our elders teach us, God has no body nor form. Those who enter the Olam Haba will live in a situation similar to Adam in Gan Eden. They will freely commune with the Eternal and live in His transcendent omnipresence. In this way, they will see the Holy ONE.

The sages differ on how the Third Temple will be built. Some Jewish sages expect, as Yochanan does here, that the Temple will descend from the heavens from where it currently dwells, as the Merkaba atop the Dome covers the earth (Ezekiel 1). Others, including me, believe humans will build the structure and that Mashiach ben David will call down the Merkaba, and that will encapsulate the human-built perfecting it. I discuss this difference of interpretation here: LearnEmunah.com/mashiach/manorgod.html. Yochanan's statement here fits within this Rabbinic disagreement.

21:4 And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying out, nor will there be any more pain; for the first things passed away.

During the Thousand Year Theocratic Kingdom, those who, by their free will, embrace yetzer hatov (i.e., the positive inclination) will not see death. Those who survive the Seven-Year Tribulation, those who take part in the First Resurrection, those who return afterward, and all those who will have been born after Armageddon will be free to choose their allegiance, having experienced their options. Free will is our birthright from HaShem. We can, and indeed, in the end, must decide for ourselves.

Bob Dylan: You're Gonna Serve Somebody!

Once Mashiach ben David is ruling and the earth has been renewed, there will be peace and justice for a thousand years as the Olam Haba is established. Exactly how this will be, what will become of those who choose the path of rebellion then, or even if that will be a possibility, are matters of conjecture. What we know is that never again will rebellion contaminate the earth. The planetary Gan Eden will become our shared reality precisely as the Creator intended since the beginning (Isaiah 55:11).

Revelation 21:5 And the One sitting on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He told me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
21:6 And He said to me, It is finished. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To those who thirst, I will freely give the water of the fountain of Life.
21:7 Those who overcome will inherit all things, and I will be their God, and they will be My Child.

Note carefully who the Speaker is! It is the One Who is seated on the Throne. HaShem Himself is speaking. The six thousand years of human experimentation was His idea! Now, that experiment has been completed, and the results are abundantly clear. Left to our own devices, human greed and misplaced power always rule the day and lead to death and destruction. God has rightly rightly judged humanity, and the vast majority of humans will choose to bend their knees and respond Amen!"

Those who overcome the processes of history, who stand against the Beast, Nimrod, and that Woman Jezebel, Semiraimis, these people will all become tzadikim, righteous sons and daughters of the Eternal! Virtuous people have always existed in every generation, but righteousness will now prevail across the earth and the heavenly realms. Among the historic tzadikim are people like Avraham, Yitzchak, Ya'akov, Moshe, the Nevi'im, Rabbis like Hillel, Gamli'el, the Ba'al Shem Tov, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and many others. The Way sect would include Yeshua and his talmidim, including Yochanan. All those who persevere will be counted among the tzadikim! Of such righteous people, we read:

Hebrews 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he [i.e., Yeshua] is not ashamed to call them brethren

Note that the Jewish Way sect considered Yeshua their brother and fellow servant, not their father or god. "Yeshua is not ashamed to call them brothers." Originally, humanity was answerable only to HaShem directly, with no mediators. As we drifted farther away from Him, the Blessed One gave us the Judges as recorded in the Tanach. But the people cried out for a king. They wanted to assimilate and live like the other nations, so HaShem anointed Saul, David, Solomon, and others to rule over them as kings. As the people moved progressively away from God, the old adage proved true: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Under the kings' reigns, Israel began to fall apart. Shlomo ruled over the impressive United Kingdom, but after him, the Kingdom split due to human greed and factionalism. The Northern kingdom (known as Israel) was "lost" or "divorced," and the Southern Kingdom (known as Yehuda or Judah) fell before the Babylonians. The people became subject to the nations and all but forgot HaShem.

The clock is being rewound in the End of Days! Yehuda has again become a nation among the Gentiles (1948/1967) known as Israel. In the future, God will establish a thousand-year theocratic kingdom under HaMashiach as HaMelekh (the king), but at the end of the thousand years, it too will fall due to human nature. Human Kingship, even under a righteous king like ben David is not ideal as God warned the people when they chose Shaul. The perfect form of government requires an informed citizenry under God's direction, a pure theocracy of enlightened free citizens. THIS will be our shared reality once we are ready to receive it. HaShem is patiently leading us to become redeemed humanity. This goal will be achieved by the end of our sixth thousandth year of existence, according to biblical reckoning. Those who are wise are already preparing for this most glorious Shabbat, the seventh thousandth year. Those who are unwise will continue to rebel like spoiled children, as HaShem patiently allows, but now, the will of the rest of humanity will be honored, and ALL things will be made new.

Numbers 14:21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

21:8 But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Total annihilation is difficult to concieve. when we take these verses literally it certainly appears that these souls will not resurrect again: They will not take part in further gilgul neshamot; their courses will be at an end, as we saw with the False Prophet and Rex Mundi. By their own informed choice, they will be destroyed. It is nonetheless held by some that rather than anihilation, they may be sent to other universes to repeat their lessons. Other concieve of these beings as cast off into the endless Void described in Genesis chapter one. Their fate is uncertain but our choice is not. Seeing all the evidence for ourselves we will choose HaShem.

21:9 And one of the seven angels with the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came to me and said, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.
21:10 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,
21:11 having the glory of God. And its light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
21:12 And it had a great and high wall, with twelve gates. And on the gates were twelve angels, and having names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel:
21:13 From the east three gates, from the north three gates, from the south three gates, and the west three gates.
21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Throughout the thousand Year Reign of Mashiach HaMelekh, the earth's inhabitants will have created the most glorious society in human history. Still, it will all be destroyed because of human greed and arrogance. Now, the Eternal will make all things new! Having achieved our best, we will now see God's greater potential for us! We will realize that our very best is comparable to filthy rags compared to God's Plan for us.

The Beit HaMikdash ("House of the Holy One") at Jerusalem was excellent! But the new Beit HaMikdash of the Olam Haba will far exceed it in every way! Our magnificent cities and other accomplishes will be nothing compared to what GOD has prepared for us!

These descriptions are profound symbolically. To adequately disclose their meanings, we would have to delve into levels of Jewish mysticism and oral Tradition that far exceed the cursory nature of our present study. For this reason, I won't go into these things here. Each point, however, has significant correlations with the Sacred Sanctuary and Beit HaMikdash and the Sacred Traditions of our people. Everything included here is both harmonious and instructive for Torah study. Every point brought up by Yochanan in these descriptions is worthy of a book of intense research, and I encourage you to go deeper into the things of HaShem. If there is interest, I may return to this topic in the future.

Who is Lamb's Bride? The Lamb in this context is Israel who has suffered like no one else. The other nations will now be wedded to Israel for eternity. For now, we continue with Yochanan's narration.

21:15 And he who talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
21:16 The city lies four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand stadia. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

There is some scholarly debate about these figures. Yochanan's measurements show that the city of New Jerusalem will extend to 1,400 miles in all four directions. Such a city would roughly cover the space between Los Angeles, California, and Austin, Texas, in all four directions! Many commentators expect this to be the case, and it may be. However, the numbers can also be understood as square miles, making the city less than 35 miles across, which seems more realistic, but we can't say for sure. We also have this from Navi Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 48:15 The city will be in the center of it
16 and will measure 4,500 cubits along each side - north, south, east, and west.

4500 Cubits is 1.27841 US miles. The Sacred City of God will be unique in any event! We know that in the Olam Haba, God will do amazing things, and there are no limitations for Him. We must wait to see this grand city to unlock this mystery!

21:17 And he measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits [216 feet thick], according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
21:18 And the foundation of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
21:19 The foundations of the city's wall had been adorned with every precious stone. The first foundation, jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
21:20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, hyacinth; the twelfth, ameyourst.
21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Respectively, each one of the gates was one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as transparent glass.
21:22 And I saw no temple in it, for the valor of the Lord God Almighty is its sanctuary.

Nicene Christian translators often present this verse as "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it," implying that God and the Lamb, by whom they mean they mean Jesus, are the same Being. Since this interpretation contradicts clear biblical teaching, including the Shema, we know it is incorrect. Further, since Yochanan calls "God" theos, it makes no sense that he would use an analogy here instead of saying "God and Jesus." No, the reference here seems clear. Through the 12 houses of Israel, especially Yehuda, HaShem will have redeemed all humankind unto Himself. Hence Genesis 12:3 says that all who bless Israel will be blessed and that through Israel ALL the earth will be blessed. Now this promise will be fulfilled.

The word translated as lamb here is arnion, which means not a lamb (as in a "sacrificial lamb," but as "manliness" or "valor," from its root meaning arete: a trait implied by a lambkin (an aren). Strong's G703, 704, and 721 support what I have explained here. The above translation (i.e., for the valor of the Lord God Almighty) is supported by some more literal translations, including the Aramaic Bible in Plain English (© 2010) where we find this:

And I saw no Temple in it, for THE LORD Y-Y God Almighty, He is its Temple.

In context, Yochanan bestows all glory unconditionally to "the Lord, God Almighty," and none other. Adding another would only detract from his intended praise of HaShem and His valor. And how did HaShem accomplish this? Through Israel, the nation of priests. By this point, HaShem has been utterly vindicated, and as verse three tells us, HaShem's Shekinah or Presence will dwell in the New City even as It formerly dwelt in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary. Now, however, everyone will be able to approach the Eternal, and there will be no Holy of Holy to keep humanity apart from our creator:

21:23 And the city did not need the sun, nor the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it by His valor.

We read of the Light that will illuminate the City above:

Revelation 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

This is the Stone upon which Ya'akov's Ladder rested upon which Avraham offered Yitzchak (Isaac) in Sacrifice, and upon which the Sacred Beit HaMikdash (House of the Holy) both stood and will again arise. After thousands of years, the intention of the Eternal promised to the patriarchs will be realized. Of this, we read:

From the Gutnick Chumash of Parshas Vayeitzei: Genesis 28:10 Ya'akov left Be'er Seva, and went (towards) Charan
28:11 "He came across the place (i.e. Mount Moriah) and spent the night there because the sun had set (suddenly). He took some of the stones of the place and placed (them) around his head (for protection from wild animals), and he lay down (to sleep) in that place.
28:12 He dreamt, and - look! - a ladder was wedged in the ground, and its top reached into the heavens, and - look! - angels of God were going up and down on it.
28:13 Suddenly, God stood over him and said, "I am God, the God of Avraham, your father, and the God of Yitzchak. I will give you and your descendants the land you are lying on.

Rashi: God folded the entire Land of Israel under him, hinting that his children would easily conquer the Land.

28:14 Your descendants will be as (widespread as) the dust of the earth, and you will be strong to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants."
28:15"Look, I am with you...
28:16 Ya'akov woke up from his sleep and said, "God is truly in this place, and I didn't realize it (otherwise, I wouldn't have slept here)!
28:17 He felt frightened. He said, "How awesome this place is! It is none other than the House of God [or Beit El]: The gate of heaven (through which prayer all prayers ascend)."
28:22 This stone, which I have placed as a monument, will (eventually be built into) a house of God..."

This is important because the Olam Haba fulfills this promise! Comprehending the enormity of what is implied here requires a lot of study! However, on the spot where Ya'akov laid his head and beheld the ladder, New Jerusalem will now arise by the Will of the Eternal, a City not built with hands (II Corinthians 5:1, Hebrews 9:11, etc.).

21:24 And the nations of those who are saved will walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

As the prophet foretold:

Isaiah 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted upon My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.

21:25 And its gates may not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there.
21:26 And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
21:27 And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles, or any making an abomination or a lie; but only those who are written in the Arnion's Book of Life.

The Arnion's Book of Life signifies, as discussed several times, the Book of Martyrs, of those courageous men and women who refuse to bend their knees to the Globalist New World Agenda and its coming dictator, the Rex Mundi.

REJECT THE MARK OF THE BEAST NO MATTER WHAT!

Here ends Chapter 21.

Continue with Chapter Twenty Two

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