We Christians have a common way of thinking and speaking about where we hope to live forever after this life: We want to “go to heaven.” We use the word “heaven” because that is where God’s throne is now. Saying we want to go to heaven when we die is accurate, if it refers to our temporary location after we die. But according to Revelation 21-22, God’s throne won’t be located in heaven forever. Neither, therefore, will the members of the new humanity in Christ. Here’s why:
The “heaven” where God now dwells is actually the highest of several “heavens”–environments created by God for spirits he created who are called angels. “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven…And I know that this man was caught up to Paradise.” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14) It is called “the highest heaven” because that is where God now has his throne–where his full presence is encountered. As the Creator of angels, humans and their environments, wherever God chooses to have his throne and to dwell is “the highest” place because he is the highest ranking being. He alone is uncreated and eternal. All other persons–angels and humans–were created by him. Thus, as the Creator of everything he is the King of all worlds and of all persons populating those worlds. As King, he decides where his throne will be located. Before God created humans and our universe (Genesis 1-2), his throne was located in the highest heaven previously created for angels. It is still there now, but according to the Bible, it won’t always be there.
When God created human beings and their environment (earth and its surrounding universe), he created humans “a little lower than the angels.” (Psalm 8:5) God’s throne remained in the highest heaven created for angels. “This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” (Isaiah 66:1a). But the location of God’s throne will change in the future: Revelation 22: 3 states that after the final judgment of all human beings (Revelation 20:11-15), God will establish “a new heavens and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1, Isaiah 65:17) and will relocate his throne from “heaven” to the New Jerusalem, capital city of the new earth. (See Jeremiah 3:17 for an Old Testament prophecy of this.) In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John was shown God’s throne in the future New Jerusalem “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him.” (Revelation 22:1-3) This means that he future new earth will be the highest ranking location, replacing heaven, in all universes created by God, because the new earth will be God’s new home!
As I wrote elsewhere on this blog (in Your Greatest Promotion” in The New Humanity section), because God the Son became permanently merged with humanity through his incarnation on this earth, and then ascended back to the throne of God as both God and man, Christ’s followers (the new humanity in Christ) are now ranked higher than the angels because they are under the headship of Jesus, who is ranked higher than the angels because he is God the Son through whom all things in heaven and on earth were created (John 1:3, Colossians 1:15-17)! In our life after death, the New Testament people of God will live forever wherever God the Son, Jesus Christ lives due to being the new humanity under his headship—as he prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24) This means that our final destination won’t be the current highest heaven, where God’s throne is now with the good angels. We will be there with Jesus temporarily, as spirits without bodies. But when Jesus comes again triumphantly to earth and reigns here for a thousand years, we will be resurrected in new bodies and will reign on this earth with him (Revelation 19:11-20:6, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Being back on this earth will itself only be temporary, also, until the final judgment of all human beings (Revelation 20:11-15) Then God will establish a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1, Isaiah 65:17). His throne will move to the New Jerusalem, making the new earth the highest ranking place in all God’s created worlds for people and angels–above even the highest heaven occupied by angels. That’s because wherever God’s throne is, that is the highest place in all the universes he created! Anybody want to “go to the top!”? This new earth will in the end be the top, where the triune God and the new humanity in Christ will call their home forever!
The members of the new humanity in Christ, who populate the new earth, will enjoy many fabulous blessings from our promotion, with the new earth, to living in the highest ranking place in all God’s created worlds–the new, permanent location of his throne. Consider these four blessings:
1. We will be much closer to God’s full presence than we are now on this earth: “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation 21:22) “…His servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. (Revelation 22:3-4)
2. Because we are so much closer to God’s full presence on this new earth, when we visit the new capital city (The New Jerusalem) his glory will be the light of the city: “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp…On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.” (Revelation 21:22-25) “They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. (Revelation 22: 5a)
3. We will not have the destructive presence of evil and sin that our current earth has had since Adam sinned in Genesis 3: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) “The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.” (Isaiah 65:19) “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.“ (2 Peter 3:13) The new earth will have animals, as our current earth does, but the “survival of the fittest” dynamic will be gone because evil is gone, and all animals, like all members of the humanity in Christ, will get along harmoniously: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:25)
I believe this promised absence of evil and corruption is what the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 8:19-23 when he writes that our current creation longs for release from its bondage to decay: “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that he creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” Implication: When God establishes the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17, Revelation 21:1), the entire second creation (Genesis 1-2) will be promoted above the environments (the heavens) created by God for angels, joining the highest form of life in this second creation–humans who, because they are in Christ through faith in him, will be promoted above the angels into the level of fellowship of the Trinity. This will not merely restore this creation to the purity it had before Adam sinned and introduced corruption to all of this creation, just as those who are in Christ will not merely be restored to the sinless purity Adam and Eve had before they sinned: All of this creation, including humans who are in Christ, will be promoted above the angels and their heavenly environments, to the place of highest rank in all God’s universes–where God’s throne and full presence is located–the New Jerusalem on the new earth!
4. Because of being “in Christ” who is the head of the new humanity that populates the new earth, we will reign on this new earth with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit forever: “And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5b) “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
I don’t know about you, but I eagerly long for my future locations (2 temporary, 1 forever) after this life. When I die, I look forward to: 1. First “going to heaven” as a spirit and being with Jesus there until 2. he returns to this earth and I reign here with him here in my resurrected body for a thousand years! 3. I also eagerly look forward to my final, forever location on the new earth! Are you as excited as I am about “going to the new earth” forever someday?
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more (Isaiah 65:17-19) “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13) “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17:13)