Jesus came in the flesh and overcame death when He resurrected from the dead (Heb 2:14–18). Christ has given hope and promised to prepare a place for the faithful to come with Him (John 14:2–3). God promised that the faithful will have “an entrance into the eternal kingdom” (2 Pet 1:11). Paul described this hope as God’s “heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim 4:18). The kingdom that is the church will continue into eternal life.
Resurrection on the Last Day
God promised to resurrect the faithful to glorified bodies like Christ (Phil 3:20–21). The faithful will resurrect as Christ rose from the dead (Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 6:14; 2 Cor 4:14). Jesus resurrected as flesh and bones, yet He also was glorified having put on immortality (Luke 24:39; 1 Cor 15:20–22, 53). The redeemed bodies of the faithful will resurrect to immortality, glory, power, and spiritual life (1 Cor 15:42–44). For the coming redemption of the body, Paul revealed that God will set the creation free from the bondage of decay (Rom 8:19–23). The new creation will be compatible to the glorified bodies of those resurrected to life.
The New Heavens and New Earth
The apostle Peter declared, “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13). How can any Christian like Peter declare this without a real hope? Peter spoke of the real events of the Creation, the Flood, and the coming destruction of the earth by fire (2 Pet 3:4–13). Peter attested that the creation of the new heavens and new earth is a real event and not a symbolic figure of speech.
The Epistle to the Hebrews attests to the prophetic prediction that the world will perish and yet change (Heb 1:10–12). The writer of Hebrews referred to this as “the world to come” where Christ has power over that new world (Heb 2:5–9). Furthermore, Abraham looked forward to receiving this heavenly country where God has designed and built the city, “the new Jerusalem,” for the redeemed (Heb 11:10, 13–16; 12:22–29; Rev 21:2).
The Scriptures describe the reality of the new heavens and new earth. In Revelation, John reported, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:1–2). By Isaiah the prophet, God promised, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isa 65:17). God revealed that the man who died at a hundred will be a young man in this place, but the sinners who died at one hundred will be accursed (Isa 65:20). God described how the saved will build houses and plant vineyards in this eternal paradise (Isa 65:21–22). Sorrow will cease and death will be no more in the world to come (Isa 65:19, 23; Rev 21:4).
The One Hope
The resurrection of the body and freedom of creation to glory is the Christian hope (Rom 8:18–25). Paul revealed, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:24–25).
Seeing God's Breath 
Scott, I haven’t seen much action on this page, but I do have a comment on your reply, 2 June 2019 at 8:19 AM.
I agree with 2Peter 1:11, I believe that is what John 5:24 tells us, we are in His kingdom while upon this earth and will pass on into the heavenly realm at our physical death. This message is repeated using various phrases in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians concerning: we have been redeemed and are a part of the saved now, and later.
So, if the New Heavens and Earth is the realm of the saints, “where righteousness dwells”, (2Peter 3:13), then why are those that are “sinners who died at one hundred will be accursed (Isa 65:20)
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I’ve been a little busy so that I haven’t been posting much.
Christ said that the kingdom was in their midst to those to whom He spoke (Luke 17:21). How? By the presence of Christ the King. The church is the kingdom of the King’s people (Col 1:13; Rev 1:5-6). However, the eternal kingdom is the eternal abode of God’s people with their King (2 Tim 4:18; 2 Pet 1:11).
In the resurrection, the wicked who live to a hundred are cursed but the young man who dies will be young even at a hundred. God will resurrect the dead (cf. Isa 26:19).
I think the most essential doctrine that gives clarity is the gospel of Jesus’s resurrection. The power of Christ’s resurrection is the final resurrection to eternal life that occurs when Christ returns. The faithful will resurrect as Christ rose from the dead (1 Cor 6:14; 15:20-22; 2 Cor 4:14; 5:8). Jesus rose flesh and bone not as a spirit (Luke 24:39). Christ will call forth the dead from the tombs and resurrect the faithful on the last day (John 5:28-29; 6:40, 54). Resurrection is physical meaning bodily, but it is more by the putting on the immortal and an imperishable nature upon the body (1 Cor 15:51-57). This is the victory of the resurrection — the redemption of the body (Rom 8:23; cf. Rom 6:5; 8:11). Therefore, we will resurrect like Christ to a compatible homeland, a heavenly country, and a city built by God (Heb 11:10, 16).
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1 Corinthians 13 and New Heavens and Earth
Been a Christian for over 50 years, this is only the second time (and in the past month) that I have heard a Preacher/Teacher of the Church of Christ so blatantly misuse scripture. I am sorry that the “church” is following after the way of the futurists of millennialist and dispensationalist teaching. I grew up in an era when this doctrine was refuted by the church. I remember the time, as an elder, my dad gave the evening lesson on the “Most Misunderstood Page in the Bible”. It falls between Malachi and Matthew in most Bibles, it says “The New Testament”.
Jesus lived under the law, the apostles lived under the law, the early Christians lived under the law. Acts 15 gives us some very valuable information as to the setting in or around AD 50 when Paul and Barnabas visited Jerusalem. Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved!” Now these were Jewish converts to Christ who believed Jesus was the Messiah but still held the Law of Moses as being necessary for salvation.
So Paul and Barnabas and some others of the church to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem concerning this controversy. But some of the believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses!” After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by giving the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us.
So both groups had the Holy Spirit and were being directed by the Holy Spirit, those that were Gentiles and those leaders of the church in Jerusalem that still faithfully kept the Law. Jesus had told them that they were still under law on more than one occasion such as when He said “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter† or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Through the resolution agreed upon, we do not see the Jewish Christians renounced following the law for themselves, just the Gentiles who were not under the law would not have to “come under the law”. Later we see Paul keeping the law when he goes to Jerusalem and the Temple (around AD60).
I honestly thought that is where you were going with your lesson on 1 Corinthians 13: Love NEVER ENDS. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see only a reflection† as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love — but the greatest of these is love.
The church used to teach that the 1st century church was in it’s infancy, reasoning like a child, but when Christ came to finish the OT Covenant of judgment upon the “the unfaithful” wife He would put her away and she would be “stoned to death” as promised as recorded in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-32. when God gave the law to Moses.
This was the promise of Jesus the Christ to the apostles as recorded in Matthew 23-24, Mark 13, and Luke 19-21 (three witnesses). This is also the subject in most of His Parables and if fact in Matthew 13 He uses the term “consummation” of the age that was soon going to come upon them.
I’m sorry, all of your lessons become meaningless when you deny the very words spoken by Christ to profess a made up doctrine about the New Heavens and the New Earth as anything different from the “great mountain” in the time of the 4th beast that was going to come upon the kingdoms of this earth, Revelation 11:15 The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever!
I pray that you will open your eyes, your ears and your mind to the truths of these verses. God Bless you and your family with insight and understanding.
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Hi Randall,
I’m an amillennialist and believe that the church is the kingdom on earth now (Col 1:13). However, the Scriptures reveal a continuation of the eternal kingdom and entrance into that kingdom (2 Pet 1:11). The Bible also presents the new heavens and new earth as the future dwelling of the faithful who have resurrected like Christ.
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