Since the perfected Church, the new Jerusalem, is not seen at the beginning of the thousand-year period but is revealed at the end of the thousand-year period, it may be true that the spiritual Jerusalem will be perfected during the thousand-year period known as the Millennium.

At the end of the thousand-year period (Millennium; Kingdom Age) the eternal purposes of God concerning the Church, the nations of the saved, and the wicked (who will be cast into that worst of all prisons, the Lake of Fire) will have been fulfilled. Then the present physical earth and heaven will "pass away." Peter states that "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (II Peter 3:12).

How God will preserve the bodies of people during this time we do not know.

Now there will come into being a new heaven and a new earth; not just a new heaven, but a new heaven and a new earth.

God is not making all new things, He is making all things new. The program is one of restoration, of the redemption of that which God created in the beginning.

The new earth will be filled with Heaven, with God's glory. The nations of the saved will be living on it.

Down from the new heaven, from the newly created firmament, will descend the glorified Church that has been "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." This marks the full and eternal restoration of God's Presence to the earth. God once again can walk in the garden in the cool of the day, but this time in His elect as well as with them.

The end result of redemption, therefore, is not to "go" anywhere. It is to receive into ourselves the Life of Heaven. If we make a profession of faith in Christ, and then wait to die and go to Heaven, we will have missed the mark. If we do not address ourselves with all our heart to serving the Lord Jesus Christ we will be laying up for ourselves punishment and terror (or worse), and not a crown of glory, when the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven.

The wise give themselves every day of their discipleship to the development of the Kingdom of God within themselves, to receiving the Life of Heaven, Christ, into themselves. They keep Jesus' Word; they do what He says. They serve the Lord in all good works as the Holy Spirit gives them the wisdom and power to do so. When the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven with His holy angels, they will shine as the stars of the firmament.

The Scriptures do not emphasize our going to Heaven but rather the coming of the Kingdom of God into the earth. God's intention is to restore, through the Lord Jesus Christ, all that was lost to mankind by Adam's disobedience; and then to add immeasurably more of His Presence and glory.

The Hebrew Prophets never at any time spoke of the righteous going to Heaven, but on many occasions they portrayed the restoring of God's glory to the earth. It is the Prophets who make us wise unto salvation.

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ. (II Timothy 3:15)

To be continued.