Perhaps I should use a New Testament reference first, especially for those who seem to have discarded the Old Testament, saying that it is not for the church. Granted, we are not like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were looking for a country to inhabit, namely the land of Canaan, now called Palestine, but it is also true that these Old Testament characters were looking for more than an earthly country or city. Hebrews 11:8-10 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed: and he went out, not knowing wither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.” Then Hebrews 11:13-16 says of these patriarchs, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had an opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.”
Casual readers, as well as those who are trying to establish a personal doctrine, usually miss some pertinent points in Scripture. One of such points is that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses or an innumerable company of other Old Testament people, were not satisfied with an earthly existence in a land that had problems and enemies. Thus, Scripture teaches that they were looking for a heavenly city, aa Hebrews 11:10 says, “For he (Abraham) looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and Maker is God.” So, Abraham was looking for the same thing that believers today are looking for, a city with eternal foundations, namely the New Jerusalem. Yes, I am aware that the heavenly city will come down to the new earth, as Revelation 21:1-4 says: “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 past away.”
Can all of my readers believe me and understand that I visited a funeral home recently to be with the family of a loved one who had died? Then it is “given”, as the geometry book would say, that we are not now in the new heaven and new earth. It is something less than scholarly for anyone to suppose that we are! Have you had any pain recently? I have, because a dog bit me on the hand! Have you been to the ocean recently? Is the sea still present with us? Then the new heavens and new earth, which will have no more sea, have not come into reality for us yet. I wish people would stop kidding themselves about the condition of the present earth and face reality that it is not all ideal! Oh, I love the earth, but I do not love strife between people, sickness, death, separation and a thousand other things that will not be in the new heavens and new earth! In Revelation, John saw the new heavens and new earth, but it was a vision of yet future things, for we are still under old heavens and on an old earth!
By J. Briggs King, Rainsville, AL (678) 451-0921