Paul Enns
Author and minister.
It is only as we fixate our eyes—our thoughts—on our future hope in heaven that we will be strengthened and enable to live wisely in this life.
Christ will both judge and cleanse the entire earth at His return. He will not rule in a blemished, sin-stained earth. He will rule in righteousness on a renovated earth.
The new earth will complete God’s program. It will be what God intended for Adam and Eve in Eden.
The church is the bride of Christ. The kingdom will be the eternal celebration of the wedding of Christ and the church. We will enjoy rapturous celebration as the bride of Christ in the eternal kingdom.
During Christ’s millennial reign nothing contrary to righteousness will exist. You will find no liquor shops, night clubs, gambling casinos …ad infinitum on the streets of the kingdom. Logic, and more importantly, Scripture indicates that all immorality will be removed at the inauguration of Christ’s earthly kingdom.
In heaven we will enjoy a continuity of love in a profound way.
There is a day coming when all of the suffering, all of the maladies of this life are destroyed, when we, in our glorified bodies, will live in heaven, on the new earth, eternally fulfilling God’s ordained purpose for us.
God created man for fellowship… The fall of man ruined that and Paradise—that is, the garden of Eden—was lost, but on the new earth paradise will be regained and God will again fellowship with mankind in a unique sense.
As we grow in our understanding of knowledge of Him in heaven, our worship will surely increase in magnitude.
Heaven… is the eternal kingdom Christ will inaugurate at His second coming.
As a believer is changed, receiving a glorified body, so similarly, the earth is changed into a new earth, unstained by sin.
Existence continues at death for the believer in a fuller, more fulfilling way. Death should hold no fear for the believer.
Many of the passages that describe the millennial kingdom also, in continuity, describe the new heaven and the new earth—the eternal state.
The gap that separated the holy and righteous God from sincful humanity has been bridged through…Jesus Christ. Hence, in eternity God will dwell intimately with redeemed mankind. **p. 25
As believers we have no need to fear death. Christ himself assures us of a safe arrival home in heaven!
Before the resurrection, we will have an intermediate body. Our final body will be like Christ’s.
On this new earth, cleansed and renovated—this eternal new earth—we will fulfill our eternal purpose for God. It is heaven on earth—always better.
Yes, we will know one another! Yes we will have a glorious reunion! The Scriptures are not unclear on this vital issue.
The admission to heaven is faith in Jesus Christ. He is the only way. There is no other philosophy, no religion, no other way.
Every believer departing this old earth …immediately transitions into heaven and is welcomed home by Jesus himself.