The Apostle Paul stood totally amazed. A cry of admiration and jubilation slipped from his heart:
Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
In His wisdom and knowledge our God knows about all incidents that will take place in the process of bringing the ages of sinful man to their end. There will be a judgment of the nations. In my Bible that judgment is introduced by the words: ‘The sheep and the goats’. Personally I would have preferred the words: ‘Jesus on His glory-throne’.
Matthew 25:31-33 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.”
First the Son of Man came, a humble baby born of a humble mother, in a humble stable. Israel rejected Him and He began to build His Church. One day this Church will be complete and at home with the Lord.
Let us keep it well in mind, ‘all the nations will be gathered before Him’ after His Church has been taken from this earth.
The day is still coming when ‘the Son of Man comes in His glory. And all the angels with Him’.
The Word of God is so very accurate! It does not say that nations will be separated. People out of those nations will be separated. Some of those people will not be guilty and others very, very guilty. Guilty of one particular sin. How was their treatment of God’s chosen nation?
Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for me.’ “
‘These brothers of Mine’ can not have been any other but members of the Jewish race. Like Jesus, descendants of Abraham.
It will not be a judgment like that at ‘The Great White Throne’ (Revelation 20:11-15). But of people of those nations who are found guilty of the ill treatment of Israel. They have never repented before the God of Israel. But He does not forget and those who were harassed, persecuted and killed, will sit on their thrones to judge their one-time tormentors.
Throughout the human ages there have been many nations, where people persecuted and banned the Jews. This writer, however, is thinking in particular about Jews who, during the Great Tribulation, will be faithful in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and will do that at the cost of their lives. Once that Kingdom was very close, because the King walked amongst His people, here on earth. But His people did not want Him and crucified Him. Then the King of Israel turned away to become the Head of His body, His Church.
Faithfully they will endure to the end, proclaiming Jesus, the King of the Jews and His coming Kingdom. The evil trinity will be furiously trying to destroy that testimony. In the end, the culprits of those nations will stand before the glory-throne of Jesus, the King of Israel with His angels, and from His lips they will hear the judgment as determined by their former victims. As sure as those angels will find His elect, so sure they will also find all the criminals who killed the elect. Eternal punishment will be their end (Matthew 25:46).
In the wisdom and knowledge of our God He will also arrange a new Heaven and a new earth.
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
In an earlier verse and in connection with the flood in Noah’s days, Peter already used the word ‘destroyed’. The flood that destroyed all that grieved the heart of the Lord and filled Him with pain (Genesis 6:6). “I will wipe it from the face of the earth” were the words of the Lord God. But after the flood the old earth remained. Cleansed but not annihilated. So it will be in the Day of the Lord. Perfectly purified by fire, not a single smear of sin will be left. It will still be the earth but now like it was the day it was created.
May I just once more bring to our recollection what the eternal God covenanted with Abraham?
Genesis 17:7,8 “I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give it as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.”
Imagine, our Lord God about to annihilate this earth. Very soon a venerable, aged saint would appear, lift his hands, and cry out: ‘No Lord, No! You promised it to me and my people.’ Dear old Abraham would stand there and lay his claim to what was promised him. An everlasting possession, guaranteed by an everlasting covenant.
Heaven and earth will be free from all contamination caused by sin. Peter wrote:
2 Peter 3:13 “But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new Heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
A new heaven and a new earth, one home of righteousness, perfectly suitable for the God of Heaven to walk with His people on earth, just as it happened with Adam and Eve, before they were disobedient to God and obeyed Satan.
Finally some of John’s further writing on Patmos:
“Revelation 19:6-8 “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah’! For our Lord Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory ! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints).
Never ever, not in all eternity to come, no, never ever will there be smear or smut on that ‘fine linen’. She always was the bride, but a soiled bride. We have seen it from the Word of God. From day one onward Israel has been rebellious. The prophet Hosea paints Israel as a prostitute. But now she will be dressed in ‘fine linen, bright and clean’, ‘the righteous acts of the saints’. Which saints? The saints amongst a sordid Israel! Many amongst them have been righteous, to begin with their forefather Abraham. From them came ‘the righteous acts of the saints’. Now the Bride will be ready, in a new dress, ‘Fine linen, bright and clean’. Ready to share the throne with her Bridegroom. A throne that will reign over one realm of righteousness, a new heaven and a new earth.
From the day of Pentecost onward the Church of the Lord Jesus has always been ‘holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation’ (Colossians 1:22). Always has been, always will be His body, a body of which He is the Head. Never ever will the Head be separated from the Body, or the body from the Head. Together with Him, and in Him, His Church is the Bridegroom, loving Israel, the Bride.
The Church has always had ‘her life hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3). Has always been His body of which He is the Head (Colossians 1:18).
The Church of the Lord Jesus NEVER will need a new dress. She always has been and always will be holy, without blame or accusation, because the Church IS IN CHRIST!!
This writer has never been able to accept the misconception presenting the Church of the Lord Jesus as His bride. John wrote:
Revelation 21:1,2 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed way and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
Vs. 9-12 “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel.”
‘The bride, the wife of the Lamb – twelve names of the tribes of Israel.’
John saw a new Jerusalem, coming down from Heaven. It came down to where? Down to a new earth, to be the King of Israel’s royal city.
We all know that salvation for the world has issued through ‘the gates of Israel’.
v.13 “There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west”
Revelation 21:14 “The wall of the city had twelve foundations, on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
Please, remember,
Ephesians 1:4 “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.”
‘Before the creation of the world’ God saw sinful human souls in Christ, in Him to be holy and blameless in His sight. Sinful human souls, all purchased by the precious Blood of Christ, were God-ordained to be ‘the twelve apostles of the Lamb’. They had walked and talked with Him before they saw Him dying on the Cross and before they placed His dead body in a grave. And they walked and talked with Him after He arose from the dead and the grave. They were Christ-believing JEWS, who were chosen to be the foundation stones for His Church and to have their names written on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem.
Before the creation of this world, before Satan could ruin that, the eternal God had His plan for a new Heaven and a new earth, a home for righteousness.
The eternal God had his plan for the Church of the Lord Jesus and her justification in Him. He had His plan for Israel and her disobedient rebellion. Nevertheless, to finally see her as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband, in fine linen, bright and clean. The eternal God will have completed His plan for the ages and nations of man.
My heart sings with the heart of Paul:
Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths, beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory FOREVER AND EVER!
Amen.
Henk C.Kalkman
Notes:
Since I began writing these articles, now about two and a half years ago, dramatic news has come to my attention.
Global food-shortages.
Global nuclear threats.
Global climate warming.
Global economic melt down.
Global unemployment crisis.
Global power of Muslim religion.
Global need of control over nations and finances.
.
In short, a global need of a world-leader.
One that will need to rule ruthlessly.
UNTIL HE COMES,
THE PRINCE OF PEACE AND LORD OF LORDS.
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