Jehovah promised through Isaiah, near the close of his great book, the following: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isa 65:17 KJV). The Lord then had Isaiah to repeat this prophecy: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain” (Isa 66:22 KJV). The same terminology also appears twice in the New Testament (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

Isaiah’s prophecy is declaring that the coming of the Messiah would introduce a new spiritual and moral order or arrangement. Paul speaks of this new order: “that in the dispensation (arrangement) of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth– in Him” (Eph 1:10 NKJ). Isaiah’s new heavens and new earth are the new arrangement to which Paul refers, and before which all old dispensations must pass away. The entire system of Judaism, » Continue reading “What is the New Heavens and New Earth?”

There is a commonly held belief in the religious world that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth to set up or establish His kingdom, but because He was rejected by the Jews, He postponed His kingdom and set up the church instead. Those who hold to this view believe that Jesus will set up His kingdom on earth when He returns the second time.

This concept relegates the church to the role of a stop-gap arrangement, a kind of after-thought conceived by Christ to provide something to fill the gap between His return to the Father and His return to the earth. It is also believed that the prophets said nothing about the church since they saw only the first coming of the Christ and His yet to come, earthly kingdom. » Continue reading “Was The Church Predicted By The Prophets?”