The dawning of a new age
The feast of Tabernacles speaks of the dawning of a new age.
. . . and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. (Exodus 34:22) 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. (Revelation 21:1)
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. . . . (Revelation 21:5) The feast of Tabernacles (ingathering) came in the fall after the half-year summer drought. It was a season of the greatest rejoicing, not only because of the abundance of the past year but also because of the hope and promise ushered in by the new agricultural year now at hand.
The past was over and done. The seed (former) rains soon would be falling, moistening the sun-baked clods so the soil could be prepared for the sowing of the new crops.
The difficulties and pains of the previous year were finished. The new year was certain to bring a greater harvest, to solve many of the old problems.
Hope encourages human beings to attempt to better their circumstances, although sometimes the new year or the new situation brings an increase in their sorrow.
The celebration of the feast of Tabernacles signalled the end of the old and the beginning of the new—whether for better or for worse the Israelite could not know during the festival.
Hope keeps the saint marching forward. He is saved by hope. He is looking for the city that has foundations. He knows that whatever temporary suffering there may be, his resurrection will be glorious.
We Christians know from the Scriptures that all that happens to us will work together for our good as long as we are walking with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The history of mankind has been a labour of body, agony of soul, imprisonment of spirit. Attempts to improve the condition of people by education and reform have resulted in increasingly terrible wars. We are locked into anguish and tragedy because of the invisible spiritual warfare that affects us directly.
The history of God’s elect has been that of rejection, torture, and murder. The world has persecuted the saints and the ecclesiastical organizations have cast out and slain the Lord’s prophets.
The history that began in the paradise in Eden will come to its conclusion as men scream for death and cannot die. The earth is becoming an arena in which one horrid, nightmarish episode follows another. People have been hoping for improvement for thousands of years, but the current century has witnessed two terrible world wars, lesser wars, civil wars, as well as a record-breaking martyrdom and imprisonment of Christian people. In addition there has been the Holocaust, the slaughter of the Jews in Europe.
Jesus is coming soon to put an end to the experimental social programs and governments of the Antichrist spirit. After Armageddon, Christ and His saints will take over the ruler ship of the nations of the earth. Because of the sinful and rebellious nature of people, God’s King and His princes will rule with a rod of iron. The nations will obey or be punished severely, shattered to fragments according to the Scriptures.
After one thousand years of righteous rule, the Church having been perfected and the nations having been taught righteousness, Satan will be released for one brief final season. Mankind will be tested for the last time, and the end of the heaven and the earth that we have known will be here.
The new creation will be so incredibly better than anything we ever have imagined that comparison is not possible. Not only will sin and the rebellion be confined to the Lake of Fire and the painful, disgusting effects of sin be banished from the earth, but the full grandeur and wonder of God will surround and fill every creature, circumstance, event, and thing.
We can gain a small idea of the sublime glory by the fact that God’s servants "will see his face" (Revelation 22:4). We cannot comprehend such a state of transcendent spiritual life, such an unheard of privilege.
To see the face of the Father! In what condition will we be abiding that we can behold God Almighty?
The purpose of the thousand-year Kingdom Age of the Kingdom Age is that we may be so changed from what we are now that our personality will not perish as we are brought near to God. We will be much more loving, selfless, and pure. It is certain that we could not at the present time be carried up to see the Face of God. We cannot gaze on the Purity, Fire, and Love who has brought all creatures and things into existence.
A thousand years of closeness to the Lord Jesus will so transfigure every atom of our personality that it will be possible for us in the coming ages to dwell in the Presence of the Fire of Israel. "Behold, I make all things new."
God did not say, I make all new things, all different things.
There is a distinction between making all things new and making all new things.
In the beginning, God created the substantial, material world that we know. God gave the world substance, form, and purpose. Its purpose is to be the home of mankind.
Our material world originated in the spirit realm. It also is true that our world has a reality of its own—an eternal reality. If that were not true there would be no resurrection from the dead.
Christ is termed "the light of the world," not the light of Heaven. Only Christ can reveal to us God’s truth in the material world. Through the Lord Jesus Christ we are beginning to understand that the physical realm is intended to become the incarnation of God through Christ. This is the reason for the world of molecules. The Kingdom of God is the establishing of God as All in all in the material realm.
The substance, form, and purpose of things as we know them are eternal, except that flesh and blood life will be replaced by spiritual life—a tremendous improvement. God, who possesses foreknowledge, created all things the way He wants them.
How can we say that the physical realm is an abiding reality, when the Scriptures state that the earth and the heaven will flee from the Face of God and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth?
The universe of stars and planets, and the earth as well, will disappear with an inconceivable, tremendous noise. In the Day of God’s judgment only spiritual realities will be in evidence, all material forms having vanished. After that, Christ will speak back into existence a new heaven and a new earth.
The point is, however, that the new heaven and the new earth will not be different from that to which we have become accustomed.
So far as we know, the sky will extend as an arch over the earth as is true today. The earth will be an earth. People will be people. Trees will be trees. Mountains will be mountains.
People will not be triangular having three arms coming out of their head or out of where their head used to be.
The substance, form, and purpose of things as they are, are eternal.
"A spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see me have."
Why didn’t the resurrected Lord Jesus appear as a large ball having a thousand eyes and a thousand ears or no eyes or ears or hands? Why did Christ return as a flesh and bone man? Why did Christ eat the honeycomb?
It is because God is making all things new, not all new things.
God will bring forth a new heaven, a new earth, and a new world composed of people who have been made new through the Lord Jesus Christ. The new creation still will be a heaven, an earth, and a world made up of people.
The material realm was meant to be filled with spiritual life, the Life that is in Christ. This Life is the true light, the only light that gives meaning to the material realm.
The flesh profits nothing. A world of people not filled with the Life of Christ is nothing more than a cage full of intelligent animals. There is little value in it. Eventually the animals will destroy one another.
In the beginning the material realm was alive spiritually. We can see this from the fact that there was light during the first three days of the creation before there was a sun or moon or stars. Also, the trees of Eden were of spiritual quality. To eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to have one’s moral eyes opened. The serpent spoke without occasioning surprise that an animal should speak.
As soon as the first rebellion took place, the spiritual dimension of the world was withdrawn by the Lord God leaving only the material substance. This is death. The body without the spirit is dead.
In Christ the new creation is brought forth. The new creation is the imbuing of what we are with the Life of God. In Christ there is a new creation. But Paul is still Paul, isn’t he? Peter is still Peter. Christ is still Christ. You are still you.
How can this be true if there is a new creation.
Because it is not a different creation!
God takes the form of what is, the substance of what is, and He places His Divine Life in what already is. The placing of God’s Life in us is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in earth as it is in Heaven.
The principle of redemption is not that God is destroying the creation, it is that God is removing the wicked spirits who are destroying the creation. God is making the creation—all things—new by filling it with Christ and giving it usefulness and significance through Christ.
The person, thing, relationship, or situation that is not made alive through Christ is corrupt and dead. The person, thing, relationship, or situation that is renewed in Christ is eternal.
How about yourself? Are you becoming a new creation in Christ? Are old things passing away in your life? Are all things becoming new and of God? Yet, you are still you!
The feast of Tabernacles signals the end of the old agricultural year and the beginning of the new. The new heaven and earth reign of the Lord Jesus Christ marks the end of the old creation and the beginning of the new. The new has been resurrected from the old. Every element of the new is a part of the resurrection of Christ, reveals Christ, and Christ is central in it (Ephesians 1:10).