Soon the glad Sun of Promise given
Rises to shine a thousand years!”
Revelation 21—The Descending Kingdom
21:1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.—“It may be that this, rather than ‘the Millennium,’ is the name which we ought to give to the Golden Age, of purity and bliss which next awaits the world. The words seem to include a transformation and glorification of our material globe.”—Weym.
“Paradise, the Garden of God, applicable as a name to Eden, where our first parents resided, is Scripturally applied to the new earth when Restitution blessings shall, during the Millennium, have brought it to perfection. This Paradise of the future is referred to by the Apostles as ‘the third heaven,’ and as ‘a new heavens and a new earth.’ (2 Corinthians 12:2; 2 Peter 3:13.) They are not referring to new planets, nor to heavens ranged one above another, as many have supposed, but to the third of three great periods of time, beginning with man's creation and extending into the illimitable future. The first of these periods, termed the first heavens and earth—the old order of things—passed away with the Deluge of Noah's day. The second period, ‘the heavens and the earth which are now,’ the present order of things, are reserved of God to pass away with a great symbolic fire of trouble—revolution, etc.—which will utterly destroy the present spiritual powers and the present social arrangements. (2 Peter 3:6, 7; Galatians 1:4; Zephaniah 3:8, 9.) The third great period is to be a ‘world without end,’ under Divine administration. This will be the third heavens and the third earth, or the new heavens and the new earth, which will differ from the present condition of things in that they will be righteous! whereas the present arrangement is imperfect, unrighteous. The ‘new heavens’ will consist of the new spiritual ruling powers of the future—Christ the Head, and the Church His Body.”—Z. '16-392.
For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.—“The Scriptures show us that in this general rupture the nominal church (including all denominations) will be gradually drawn more and more to the side of the governments and the wealthy, will lose much of its influence over the people, and will finally fall with the governments. Thus the heavens [ecclesiastical rule] being on fire, will [pg 316] pass away with a great hissing.” (A. 333.) Two of the causes that operate to “burn” the present “earth” are declared to be hunger, and the misrule of beastly governments. (Deut. 32:24) In the end all will be glad to see the unclean heavens pass away (Job 15:15) rent in twain (Isa. 64:1) and the new heavens planted (Isa. 51:16) which will be heard in their lightest petition to the God of all grace (Hos. 2:21). “Drop down, ye Heavens from above.”—Isa. 45:8.
And there was no more sea.—“Under the control of the new Heaven—spiritual powers—the reconstructed social order will be so satisfactory, so complete, so thorough, that there will be no more dissatisfied masses. Everything will be reduced to law and order, obliterating the differences of wealth and power as they now exist.”—Z. '16-392.
21:2. And I, [John] saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem.—“The New Jerusalem is not ‘that great city [government] which ruleth over the kings of the earth’ (Revelation 17:18) but is the new Spiritual Government of the Millennial Age. It is not reared by men; but, descends from God out of Heaven. It is for this Kingdom, this Government, that our Lord taught His disciples to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in Heaven.’ ”—Z. '16-392; Isa. 52:1; Matt. 5:35; Heb. 11:10, 16; 13:14; Rev. 3:12; 21:10; 11:2; 22:19.