Q: Will we go to heaven and come back to rule and reign on earth for 1000 years and then the new heaven comes down. At what time do we go into the New Heaven? (Rev 21) Is this a Mystery?
A: Yes you are right, the moment we die we all go to heaven where God's throne is and Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Apostle Paul beautifully spoke about this when he said in Php 1:20-23, "20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." and also in 2 Cor 5:8, "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." These preceding Scriptures concretely proves that once we die the next moment we will be with the Lord in heaven. Mount Zion, City of the living God, city of God, the City, the Holy City, New Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem are all one and the same, this beautiful City is God's headquaters, control room and His place of residence from which He rules sovereignly over the entire universe (Heb 12:22; 11:10; Rev 3:12; 21:2).
Nearly two thousand years ago Jesus promised the believers that the Sheol will be emptied and the believer's home will be the Father's house [i.e. Highest Heaven where God resides] where there are mansions and palaces already, but for all the other believer's who are going to come Jesus promised to make room for them to stay and join all the existing ones (John 14:2-4; Eph 4:8-10).
As the bodies of the believers will be a supernatural glorious body which supercedes the time and space limitations of the natural body which we have now, all of us who will be taken up in the soon coming Rapture along with the Tribulation saints who will be resurrected with their glorious body at the Second Coming of our Lord to the earth will be staying in the heavenly Jersalem and will be ruling the earth along with Jesus Christ for a thousand years (Rev 19:7-8, 11, 14; 20:4-6). Take heart saints, indeed we will surely come back to rule and reign in this same planet earth for a thousand years.
John the revelator saw the new heaven and new earth which had no sea according to the original purpose of God already set up in position to inhabit only after all the White Throne Judgment had taken place in Rev 20:11-15. The confirmation also comes from Apostle Peter who said in 2 Peter 3:10-13, "10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.[i.e. laid bare] 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." In the preceding verse we see that the day of the Lord will come as thief in which the rapture of the Church will first take place (1 Thess 4:14-18; 5:1-6). When Apostle Peter continues to say "in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.[i.e. laid bare]" (V 10), he is talking about the whole timeline of the day of the Lord in which at the end of it after the White Throne Judgment, the destruction of the old heaven and earth will take place. In this verse of 2 Peter 3:10, Peter the Apostle indicates the starting time and ending time of the day of the Lord because he condsidered it will pass so fast like as a day of 24 hours as he already said in previous verses in 2 Peter 3:8-10 that he fastforwaded 1000 years in a single verse.
Then he promises that we the believers look forward to a eternal home of the new heaven and earth where God the righteousness will dwell, because the New Jerusalem will be lowered and placed in the middle of the new earth (2 Peter 3:13; Jer 23:6; Rev 21:1-4). The believers who had their home in New Jerusalem for the millenium rule of the old earth, will come down out of heaven from God along with the New Jerusalem city itself to inherit the new earth and inhabit it for eternity ahead (Rev 21:2). From this time, the believers residence will be the new earth and not the new heaven because we will all including the Millenium Saints will have no more just a spiritual body but a real physical glorious body just like Jesus had after His resurrection (Luke 24:39-43; 1 John 3:2). The Phrase "a bride adorned for her husband" is used in Rev 21:2 to describe the precious inhabitants of the New Jerusalem city along with the city itself which will get consumated with glory only when it is placed on the new earth which was the original intention of God at the beginning of time. Happily everafter, God and man will live together for eternity in a Holy Marriage of intimacy in the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:3-4). This is not a mystery because it is revealed in the word of God already clearly. Praise the Lord!
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