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Sunday 5 February 2012

Our Eternal Home.

Not long after I became a Christian in 1973, I found my Dad's Bible, a KJV given to him by a Jehovah's Witness back in the 1950s, when I was still a small boy. Up to then I had an interest in General Science subjects, including physics, chemistry and biology. Within the third category was the teaching of the Theory of Evolution, with which as a young teenager, I became fascinated with the Dinosaurs, as I try to imagine a near paradise world of herbivores such as Brontosaurus, Triceratops Iguanodon and others, when suddenly their paradise was shattered by the approach of the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus Rex, the king of all Dinosaurs, sending all the herbivores running for their lives, with the possible exception of Triceratops, with its three huge horns protruding from a shield for a forehead, squared up to the carnivore and pierced its underside. A victory for the herbivore.


This kind of primeval imagination was still with me as one evening in 1973, alone in the house, during a thunderstorm, I was curious on the Bible's version on how it all began. I turned to Genesis chapter one, and I was emotionally moved to read about the six-day creation, the narrative of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden of chapter two, with my tension mounting up as I began to read chapter three.

"No, Adam, don't eat of that tree!" I thought, tensely as if I was watching a movie. Then it happened. First Eve took a bite out of (I assumed) the apple, then Adam himself took a bite as she held it up to him.

"Oh no!" I thought. So that's the origin of sin. Soon after, when God must have killed an animal to provide the couple with clothing made from its skin, they were expelled from the Garden.

There and then, my assumption that we are products of millions of years of an organic process was shattered. Why? Because when I read those chapters, I believed, and more so, I found myself praying. When I began to share my new beliefs, several unbelievers asked me who was Cain's wife. A question at the time I could not answer, which verified their beliefs that the Bible was a book of fairy tales, while their belief in organic evolution was based on facts. But I never ceased believing. Instead, I began to buy books written on this subject, and to reconcile the existence of Dinosaurs with Biblical Creation, and finished up with the idea that early man and Dinosaurs must have co-existed within the same time frame, and both were wiped out during the Noachian Deluge. This idea is regarded as absolutely ridiculous by evolutionists such as Richard Dawkins, but I find nothing amiss with this theory.

You can read more on this, including Cain's wife and the density of the primeval population in one of my earlier blogs:
Adam and Eve Historical? You Must Be Joking!!! Published August 14th, 2011, together with the blog which follows it.

Not much later, I was reading the book of Revelation, and chapters 21 and 22 absolutely stunned me! These chapters describe a city, New Jerusalem, coming out of heaven to settle upon a newly created Earth. The sheer beauty of the city and the pure holiness of it as given in its description, made me feel so unworthy. I was struggling with the idea of entering this city as one of its citizens. Why was this?

Because back then I had a poor idea of the meaning of God's grace. In the English language, we have the acronym that "grace" stands for Gift Received At Christ's Expense. In other words, the righteousness of Christ was imputed the moment I first believed. Absolutely true, my own righteousness could not get me into this beautiful city, for all my deeds were as filthy rags. But the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who lived a life perfectly without sin and his undeserved death on the cross, followed by his resurrection three days later, meant that, as a believer, God sees my life as Christ lived it. That is grace.

But it took me many years after conversion to fully realise it. Mainly due to one of my seniors looking for every shortcomings as a boy, alongside the Roman Catholic teaching that one mortal sin committed meant Hell for all eternity.

But the truth of grace still stands as fact, and it always will.

Reading the Bible, I was able to see that there always have been a steady pattern, each taking a similar but slightly different form. Starting with the Garden of Eden, this was an area of perfection and natural beauty, the paradise of God. Together with our first parents, God himself dwelt in the Garden, even walking in the cool of the day. When the couple sinned, they were expelled from the garden and from the Tree of Life which flourished within it. In the outside world, after the Curse was pronounced, (Genesis 3:14-19) they first noticed that various trees no longer yielded edible fruit. Trees such as Oak, Elm, Ash, Birch, Spruce, Cedar, Pine, along with many others were now yielding seed which were unfit for human consumption (See Genesis 1:29-30). Therefore mankind ever since lived by the sweat of his brow as he prepared and ate bread. In turn, he also watched the spectacular contest as the Tyrannosaurus Rex turn on to the Triceratops, and realised the gravity of the sin they had committed in the Garden, and therefore their own struggle for survival. According to the narration, T.Rex was a vegetarian before the Fall of Man, along with all other predators, they were all herbivores before the Curse (Genesis 1:30) as the plants that they were meant to feed on became unfit to eat after the Curse.

Later, God established the Tabernacle among the children of Israel. Represented by the Ark of the Covenant, situated within the Holy of Holies which was a cubic structure, this was to be the dwelling place of God. As with the Garden of Eden, nobody was allowed near it except the High Priest, and only then once a year, to offer the Atonement for the whole nation.

The Jebusite city of Jerusalem was captured by King David and was made the capital of Israel. His son, Solomon built the First Temple. Thus this original principle carried over from Eden, a dwelling place of God within the midst of the habitation of Man. Jerusalem was a good representation of Eden and a shadow of a more glorious Jerusalem which is still to come. But for it to happen, sin must be dealt with permanently, and so God became incarnate as the Man Jesus Christ to forever atone for all our sins, and to have his righteousness imputed on us who believe. As such we are cleansed from our sins and made fit to dwell in his more glorious city, the New Jerusalem, of which the present capital of Israel is a figure.

The New Jerusalem will be huge - about 1,500 miles (2,430 km) each side. The Scripture gives it as 2,430 km long, wide and high, to form a cube. Whether this was what the writer meant it is still, to me at least, unclear. If true, then if the city was placed at the Northeast of the USA, so that the east wall is aligned with New York City, then we would be able to see the upper side of the wall from the UK, three thousand miles away. If the city is a cube, then this is backed by both Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, existing at the time Jesus Christ was on earth. The inner sanctuary, known as the Holy of Holies, was cubic in shape. When the Lord Jesus returns to set up his throne of his father David, his throne will be housed within the cubic sanctuary of the Third Temple of Ezekiel 40, which will overlook the city of Jerusalem, wherein it will be built. Again, this will be a figure of Eden restored.


On the other hand, Scripture describes a very high mountain, on which the city will rest (Revelation 21:10). Could the mountain itself be 1,500 miles high? For it is also written that the wall will be 65 metres high. But this could equally mean 65 metres thick. We can't be sure.

On each side there will be three gates, each made of a pearl, all twelve of them, each also with the name of each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Therefore if the city has twelve gates, that means that people will be free to enter and leave the city, as in the case of Jerusalem today. Revelation 21:24-26 says that the nations shall bring their glory and honour into it, with splendour brought in by the kings of these nations. So there is strong indication that there will be a large population of the saved living outside the city, but will have full access to the city every day, as the gates will never be shut during the day, and there will be no night there.

But who are these people living outside, and who will live within it's walls? The city rests on twelve foundations, each having the name of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The Bible also says that the city comes down from heaven as a bride prepared for her husband. (21:2,9). The New testament teaches that the Church is the Bride of Christ (for example: John 3:29, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 5:23-33). The twelve foundations bear this out, as the twelve apostles were the founders of the churches after the resurrection of Christ. Therefore its the saved from the Resurrection to the Rapture - the Church Age, who will have their homes within the city walls (See John 14:1).

The city will be 2,430 km square. This gives an area of 5,905,900 square kilometres. Of course, it would be utterly impossible to give any accurate numbers for its population, because only God knows exactly how many there will be. But by using some population statistics, we can give some guesses, but please bear in mind that that's what they are - guesses.

According to the 1997 census, the population in the UK was 243 humans per every square km. This was equal to a square 64x64 metres per person, if everyone was equally distributed. That is over half the length of a football pitch for each person. In an area of 5,905,900 square km, this would support a population of 1,434,890,700 people. Then again, if we multiply this by four, leaving each with a square 32x32 metres per person, the population would reach 5,739,562,800. Then again this is just a rough guess. To round up the number to 5,800,000,000 it looks very small compared to the number of people who ever lived throughout the whole of human history. But taking a look at the population of some of the largest nations in the world (1997), we get this:

China...1,210,000,000
India...980,000,000
USA.....268,000,000
UK......58,000,000

China comes very close to the original conservative population number in the New Jerusalem. But again, if the number looks small, this would endorse what Jesus Christ had once said, that the road to destruction is broad, and there are many walking on it. But the road to life is narrow, and very few will be able to find it (Matthew 7:13-14).

But the fact that the city has twelve gates seem to indicate that there will be many more living on the new Earth outside, but will have full access to the city. These may include all the Old Testament saints, among them a number of antediluvian saints. These include Adam, Abel and Enoch. Seth, the son of Adam, born to replace the murdered Abel, had a son, Enos - who was an evangelist. From him men began to call upon the Lord. (Genesis 4:26). There could have been a remnant of several thousand saved souls before the Flood, failure for others to repent eventually dwindled the number down to eight - Noah and his family. Then there might have been a remnant of Shem's descendants saved, then from Israel, a remnant from each generation (See my last blog, I Have Reserved 7,000..." On top of this, after the end of the Church age, 144,000 Jews will convert a multitude, so great that they cannot be numbered (Revelation 7). Added still to this will be those born during the Kingdom reign of Christ in Jerusalem. A significant number of these will be saved. Hence, throughout eternity, nations living outside will bring their glory and splendour into the city.

Finally, let me define this narrow path. It is not whether it's the right church, denomination or the right religion. The gate to the narrow path is Jesus Christ himself. For there is no other name under Heaven in which we can be saved. Only Christ himself and him crucified. There is no other way.

Now is the time to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, after being convicted of your sin and your unworthiness of eternal life, having broken the Law of God. If you repent and believe on the Lord, you will eventually have a home within the New Jerusalem.

7 comments:

  1. As you point out, the biblical record is far more believable than the theory of Evolution. As John 14:6 states, Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me." Great post.

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  2. Excellent post! It takes a misplaced and foolish faith to believe in evolution, for which there is no evidence, despite protests to the contrary. Praise God for His grace not only to create the magnificent universe and each one of us, but to provide the means for salvation and eternal life to anyone who places their faith in the death, burial and resurrection of His Son.
    God bless,
    Laurie

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  3. Our bodies, mind and spirit are too complicated to come from anything except God's creation. We belong to Him. God bless you.

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  4. I really enjoyed this post Frank, and it's certainly food for thought. I am not sure where I stand on how old the earth os or dinosaurs and men living at the same time, but it is definitely a topic worth looking at! Of course, as for creation as a Christian I have no doubts at all in my mind that we are creations of God, specially made to serve Him with a whole heart.

    I've written a (quite long) piece about man's origins on my blog, I hope you don't mind me giving it's web page: http://tchildschristianityblog.blogspot.com/p/mankinds-origins.html If you have the time perhaps you could have a read. Thanks for posting Frank.

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  5. I can't lie, your blog has some elements which I find...interesting, to some degree. I stumbled upon this blog from another blogger who fiercely attacks evolution with evangelical rhetoric. After loosely reading some of your blogs, I found the one titled ‘Our Eternal Home’ to be quite alarming.

    You start off as a presumably unbiased teenager just looking for answers. Apparently you’re already leaning towards science and logic until that fateful day you picked up the bible and asked for more answers. So, you as a teenager, seemingly aware of how evolution works, as a gradual and methodical process spanning millions of years, read through two chapters of the bible and your whole perception of evolution comes shattering down? Like-minded people to you would consider this to be a revelation, an eye-opening moment. However, it truly was an admission of ignorance.

    The theory of evolution is heavily documented everywhere. It is taught as standard coursework throughout the entire world. The theory is backed up with an insurmountable amount of evidence.

    One read through the first few chapters of the bible was enough for you? A book, written thousands of years ago, by an unknown amount of authors, explaining how the earth was made in 6 days by an all-powerful being. The bible is a fairytale. Taking the bible at face value and claiming events in the book are factual is just like admitting that all of the events in the Harry Potter series actually happened.

    Nothing grinds my gears more than people taking the bible as some sort of historical book. There are contradictions EVERYWHERE if you were to consider all of the accounts historical. Once you finally concluded that early man must have lived along-side dinosaurs I knew I needed to take action and respond. You, sir, are the first person that I have come across that has made that statement. I’ve talked about it with other bible thumpers, but none have gone out and made that claim, at least while I was around.

    Do you understand that you are essentially discrediting the work of thousands of scientists, that have been established as fact for hundreds of years? And the worst part, is that your only source of evidence is the bible. You are challenging hundreds of years of work and evidence because of your ignorance.

    It’s completely irresponsible and psychotic to make that claim. Do you have any evidence? Has there ever been a dinosaur bone found anywhere near any hominid bones? Nope. They are separated by eons of rock and dirt.

    How about any evidence for the great flood. Where is the ark? Where did all the water go? Where is some evidence for a giant flood that devastated the entire world? Are there any other written accounts of a giant planetary flood? Nope, the only account lives in the bible. How about heaven? Where does it exist? Is there any evidence of it being a physical place? How about the Garden of Eden? Where is it located? Has anyone else been there? Is there a location of it on Earth?

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  6. Finishing your blog began to make me laugh, then I became bored. You now claim that once the rapture happens that the New City of Jerusalem will come down from heaven and allow all the good people to reside in it. Do you fall for all the rapture predictions that happen every year? Does it disappoint you that each and every prediction ever made about the coming of the end has been FALSE? There have been hundreds of predictions over the last few decades and each and every time you bible believing people are wrong.

    So assuming the rapture finally happens, you believe a giant city will come down to allow all of god’s friends to live in it. Again, is there any evidence for this city? Has anybody seen New Jerusalem? Does anybody know where it is? Does anybody even know when the rapture will truly happen?
    The best part is your attempt to calculate the population of New Jerusalem. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an arrogance like yours. God is omniscient and omnipotent. HE knows who will be there. For you to even try and guess at the amount of people is blasphemous. Do you consider yourself somewhere equal to god’s abilities?

    The problem with people like you is that you discredit everything about evolution and claim all the evidence and understanding we have about it to be farcical. You guys believe that it’s a grand conspiracy that evolution is considered a plausible theory and is being taught in our schools. The ironic part is that you guys discredit everything that comes with evolution, yet you believe everything that is written in a two-thousand year old fictional novel. You take it completely at face with absolutely zero evidence.

    There is literally no more of a reason to believe in the events of the bible over the events that take place in the Harry Potter novels.

    Your ignorance is your greatest tool. It serves you better than your supposed god even serves you. Blind faith is very dangerous, and your thinking patterns are insidious. Evidence and proof is the only thing that matters, hence why it’s the only thing that holds up in the most serious of scenarios; in the court of law.

    I am guessing that you will not allow my argument to be posted, as you are afraid to allow your followers to view any other viewpoint other than your own. However, I challenge you to post it and try and defend your position, as I know I will have zero problems defending mine. Let's see if you have what it takes.

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    Replies
    1. Dear Bryce,
      First let me say thank you for reading my posts.
      Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means afraid to publish your contributions. And as for my followers, it is up to them to decide which course of action they want to take. I personally believe that all my followers are adult and intelligent enough to be aware of the Theory of Evolution, and its conflict with Biblical revelation, therefore it is unlikely that your comments, or for that matter, from any advocate of Darwin's theories, would make them change their minds.
      As being the case, I welcome you with open arms.
      You say that the Bible is a book of fairy tales and it's full of contradictions. Unfortunately you don't give any examples to shore up your arguement. You also accuse me of total disregard to the thousands of scientists who you say have contributed much in regard to Darwin's theories. But you too, have shown total disregard to the thousands, if not millions, of martyrs who have willingly given their lives for the truthfulness of the Bible.
      One of several reasons why we believe the Bible is a revelation of God to us is in the realm of fulfilled prophecy. One good example is Psalm 22, where King David pens a song detailing the Crucifixion. Read the psalm for yourself, if you have a Bible. Then read any of the four Gospels where the crucifixion is narrated. The irony is that the psalm was written a thousand years earlier, when Crucifixion was non-existant at that time.
      It is also reccommended to read the whole chapter of Isaiah 53, and see its fulfillment in the life of Jesus Christ. Or Zechariah 11:12-13 where the thirty pieces of silver was foretold.
      A mathematician in California together with his students once worked out the probability of all these prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one man without Divine inspiration. The answer turned out to be one chance out of 1, followed by 40,000 zeroes!
      If we take our Bible seriously enough to be God's word to us, then we expect it to be accurate in it historicity as well as on spiritual issues. Thus, if the texts say that the Earth was created in six literal days, then WE would be the arrogant ones to effectively call God a liar.
      Belief in Creationism takes faith. Also belief in Evolution also takes faith. I can look in the mirror and say, "I must be formed in my mother's womb by God." For I have qualities no other animal possess (eg, working with numbers, math, writing, making decisions, etc.) I can also say that the superb instincts found in the behaviour of many animals testify of the power of God's creation. You look at some fossils found buried underground and say that this is proof that we have evolved. No, it's not proof, it is a theory. The fact that all fossils were the result of sediment deposits, with water as the main agent, could also raise the theory of a Deluge. The choice of what to believe is really based on one's faith.
      As for my discussion about the "giant city", here I was not arrogant, but curious. Like you, who research what is presented to you as science, I too did a bit of researching. This was my natural reaction when presented with a description of a city of enormous proportions. But I also wonder whether you read my article properly. I have qualified my "research" with the condition that only God himself knows how many will inhabit the city. Then I stated - twice - that the numbers given were only a guess. My intention was in no way to equalise myself with God. I apologise if that was how it came across to you.
      Finally, let me say that I don't date prophecy. Jesus Christ told his disciples in Acts 1:6-7. And this applies to us today. Further down I have a blog, "Christ is coming back - Whoops!" where I go into discussion on this matter. (If you click on "Hal Lindsey" on the lables list on the right, this should direct you to the approbiate post.)
      Thankyou for reading this, and I sincerely hope this reply had not caused you to yawn.
      Frank.

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