[The Bible is a record and a revelation of God’s two great works, the first being God’s work of the old creation, and the second, God’s work of the new creation. God’s work of the old creation is a preparation for His work of the new creation. It is His work of the new creation that will accomplish His divine and eternal economy. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of His two great works; it is the masterpiece of His divine work and the crystallized product of His works of the old creation and the new creation. The New Jerusalem is mysterious, divine, glorious, and holy. Its revelation is the conclusion and consummation of the whole Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments.]
[The New Jerusalem revealed in the last two chapters of the New Testament is the conclusion of the whole Bible, as well as of the New Testament; it is also the consummation of the entire divine revelation. God’s work in the universe is of two categories, the old creation and the new creation. The sphere of His work of the old creation was the old heaven and old earth; the sphere of His work of the new creation is the new heaven and new earth, which are the original God-created old heaven and old earth renewed through the burning of God’s judging fire. Since the completion of the creation of the old heaven and old earth and everything therein, and since the fall of man, God has used four different dispensations—the dispensation of the Patriarchs, the dispensation of law, the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of righteousness—to carry out the work of the new creation in man, who is of the Satan-ruined and God-judged old creation, by the Spirit and life of Himself as the Triune God who has been processed through incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension; by His heavenly ministry after His ascension; and by what He will accomplish in His second coming. God first used the dispensation of the Patriarchs to lead the created and fallen sinners to look to the coming Christ in whom all the families on earth would be blessed. Because they did not know their own weakness and wickedness, God further used the dispensation of law to expose their condition that they might be led to Christ. Following this, He uses the dispensation of grace to work the fallen sinners into Christ and to work Christ into them, thus producing the church. Finally, He will use the dispensation of righteousness to reward the perfected Old Testament saints and the overcoming New Testament believers in Christ; He will also perfect the immature New Testament believers in Christ that they may arrive at the maturity in His life. At the end of the dispensation of grace, He will use a short period of insertion to carry out His work of restoration in the remaining nations through His eternal gospel, that He may gain a group of righteous ones. His work of the new creation through the different dispensations in the old creation and His work of restoration in the short inserted period will have the following results: (1) all the redeemed people of the Old Testament and New Testament will be produced; (2) among the redeemed, a group of overcomers who are perfected and have arrived at the maturity in God’s life will be obtained; (3) the overcomers will be constituted the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom and become the kings in the heavenly part of the millennium; (4) all Israel will be saved and serve as priests in the earthly part of the millennium; (5) at the end of the dispensation of grace, the remainder of the nations will be restored as the citizens in the earthly part of the millennium; (6) the redeemed but immature believers, who are unable to participate in the New Jerusalem of the millennium, will be perfected and become mature in God’s life; (7) the nations, having been restored as the people in the millennium, will be purged and be brought into the new earth of the new heaven and new earth as God’s people for eternity; (8) as a secondary result, all the creatures who rebel against God will be terminated and cast into the lake of fire; and (9) all the Old Testament and New Testament saints who have been redeemed and perfected and have reached the maturity in God’s life will be constituted the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. After God completes all His work, the new heaven and new earth will be brought in, with the ultimately consummated New Jerusalem as the center. The New Jerusalem is the crystallized product and masterpiece of God’s work in the old creation throughout the generations. It is not a physical city. Rather, it is a composition of all God’s redeemed believers throughout the ages to be the bride of Christ and the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed for eternity. It is also a divine and glorious organism, a mingling of the processed Triune God in the elements of His divine Trinity—the Father’s nature, the Son’s life which has passed through death and resurrection, and the Spirit’s regenerating and transforming element—with His redeemed and transformed tripartite man. The all-inclusive and unlimited Triune God, who is a constituent of such a mingling, is its temple, light, lamp, and the life saturation and supply, that it may be His full and consummated expression in eternity to express His unlimited Self from the center to the circumference fully, completely, and eternally!]