Let us now see how God accomplishes His purpose. Firstly, He created man. In his natural make-up, man is not the genuine fulfillment of God’s purpose, but only a photograph, a prefigure. But even in this photograph we can see the features of God’s satisfaction. The Old Testament mainly reveals two things: God’s creation of man and His calling of man. God made Adam and called Abraham. Abraham, including Isaac, Jacob, and all Jacob’s children, was the corporate called one. All the children of Israel were called in Abraham. Thus, Abraham was a corporate man, a prefigure once again of God’s satisfaction. In this corporate man we can see much more than we can with Adam, for Adam was only a single man as a photograph of God’s satisfaction, while Abraham, including his descendants, was a complete, corporate figure of God’s satisfaction. The Old Testament reveals these two prefigures of God’s satisfaction, one individual and the other corporate. However, in principle both are the same, revealing what God’s satisfaction is. We need to have such an overview if we are to understand the Bible.
While the Old Testament shows us the prefigure, the New Testament reveals the reality. God Himself came to be a man, to be the seed which He Himself has sown into mankind as the earth, the soil. We should never separate mankind from the earth, because in substance these two are one. The Bible clearly says that man came out of the earth and belongs to the earth. God came to sow Himself as a seed into humanity, the real earth. This one grain of wheat fell into the earth of humanity, died, and in resurrection produced many grains which have been formed together into one loaf, the church (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17). In this loaf, the church, we have God’s expression and God’s dominion. Here in the church is God’s kingdom where God’s authority is exercised and His image is expressed. Hence, the church is God’s Sabbath, the first stage of God’s accomplishment of His purpose in a genuine and real way.
But there is the need of another stage. The first stage was with the Lord’s first coming, and the second stage will begin with His second coming. In order for Him to accomplish His purpose in a genuine way, He needs to come twice. In His first coming, He sowed Himself into mankind, and in His second coming He will reap what He sowed in His first coming. Something was accomplished with His first coming—the church was produced, and there was a Sabbath—but this is not the full completion of His purpose. His second coming will accomplish more, bringing in a fuller Sabbath. His first coming brought in the first real Sabbath, but this Sabbath is not the full Sabbath, because the accomplishment of God’s purpose has not yet been completed. Thus, there is a need of His coming again to complete His accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose. This means that God’s eternal purpose could never be accomplished before the Lord’s second coming. In other words, God’s eternal purpose cannot be fully completed without the millennium.
The millennium will be the last and most crucial part of the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose. I need to stress this point strongly because throughout the centuries most Christian teachers have held the concept that when the Lord Jesus comes back everything will be completed. According to that concept, the Lord’s coming back apparently means the end of the old universe and the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth. When the Lord Jesus comes back, a wonderful time, the millennium, will begin. But regardless of how wonderful the millennium will be, during that time the old heaven and old earth will still remain in existence. At most, the millennium will be a time of restoration (Acts 3:21, Gk.). Heaven and earth will be restored during the millennium, but they will not yet be changed from the old to the new. The changing of the old heaven and earth into the new heaven and earth will require another thousand years. The approximately six thousand years from the creation of Adam until the second coming of Christ will issue in a restoration of the universe, but it will not result in a renewal of the universe. That requires another thousand years. After the last thousand years have passed, the entire universe will be changed from the old to the new. Then there will be a new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem.
Do you still hold on to the concept that everything will be all right at the time of Christ’s second coming? Not everything will be all right at that time. Although Satan will be bound, he will not be fully dealt with during the millennium. At the end of the millennium, he will be loosed from his prison, will deceive the nations, and will lead them in battle against the Lord (Rev. 20:7-9). After the millennium, Satan will still work against God. Furthermore, the evil in human nature will not be completely dealt with during the millennium. Although all the nations will be subdued, at the end of that time Gog and Magog will rebel once again, proving that the element of rebellion in man will still be present. Thirdly, death, the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), will not be cast into the lake of fire at the second coming of Christ, but at the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:14). Thus, three evil things, Satan, the rebellious nature of man, and death, will still exist even at the end of the millennium. Since this is the case, how can we say that by the second coming of Christ everything will be all right? The Lord still requires some time to work in order to eliminate these three evil things from God’s eternal universe.
Along with Satan, the rebellious human nature, and death, there are two more negative items that will not be dealt with until the end of the millennium. Firstly, the sea, a sign of negative things, will not be fully removed until the end of the millennium. In the new heaven and the new earth there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1). Secondly, all the dead unsaved people will not be judged until the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). At the end of the millennium, the dead unsaved people will be resurrected and judged at the white throne for their eternal destiny, and everyone whose name is not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. That will be the last item of the termination of the old heaven and the old earth. Following that, the entire old universe will be over, and the new universe with the New Jerusalem will be ushered in. In the new heaven and new earth there will be no more Satan, rebellious human nature, death, or sea. Do not believe that everything will be settled at the time of the Lord’s second coming. Only when we are in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem will we be able to shout, “Hallelujah, everything is now all right!”
Today we are enjoying the Sabbath rest in the church life. Although this is good, we are waiting for the Lord’s coming back, because that will usher in a better Sabbath. This Sabbath is called a “restoration” (Acts 3:21, Gk.). But even this is not the best, the ultimate Sabbath. Satan, the rebellious human nature, death, the sea, and the unsaved dead people will all need to be dealt with. The first Sabbath will bring in the second, and the second Sabbath will bring in the third. The church will bring in the kingdom, and the kingdom will usher in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem.