I N D E X
19
We have, however, one other passage of Scripture, not yet examined, which will be found very pertinent to the
question, and this is found in the closing verses of the prophecy of Isaiah. It will be remembered that in chapter 65,
we have already seen that the newly created heaven and earth are related to Jerusalem where, as in Revelation 21,
there is to be no more weeping, nevertheless as in Revelation 21 there is in the sequel a reference to sin and death
(Isa. 65:17-20). So whatever we may do or not do over Revelation 21 we have not rid ourselves of an identical
problem. When we turn to the close of Isaiah 66 we shall find a new creation associated with Gehenna itself.
"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the LORD, so shall
your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth, and look
upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me: FOR THEIR WORM SHALL NOT DIE, NEITHER SHALL
THEIR FIRE BE QUENCHED; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh" (Isa. 66:22-24).
We have therefore, the same features in Isaiah as we have in the Revelation, the one speaking of the Jerusalem
on the earth, the other of the Jerusalem that descends out of heaven from God. In the one we read of "worship", in
the other of a "tabernacle". The solution to the problem may be in the fact that both in the Millennium and in the
succeeding Day of God, blessing begins at Jerusalem and from thence extends to the ends of the earth.
They shall not hurt nor destroy IN ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN, may contain the answer to our difficulties here.
This is on all fours with the scope of the book of the Revelation itself, which is not written from the universal
standpoint, but from the very limited standpoint of "Him that OVERCOMETH".
Even that passage which takes us to the "end" and assures us of universal submission, even there we find the Son
of God putting down all enemies before it becomes possible for Him to yield up a perfect kingdom that "God may
be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:24-28). So then there are "enemies" to be put down during the day of God.
The "Bride" we can see has an important part to play in the new heaven and new earth, even as a restored Israel
will have a reviving mission in the Millennial kingdom, and all such expanding ministries, with their evidences of
partial success, lead at last to that perfect day, when "Every knee shall bow" and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This however lies entirely outside the scope of the book of the
Revelation. It is after all a matter of "rightly dividing the word of truth".
Those who have the chart on the Pleroma (a series both in An Alphabetical Analysis, Part 3, and later in The
Berean Expositor vol. 41 p. 167) will therefore understand why Revelation 21 seems to be put into correspondence
*
both with Genesis 1:1 and with Genesis 1 and 2.
One further point. Paradise, or the Garden of Eden in which Adam was placed, belongs to "The present heaven
and earth" not to Genesis 1:1. A reference to Revelation 22:1-5 will show that its restoration belongs to the new
heaven and earth, of which both the creation of Adam and the creation of Revelation 21 form a pair. The restored
wife - Israel - is related to the Jerusalem and the new creation of Isaiah 65. The Bride, the overcomers out of Israel,
are associated with the heavenly Jerusalem. The Body of the epistles of the Mystery, is not associated with the new
heaven of Revelation 21, but to the "heaven of heavens" the heaven of Genesis 1:1, the heaven that will never be
folded up like a tent, but is "far above all" such temporary associations, far above not only "angels" which are linked
with the heavenly Jerusalem and the Bride, but with Principalities and Powers and with the "Right hand of God".
We must now leave this great question of the Bride and its associations, to explore the third company, namely
"The Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all".
The Church which is His Body
We now turn our attention to the third company, The Body, a company quite distinct in calling, sphere and
constitution from either the restored Wife, or the Bride of the Lamb. Before we adduce positive testimony
concerning this distinct company, it will be necessary to consider the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12, because there are
some
who,
seeing
a
reference
to
a
"body"
in
that
*
The chart opposite is included for those readers who do not possess either of these books.