Table of Contents
Are These All the Same Thing, or Are They Different?
Do They Represent Different Aspects of God’s Redemptive Plan?
Recently, I was contacted with some excellent questions concerning the Kingdom of God, Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem, and the New Heaven and New Earth. This person wanted to know whether these expressions represent the same thing or whether each has a different meaning. Personally I asked the same questions at one point.
These are important questions because Scripture connects all these expressions, yet each reveals something particular about what God accomplished through Jesus Christ.
Many Christians have been taught to view these things as future events involving a literal city descending from the sky, a physical kingdom yet to be established, or a new planet replacing the present earth. But when we examine these passages in their historical and covenantal contexts, a different picture begins to emerge.
Let’s allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.
THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH: THE NEW COVENANT CREATION
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isaiah 65:17
Notice what God says immediately afterward.
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Isaiah 65:18
God connects the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth with Jerusalem and her people. This language is not simply describing a physical reconstruction of the universe. It announces a new covenantal creation.
Under the Old Covenant, Israel lived within a religious order established through Moses, with its earthly sanctuary, Levitical priesthood, sacrifices, and ordinances. That covenantal world was growing old and approaching its end.
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8:13
Notice that the writer said the Old Covenant was ready to vanish away. It had been made obsolete through Christ, but its earthly administration still stood when Hebrews was written.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 marked the decisive historical removal of that Old Covenant order.
This is also the same meaning as the Heavens and Earth passing away.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Matthew 24:35
The New Heaven and New Earth represent the New Covenant creation established through Jesus Christ, where righteousness dwells. They are not a future planet but the new covenantal reality in which God’s people now live.
THE NEW JERUSALEM: THE PEOPLE OF GOD
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:2
John describes the New Jerusalem as a bride. Later, the angel makes the identification even clearer.
Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Revelation 21:9
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Revelation 21:10
The angel promised to show John the Lamb’s wife, and what did he show him? The holy Jerusalem!
The city represents God’s covenant people united to Christ. This is not merely a geographical location or a future construction project. It is the corporate identity of those who belong to the Lamb.
Paul provides another important connection.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:26
In Galatians 4, Paul contrasts two women, two covenants, and two Jerusalems. Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai, associated with the Jerusalem of Paul’s day and her children in bondage. This has nothing to do with the Middle East today. Sarah represents the free woman, associated with Jerusalem above and the children of promise.
This gives us an important distinction.
The New Jerusalem represents God’s covenant people corporately, pictured as the Lamb’s wife and as the mother of the children of promise.
Those born into the Kingdom through Christ belong to this heavenly Jerusalem. The imagery of a mother and her children emphasizes that this covenantal family continues to grow.
The bride became the wife, and the Kingdom continues bringing forth children through the gospel. No longer a bride in wait of her groom. She a wife in relationship with her husband.
What God promised through the prophets, He fulfilled through His Son.
MOUNT ZION: THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:22
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Hebrews 12:23
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Hebrews 12:24
These verses are remarkable because the writer brings together Mount Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn, and Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant.
But pay particular attention to his opening words.
YE ARE COME.
He did not tell his first-century readers that they would someday come to Mount Zion thousands of years in the future. He declared that they had already come!
Mount Zion is the heavenly covenantal reality associated with God’s presence, His people, and His reigning Messiah. Again, it is not simply a reference to a physical mountain in the Middle East.
The heavenly Jerusalem is the city of the living God, and the church of the firstborn is the assembly of those belonging to Him.
These expressions are connected because they describe different aspects of the same redemptive reality.
Mount Zion emphasizes the heavenly place of God’s reign and presence. New Jerusalem emphasizes His covenant people. The New Covenant establishes their relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE EVERLASTING REIGN OF CHRIST
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Hebrews 12:28
Notice that this statement occurs in the same chapter where believers had already come to Mount Zion and heavenly Jerusalem.
The Kingdom is not another name for a physical territory that Christ must someday return to establish. It is His everlasting reign.
Daniel had already prophesied concerning this Kingdom.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Daniel 2:44
Jesus announced that the Kingdom was at hand during His earthly ministry. Through His death, resurrection, and exaltation, His royal authority was established.
The first-century saints were receiving the Kingdom during the transition from the Old Covenant to the New.
The Kingdom was not waiting for its beginning in our generation. Its establishment belongs to the redemptive work of Christ and the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel.
We now live under His everlasting reign.
THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD: GOD DWELLING WITH HIS PEOPLE
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21:3
Here is another important distinction.
The city of the living God is associated with God’s dwelling among His people, but that does not mean the city itself must be identified as the New Heaven.
Under the Old Covenant, God’s presence was represented through the earthly tabernacle and temple. Under the New Covenant, His people themselves are His dwelling place.
Paul wrote:
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:22
God no longer dwells among His people through an earthly temple made with hands. His dwelling is spiritual, and His people are being built together as His habitation.
This is the beauty of the New Jerusalem. It is not about God moving into a new physical building. It is about His covenant presence with His redeemed people.
DOES THE NEW EARTH REPRESENT THE PEOPLE OF GOD?
This is an excellent question, and we need to distinguish between the people and the covenantal order in which they live.
In the prophetic language of Scripture, heaven and earth can represent an established covenantal world or order. Within our understanding of fulfilled prophecy, like said earlier, the passing of the former Heaven and Earth describes the passing of the Old Covenant administration, while the New Heaven and New Earth describe the New Covenant establishment.
The people of God belong to that New Covenant order, but the New Earth should not automatically be treated as another name for the people themselves.
Consider Paul’s words:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
The New Covenant creates a new people in Christ, but there remains a distinction between the covenantal creation and those who participate in it.
The New Heaven and New Earth describe the new order. The New Jerusalem pictures the covenant people. Both exist under the everlasting reign of Christ.
HOW DO ALL THESE THINGS FIT TOGETHER?
Now we can bring these expressions together without confusing their individual meanings.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD is the everlasting reign of Jesus Christ.
THE NEW COVENANT is the covenant established through His blood, bringing His people into a new relationship with God.
THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH represent the New Covenant order that replaced the former covenantal order.
THE NEW JERUSALEM represents God’s corporate covenant people, pictured as the Lamb’s wife and the mother of the children of promise.
MOUNT ZION represents the heavenly covenantal reality associated with God’s presence, His reigning Messiah, and His assembled people.
THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD emphasizes the heavenly Jerusalem as the place of God’s covenantal presence with His people.
These expressions are NOT six unrelated promises awaiting fulfillment. Neither are they six interchangeable names for exactly the same thing.
They are connected aspects of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
WHAT ABOUT THE LAND PROMISE?
The question of the land promise also belongs in this discussion.
Under the Old Covenant, the promised land was associated with Abraham’s descendants and their inheritance in Canaan. But the New Testament directs our attention toward the greater inheritance found in Christ.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Hebrews 11:10
Abraham’s hope extended beyond earthly geography. Hebrews identifies a heavenly country and a city prepared by God for His people.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:16
And Paul expands the promise made to Abraham:
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4:13
The inheritance promised to Abraham finds its greater fulfillment in Christ and His Kingdom, not in the necessity of establishing another earthly covenant centered upon geographical Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem therefore relates to the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, but it should not simply be reduced to the physical land promise.
CONCLUSION: WE ARE NOT WAITING FOR WHAT CHRIST HAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED
When we read Hebrews 12, Galatians 4, Isaiah 65, and Revelation 21 together, we discover a consistent covenantal picture.
The Old Covenant was passing away. The New Covenant was being established. The earthly Jerusalem stood in contrast to Jerusalem above. The first-century believers had already come to Mount Zion, and they were receiving an unshakable Kingdom. Unshakable, unmovable, here forever, going nowhere. There shall be no end.
The events surrounding Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70 marked the end of the former covenantal order and the consummation of that transition.
Today, we are NOT waiting for the Kingdom to arrive, for a New Covenant to be established, or for a heavenly city to descend as a physical structure.
We are living in the New Covenant creation, under the reign of Jesus Christ, as those who belong to the heavenly Jerusalem.
And perhaps the most beautiful part of all is that God has made His dwelling with His people.
The Kingdom is established. The New Covenant is everlasting. The New Jerusalem is His people. And the New Heaven and New Earth are the covenantal creation in which we now live.