Revelation 21 The New Heaven and Earth and the Lake of Fire

Jerusalem in the Sky 

After all the pesky non-believers and manifestations of extreme evil are gone, it's time to bring about a new heaven and a new Earth. John sees it happen—a New Jerusalem comes down from Heaven to Earth. And, no surprise, it's terrifically awesome. The Elect will live there with God. No one will ever mourn or die or be in pain. It will simply be God and his children living together forever and ever. But people who haven't led such upstanding lives will get thrown into the Lake of Fire. Sorry, guys. But God did try to warn you in the form of rivers turning to blood and such. The city of New Jerusalem itself is probably the most incredible thing John has seen so far. This place is prime real estate. John sees that the whole city is made of gold and glitters with all different kinds of jewels and gemstones. It has twelve gates (with the names of the tribes of Israel written on them) and twelve foundations (with the names of the apostles written on them). This New Jerusalem doesn't have a temple, though, because God himself is the temple. They also don't have to worry about lamps, because the presence of God provides all the light they need. Crime is also non-existent, because no one ever does anything even remotely bad there. Clearly, you never have to worry about property values going down. 

With the dissolution of the earth on which we live, which event has just been described, it is evident that the many lines of prophecy leading up to that great event are no longer under special consideration, but that a new theme subsequent to the judgment scene is introduced with the words of the Revelator immediately following--"I saw _a new heaven and a new earth:_ for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." The heaven, earth, and sea that passed away certainly refers to the earth that now is and to the aerial heaven surrounding it; therefore the new heaven and the new earth brought to view must signify the future and eternal home that Jesus went to prepare. We could not consistently make the one literal and the other symbolical. This accords perfectly with the teaching of the apostle Peter where he says: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.... Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for _new heavens and a new earth_, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Pet. 3:10-13. 

In the New Testament dispensation the heavenly elements of the New Jerusalem have descended to earth in the form of the new covenant, and God's people obtain a foretaste of heaven's glory and are made pure even as Christ is pure, and are therefore represented as having "come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22, 23); and God dwells with them in a very important sense. 2 Cor. 6:16. They are one with the redeemed above, and together they constitute one "family in heaven and earth," all loving the same Father, adoring the same King, drinking from the same fountain of life eternal, and all basking in the same divine light that beams from the throne of God. In another sense, however, there is a difference between them; for they are separated by the line of mortality, one phase being located on earth and the other in heaven. But when at the last day the redeemed of earth have access to the tree of life in its perfect sense, there will be henceforth only one phase to the New Jerusalem, or church of God, which will be in its relation to the new earth, as specially described in the prophecy under consideration, when "_all things_" are made new and "the former things are passed away."