Paradise Restored

PARADISE RESTORED - Dual Plan

"And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of its broad place, and of the river, on this side and on that, was a wood of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding for each month its own fruit; and the leaves of the wood were for the healing of the nations." (Rev. 22: 1, 2, Emphatic Diaglott.)

The blessed home for which man was created will finally be restored again to its original beauty and holiness, with an additional glory, unfolded by the work of salvation. The evil, permitted to destroy that innocent home, also its development into a great red dragon which has spread itself over God's creation, serves as the very means to open the minds and the hearts of the oppressed portion of the human family so that the attributes of God, which otherwise would have been unknown, find room. The perfection of love and joy between the Father and his tried children is thus brought into existence. They have a practical knowledge of the manifold greatness of their God and Father.

The prefigured Paradise—with its evergreen floral bowers, its myriads of living beings, of all colors, shapes and kinds, which like a flock of lambs innocently enjoy themselves together in the free and peaceful home—is seen again. The wisdom, the creative-power and the life-sustaining force of God are developed there. But the redeemed human family—for which all is created—see the Omnipotent in a still greater light. His qualities, such as fatherly love, mercy, long-suffering, compassion—one who forgives the lawbreaker and violator, and takes him up as a child of repentance to bless and enrich him with eternal glory—are understood and appreciated by the children of man. Grand union and unspeakable joy is the glorious result of such knowledge.

The great Father's memory and appreciation of his children's noble deeds in the valley of oppression, unfold in a corresponding ray of glimmer and glory. They will eternally constitute reflecting monuments—monuments of their acts of faith in defending the rights of Heaven while exposed to the depressive spirits and ruling elements in the kingdom of fallen man.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil will never again exist. The human family brought over the boundary line into Paradise has realized the consequence of eating its fruit, and they carry their experience, or their knowledge of good and evil, with them in the new creation. But the tree of life—the fruit of which imparts to the eaters thereof the very life-elixir that the wise in the kingdom of Nimrod have been hunting for in the tree of knowledge of good and evil—is now the most prominent and the most glorious tree in the Paradise restored. It develops its delicious fruits at every new moon. Its golden fruit immortalizes the lives of those eating thereof, and the leaves serve as medicine for the nations still in their mortal state. (See Zech. 14: 12-21.) Hence, they are restored to enjoy an age similar to the one that prevailed before the flood.

When Adam had eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, God placed "at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim with a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Gen. 3: 24.) When cut off from the eating of its fruit, corruption stamped its seal on man, and death gradually developed its power over his being. The "cherubim" at that end of time reflected the "cherubim" connected with the sanctifying institution of God at this eud of time, who, in the beings of the two witnesses of Jesus, will hinder every unclean being from passing the line of Paradise. The "flaming sword," like the sword of the red dragon which defends the boundaries of Babylon, will be drawn on all sides in defense of the tree of life. Every soul must be molded for eternity by the sanctifying institution of God, else death will eventually be his portion.

The first resurrection brings forth the company constituting the living city. John says:

"The persons of those who had been beheaded (Greek: had been cut with sharp Instruments—forcibly killed) because of the testimony of Jesus, and because of the word of God, even those who did not worship the beast, nor his image, and did not receive the mark on their forehead, and on their hand; and they lived and reigned with the Anointed one the thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live till the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection." (Rev. 20: 4, 6.)

Only the 144,000 and the martyrs of the two dispensations, also those who have lived their lives separated from the kingdom of the serpent, are honored by the grand display that follows the first resurrection. They constitute the courts of judgment which shall decide the cases of those subject to the second resurrection: i. e., both good and evil. They constitute the royal priesthood that eternally shall govern the kingdom of heaven. In their state of suffering, they have deserved higher positions than those who have sacrificed but little to gain an inheritance in that kingdom. The law of equity will rule there.

The millennium, we understand, is set apart for the judgment of the criminals whose evil deeds have gone before them to the judgment-seat of Christ. The martyrs will then sit in judgment; they will have power to call forth from the grave the criminals and their subjects as well as the witnesses. Rev. 20: 4 and similar texts testify as to that. This act of judgment belongs to "the restitution of all things." (Acts 3: 20, 21.)

The second resurrection brings forth the class constituting the people of the kingdom. A similar scene to the one developing at the beginning of the millennial age takes place at the closing up of that age. Then follows the age referred to in the prophecies as the "age of ages." That period seems to be set apart for the final punishment of the iniquitous.

At last comes the time when everything is placed under the feet of Christ.

"For he must reign till he has placed all enemies under his feet. Even death, the last enemy, will be rendered powerless. And when he shall have subdued all things to him, then the Son himself will be subject to him who subdued all things to him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. 15: 25-28.)

Then the glory of God will proceed from the heavenly throne situated in the new and living Jerusalem like a mighty flood of life-power over the new creation. Unspeakable joy fills the heart of every being there—no more oppression, no more toil or struggle for bread, no more parting from dear and loved friends, no more sorrow and death.

"Blessed are those who wash their robes so that their right may be to the wood of the life, and they may enter by the gates into the city (the way Abraham was told to go). He who testifies these things says: Yes, I am coming speedily. Amen! Come!—Lord Jesus."