Now, if the above scenarios do not smack of, and tend to support vain-glory, party prejudice, fleshly carnality and pride, I do not know what philosophy and practice could hardly do so; Moreover, I do not understand why an humble believer in the principles of salvation and humility as wrought by the Spirit of God in the heart of a child through the teachings of Christ and the prophets of God - One would even begin to consider such beliefs, much less actively support them.

Furthermore, if such outdated Zionistic ideas based on a religious superstition and a covenant that has been abrogated are to influence minds to such an extent as to subsequently be embraced and incorporated into the political policy and practice of some nations (as is now being done especially by the United States and the United Kingdom), then the world may expect nothing but further political turmoil and resentment from those who have a conflicting political interest and livelihood at stake.

The above described (Judaistic) principles should be an affront to the beliefs of professing Christians, who claim to hold to the principles taught by Christ (Jesus of Nazareth) and His Apostles. If not, it seems to me to only indicate the little understanding and real spirituality of such, because the abrogation and dissolution of Judaistic principles are one of the corner-stones of Christianity.

Just a few passages from the New Testament should show (unless God has sent one strong delusion that they should be left in Satanic nature along with these to believe a lie) - that the natural or fleshy Jew now, that is (after the coming of The Messiah) has no superior place in the kingdom of heaven, which is the same as the kingdom of God. Actually, from a purely spiritual stand-point, the natural Jew had no pre-eminence over the Gentiles during their former economy except in the gifts and natural blessings that God in His Sovereign will had bestowed upon them. True, their election was solely by God, and as such He manifested His favor to this nation of people that He had chosen for Himself.

"... For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them..." Psa 44:3

But neither the Gentiles were ignored or forgotten by a sovereign and merciful God, Whose mercy is over all His works:

"...Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness..."Acts 14:16-17.

God represents Himself as a merciful being, and as much as in them lies, he admonishes His children to emulate Him in this:
".... But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
"...That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust..." Matt 5:44-45.

"... And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.." Acts 17:26-30.

"...27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also..." Rom 3:27-29.

Even though conditionalism was taught in precept in the law and covenant that God placed the Israelites under, it is revealed here and other places in the writings of the O. T. that God's mercy is always the prevailing principle of God's blessings, and not works of righteousness which His children do - or may or can do through their own strength and merit.

"...Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began..." 2 Tim 1-9.

John the Baptist came preaching "repentance" or the turning away from the former precepts and practices of the former dispensation. As such a minister as the forerunner of Christ, he repudiated the claims made by "fleshy' Jews who trusted in their (superior) pedigree (along with their personal righteousness) as the basis of the favor and blessing of God:

Many other references as to the identity of a real or "true" Jew can be given from both the New and Old Testament testimony. I will give only a few here before proceeding to the subject at hand.

"...6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham..." Matt 3:6-9.

"...For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God..." Rom 2:28-29.

"...I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan..." Rev 2:9.

"...39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham..."
"...Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it..." John 8:39, 44.

"... For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise..." Gal 3:26-29.

As during the days of the Apostles, many Christians (by name) are still attempting to live under the terms of a covenant that has been abolished in Christ. The saints under the former or old covenant could not live (or derive spiritual life from) the terms of the old covenant no more than those blessed to partake of the New. "...For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them..." Matt 13:17.

"...The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?..."Jer 8:20-22.

"...For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh..." Rom 8:3.

"...Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross..." Col 2:14.

The Old Covenant required obedience to the law of works in all respects, upon violation thereof, judgment and retribution was to severely follow:

"...15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth............"

Still, a long list of curses upon the violators of the Law continues, as we could go on quoting from the curses threatened upon the nation of Israel as found in the books of the law; but the above sample will more than suffice to presently illustrate the point I am attempting to make.

The saints of the former dispensation "groaned and travailed" along with the Apostles (Rom 8:22) under the severity of that economy, and in hope looked for a "better" country wherein would dwell righteousness:

"...For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, (The Apostles) even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body...: Rom 8:22-23.

The Apostles looked in hope for the whole manifestation of the redemption of the body of Christ, even their own and also the redemption of the whole body of the church, including the Old Testament saints.

"...For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it..." ver 24-25.

"...And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all..." Eph 1:22-23.

These Old Testament pilgrims all died in faith, in hope of the promises in Christ, who was to come:

"...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..." Heb 11:13.

David also, by faith saw and wrote of this New Covenant Dispensation, while confessing himself as held under the confines of the old econcomy as a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, as also all his fathers were:

"...And he (Christ) shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow..." 2 Sam 23:4-5.

After relating the great favor and mercies shown unto Israel by God, the psalmist then proceeds to question and complain of their present condition and oppression from their enemies, (Psa 44)

"... But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. 10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me.....

"...Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter..." (ver 9-15, 22).

Paul quotes this passage from the Old Testament to show that in principle that the condemnation of sin is still a believer's flesh by the Adamic nature, and that there is no deliverance experimentally except through the present manifestation of Christ's spirit within:

"... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us..."Rom 8:35-37.

The words and threatenings that were spoken by Moses to the children of Israel in Deut was fulfilled in the many chastisements and judgments that were sent upon them under that economy, and finally terminated their existence as a peculiar nation in the sight of God. Daniel's prayer and supplication confirms this again while in captivity in Babylon:

"...7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice..."Dan 9:7-14.

"...Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost..." 1 Th 2:15-16.

Paul wrote the latter at the close of the Apostolic Age, which is only another of the many apostolic references to the imminent drawing closed of the Legal Dispensation with the full manifestation of the New Heaven and earth that John saw coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. This preparation was made by Christ by His merit and His propitatory and vicarious (restore to favor and in the place of) work as The Son of God, and by the continued ministerial work of His Apostles. John the Baptist also shared in this preparation for the reception of the kingdom of heaven.

Christ had fully revealed the coming of this kingdom to His disciples before He left the earthly realms:

"...Immediately after the tribulation of those days (after the destruction of Old Jerusalem) shall the sun (The light given by the former dispensation) be darkened, and the moon (The light of Christ only reflected from types and shadows - See also Rev 22:5-6.) shall not give her light, and the stars (the luminaries and greats under the former economy such as Elijah and Moses, but who disappeared - as was represented at the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount) shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the (old) heavens shall be shaken:

And then (after these things have taken place during the Apostolic Age, The shaking of the old dispensation economy during the Apostolic Age, and the final removal of it at the end of that era) shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, (for Christ and their sins) and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory...

"...26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire..." Heb 12:26-29.

The incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ, His sending of the Holy Spirit, and later the commisssion and ministry of His Apostles shook or rent the Old Covenant to such an extent that it was in such a decaying condition that it must be completely removed, because it was only designed to be temporal, and not eternal. Like an old house (or body) that has become old and decrepit and no longer serves any usefulness to its inhabitants, and thus as the Hebrews writer says:

"...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... (But not presently vanished at the writing of the Hebrews author)" Heb 8:13.

"...And he shall send his angels (The Apostles in the completion of their special commission in preaching the gospel to every (spiritual) creature which was under that heaven (Col 1:23) - And later during the future ages of this glorious spiritual kingdom the ministerial in-gathering of the elect or chosen of God to this spiritual kingdom) "with a great sound of a trumpet":

(This work was not done in a corner, as Paul testified before Agrippa, who no doubt believed the prophets - as these were the same prophets who wrote of this coming kingdom which would at the end-times of the old economy then come into full manifestation in all the world of both Jew and Gentile; but especially by the attendance of the literal destruction of the remnants of the old economy and the relics which supported it, including the city or capitol of that system which was the system of corrupt Old Jerusalem - which was yet literally standing, though in bondage with all her children of legal worshippers or the adherents of legalism. Acts 26:26, Gal 4:24, Mark 16:15.

"...And they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other..." Matt 24:29-31.

"... And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come..."

But the end of WHAT?

Let us not unthinkingly and blindly assume from so much traditional teaching that Jesus is here referring to the end of the physical world, or even the literal, physical earth itself.

Surely, in harmony with His general context, Jesus cannot here be referring to the end of the Gospel Dispensation along with the end of a far-off future age that would terminate the same - much less to the dissolution of the physical world or the whole physical cosmos that is to take place perhaps in some far-off distant age as many think, (I am not saying that the cosmos may not sometime dissolve - for all we humankind know - but this from the surrounding context may be a revelation that is not in the will of God to give to mortals or even angels (I refer to angels not as those supernatural spiritual beings, but as human ministers of Christ) - but is not Jesus according to the plain context and setting of these scriptures referring rather to the dissolution of the Old Legal Dispensation along with those who supported her, and all things that attended her existence when she would finally pass away with a great noise, and she who composed and represented the old heavens and earth of natural and political religion with all her works would be thoroughly burned up and cast into the lake of the fire of the judgment of God Who is (and always has been) a consuming fire to His people and their works. Matt 25:31, Matt 3:10, Matt 7:19, Matt 13:47, Mark 9:242, Luke 3:9, Rev 8:8, Rev 20:10-15.

After the judgment of the second death manifested, (Rev 20:15) John begins to describe the beauty of the New Jerusalem and The New Heaven and Earth that he saw coming down from God out of heaven.

The Apostle Peter also describes the final judgment upon corrupt Jerusalem along with all her adherents in his epistles:

"...But 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..."2 Pet 3:10.

The Lord was to come unexpectedly and as a thief comes in the nignt upon that unbelieving generation, but unto those called to the Gospel glory, He was to be manifested as The Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, and thus to appropriately and completely fulfill the last utterances of the Old Testament Scriptures as found in Mal 4.

"...For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts..." Mal 4:1-3.

And to establish in the earth that kingdom that was described by Daniel in chapter 2:

"... 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..." Dan 2:44.

But first there must be a final dissolution of the things of the former economy:

"...Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness..." 2 Pet 3:10-13.

This New Heaven and New Earth as described by the angel to John in the Apocalypse was to be the true receptor of the presentation of the righteousness of God in Christ, a house that the Lord, even Christ (The Son of God) had pitched, and not man (Moses) under the Law. - Because there was no true or satisfying righteousness found under the provisions of the Old Dispensation founded upon the condition and proposition of the law of sin and death.

"...For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit..." Rom 8:3-4.

Those things that were abolished in Christ are considered as enumerated by the Apostle John in the vision given him while on the island of Patmos, (Rev 22:3), and are not to be found within the spiritual confines of the New Jerusalem; because Christ, Who is The Tree of Life, continually and Eternally grows and springs up there as a Well of Living Water. To quench the spiritual thirst of its inhabitants and to remove the curse of sin and death - Gal 3:13. Whose fruit is yielded not only at a set season, but is continually given for the healing of those spiritual nations that are blessed as the inhabitants of this City.

1. The curse (of the Law) Gal 3:13,

"... And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him..." Rev 22:3.

"...10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree..." Gal 3:10-13.

2. Death (in sin)

"...21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (Harvest always soon follows the firstfruits 24 Then cometh the end, (At Christ's coming, after the harvest) when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death..."(Not the grave, or purgatory as many teach) for here there is no death as formerly under the old dispensation:

"...There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away..." Rev 21:4.

These statements do not refer to those afflictions that in common beset all of humankind in the physical realm, but relate to those maladies brought on by the presense of sin in the life and experience of the saints as now compared with the saints under the former economy. it is the transcendence over the power of these evils that is here under consideration, and not the very existence of them in the saint's present earthly experience while yet in the body of flesh. Of course, these things will have completely vanished when this mortality has fully and completely put on immortality, and the natural body has been changed into an immortal and glorious body. But even now in the present experience of the saints, death is "swallowed up in victory" Isa 25.

"...And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering (hell, or place of the dead) cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

"...He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD;we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation..." Isa 25:7-9.

For judgment, "...Christ has layed to the line, and righteousness He has laid to His plummet: and the hail of judgment upon the sinner shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters of tribulation shall overflow their hiding place.

And their covenant with death in Adam has been annulled, and their agreement with hell (or the veil or covering over) has not stood; when the overflowing scourge has passed through, then they have been trodden down by it..." Isa 28:17-18.

3. NIGHT (of the former dispensation) And DAY of the New.

"...And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

This refers to the darkness of the former dispensation or covenant as compared with the light of the latter. The superabounding glory of these wonders do not apply to the world of mankind in general ,as many would teach and look for, nor yet to a future millennium or Utopia to be established upon the earth. Isaiah has described the nature of these things as appropriate to the New Covenant with its attendant blessings:

"...Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.." Isa 60:1-3.

This refers to the glorious coming of the Kingdom of Christ in the church's glory with Him - While nature's darkness would still envelope the people left in the darkness of sin and death. Especially referring to those who remained fixed to the tenants of the law of works, and continued to feel, believe and proclaim that since they were the children of Abraham by natural descent, they therefore felt no real need of Christ and His righteousness - As illustrated by Christ in His parable of The Pharisee and the Publican, and the parable of The Rich Man and Lazurus, and nearly, if not all of His parables, while the Gentiles according to God's Purpose in Christ would be brought to trust in Christ and ushered into the glory of the New Heavens and Earth. The kings referred to are the same Priests and Kings that John speaks of in Rev. 5.

"...Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth..." Rev 5:9-10.

"... But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: (The Apostolic Age) but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light..." (At the evening, or end of the Apostolic Age)
"...And it shall be in that day, (The Day of Christ) that living waters shall go out from (spiritual) Jerusalem;(or perhaps the Spirit with the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles) half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea:(Representing the blood of Christ that embraces saints both of the Old and New Covenants) in summer and in winter shall it be.(perpetually or forever) "...And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one..."

4. No need of natural luminaries.

Neither would the saints need light of the sun or moon as representing the types and shadows of the law dispensation, and the carnal worship service that was required under that covenant.

The holy Apostle John has enumerated these things in Rev Chapters 21 and 22 - and indeed throughout this book, because this is essentially why the Revelation was written, as it states itself in the beginning of its chapters. If John was not inspired to write these things that was revealed to him contemporary with the writings of the other apostles (as certainly would seem to be the case) nevertheless, these things "were shortly to be done"(Rev 1:6) or accomplished , and "were, are, and about to be done",(Rev 2:19) and "the time that is at hand" (Rev 1:3), "must shortly be done" (Rev 22:6) in their completeness as pertains to the consummation of that Age. Peter and Paul has also in harmony with John referred to these same things. The Old Heavens and The Old Earth that the former Covenant embraced has passed away and been completely replaced by the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ. These truths and revelations are clearly delineated in the Spirit -inspired writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles of Christ, and by the Holy words of Jesus Himself. So why do we yet continually ask with a suffering John when in sore tribulation with dejection while in prison?

"...Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?.."

The answer is in the record that God has given of His Son:

"...Then Jesus answering said unto them, "..Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me..." Luke 7:22-23.

The same still holds spiritually true for our present day.

"...That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast..." Eph 2:7-9.

While the following words by the Apostle Peter were recorded for that generation and the dissolution thereof, did it not have a continued fulfillment in the abolishment of all legal religion that is founded upon the fleshly merit of the creature in the first Adam; Because this judgment being of an interminable (endless, everlasting, perpetual, final, etc) would stand forever as the standard for God dealing with those embraced in Christ, Who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel:

2 "...That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days.. (Specifically The Apostolic Days or Age,) - but would continue to include the future ages of time) ..scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (These could not then, and do not now see the glorious change that had, and has taken place by the advent and establishing of The Messiah's spiritual Kingdom in the earth)...
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: (As that old world did for those called to the New Heavens and Earth)
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, (At the time of the Apostle's writing) by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...... 3 Pet 3:7, 2 Th 2:3,

"...After this ... -- After the sea of vanity, vexation of spirit, condemnation by the works of the law through sin, with Solomon's old legal and mudane sun had passed away with those things that were to be abolished and revealing and presenting the new man in Christ at His appearing and Glory...

"...I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb..." Rev 7:9-10.

Submitted in hope of the continued experience of the increasing glory of The New Heavens and Earth, - that will finally culminate individually and collectively for all the body of Christ - when they shall be housed in that Final Immortal Home in Glory.