Once again, these are questions and/or statements that I have heard over the years, but this particular string of questions came under the guise of “I would like to talk about Revelation 21 and 22.

 Your questions and challenges.

I sit with several groups of men, and issues like this come up every once in a while. The problem is, attempts at answering a clear portion of the question, always seem to bring up some other train of thought, interrupting my own, and taking us down some unrelated rabbit trail. In responding like this, I can avoid those non-productive rabbit trails.

My initial response went like this. I never try to do battle without sharpening my sword. That being said, you write down your questions and such and send them to me.

This is what I received.

1. The time of the new heaven&earth when God sets up his kingdom. I always believed this was after the removal of all sinful people. but these chapters talk about being worthy and what is inside and outside the city. outside is murderers and the like.

2. "About the earth it says the valley’s will fill and the mountain brought low with no more see. In Luke the earth that was perished in the flood. A new earth grew from the destruction of the old. Why has my mind always imagined the universe being erased like a chalkboard when I read new heaven and earth. I could argue that it will be reborn after some form of purification and that in fact that sun 🌞 will be done away forever. But it’s looking like man,good and evil, remain even after the new Jerusalem."

My response to Question #1.

You are not alone in your, hopefully previous, belief. The Monday morning “Bible teacher” used to hammer this false teaching, among others, into the brains of the men that showed up. I think he is still adhering to his twisted beliefs. By this man's standard, no one but believers enter the millennial kingdom. He takes his opinion one racist step further and inappropriately excludes the Jews.

Sorry if this bursts your bubble, but as you have apparently figured out, surviving Jews and those from among nations who have endured will go into the millennial kingdom. By Jewish definition, the nations are any who are NOT Jews. Not only that, but those among the nations that have children during this time, have the freedom to NOT worship God and, therefore, within reason, act any way they chose. The huge difference between now and then, is that we, the believers, will be immortal/eternal and, therefore, cannot be harmed, but those among the nations can be. Violence will NOT be tolerated and will be suppressed faster than they can blink. There will be peace.

Isaiah 4:3 NASB “It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy--everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem”

Another strong reproach to those who choose to NOT believe.

Isaiah 10:20 NASB “Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel”

It is clear to me that the Jews will be the evangelists if you must call them something, and they, among others, will bring healing and the change that allows them entrance into the new Jerusalem, that comes through the leaves on the trees of life.

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed, and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Revelation 21:24-27 NASB)

Zechariah speaks of the nations that came against Jerusalem coming to the new Jerusalem.

Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. (Zechariah 14:16 NASB)

Ask yourself, how would these, from among the nations, understand all that is to take place at the Feast of Sukkāh, or booths, as we gentiles say?

Someone would have to teach them. Who better than Jews that have knowledge of the law?

Ezekiel 44:10-11 NASB "But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. (11) "Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

So, by these passages, we know that the nations and the Jews will be there; among them or part of them will be, those who are unclean, those who practice abominations, and liars. I hesitate to include verse eight, as this could just as easily apply to the previously dead, before the millennial kingdom. But think about it, sin has no qualifiers, and, therefore, this crowd could include those described in verse eight.

Before I move on and continue this discussion about the earth being burned with fire, think for a moment with me. For a human, this fire that will purge the filth of earth should purge it from humanity as well. Since God is merciful beyond our understanding, then I can't see that happening until after the great white throne.

If you are asking, why at this point in time, just think about it; after this judgment, all sin is purged from, not just the earth, but from all creation, including the universe. Heaven and earth will be as they were meant to be; and though I cannot imagine what that will be like, it will be serenity.

The second of your questions is a puzzlement for me as well - but why?

If the earth is burned with fire during seven-years of God's wrath, then how is it possible that there would be any survivors, including the 144,000 Jewish men that we see set apart in Revelation 7:4? Note, these 144,000 cannot be harmed by the judgments of God, and that should include any burning of the earth.

Why burn everything?

Maybe because the earth is polluted. Many plastics will take 10,000 years to break down, but vaporizing those same plastics, which are everywhere, and it should not take long at all.

Obviously, getting rid of pollutants is a plus, but what about the pollution that humanity brings along with it, like toxic waste materials?

It does not seem logical to attack humanity, especially if Jesus took all sin on Himself at the cross and paid for any debts owed by us. So Purging humanity is obviously not the goal, but purging unrepentant humanity might be.

What in the Revelation gets purged by fire or burned?

One of our more prominent examples comes from Revelation 19.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him, the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
(Revelation 19:19-20 NASB)

Who then, at this point, is thrown into the lake of fire?

Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. No one else gets thrown into the lake of fire. Again, this is NOT what many teach. Ah, but note, the rest that came to battle with Jesus were killed with the sword. An interesting, but incorrect assumption we religious people make, is that Jesus kills everyone from the nations. Once again, let me remind you that this Bible of ours is a Jewish-centric book, and so the nations, for the Jew, include the Christian community.

While it is contestants from the nations, here doing battle, does everyone come, and, therefore, get killed by Jesus?

No. The verse above tells you who gets killed in this battle with Jesus - the beast; the kings of the earth; their armies, and those assembled to make war against Jesus. Now, while mama and the children may hate Jesus, the Jews, and the people of the Book (the Bible,) they are NOT killed unless they decided to join in the fight.

So let's get back to this idea of everything on earth burning.

Maybe this is where everyone gets toasted because there is an angel in charge of fire.

Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe." (Revelation 14:18 NASB)

But what does he do?

He calls out another, who has a sickle, and that angel begins to carry out a puzzling order. The angel is told to, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe."

I would assume that we are the grapes and that we are ripe, sort of like the bride, ready for the groom. But that is not the context and in verses 19-20 we see that these crushed grapes are representative of the blood that flows through the Megiddo Valley, deep as their bridles, for 200 miles. Clearly, we are being shown the wrath of God, but He did it without fire.

So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. (Revelation 14:19-20 NASB)

How did we transition from fire to a sickle?

It is the angel who has power over fire that is calling forth him who has a sharp sickle, and he is the one who is gathering the clusters.

So, where does the fire come into play?

The next time we see fire is in Revelation 16, and it is scorching humanity.

The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. (Revelation 16:8 NASB)

Throughout the Bible, you see statements, such as all were there. If I used Daniel as an example of this, I would show how ALL were commanded to bow, and yet Daniel was not bowing because he was NOT there.

Merely because Revelation 16:8 tells us that it was given to scorch men, it does not mean all, because, here again, NO ONE would survive.

Does everyone that goes to the beach get severely sunburned?

If not, why not? Because many make efforts to hide from the Sun and its' effects.

Also under the bowl judgments.

The first angel pours out his bowl and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. Students of the Bible should immediately understand that this is the most logical place in the timeline of events and, therefore, the second half of the seven-years of God's wrath.

In Revelation 16:3 we see the second angel pouring out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters, and they became blood.

And I heard the angel of the waters saying, "Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it."
(Revelation 16:5-6 NASB)

"For they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets," who did this?

Well, if you know your Bible, then you also know that this is speaking of the scribes and Pharisees in Israel, and, it is also pointing at the global elite of the world.

Let's get back to the fire/scorching of humans.

Men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
(Revelation 16:9 NASB)

Some people might think of scorched in terms of a sunburn. The Greek word kaumatizo translated as scorched also means to burn. If I were cooking, this piece of meat would most likely be trash at this point.

“Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.” (Isaiah 24:6 NASB)

A couple of keywords in Isaiah 24.

• “and those who live in it are held guilty.”

  Forgiven of sin, what are we being held guilty of?

  Refusal to believe and follow Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

• “Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left”

  The Hebrew word for burn is chârar, and though it means hot and scorched, it also means to be dry and angry.

Notice something from Revelation 16:9.

Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. (Revelation 16:9 NASB)

Scorched with a fierce heat, they blasphemed the name of God and did not repent. Obviously, the scorching was NOT to death for all, but it was meant to drive them to repentance.

In Isaiah forty-two the context is Israel.

So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention. (Isaiah 42:25 NASB)

Have no doubts, God does bring His fire upon the unrepentant, and we saw that in the story of Lot. Elijah is another.

Elijah replied to the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. (2 Kings 1:10 NASB)

And, God, during the beginning of the seven-years of wrath, will set His two witnesses in the streets of Jerusalem, who spew fire out their mouths, among other things.

Elijah replied to the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. (2 Kings 1:10 NASB)

I appreciated the questions as I have been motivated to look at things like fire, as part of the end times scenario, more thoroughly, and I must say, do not see the earth awash in fire, as yet. Fire is undeniable and is primarily associated with the Lake of Fire. From a scientific point of view, if the Sun was acting up, as it appears to be, then why couldn't it supernova and destroy everything nearby; that might be where this is going, however, the final purging of pollution from the earth seems more effective between the great white throne and an eternity completely purged of sin.