Fire and Fury and this Earth as an Inheritance

"The meek will inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)

"The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not inhabit the earth." (Proverbs 10:30)

Let Korea and all present and future world empires, including America, take notice. Nations, kings, dictators and Presidents may flaunt their alleged powers to destroy the earth, and seek to intimidate God’s people as they choose, but it is only for a season (2:1-23; 14:1-12; 27:1-2, 11-37; cf. Psalm 36).

Those who follow Jesus' teachings will ultimately "inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

The Prince of Peace told us to go and “make disciples of all the nations” (28:19) until He returns. When Christ begins to reign in the heart of a person, the "Prince of Peace" is King over that person. (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). However, there is coming a day when Christ will physically reign from the earth as King of Kings, living among His people forever.

The Bible teaches the righteous will live forever with earth as our eternal home.

God said to Abram,

"Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever." (Genesis 13:14-15).

Abraham, of course, is "the father of us all," that is "those of us who have the faith of Abraham" (Romans 4:16). Abraham "believed God" and it was credited to him as righteousness. God's righteousness, the only kind of righteousness that counts, is received through faith. And those with this faith in Him will live forever on the earth.

Moses knew the earth would be God's peoples' possession forever. He prayed:

"Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'" (Exodus 32:13).

God reiterated His promise throughout the prophetical writings that He would give His people land forever. God declared through the prophet Ezekiel:

 "I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them .... They will be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David (the Messiah) will be king over them, and they will all have one Shepherd. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their Prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.'" (Ezekiel 37:21-28). 

Ezekiel plainly teaches the righteous will inherit this land forever.

When Jesus raises the dead to judge and sentence the wicked to the second death and gives to the righteous immortal life, He will usher in this everlasting age where "the meek inherit the earth." Paul describes this event:

"We tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." (I Thessalonians 4:15-18). 

Notice, Paul teaches the home of the eternal home of the righteous is on the earth, with the curse of sin and death fully reversed. It is on this earth that we will be "with the Lord" forever, for He will make His habitation among us.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:1-4). 

Christ will be dwelling with us on earth. We will be on earth with Him. God's purpose at the general resurrection and judgment is to sentence the resurrected wicked from all the ages to "the second death" and to gift the resurrected righteous with "immortal life."

This last judgment is described by Christ Himself.

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come" (Matthew 24:36-42). 

The Gentile gospel writer, Dr. Luke, describes the final judgment of the wicked similar to Matthew.

"I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left" (Luke 17:34). 

The Gospel writers assume that we know what happened in the days of Noah. So, do you know what happened in the days of Noah when God judged the world for sin?

God then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation....Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." (Genesis 7:1-4). 

Noah and his family "in the ark" were delivered to a "new land," and the wicked were destroyed. No one was physically removed from the earth. The earth was transformed and made new. Only the righteous (those in the ark) inherited the new earth.

So it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

The final judgment of the wicked is also compared to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And God said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous... Then Abraham approached Christ and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:20-25).

Luke compares the coming of Christ in final judgment of the wicked and the gifting of eternal life to the righteous to what happened in the days of Sodom (e.g. "the days of Lot").  

 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17:28-30). 

Again the pattern of God's judgment throughout the Bible is consistent; the wicked are killed and the righteous stay on earth.

When Jesus describes His coming in final judgment in Matthew 24:36-42 (through v. 35 it is the judgment of Jerusalem), Jesus is only repeated what the Law (e.g. the Old Testament) has consistently taught about God destroying the wicked and rewarding the righteous with land.

"For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it." (Proverbs 2:21-22). 

"Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, For God will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared." (Proverbs 3:25-26). 

"The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land." (Proverbs 10:30)

"For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in God will inherit the land." (Psalm 37:9). 

"A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found." (Psalm 37:10). 

"Those God blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off." (Psalm 37:22). 

"For God loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off" (Psalm 37:28). 

"The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever." (Psalm 37:29). 

"When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever." (Proverbs 10:25). 

Jesus, steeped in the teachings of the Law, and One who came "to fulfill the Law," taught consistently with the Hebrew Scriptures. The wicked will be destroyed and the righteous will be gathered into His Kingdom forever - a Kingdom that is on earth.

"The highest heavens belong to God, but the earth he has given to man." (Psalm 115:16). 

You might need to adjust your view of "heaven." Heaven is nothing more, nothing less, than the righteous being "raised from the death" and inheriting "the earth" forever. God's people will live on this "new earth" with the "curse fully reversed," for the wicked will be destroyed and as the prophet Malachi said, "The righteous will walk on the ashes of the wicked" (Malachi 4:3).

The Bible teaches that Christ will dwell with His people on earth forever.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3). 

"The days are coming," declares God, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land." (Jeremiah 21:5). 

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:10). 

"The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Son, and he will reign for ever and ever." (Revelation 11;15). 

"The righteous shall inherit the earth, and dwell therein for ever." (Psalm 37:29). 

The Old Testament Scriptures, the apostles, and Jesus Christ all taught that the righteous have their eternal dwelling on earth. We never see disembodied spirits floating in some mystical heaven as something taught in the Bible. The prophets of Scripture all taught the resurrection of the dead, a final judgment where the wicked are sentenced to death, and the righteous are gifted with immortal life and given the title deed to the earth.

No matter what Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, or Kim Jong-Un have in mind in terms of "the destruction of the earth," the King of Kings has given His Word that the earth will be preserved for His people at His coming.

So, next time you are tempted to litter, remember,that you would be soiling your eternal home. A proper understanding of one's future home gives a good corrective to one's present conduct.