Chapter 32—The Home of the Saved
The Day of Christ’s coming is a day of destruction only to evil. It
is a day of redemption, not only for God’s people, but for the earth.
God created the earth to be man’s home. Here Adam dwelt in that
garden of delight which the Creator Himself had beautified. Though
sin has marred God’s work, yet the human race has not been abandoned
by its Creator; nor His purpose for the earth set aside.
To this earth angels have come, with the message of redemption,
and its hills and valleys have echoed their songs of rejoicing. Its soil
has been trodden by the feet of the Son of God. And for more than
six thousand years, in its forms of beauty and gifts for sustenance, the
earth has borne witness of the Creator’s love.
This same earth, freed from the curse of sin, is to be man’s eternal
home. Of the earth the Scripture says, that God “created it not in vain,
He formed it to be inhabited.”
Isaiah 45:18
. And “whatsoever God
doeth, it shall be for ever.”
Ecclesiastes 3:14
.
[184]
So in the Sermon on the Mount the Saviour declared, “Blessed are
the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:5
.
So the psalmist long before had written, “The meek shall inherit
the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
Psalm 37:11
.
With this agree the words of the Scripture, “The righteous shall
be recompensed in the earth.” They “shall inherit the land, and dwell
therein for ever.”
Proverbs 11:31
;
Psalm 37:29
.
The fires of the last day are to destroy “the heavens and the earth,
which are now;” but there shall come forth “new heavens and a new
earth.”
2 Peter 3:7, 13
. The heavens and the earth will be made new.
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
.
No human language can fully describe the reward of the righteous.
It will be known only to those who behold it. We can not comprehend
the glory of the Paradise of God.
106