Chapter 36. The Earth Will Be the Dwelling of the Righteous. .
Chapter 36
1. That is according to reason, too. To explain, since they are truly men, it is necessary that their transfer be also true, and that they do not pass away into nonexistence but make progress in existence. For neither the substance nor the matter of creation is to be brought to nought—for the one who established it (creation) is true and trustworthy—but the form of this world is passing away; that is, the things in which the transgression was committed, since man grew old in them. For that reason this form was made temporary, since God foreknew all things, as we have shown in the preceding Book. We have shown, too, as far as possible, what the reason for the temporary things in the creation of the world was. But when the form passes away, and man has been renewed and matures for imperishability, so as not to grow old, there will be a new heaven and new earth, in which man will continue on, always conversing in a new way with God. That these things will always continue without end, Isaiah put in these words: For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I am making, shall remain before me, says the Lord; so shall your descendants and your name remain.
And as the presbyters said: Then those who are worthy of the life in heaven will be transferred there, that is, to heaven; others however will share the delights of paradise; others still will enjoy the beauty of the city. God, however, will be seen everywhere to the degree to which those who see him are worthy.
2. They say that there is this distinction between the dwelling of those who produced a hundredfold and of those with sixty, and of those with thirty: certain ones of them will be taken into heaven; others will live in paradise, others will dwell in the city. For this reason the Lord said, there are many mansions with my Father. For all things belong to God who gives to all a suitable dwelling. As his Word says, The Father has distributed to all to the extent that each one is worthy or will be. And that is the couch on which those who were invited to the wedding will recline and feast.
The presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, assert that this is the order and the method for those who are saved, and that by means of these steps they make progress, and through the Spirit they ascend to the Son and through the Son to the Father. Finally, the Son hands over his work to the Father, as was said by the Apostle: For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For in the times of the “kingdom” the righteous man on the earth will forget to die. He said, But when it says, “All things are put in subjection under him,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to everyone.
3. With precision, therefore, John saw in advance the first resurrection of the righteous, and the inheritance of the land in the kingdom. But this agrees with what the Prophets had foretold about it. For these things the Lord taught, when he promised that he would drink a new mixture of the cup in the kingdom with the disciples. And he also said that the days would come when the dead in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of man and come forth. Those who have done good [will come] to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. He said, those who have done good would rise first and will go to their rest; then those would rise who are to be judged. Thus the Scripture of Genesis has it: The end of this world is the sixth day, that is, the six-thousandth year; and then the seventh day will be the one of rest. David says of it, This is my resting place, the righteous shall enter it. That is the thousandth year of the kingdom of the righteous, in which they shall be disciplined for imperishability, once creation has been renewed, for those for whom this has been reserved.
The Apostle, too, acknowledged that the creation would be freed from the servitude of perishability for the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
In all these things and by means of all of them, the same God the Father is manifested who formed man and promised the inheritance of the land to the Patriarchs, who will give it in the resurrection of the righteous, and who will fulfill the promises in the kingdom of his Son, who later in a fatherly way will bestow those things which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.
Certainly, there is one Son who carried out his Father’s will; and one human race in which God’s mysteries are accomplished, into which angels long to look. But they cannot probe the Wisdom of God by which his handiwork, conformed to and incorporated into his Son, is brought to perfection; namely, that his Firstborn Son, the Word, should descend to his creature, that is, to his handiwork, and that it should be embraced by him; and that the creature should embrace the Word and, passing beyond the angels, should ascend to him and be made after the image and likeness of God.