Timing: This phase begins after the Millennial Kingdom, after Satan’s final, brief rebellion and ultimate defeat, and the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20).
Characteristics:
- New Heavens and New Earth: This is a “renewal” or “regeneration” of the present creation, not an annihilation and replacement. It is a “holistic restoration of all things” to a perfected state.
- No Sin or Death: “There will be no longer any curse” (Revelation 22:3). There will be no sin, sorrow, crying, pain, or death (Revelation 21:4, 8, 27). This distinguishes it from the Millennium where some sin and death may still occur.
- Direct Presence of God: God’s throne will be among men, and His bond-servants will serve Him, seeing His face (Revelation 22:3-4).
- New Jerusalem: A literal, tangible “New Jerusalem,” of immense size, will exist on the new Earth, serving as the dwelling place of God and His people.
- Nations and Diversity: Nations with their kings will bring cultural contributions into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24, 26), living in perfect harmony and unity, demonstrating a glorious diversity.
- Tree of Life: The “river of the water of life” and the “tree of life” (Revelation 22:1-2) will be present, signifying perpetual life and healing. Time, in the form of chronological months, will still exist, but without negative elements like decay.
Purpose: Jesus’ mediatorial kingdom merges into the “perfect Kingdom of the Father” (1 Corinthians 15:24, 28), where God is “all in all,” and His will is fully accomplished “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). This is the final, permanent state of perfect communion with God.
In summary, the Present Age is marked by sin and waiting for the King, the Millennial Kingdom is Jesus’ visible, righteous, but not yet perfectly sinless reign on a restored Earth, and the Eternal Kingdom is the final, perfected state of the new heavens and new Earth, devoid of all evil and completely under God’s direct, eternal rule.
From my book The Fivefold Plan of God.