“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.” Revelation 22:1-3.

The above has been included to maintain context this post begins below at Revelation 22:4.

“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Revelation 22:4.

What does God the Father look like? Perhaps among mankind only His children will know.

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.

While those who reject Jesus Christ will see Him on judgment day they will very likely never see God the Fathers face.

“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” John 5:22-23.

“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.” John 5:26-27.

If you want to know God now, you need only look at Christ in the Scriptures.

“God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” Hebrews 1:1-3.

“And there shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” Revelation 22:5.

God reemphasizes here that there will be no need of the sun or of a lamp for He gives them light. It is the glory of God that illuminates the new earth.

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5.

God gives us light in eternity and Jesus gives us spiritual light in the dark world in which we live now.

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’” John 8:12.

This spiritual light will enlighten us, guide us, and make us more and more holy for our citizenship in heaven. And as eternity rolls on the light of God will reveal more and more of Himself to us.

Again I want to remind you that the eternal state as described in chapters 21 and 22 is shown nowhere else in Scripture, with the exception of some obscure references found elsewhere.

As a result there is little more than speculation beyond the above verses. So as you read different commentaries on the book, the descriptions of the eternal state may vary quite a bit, leaving you to decide what you are comfortable with.

When you try to visualize heaven or the new heaven and the new earth remember that you are dealing with things that are far beyond your imagination.

Things like colors that man has never seen, which this jeweled and golden city are an expression of, telling us in terms we understand that there is far more.

Imagine walking inside a flower. Think of going for a walk, around the world! Think of exploring one of billions of planets before breakfast (I speak on earthly terms) and returning, then leaving again before lunch.

Imagine spending a lifetime exploring that planet and writing a book encouraging others to visit it; then realizing that you had not used any of your eternal lifetime up.

Perhaps you may even seat yourself before God and become so enthralled that you will not leave for thousands of years. Is such a thing possible?

People have idols that captivate their hearts today. Some have built their lives around Elvis Presley, the Beatles, some guru, or religion, others idolize sports or athletes.

Is it too much to think that God could completely entrance His followers? God created beauty; perhaps He has a beauty that you cannot take your eyes off of.

He is the origin of all wisdom, He has all knowledge and can answer every question you ever had, or perhaps just the sound of His voice will have you transfixed in wonder.

Having said all these things I would like to go out on a limb and do some educated guesswork. The description of this new eternal environment is only concerned with the New Jerusalem, so the impression seems to be one of a bald earth with an extremely large city sitting on it.

Such a place does not seem to do justice to the creativity of God, so since they are already mentioned it is possible that there are mountains on the new earth.

When God finished the six days of creation in Genesis it stated:

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Genesis 1:31a.

Just the world that we live in today is beautiful, and it is nothing like it was. It is possible that though we will not have seas, we may have lush vegetation and animal life of some sort and perhaps large bodies of water.

Perhaps if we look at some descriptions of the millennial reign of Christ we might get some idea of what the creativity of God might produce in the eternal state.

Remember the following describes the millennium not the eternal state which will be a new heaven and a new earth.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:6-9.

I like bears, but I would never try to pet one. Will there be lions, leopards and bears? Would animals we are familiar with be in the new heaven and new earth? Would a cow a goat or even a chicken have a purpose in the eternal state?

I included this quote from Isaiah 11:6-9 not to confuse but to help us see the magnificence of God and the beauty and limitless possibilities that can come from the hand of our loving God.

I base this solely on what it was and what it will be. If we couple this with what it was many ages ago when Satan occupied it before he sinned, it would also be littered with precious stones as hinted in Ezekiel 28.

Speaking of Satan in Eden (not the same as the Garden of Eden), God says this.

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.” Ezekiel 28:13a.

If this speculation is correct, and it is speculation, the new heaven and the new earth will be of rich unbelievable beauty still beyond our imagination.

“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22.

Revelation 22:4-5 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-22-17, updated on 12-12-22.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.