(Matthew 19:28) ²⁸ Jesus said to them: "Truly I say to YOU, In the re-creation, when the Son of man sits down upon his glorious throne, YOU who have followed me will also yourselves sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

re-creation is alternately rendered 'regeneration' NASB or 'renewal of all things' NIV and here you can see the Greek and its definitons.  Renewal suggests to me, putting things back as they were meant to be.

www.studylight.org/isb/view.cgi?number=3...

And then Luke 23:43, the reference Bible lists some manuscripts that used words there that render 'Garden of Eden.' Here Jesus promises 'paradise' and most of the definitions for the Greek word basically come out 'park.'

In Paradise," אABVgJ^11,13,16; Gr., en toi pa·ra·dei′soi J^17,18,22(Heb.), beghan-‛E′dhen, "in the garden of Eden." See Ge 2:8, 10, 15, 16, in LXX.;

I am not versed enought to know what J17, 18, 22 are exactly, but know it refers to manuscripts.

www.studylight.org/isb/view.cgi?number=3...

I needed a thread like this, thanks!

Oh and allow me a small whine.. I can't wait for Paradise Earth, my head feels like it might shortly explode, my sinuses right out my ears.  Decongestants are not cutting it!  And half our Hall was out with the 'flu last night... the pits.

Hi Atalaya,

You cited Isa 25:8 along with other verses from Isaiah.

I have found that I like to use these verses in a chain;

(Daniel 2:44) "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite;

And then to show where this is going to take place, I go back to verses34-35.

(Daniel 2:34-35) You kept on looking until a stone was cut out not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of molded clay and crushed them. ³⁵ At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them. And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.

Yes, This Kingdom that is represented in this dream as a rock or stone, becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. Isaiah also uses a mountain to as a symbol of God's Kingdom.

(Isaiah 25:6-8) And Jehovah of armies will certainly make for all the peoples, in this mountain, a banquet of well-oiled dishes, a banquet of [wine kept on] the dregs, of well-oiled dishes filled with marrow, of [wine kept on] the dregs, filtered. ⁷ And in this mountain he will certainly swallow up the face of the envelopment that is enveloping over all the peoples, and the woven work that is interwoven upon all the nations. ⁸ He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].

And again notice where this is all taking place, yes here on the earth. Even the apostle Paul talks about where this is going to happen.

(Acts 17:30-31 NWT) True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now he is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent. ³¹ Because he has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead."

These verses work well together to show that this earth is where these blessings are going to take place.

Thanks everyone for the attention and comments. I never really thought about those scriptures in Daniel in that way before.  Many churches I have ever gone to have either avoided the topic of what will be the ultimate demise of the earth and even the people on it.  I grew tired of the same ol' vague answer of "We will leave that in God's hands." Or, "We don't really don't the mystery of God and what he has for the earth in the far distant future."  Many have told me that the earth will be ruined and burned someday, which never really made any sense to me why God would destroy the earth in a literal way.  It certainly appears that it is the wicked who will be destroyed and that the blessings of God's Kingdom will be shown on the earth as well as heaven! 

How can anyone honestly deny that and believe such things as the earth burning up and everyone goes to heaven?  When I was young, the churches always taught that we need to be "saved" to avoid being tortured forever in hell.  This is not really true in recent years.  Most churches avoid the subject altogether.  Maybe they would lose even more members if they didn't tell them what they wanted to hear? 

Thanks, anotherpaul.

Some of that went over my head a little bit.  Sure, I have my own ideas as to what some means, but I keep going back and forth through multiple ideas as to its interpretation from different churches that I have been to.  It can be a bit confusing to say the least. 

The biggest obstacle I have staring me at my face is that I could never understand why God would create us and just let us die and go to heaven when we are finished doing that.  The future of the earth and the people on it was rarely discussed, and when it was there were different ideas about it.  Nothing was really too consistent regarding this topic.  A loving God would NOT create humans to live a short time, suffer life's unfortunate scenes, and then die (most often with pain..for the dying and their surviving family).  It doesn't make sense and when I asked that question, at most I got a vague answer. It just seems that the Bible was written with humans in mind, not spirit beings.  To me, it would be logical to conclude that God wouldn't leave that piece of the puzzle out!  Practically the only group of people I have ever met that would openly discuss this topic and strive to learn about AND share with others is Jehovah's Witnesses.  I believe the Bible has all the important answers in life, and they seem to be the only ones sharing it with the world...the whole world.  If it is sooooo important to spread the gospel, why isn't anyone else doing it on such a grand scale?  Puzzling.

Regardless of what many say, the world's beliefs are confusing and contradictory.  They are not united at all.  It seems logical to me that a true religion from God would be a strong uniting force.  There are literally billions in the world who claim to be christian, yet there really isn't much unity and love in the world.  This fact has pushed me into investigating the idea of evolution and atheism.  This didn't make any sense either.  I view myself as an optimistic individual most of the time, but I also believe that there are some things that shouldn't be ignored.  The world is crumbling and most aren't too concerned, unless it affects them personally.  Then, they rely on the cause of the problem for a solution.

I appreciate what I am learning from the Jehovah's Witnesses material, including personal testimony and information.  It might be somewhat of a disadvantage (or maybe that is also an advantage) that I am slow about accepting something as true, without strong and solid evidence.  I don't want to believe something that isn't true, yet I don't want to ignore something that proves to be true either.  I am maliable and will mold my beliefs according to the evidence that I see.  I will not ignore them to stick to what was or is traditionally taught.  The concept of hell seemed to have gone through a transition in my churches, when it is talked about at all.  Before, it was literal burning in hell.  While some churches still believe this to be true, it seems that the current trend is to say that it is some sort of "eternal separation" from God (whatever that means).  People believe whatever it is they want to believe.

Enough of my ranting and raving.  I am just venting.  At one time I left any idea or thought of attending any church or adopting any belief in God at all because of all the confusion in religion, and didn't see any benefit from it.  The message I got (generally) was "We are all sinners."  "Christ died for me, now I am saved."....so be happy that I am going to heaven."  Such messages seemed to be too vague for me to keep pursuing.