
1000 Years
After the Wrath period is ended and Satan is bound, Jesus sets up His Kingdom on Earth for what's typically referred to as the 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth (also known as the Millennium) where He will "rule with a rod of iron." There will be no more war and the whole world will be at peace and His resurrected saints will rule and reign with Him over the remaining nations of unbelievers who survived through the Great Tribulation and the Wrath. At the end of the 1000 years Satan is loosed to deceive the nations one last time and gathers together a huge army to fight against the Saints in what's sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Gog and Magog."
At this point God sends down fire from Heaven to devour the armies of Satan, at which time scripture suggests that the surface of the Earth and the surrounding atmosphere get burned up as well. Then there is the "great white throne judgment" where God judges the "dead" (those who never received Christ as their Savior), and those not found written in the "book of life" are cast into the "Lake of Fire." During this point in time God recreates the surface of the Earth and the surrounding atmosphere anew and the Heavenly City comes down to dwell on the Earth.
The Heavenly City, scripture seems to suggests, will be a pyramid (See Psalms 24:3-5 Isaiah 2:2; Daniel 2:35; Michah 4:1). It will be 1500 miles high, wide and long made of crystal gold material. The streets will also be of this same crystal gold material. A wall around 216 feet high surrounds the City having 12 layers with material composed of different types of jewels each about 18 ft thick. The wall has 12 gates, 3 on each side, each gate being a large single pearl.
In the middle of the city is a "pure river of water of life" flowing from the "throne of God and the Lamb." In the middle and on both sides of the river is the "Tree of Life" that produces twelve kinds of fruit, yielding a new crop each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations suggesting those who live outside of the city (Rev. 22:14-15) may eventually receive some form of redemption. This brings up an interesting subject regarding the fate of those who never received Christ in the first life.
Typically, it's taught that they all end up in hell. But it may be more nuanced than that. First, you've got those who live into the 1000 Years (Rev. 20:4-6, Zech. 14:16). If they live to the end of that period without having received Christ they are brought before God, along with all others that died in the past without Christ, and are judged by God according to their works at the "Great White Throne Judgement." Those not found written in the "book of life" are cast into hell. But what happens to those who are found written in the "book of life?" The assumption would be that they are the people of the nations found living outside the Heavenly City (Rev. 22:2,15), subjects of the kings of the earth (Rev. 21:24).
In Rev. 21:27 it talks about only those written in the "Lamb's book of life" are able to enter into the Heavenly City. This seems to suggest a distinction between the "book of life" and the "Lamb's book of life." Those found in the "Lamb's" book are those who have received Jesus' gift of salvation and are allowed to enter and live inside the Heavenly City because they have been forever cleansed of their sins through the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14-17; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9; Rm. 6:23). On the other hand, the "book of life", apart from those not found in it who are cast into the lake of fire, seems to be for those who are found in it and whose works are worthy enough of living on the New Earth outside the Heavenly City.