BOOK OF REVELATION
Lesson 48 - Chapter 21 Continued
In the previous lesson, which was meant as a preface to our study of Revelation chapter 21,
we spent much of our time looking at the nature and characteristics of the original Creation as
described in Genesis. This is the same Creation in which we currently live, and it is the same
Creation that will exist throughout the Millennial Kingdom period of 1000 years. The reason for
this revisit of the Creation is because chapter 21 introduces us to the new earth and heaven
(heaven in this case indicating the physical Universe, not the spiritual Heaven where God
lives). Thus this re-Creation is distinctly different from the original Creation and we're going to
be looking at those several differences.
Let's first review some of the most significant characteristics of the original Creation of
Genesis. First is that the Genesis Creation has the underlying governing dynamic of being
created as a Universe of opposites. This reality is reflected in rather self-evident ways that we
all experience every day but perhaps don't think about; but the universal Creation structure of
opposites is also made clear in the words of the Genesis creation account. For instance: God
created light to separate it from darkness, and to give us day and night. He created dry land to
separate it from the watery oceans. Opposites. Through our life experience we learn the
universal reality that where there is life, there is also death; and that evil and good exist side by
side. Because there is up, there is also down. Where there is near, there is far. Because there
is big, there is necessarily little. Even atoms are made up of positive and negative charged
particles. Opposites.
Second is that the original Creation has been corrupted by sin. This corruption has infected not
only humankind, but also everything that makes up the Universe. Thus God's ultimate plan of
redemption is not aimed only at man, but rather at His entire Creation.
Third, and connected with the second, is that redemption inherently involves a new creation, or
(perhaps better stated) a re-creation. There is no such thing as redemption without re-creation.
CJB
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new
creation- the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!
Fourth is that God created His Creation in such a way as to give it certain freedoms that even
involved the Creation itself being able to create. This ability for Creation to create has definite
boundaries, and must obey the limits God has set because He uses this creative ability of His
Creation to bring about His will. Another freedom God has given some of His Creation is the
freedom to choose. Humanity has the freedom to choose in both preference and in morality.
Many (perhaps most) animals have a measure of freedom of preference; however the freedom
of morality applies strictly to humans. By the freedom of morality I mean the freedom for
humans to choose to love God or not. This is expressed by our willingness to trust Him and
thereby agree to live by His laws and commandments.... or not.
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Fifth, because of the fourth, then the Universe is constantly undergoing change; it is not static.
Old stars use up their fuel, burn out, collapse and explode, and new stars are created from the
vast cosmic dust clouds. Our Sun burns hotter and cooler in cycles. Oceans rise and fall
changing coastline geography. Rivers change course, carve out canyons, and move soil
around. Our earth's crust is split into giant plates than forever move upon a molten core. They
collide with one another thus shoving up mountains, causing earthquakes and at times
volcanoes to erupt that in turn create new land. Even plants are known to change to adapt to
an ever-changing environment.
One other point and we'll move on. The Bible is frustratingly short on details about eternity; and
eternity is something most Believers are quite interested in. We get a fair amount of
information about the Millennial Kingdom period in the final 8 chapters of Ezekiel (especially as
it concerns Temple operations), and from a couple of chapters in Revelation, and in a few
statements by Christ in the Gospel accounts. But what happens at the end of history..... after
the End Times, and then after the succeeding 1000 year reign of Christ.... is that time comes to
an end and we enter into the realm of eternity. While it is not comprehensive, we do get quite a
bit of information about eternity in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. So if eternity is of interest to
you, you'd do well to pay close attention to the lessons on these final 2 chapters of the Holy
Bible.
With that as our background, let's re-read Revelation chapter 21. We're going to go over a lot
of Scripture today, especially ancient prophetic Scripture, so keep those Bibles handy.
RE-READ REVELATION CHAPTER 21
If there is an overriding theme to chapter 21 it is "newness". It is emphasized in the phrase "for
the old heaven and earth had passed away". One of the important questions that, when
answered, shapes one's theology concerning eternity is exactly what this newness amounts to
and when, exactly, it happens. That is, to attain this "newness" will the dross of sin merely be
burned off in order to expose the pure metal of righteousness underneath? Or will this be a
complete destruction of the old and the reconstruction of something entirely new? At what point
in history will this happen, or has it already happened? Interestingly the bulk of the Early
Church Fathers did not believe that the current earth and heavens would be entirely obliterated
and replaced, but that whatever it amounted to was in the future.
Oecumenius of the late 900's A.D. says this in his Commentary on the Apocalypse:
In his second letter Peter speaks in a similar way: "According to his promise we wait for
new heavens and a new earth". They do not say this as though heaven and earth and
sea are destroyed and pass into nonexistence and that other things come into being in
their place. Rather they mean that the present realities have cast off their corruption and
become new, as though it were an old and dirty garment".
Augustine, writing 6 centuries earlier, was not quite as certain as Oecumenius about the extent
of this newness with a new earth and heavens. In his ancient work "The City of God" he says:
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Afterwards this world as we see it will pass away, burned away by terrestrial fires, just
as the flood was caused by the overflowing of terrestrial waters. This conflagration will
utterly burn away the corruptible characteristics proper to corruptible bodies, as such;
whereupon our substance will possess only those qualities that are consistent with
bodies immortalized in this marvelous transformation...... to this end, that the world,
remade into something better, will become fit for people now remade, even in their
bodies, into something better."
We discussed last week how the culture and the era in which a person lives greatly colors their
worldview. Therefore it can and will greatly affect how one reads the Bible. In the times of
these Church Fathers that I quoted, and in much earlier times, the discipline of "science" as we
know it did not exist. They had no understanding of how the Universe operated, or of the
nature of elements and atoms, or much of anything about the actual substance of what existed
above their heads or under their feet. Neither microscopes nor telescopes had yet been
invented. So the idea of the earth and the Universe being disassembled back to its smallest
particles and then being reassembled into something else was not a thought they could have
entertained. Thus they tended to liken Peter's claim of the current earth being melted and
John's claim of a new heaven and earth being formed in its place, to the earth being purged of
evil by the water in Noah's Flood. So Peter's statement in 2nd Peter 3 that
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However, the
Day of the Lord will come "like a thief." On that Day the heavens will disappear with a
roar, the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything in it will be
burned up was not taken by the Early Church Fathers in a fully literal sense because they
could not in their wildest imagination understand how such a thing could physically occur.
Interestingly in our day, with our increasing knowledge of how the Universe operates and the
processes of its formation, Peter's claim can and should be taken literally not only because it is
God's Word but also because it is entirely feasible from a scientific standpoint. But even Peter
is essentially building upon what Isaiah said 7 centuries prior to him. So for us in the 21st
century it's only an issue of whether we choose to believe it or not. History proves that most
errors that prophecy teachers and students have made, whether in ancient or modern times, is
by not taking the words of prophecies literally enough. And usually that is because in their era
and in their culture they could not take seriously how the literal nature of what was being
foretold could possibly occur. This inability to accept what is written as the literal truth leads to
allegorizing and spiritualizing critical Scripture passages and thus the intended meaning
becomes obscured and is replaced with incorrect manmade doctrines that can endure for
centuries. So even when the disappearance of the present earth and heavens is plainly
foretold as in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, believing it was nearly incomprehensible to the
ancients.
CJB
Revelation 20:11
11
Next I saw a great white throne and the One sitting on it. Earth
and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.
How can earth and the heavens "flee" from God's presence; and even more, how can no place
be found for them? Only if they are destroyed and have essentially disappeared. Therefore
with all the Scriptural evidence, and now even scientific evidence supporting Peter's startling
claim that the way that the heavens and the earth will pass away is by intense heat
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deconstructing everything back into their basic elements, then we must take what he and John
are prophesying as factually true. The new heavens and earth will be new in its most complete
sense. Fire and intense heat will be used to destroy the earth, as opposed to purifying it as did
the waters of Noah's flood. So the Early Church Fathers got it wrong. But only because it was
not yet time to understand the meaning of this prophesied re-creation event more fully as we
can today.
Then to end chapter 21 verse 1, we read that the sea will no longer be there. What, exactly,
does that mean? Are we to understand that the oceans will no longer exist and there will only
be dry land? Will we become a green planet instead of a blue one? Why would that be
necessary? As you can imagine there are many suggestions put forth by Bible commentators.
Rather than go through them all, let's get right to the bottom line.
The term "sea" is used both literally and symbolically throughout the Bible. However the first
thing for us to realize is that to a Jew writing in the 1st century, the literal "sea" would only have
been the Mediterranean Sea. That is, when a Jew spoke about "the sea" it was understood
that it was the enormous body of salt water that formed the western boundary of the holy land.
When they were referring to other seas, such as the Red Sea, they would call them by name.
However there were other uses for the word "sea" as well. For Jews in John's day (and for
centuries earlier) the sea symbolized the restless, turbulent nature of the world. For the most
part, the sea was seen as a powerful and dangerous force, fomenting evil and chaos. This
belief came from the Torah where in the Creation account we read:
CJB
Genesis 1:1 - 2
1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2
The
earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of
God hovered over the surface of the water.
English masks the reason for why the Jews took this passage in the ominous way they did.
The Hebrew word used for darkness in this instance is choshek, which means darkness in a
spiritual sense. That is, something that is obscured, usually by deception. Thus we find God
hovering over this chaotic "deep" that was spiritually dark. In the Bible and in other Jewish
writings the sea also often represented the rebellious gentile nations that constantly oppressed
God's chosen people. In Revelation the sea was the transportation highway for the world's
greedy merchants and the idolaters who reveled in the Babylon the Great world system, and it
was out of this symbolic sea that the demonic Sea Beast would arise. And yet in another
setting "the sea" was a sort of nickname for the giant bronze water laver that sat just outside
the door into the Temple, where priests would purify themselves before entering by washing
with the living water that the laver held.
So which of these meanings of the term "sea" are we to assume is the proper interpretation of
the statement that "the sea was no longer there" in this passage? I suggest that they are all
correct because they all stem from the same root. That is, not only is the Mediterranean sea as
a literal body of salt water gone in John's vision of the new earth (and probably all the world's
oceans are gone as well), but so are all the evil, chaotic, and oppressive aspects of the world
that the term "sea" has historically symbolized. Not only that, but because verse 22 explains
that the new earth will have no Temple in Jerusalem, then it fits that there will be no more
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water laver (nicknamed "the sea") for purification of priests, because there will no longer be a
priesthood. Thus the sea will gone in every respect.
Verse 2 explains that John observes the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God. This event was first foretold in another of Isaiah's prophecies. Notice that here the
New Jerusalem is called "the holy city". But historically, Jerusalem has been anything but holy.
Biblically, Jerusalem was constantly condemned by God's prophets for its idolatry, bloodshed,
corruption, and sin, and was regularly punished for it. So the old Jerusalem was (is) in as much
need of redemption as any other part of God's Creation.
Isaiah plays a key role in providing information and context throughout Revelation, but perhaps
none greater than in the final 2 chapters. What he has to say is something we shouldn't bypass
so we're going to read the entire 52nd chapter of Isaiah. You will immediately see that the
subject is the eventual redemption of Jerusalem.
READ ISAIAH CHAPTER 52 all
Notice that in the first verse God calls Jerusalem "the holy city", and it is because "the
uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more". Verse 9 says:
CJB
Isaiah 52:9
9
Break out into joy! Sing together, you ruins of Yerushalayim! For
ADONAI has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim!
And who brings about this redemption?
CJB
Isaiah 52:13-15
13
"See how my servant will succeed! He will be raised up, exalted,
highly honored!
14
Just as many were appalled at him, because he was so disfigured
that he didn't even seem human and simply no longer looked like a man,
15
so now he
will startle many nations; because of him, kings will be speechless. For they will see
what they had not been told, they will ponder things they had never heard."
In retrospect we now know that this servant of God is Yeshua, who is the agent of redemption
for God's entire Creation. So far in Revelation God has redeemed (and thus, hand in hand, re-
created) the earth and the heavens, and He has redeemed (and thus re-created) Jerusalem.
Paul knew that the redemption of Jerusalem is less an event and more a process, something
that has been in the works in Heaven for a long time, and he speaks about it in Galatians 4.
But the anonymous writer of the Book of Hebrews also makes a poignant statement about this
heavenly new Jerusalem that I'd like you to hear.
CJB
Hebrews 12:18-24
18
For you have not come to a tangible mountain, to an ignited
fire, to darkness, to murk, to a whirlwind,
19
to the sound of a shofar, and to a voice
whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be given to them-
20
for
they couldn't bear what was being commanded them, "If even an animal touches the
mountain, it is to be stoned to death";
21
and so terrifying was the sight that Moshe said,
"I am quaking with dread."
22
On the contrary, you have come to Mount Tziyon, that is,
the city of the living God, heavenly Yerushalayim; to myriads of angels in festive
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assembly;
23
to a community of the firstborn whose names have been recorded in
heaven; to a Judge who is God of everyone; to spirits of righteous people who have
been brought to the goal;
24
to the mediator of a new covenant, Yeshua; and to the
sprinkled blood that speaks better things than that of Hevel (Abel).
What we learn in the final 2 chapters of Revelation is that in the new earth and the new
Jerusalem, God will not be hidden away in a Temple, with a physical barrier between He and
His people that is meant to keep them away from His supreme holiness. A physical barrier that
if crossed in prior times meant death for the violator, like at Mt. Sinai and with the Temple in
Jerusalem. As Hebrews 12 notes, at Mt. Sinai no human or animal could approach God and
live except for one: Moses. In the Jerusalem Temple, no human or animal could approach God
(in the Holy of Holies) and live except for one: the High Priest, and even then only 1 time per
year. Yet because of Messiah Yeshua and the redemption He has enabled, all barriers,
physical and spiritual, between God and mankind will be gone with the new earth. We will have
no fear in approaching the God of the Universe because Yeshua's blood has more power to
save and redeem than the sacrifices of Abel. God will truly and completely be God With Us,
which was always His goal.
For the sake of clarity: when Jerusalem (or new Jerusalem) is spoken of, it is not
representative of the city infrastructure per se; rather it is representative of the people who
reside there. Thus just as it was not the infrastructure of the old Jerusalem that was
condemned as sinful and idolatrous, but rather it was the people, so it will be that the new
Jerusalem is representative of the holy, pure and redeemed people who will live within it.
Verse 3 says that from God's throne in Heaven, a loud voice is heard that announces God's
living presence with His people. Who is making the loud voice? Not God, because the
message is not in the first person. It might be the 4 Living Beings who surround and guard His
throne; but we aren't told. The CJB makes an error, I think, in saying that God's Sh'kinah will
be with mankind. Rather the Greek word is skene and it means tabernacle. So this statement
is merely saying that God will be living on earth with mankind. In what form He will exist on the
new earth we are not told.
An interesting point about this verse that is worth exploring is where we read "they will be His
peoples". Most translations have it as "they will be his people" (singular). However the Greek
word used is laoi, a plural, that means peoples. Other parts of the Old and New Testaments
speak of God's people, singular, that in Greek is laos. So why the change here in Revelation
21? I think the reason may be that while in other parts of the Bible the term "God's people" is
specifically referring to Israelites in the historical sense (one distinct people group), here the
point is that many peoples (plural) will be represented on the new earth and all will be
considered as God's people. Or, as we find it earlier in Revelation chapter 5,
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and they sang
a new song, "You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals; because you were
slaughtered; at the cost of blood you ransomed for God persons from every tribe,
language, people and nation. Racial, cultural, and ethnic boundaries have been obliterated
because through trust in Christ all have access to redemption...... not just ethnic Israelites. This
was a promise that was famously made to Abraham in Genesis 12, around 2000 years before
the Apostle John lived.
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CJB
Genesis 12:1 - 3
1
Now ADONAI said to Avram, "Get yourself out of your country,
away from your kinsmen and away from your father's house, and go to the land that I
will show you.
2
I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your
name great; and you are to be a blessing.
3
I will bless those who bless you, but I will
curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
So upon the advent of the new earth, the diversity of blessed people that God promised to
Abraham will finally come about.
Next is verse 4; a verse spoken at nearly every funeral I've ever attended. It explains that the
tears and pain and mourning from death will be gone, because the old order of things has
passed away. With the new earth there will be no more death. Nothing and no one will die;
ever. Yet again Isaiah speaks about the coming of this day:
CJB
Isaiah 25:8-9
8
He will swallow up death forever. Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the
tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people
suffer. For ADONAI has spoken.
9
On that day they will say, "See! This is our God! We
waited for him to save us. This is ADONAI; we put our hope in him. We are full of joy, so
glad he saved us!"
So we read that the old order has been replaced with the new order. The old order seems to
have two aspects to it. First is that aspect of order that God established at Creation; an order
that produced our Universe of opposites and all that comes with it. Second is that aspect of
order that lays down how mankind and all living creatures are to relate to God. That second
aspect of the old order began at the Garden of Eden with the fall of Adam and Eve, and later it
was made into a law code and put to writing on Mt. Sinai with Moses. Both aspects of the old
order will continue on until the new earth and heavens are established. It is popular in the
Church to say that Christ abolished the old order (the order given to Moses). But even Christ
Himself told us exactly when that old order would be abolished. He said in Matthew 5:18 that
not the tiniest bit of the Torah would pass away (part of the old order) until heaven and earth
passes away (the beginning point of the new order). So please notice: the old order did not
pass away at the foot of the cross. Not Christ's first coming nor even His return to inaugurate
His 1000 year reign abolishes the old order and replaces it with a new order. It only happens
here in Revelation 21; it occurs after the end of the Millennial Kingdom, upon the destruction of
the old earth and heavens, and the re-creation of the new earth and heavens. And,
significantly, it only happens after Christ has handed the Kingdom back over to God the Father.
CJB
1 Corinthians 15:21-25
21
For since death came through a man, also the
resurrection of the dead has come through a man.
22
For just as in connection with
Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive.
23
But each in his
own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the
time of his coming;
24
then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God
the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power.
25
For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet.
When this old older is replaced is a huge doctrinal issue in the Church. So huge that many
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good Bible commentators have concluded that the final chapters of Revelation must have been
given to us out of order, and so they rearrange sections of these chapters so as to change the
point in time at which this new order of things that we read about in Revelation 21 occurs. And
this is done so that it upholds their personal, and no doubt denominational, doctrinal beliefs. I
suggest that we accept what has been handed down to us as inspired writings just as they are,
and not attempt to modify them unless we should find earlier original manuscripts that show
something different.
We'll continue in Revelation 21 next week.
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