Fr. Stephen De Young: Chapter 21: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea.” Sorry, beach-goers. No, that’s not what it’s talking about. So when did the old heaven and the old earth pass away? Remember, they ran away. They ran away from God on the throne. [Laughter] They sort of scampered off, so there was a new one. So what is it talking about? Is it talking about the physical earth? Well, then it would have to be talking about the physical heaven, so: no.

It’s talking about the order of the creation. That’s why it’s using “heaven and earth.” Remember, where does Genesis—? We’ll get there in a couple weeks. Where does Genesis 1 start? “In the beginning, God created—the heavens and the earth.” So now we’ve got a new heavens and a new earth. As we’ll talk about more in Genesis 1, what it’s really about is not making something appear out of thin air in Genesis 1. I’m not denying that God created out of nothing; I’m saying that’s not what Genesis 1 is about. Genesis 1 is about God putting things in order.

So there’s a new order. Why is there a new order in heaven? Because there’s no more demonic spirits. Demons out, humans in. And why is there a new order on earth? Because now justice has been established. That’s what judgment is: judgment is establishing justice, putting things back in order. So it’s new: that old order has passed away that had been corrupted by sin. Now there’s this new order that’s like that original order which—remember, God looked at everything and saw that it was good, and the word “good” there, tov, also means beautiful, whole. We’re back to that is the idea here.

And why is there no sea?

Q1: The sea was the symbol of chaos.

Fr. Stephen: Right. The sea is about chaos and destruction. There is no more chaos; there is no more destruction. This isn’t going to repeat itself. The last cycle is over. No more cycles.

Verse two: “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” We already saw the wedding supper of the Lamb language used. So we have the New Jerusalem, the new city of God, and what’s a city? It’s again an order, it’s a community, it’s an ordered community of humans. Humans are going to be in this new community, communal order that comes down from heaven.

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God.” I’ll continue.

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” That old order, that was full of suffering and sin, hardship, death—all that’s over now. And God is now dwelling with his people. Why is that so important? Well, how did all of that death and mourning and crying start? Humanity was expelled from paradise. Now that’s restored; now humanity is in the presence of God again.

Verse five: “Then he who sat on the throne said: Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me: Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” We’ll pause there. So we’re back to where we started. Remember when Christ told them he was the Alpha and the Omega? So you can tell we’re wrapping up here. And so he returns to that language, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

Notice that “I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” That’s actually something Christ said in St. John’s gospel. Remember on the last day of the feast, the last great day of the feast, he stood up and said, “Let [him] who is thirsty come to me and drink”? He also in St. John’s gospel talked to St. Photini, the Samaritan woman, about the living water, water of life. This is one of many places where we can see that this is the same St. John, for anybody who’s doubting.

Verse seven: “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.” Why is it son? Is it just because we’re all misogynists and don’t use inclusive language in the distant past? No, it’s because we’re talking about inheritance. In the culture in which this was written, sons inherited, and that was pretty much it. He’s not just talking to men; he’s talking to men and women, that they become sons. If he had, in the first century, said, “You will become sons and daughters,” that would have implied to the original readers that there was still going to be this status distinction in the life of the world to come. So St. John is very deliberately saying, as St. Paul did when he talked about inheritance and becoming sons of God—he’s very deliberately saying that that status difference is not something that’s in this order; that everyone becomes an inheritor. Notice that “he who overcomes, the one who overcomes,” which we saw over and over again in the letters.

Verse eight: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Notice what the contrast is. The contrast is between the one who overcomes, the one who is victorious, and then these types of folks. So what does that imply about these types of folks? There was some kind of struggle, and they lost. This is how sin is being talked about here. What are we trying to overcome? What are we trying to be victorious over? Sin, the passions.

The liar is not the person who told a lie once when they were five; the liar is the one who gives in to the passion and becomes a liar, who becomes cowardly. It’s not the person who watches or does something sexually immoral once; it’s the person who becomes sexually immoral because they let lust take over their life rather than struggling.

Verse nine: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying: Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” So we had the wedding supper of the Lamb, we’ve got the bride as the New Jerusalem.

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” So he’s going to see the city which comes down from heaven.

Verse twelve: “Also, she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” Actually, it’s “sons of Israel,” because the tribes were named after the twelve sons. We have the gates named after the twelve tribes: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Important note here: the gateways into the kingdom are the twelve tribes of Israel, remember, one of the things we talked about in the past was St. Paul in Romans 10-11.

Verse 14: “Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Note the parallel: twelve and twelve. But also this is very similar to imagery that we saw St. Paul use about the apostles laying a foundation, Christ as the chief cornerstone, and then the members of the Church building on that in their lives. So this city, following that analogy, has been built by God’s people, by the Church.

“And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates and its wall.” This is picking up from Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple, which is, like, the last third or so of the book of Ezekiel. We’ll eventually wrap around and get to it, couple years. [Laughter] Probably three, four years. But Ezekiel’s Temple is interpreted as being prophetic of Christ who is going to be the eternal Temple, but we’re picking up on this with the city. The idea here is that St. John wants us to be thinking in terms of imagery and numbers and symbolism. We’re going to see that this is not the literal measurements of a city.

Verse 16: “The city is laid out in a square. Its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.” I like how they handily translated Greek measurements into furlongs that we’re all used to using as a measurement. [Laughter] Did they at least in the footnotes give us a…

Q2: My bible says “stadia,” which makes no more sense.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah, well, that’s the original. “Stadia” is the original.

Q1: It says [12,000] stadia equals 1,500 miles.

Fr. Stephen: Okay, so 1,500 miles is what we do with those furlongs. But you also notice, that’s its height, breadth, and width, meaning it’s a giant cube. So this is not the Borg landing on earth, for Star Trek fans. But, yeah, we’re not talking literal here. He’s not saying there’s going to be a 1,500-mile cube city that we’re all going to live in in the new heavens and the new earth. Note that with the stadia, it’s twelve times a thousand. A thousand is: big number. Twelve is the number of gates we’ve had, the number of foundations we’ve had. That’s what’s being worked with here.

Verse 17: “Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.” That again— A cubit is the distance from your elbow to your fingertip. How big is an angel’s arm? Beats me! Again, we’re not to take this literally. That’s why he says “according to a man,” and then he says, “that is, an angel,” to say, “Hey, angel cubits: you don’t know how long that is.” [Laughter] But what’s 144? It’s twelve times twelve.

Q3: Twelve is two sixes, so it’s supposed to be doubly finished or something? Is that how it was supposed to be…?

Fr. Stephen: No, I think it’s again riffing off of the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, that it’s twelve by twelve.

Verse 18: “The construction of its wall was of jasper, and the city was pure gold like clear glass.” So a giant gold clear cube. All right. “The foundations—” You can picture this, right? You can picture this exactly.

“The foundations of the walls of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.” You can figure out which one’s which apostle. I’m not worrying about it.

Q1: Is this related to the—?

Fr. Stephen: These are the foundations which are the number of the apostles, he said.

Q1: But the stones, are those related to the priestly—?

Fr. Stephen: Yeah. Yes, but they’re not the same ones. [Laughter] There were, yeah— In what he’s referring to is in the high priest’s ephod in the Torah, he had stones with the names, precious stones in the ephod, with the names of the twelve tribes on them. But these don’t exactly match in terms— And trying to figure out which apostle is which, like I said: have fun.

Q1: Another literal thing is I couldn’t go to a local jeweler and order a ring with chalcedony in it.

Fr. Stephen: [Laughter] Yeah. So everywhere we’re seeing again this parallel. Remember, we had the 24 elders. We said part of that was that it’s a third of the elders, and the other part was that it’s two twelves, like the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles. So we’re still getting sort of riffs on that here, this connection between, well, the twelve apostles who are going to sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, this connection.

Verse 21: “The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.” So gold streets in the cube city, and each gate into the city is one single giant pearl. [Laughter]

Q3: I hadn’t thought of that before, because usually people think: pearly gates, like gates of…

Fr. Stephen: One big pearl, and there’s twelve of them, one for each tribe. [Laughter] Yeah, so again: not literal. But the streets of gold, I think we have time. Okay, I have to do this. This’ll be the light entertainment portion of our Bible study. The greatest sermon I ever heard on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, from Paul Crouch, the CEO of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, during a telethon fund drive, he said: “These are the end times. The end times are upon us. The book of Revelation, it’s coming true every day.” Because of course he had that view, this is a bunch of stuff that’s going to happen in the future. He said, “The four horsemen of the apocalypse are getting ready to ride out, getting ready to ride out across the earth. They’re up there in heaven, getting ready to ride out. They’re chomping at the bit; they’re pawing at the ground. They’re pawing at them streets of gold. They’re kicking up dust, gold dust from them streets of gold. It’s coming down from heaven and landing in the checking accounts of those who write a check right now to Trinity Broadcasting Network.” [Laughter]

Q2: Oh, wow!

Fr. Stephen: I was amazed. I was just like— There’s some level of artistry and brilliance in there. I’m not sure he’s using his powers for good and not for evil, but— As I said, the light entertainment portion. I just thought that was the most amazing thing I ever heard. [Laughter] I’ve thought about trying that a few times, during fund drives at the church, but I don’t think I could sell it as well as he did.

Verse 22: “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple: now, this is interesting, because, of course, as soon as that measuring rod comes out, people reading this are thinking, “Oh, this is like when Ezekiel saw the Temple and measured it, and we just had this whole measuring thing.” So the fact that there’s not a temple— This is the New Jerusalem, right? That’s where the temple was. There’s no new temple, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.

So what was the temple? The temple is the place where God dwelt. So where, according to St. John, does God eternally dwell among his people? In the Lamb, in Christ. If you remember St. John’s gospel, he’s the one who gives us the editorial comment. The other gospels record Christ saying, “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days,” but St. John adds, “He was speaking of the temple that was his body,” just in case you didn’t get it. [Laughter] Like: Parenthetical note, Hello! If you need, again, sort of direct confirmation of the tradition in the Church Fathers of reading Ezekiel’s temple in this symbolic way of talking about the incarnation of Christ, here it is.

Verse 23: “The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord illuminated it; the Lamb is its light.” So you don’t need— Why, why that? The sun and the moon are associated, like in Deuteronomy 4, and the stars of heaven, with the angelic powers, specifically there with the angelic powers that got worshiped by the nations. The ancient world is full of sun and moon gods. So the idea here isn’t that, like, the miasma of incandescent plasma that’s 93 million miles from us is going to cease to exist in the new heavens and the new earth or the moon is going to cease to exist; the idea here is those secondary, intermediary powers, those angelic powers, whether they were good or bad, that were between God and humanity, are not in the way any more. It’s direct, direct to God, direct to the Lamb.

Verse 24—and so it’s not coincidental, when you talk about the sun and the moon aren’t there—“And the nations who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.” These are the Gentiles: nations, the Gentiles. They’re going to walk in the light of what? God himself, not the sun and the moon.

Verse 25: “Its gate shall not be shut at all by day”—and there’s no night—“and there shall be no night there,” which is a crazy way to say it. [Laughter]

Q1:  That’s a weird way to split it up.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah, the gate’s open all day, and, by the way, it’s always day. What’s the idea there? Well, you don’t have to close the gates, because there’s no threats; there’s no dangers out there. There’s nothing—

Q3: In Ezra, they had to close the gates during the day while the work was happening.

Fr. Stephen: Because they were under assault, under threat, and so now there’s no threat, there’s no— Gates can just be wide open all the time.

“And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.” This is not only again talking about the Gentiles, all the nations coming in—this is connecting to things in Isaiah, well, especially Isaiah, that talk about the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel. St. John sees this happening in Christianity and culminating at the end.

Verse 27: “But there shall by no means enter anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” This is again hammering home that this isn’t just “come as you are, or as you were.” I’m trying not to do the Nirvana reference, but I kind of already did. This isn’t just all the pagans are now fine. The point is they’re not pagans any more. They’ve come to worship the true God, the God of Israel. And so they’re not bringing with them— When it says they’re bringing in the glory of the nations, they’re not bringing the idolatry, they’re not bringing the dedication to conquest and war. They’re not bringing any of that. They’re bringing themselves, and they’re bringing what is good and pure and holy and beautiful from all the nations together.

Chapter 22, verse one: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Notice it’s proceeding from the throne. Why is that important? Well, because in the depiction of the judgment in Daniel 7 that was just referred to, there was a river of fire that proceeded from the throne, and judgment. Judgment is done, so now you have this pure, clear water that gives life that proceeds from the throne. So that judgment part is over; that enmity part is over.

Verse two: “In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life.” Now, try and map that out in your head. In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree, singular, of life “which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month.” I don’t think that “tree” should be added there. The idea’s that there’s twelve; there’s one for each month, twelve fruits. “The leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations.”

The tree of life, of course, is the tree of life from paradise. We’re having this new city connected directly to the original paradise, because this is a place where the presence of God is. That had four rivers flowing out of it; here we have this one river of life. The tree of life, remember, is what human beings had to be kept away from, because if they ate of the tree of life, they would live forever in the state they were currently in. So the fact that now the tree of life is available and everyone is eating from it continually—that’s the idea of twelve fruits, one for each month: this is continual—meaning that the state of blessedness that they’re now in is permanent, is eternal. So there’s no chance of “oops, somebody messed up again; got to repeat the whole durn thing.” [Laughter] That this state is now permanent.

Even just the leaves from it, let alone the fruit, but the leaves heal those who are coming in. Heal them how? Well, it’s talking about the uncleanness, all of the things that they were exposed to out in the nations, in their purification.

Verse three: “And there shall be no more curse, that the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him.” Why is no more curse? Remember, the curse is getting sent out of paradise. So you’re never going to get sent out again, reiterating again this is permanent; this is forever.

“They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. 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.” There’s your summary statement. He sees this; this is the state of blessedness in the end.

Verse six: “Then he said to me: These words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.” This is reiterated here at the end. “The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.” Shortly. In 96 AD, 95, 96 AD. Shortly thereafter, not once Jack Van Impe has a TV show. Jack passed away, but he’s Belgian, so I keep picking on him.

Verse seven: “Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” Who’s that talking? That’s Christ, who’s coming. Notice, coming quickly, not, you know, a long time in the future, after all this stuff happens in sequence. Christ’s return, Christ’s appearing, is always imminent. We’ll sometimes hear scholars say, “Well, look, in the New Testament, the apostles all thought Jesus was going to come in their lifetime. They were wrong.” It’s like: No, they thought that, and so did the second generation of Christians, and the third generation of Christians, and the fourth generation of Christians, and every generation of Christians down to the present day, because it can happen at any time. But that alone proves that they didn’t think this was a whole series of things that were going to happen in the future. There weren’t a whole bunch of things that had to happen before Christ could return; he could return at any time. And even barring his appearing, we could end up standing before him at any time, because we don’t know the length of our lives.

“Now I, John, saw and heard these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he said to me”—look how many words they added—“See that you do not do that.” Basically, “Knock it off.” “For I am your fellow servant and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book, worship God.” So now the word “angel” appeared to describe this person, but “angel” could also just mean messenger. Notice, he doesn’t identify himself as an angel there; he says, “I am your fellow servant and of your brethren, the prophets.” This may again be St. John talking to himself.

“And he said to me: Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.” “The time is at hand,” but this is also a reference to Daniel. Daniel was told, when he received some of the prophecies that St. John has been using, he was told to shut up the book, because the prophecies were for the future. Christ comes, and those things start happening, 500-plus years after Daniel lived. So this is a contrast here, saying don’t shut it up, because this stuff’s about to happen. This is for right now. People need to read this right now.

“He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” That’s a weird translation; that’s the translation Johnny Cash read on his last album, so that says something for it. But the idea here, the “still,” he’s not saying, “Hey, man, if you’re filthy, just stay filthy!” [Laughter] But the idea is, again, this being at hand. This being at hand: so if you’re going to make a change, you need to do it now, because this is coming now. You don’t have time to: “Hey, you know what? I’m going to be filthy and engage in all kinds of uncleanness and then, before the end, I’ll repent real quick and be okay.” It doesn’t work that way.

Verse twelve: “And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to everyone according to his work.” Once again, according to his work. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.” Once again: keep his commandments. Again, as we said, one of those commandments is to repent. So sinning does not mean you haven’t kept the commandments unless you don’t repent.

Verse 15: “But outside are dogs and sorcerers”—see, my heathen dogs, they’re right here in the Bible… no. “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Notice again, it’s not anyone who ever told a lie; it’s “he who loves and practices a lie.” And idolaters.

Notice the language here. See, there’s this diversity of language about eternal condemnation. The lake of fire obviously one image. The outer darkness and madness is one image. Here it’s just being outside. These people are in the city and enjoying this bliss, and these other people are outside. Why are they outside? Remember, the doors are open, 24 hours a day. The doors are open. They’re outside because they want to be outside. There’s nothing keeping them outside.

“I, Jesus”—if you want to put a fine point on it. “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you of these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.” So that’s pretty direct. Notice the “root and offspring of David.” The offspring of David is pretty clear: the Messiah, the son of David. But notice he’s also the root of David. Remember what Christ says about Psalm 110 (or 109 in the Greek), which is the most-quoted—as I mentioned before, I know—the most-quoted passage of the Old Testament in the New Testament, Psalm 110, specifically the beginning.

When everyone was coming to Christ in the last week of his earthly life before the crucifixion, asking him all these questions, and he decided to throw a question back at them—which never went well for them—he said, “David says: The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand.’ If the Messiah is David’s son, why does he call him Lord?” if he’s descended from David. This is pointing to that again. So, yes, Christ is the Messiah, is the Davidic king, the bud from Jesse’s stem. He is the Davidic Messiah, but it’s Christ’s kingship, Christ’s messiahship, that was really the basis for David’s, the root and the basis for David’s, the paradigm for David’s, because Christ is eternal.

Verse 17: “And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come. And let him who hears say: Come. And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” This is that language from St. John’s gospel again. Anyone who comes to Christ, he’ll give the living water. That’s connected to baptism: begin the life in Christ.

Verse 18: “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Let me be clear, because I’ve heard sermons preached on this, this is referring to the book of Revelation, not the Bible. When these words were written by St. John, there was not a Bible, a book between two covers in which Revelation was the last book. In fact, that kind of Bible doesn’t show up until, like, the fifth century, that has Revelation as the last book, at least, maybe the late fourth in some places, but we’re talking a long time.

This is talking about this. And what’s he saying? He’s basically saying that anyone who tries to— What does it mean to take away or to add to this? He doesn’t mean literally, like: “Hey, man, if you’re copying this book, don’t mess up, or a curse be upon you!” [Laughter] The idea is, in terms of what’s being preached, what is being proclaimed, and what is being lived out; that this pointing us to truth, and if you want to try and massage that, get rid of parts you don’t like, add parts you do like, then he’s saying that’s going to be a sign that you’re not overcoming, shall we say, that you’re giving into the passions of the world, you’re giving in, and that’s not allowing you to embrace the fullness of Christ’s revelation.

Verse 20: “He who testifies to these things says: Surely I am coming quickly”—quickly. “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” So that’s how it ends, with another reminder: Pay attention to this. Right now. This is for you right now. And then sort of a usual benediction.

So that’s the end of the Revelation of St. John. It’s the end of the Bible.

Q1: This took how long?

Fr. Stephen: Technically, it’s twelve and a half years since I started with Genesis 1:1 in another state, when we’ve gone through the whole Bible. Yeah, we’ll be starting over with Genesis. Thank you, everybody.