PHIL HARRIS
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).
Prologue
When we concluded the previous chapter, all that is evil including Death and Hades had been thrown into the Lake of Fire. All those whose names are in the Book of Life, however, were in an instant transformed and entered into the promise of eternity.
As a reminder, the book of Revelation was initially addressed to “the seven churches of Asia” (Rev. 1:11). Since the end of each of the seven letters from Jesus to the churches ends with His words that “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, we understand that the entire Body of Christ is to read not only the seven letters but also the whole book as revelation from the Lord Jesus, and both the promises and warnings to the churches are for our own time as well. Therefore, it would be prudent for us to read or reread Revelation 2 and 3 and recall what promises and warnings were given to them.
Much of Revelation 21 and 22 steps back and covers details of events that take place before the Great White Throne judgment of God (which is described in chapter 20). Concurrently, the last two chapters give us a look into the eternal future of those whose names are in God’s Book of Life.
The apostle Paul teaches that true Christians are to anchor their faith on having a sure citizenship in heaven:
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Phil. 3:20-21).
Dwelling Place of God
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God (Rev. 21:1-3).
- New heaven and new earth
After the Great White Throne Judgment where death and Hades and all that is wicked are thrown into the lake of fire, John sees a new created reality. What we know at this present time of our earth along with the universe above is now gone.
- New Jerusalem
Even as it is beyond our present ability to visualize the actual New Jerusalem, we believe in faith for what we read to be true.
The new Jerusalem fulfills Jesus’ promise that there is a home in heaven with many rooms which he is personally preparing for the saints:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:1-3).
When Jesus was teaching the apostles he revealed that when He ascended into heaven, His activity would be to prepare rooms in God’s house for his Bride as outlined for us in Matthew 25:1-13. The arrival of New Jerusalem will be a fulfillment of this promise.
Interestingly, the New Jerusalem is adorned as a bride for her husband. We learn in Ephesians 5 and in the account of the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19 that the church is the bride of Christ. This description of the New Jerusalem suggests to us that the city is the dwelling place of the saved who are Christ’s Bride, His own possession.
Notice that Jesus says nothing here nor anywhere else in New Testament about the so-called Adventist dogma of investigative judgment. Instead, Jesus is preparing the New Jerusalem city with many rooms as a home for occupancy by his Bride.
- Dwelling place of God
In our own time where we still live in the “flesh”, we approach God the Father through Jesus Christ our Savior. The following verse tells us that believers are “in Him”—Jesus:
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Eph 2:22)
In the New Jerusalem, God the Father is now eternally at home, his home, with the Bride of Christ.
All Things New
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Rev. 21:4-5).
- Death shall be no more
These promises assure us in our own time that death and Hades will be cast into the Lake of Fire. This assurance is for the righteous. The implicit warning is that now is the time for a sinner to repent and believe in Jesus as Savior. Only believers will inherit this beautiful future.
This promise echoes God’s promise given through the prophet Isaiah:
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken (Isa. 25:8).
- Former things have passed away
Any and all things that lead to suffering and death will be no more.
- ‘I am’ makes all thing new
It is Jesus Christ, the true author of Revelation, who makes this promise that all thing will be new.
From this text and onward we learn of things concerning eternity and the New Jerusalem that are beyond our ability to fully understand because because we are bound by our present life of the flesh.
For example, when Adam and Eve sinned, they knew they were naked. We are told they knew this change in their perception of themselves, but we cannot step back in time and produce a literal picture of their original innocence. It is the same for us: having bodies of flesh, we cannot literally picture what eternity will be like.
- Trustworthy and true
These promises cannot fail. The same righteous God who leads and shepherds us in these perilous times will fulfill all His promises because He cannot deny Himself, as Paul told us:
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:8-13).
Alpha and Omega
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:6-8).
- Jesus is Alpha and Omega
Jesus identifies himself as the (Greek) “Alpha and Omega”, meaning the “beginning and the end”. Since Jesus is the Alpha and Omega He is the beginning and the end of all creation. This reality is also emphasized in John 1:1-6 (notice that John is by the same author as Revelation) and by Paul in Colossians 1:15-17. Jesus is the Author of both the visible and the invisible:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:15-17).
The meaning of this title—the Beginning and the End—refutes the Adventist false claim that Jesus was once elevated to his position of becoming the Son of God.
- Springs of water without payment
Jesus’ promise to give freely from “the spring of the water of life” confirms what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well:
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).
- The one who conquers
The warning about those who do or do not conquer certainly applies to our own time. Paul also wrote about those who conquer through Jesus:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom. 8:35-37).
The only way “to conquer” is to hear, know, and respond in faith to the eternal gospel message of Jesus Christ, as stated in 1 Cointhians. 15:1-4, because conquering is centered in our faith in the work of the Savior. When we are in Him, His righteous conquering is imputed to us.
- The cowardly and faithless
The cowardly, along with those lacking faith, are part of a short list of those who end up in the Lake of Fire; therefore, it is prudent for us to know and understand what each word means.
The Greek word translated as “coward” (Strong’s G1169) in our lesson text is the same word used in Matthew 8:26 (read verses 23-27 for context). Therefore we can define and understand why cowards end up in the Lake of Fire by reading:
And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm (Matt. 8:26).
“Afraid” in Matthew 8:26 is the same Greek word used in Revelation 21:8 translated as “coward”. In other words, to not have faith in Jesus Christ means one is a coward.
This understanding of faith vs. cowardice is also illustrated for us by the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were about to be cast into the fiery furnace:
If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Dan. 3:17-18).
A Most Rare Jewel
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal (Rev. 21:9-11).
- Bride of the Lamb
What the angel shows the apostle John is the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven filled with occupants who are “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb”. In some way beyond our understanding, the New Jerusalem and the Bride of the Lamb are one and the same.
It is certain that all saints, going all the way back to Able, are included among the Bride of the Lamb because they are covered by the blood of the Lamb shed at Calvary:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks (Heb. 11:4).
- Radiance
John is taken to a high mountain and sees a radiance like a most rare jewel coming from the New Jerusalem, because the holy glory of God is in New Jerusalem. What we learn from this picture is that the Bride of the Lamb is of infinite value beyond all else God has created.
Walls, Gates, and Foundations
It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev. 21 12-14).
The city has a total of twelve gates each having the name of one of the tribes of Israel. The wall is support by twelve foundations each bearing the name of one of the apostles. Taken together, this detail shows that our eternal worship before the throne of God in the New Jerusalem will be founded upon Israel being God’s true remnant people.
The Gentiles (Rom. 10:11) who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior are included in with Remnant Israel, as Romans 11:1-10 explains.
Significantly, the New Jerusalem is built upon the legacy of Israel. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is from the Jews.” The names of the tribes inscribed on the foundations of the City confirm this fact; Jesus, our Savior, is from the tribe of Judah. The gates—the entrances—into the city are inscribed with the names of the “apostles of the Lamb”. This detail shows us that the gospel of the Lord’s finished work of atonement which the apostles carried into the world is the door to eternal life with Him.
It is a lie of Adventism to hijack and claim the title of “Remnant Church”. They are neither the remnant of God nor a true, gospel-teaching church. They are a counterfeit, and their appropriation of the terms “remnant” and “church” is a deception.
John Measures the City
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement (Rev. 21:15-17).
The taking of measurement or performing a survey shows ownership, and the city’s owner, God, commissions John to measure His city. The Bride of Christ is identified with the New Jerusalem. Those of us identified as believing Gentiles have been grafted in with God’s remnant people the Jews, and together we inhabit the New Jerusalem. We who are in Christ Jesus inherit the blessings of this city along with Him.
The cube of the New Jerusalem has a length, a breadth, and a height of 1,500 miles. Only the new heaven and the new earth could accommodate a structure such as this. Its height would extend into the regions we now call “space”. When one considers that a jet airliner travels, usually, in the region of 38,000 to 42,000 feet, we can see how big this New Jerusalem is.
John Describes What He Is Shown
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev. 21:18-21).
- Figurative and literal
The question is often asked when reading something within Scripture such as this text: is this figurative, or is it to be understood literally? Since God does not lie (Heb. 6:18), the obvious answer is that it is both. Since we lack an example to picture the actual New Jerusalem, what we have been given here in this chapter is through the negative, what it is not, and the figurative, things that are beyond our ability to visualize.
We, the promised occupants of the New Jerusalem, can know it will be exactly as the apostle John records it for our understanding.
As former Adventists we must lay aside the historicist interpretation of prophecy and understand that, as with all Scripture, this is God’s literal truth.
God Is the Temple
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there (Rev. 21:22-25).
- No temple
Stepping back to Rev. 11:1-2 the apostle John was instructed to measure the temple. From the context we know that is the temple that will exist during the second half of the great tribulation. It also suggests that it may represent the coming temple mentioned in Ezekiel 40-48.
Then, in Revelation 14:1-3 the context is that the Lamb rules from the throne in heaven while addressing the 144,000 who are in literal Jerusalem here on earth. During the millennium as described in Revelation 20, there is no mention of a temple.
Now, in Revelation 21, we learn that there will be no need of a temple in the New Jerusalem because God comes down from heaven along with the city to be eternally with the Bride of the Lamb.
Back in the Garden of Eden God was in the habit of walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, as Genesis records:
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Gen. 3:8).
Now, in the New Jerusalem, God will be with us eternally, not just in the cool of the evening.
- No seventh-day sabbath
In the New Jerusalem our light comes from the throne of God. And, because of His continual presence, there will be no night there.
This revelation presents a problem for Adventists and their assumed belief that Sabbath-keeping is the seal of God. Since there is eternal light coming from the throne of God, there will be no way to determine when to keep the weekly Sabbath Day.
Obviously the Adventist view of “Sabbath-keeping” is not an eternal moral law and therefore never was the seal of God. Instead, the indwelling Holy Spirit of those who in faith accept Jesus Christ as their Savior is the seal of God:
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Cor. 1:21-22).
Notice that the true seal is a gift of our Savior. It is not something a Christian does. The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a guarantee that we will be in the New Jerusalem.
Glory and Honor
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 21:26-27).
- Nothing unclean
The New Jerusalem is the holy, infinite, opposite of the Lake of Fire. Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life have an eternal home address in New Jerusalem.
Summary
- The antichrist, false prophet and whore of Babylon were cast in the Lake of Fire prior to the beginning of the Millennium (Rev. 19:20). Next, at the end of the Millennium, Satan and his demons are cast there (Rev. 20:10). Then we come to the Great White Throne trial resulting in all whose names are not in the Book of Life being cast there, along with Death and Hades (Rev. 20:14, 15). The Lake of Fire is a place of eternal conscious suffering.
- John now sees a new earth and new universe with all things made new. Along with these he sees the promised New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, coming down out of the heaven of God.
- The false Adventist belief in an eternal weekly Sabbath-keeping has no place in the New Jerusalem as there is no night and day to mark one day from another.
- In Revelation 11:1-2 John measured the temple of God during the time of the tribulation. Now it is the walls of the New Jerusalem that John measures. The act of John taking measurements establishes that God is an owner/occupier and commissions His prophet to take its measurements.
- God comes down in the city upon his throne to be eternally with the Bride of Christ. There is no temple because God is the temple.
- The gates of the city have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The foundations of the wall are named for the twelve apostles. This fact shows that worship in this city is focused on the promises given to the remnant of Israel centered on the New Covenant where Jesus Christ and His work at Calvary offers salvation to all who believe Him in faith, Jews and Gentiles alike.
- Much of what has been revealed of the New Jerusalem is beyond our ability to visualize. As it says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, it simply is beyond our ability to imagine.
- Jesus refers to himself as the “Alpha and the Omega” which means He is both before the beginning and after the end of time. By this He assures us his words are true and cannot fail because He has perfect knowledge not constrained by anything including the passage of time. He is God.
—All biblical quotes taken from the ESV
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