Lessons from Revelation for Year C Epistle Reading
We turn to a book that many pastors rarely preach from or study much anymore. The book of Revelation is rich in symbolism that can be difficult to understand.
John, who should have been overwhelmed by the great sea of troubles that faced him and his beloved churches, responds by an overwhelming affirmation of the grace and triumph of God in Christ. In Jesus Christ, God decisively enters the world and is busy reclaiming a lost world. Revelation begins with poetry that evokes images of invasion, of cosmic battles, then of decisive victory by Almighty God. John on the island of Patmos responded to the overwhelming presence of evil with affirmations of the overwhelming victory of God in Jesus Christ.
The message of Revelation is one of comfort and reassurance. It offers a resounding refrain of hope. It upholds the need for faithfulness among believers and holds out the promise of redemption for the future. The purpose and presence of the redeeming love of God is the moving force that informs this entire book.
The book of Revelation is often a confusing book. However, it contains a central message that I believe is clear. The power, wealth, and prestige of this earth seem quite strong. Until this point in Revelation, the book has reported the judgment of God upon the earth. John saw all those strange images that confuse us and make us wonder what the future will look like. He has a vision of Babylon, a vision of the Beast, and a vision of a Dragon. He describes these creatures in detail. They are powerful and fearful creatures. They bring destruction upon the earth. They persecute the church. Yet, despite that, the true church remains faithful to Christ. His vision includes the powers of this world in all their grandeur and glory, doing battle against God and the church. Frankly, the church is not a match for the powers of this world. It seems silly to be a believer in Jesus. Think of the difference between the funerals of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. The princess had the wealth and power surrounding her. The service of Mother Teresa was simple, just like her life.
However, as we near the end of this book, God easily disposes of worldly power and wealth. What appeared so grand and powerful from the perspective of the earth, was nothing from the perspective of heaven. Do you think that John gained a new perspective? He saw this grand vision of a new heaven and a new earth. He saw a new city, New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming from heaven. God is with us! God’s presence fills the earth! He sees a new creation. This earth has passed away. The imagery is clear. Moses stood on the mountain long ago, and the voice of God announced the covenant of God with Israel. Now, John stands on the mountain, and hears the voice of God again. This time, the announcement is clear: “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.” What God has prepared for you, if you believe, is far greater than anything you can imagine. It is far greater than anything you can acquire here. It is greater than any other sense of power, prestige, or success that you may gain here.
John envisions the realization of the rule of God, portrayed as the time when God finally overcomes the estrangement between God and humanity. The emphasis upon newness suggests that the movement of history has transcended present patterns of the cosmic order. The purpose of God, which is to dwell in community with humanity, will finally reach its fulfillment. God is not just altering a few details. Rather, God is transforming the framework of the universe. [1]
Revelation 1:4-8 (Year C Second Sunday of Easter) is an address to the reader. This introduction shares a familiar, predictable, structure in having a greeting, a confession of the triune God, and a doxology.[2]The Christology is richer here than in the rest of the book. It sets the tone for the rest of the book by focusing on the identity and activity of Jesus Christ. It does this through a series of triplets, which provide a rhythm that underscores the meaning of the message and the conviction with which it conveys it. In this book, Jesus Christ is the bringer of salvation, and as such places the book within the rest of the apostolic writings.[3]
The text presents John the apostle as the writer, admitting that the language of the text is different from the Gospel and letters that bear his name. He writes to seven churches in Asia, present-day Turkey. In typical Pauline fashion, he wishes grace and peace upon them. The first triplet identifies the source of grace and peace. From him who is and who was and who is to come. The triplet is an elaboration of Exodus 3:14, where the Lord says, “I am who I am,” or “I will be who I will be.” Greek author Pausanius in the second century AD says of Zeus, “Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus will be.” This book will deal with the ordeal these churches face, but only through considering the eternal. Further, grace and peace come from the seven spirits who are before his throne, the number of completion. Some think they symbolize the wholeness or fullness of the activity of the Spirit. Zechariah 4 is the Old Testament basis for the imagery. In Isaiah 11:2, there are also seven designations of the Spirit. Yet, it seems more likely that it refers to seven angels who are in the presence of God.[4] It becomes an instance of the New Testament referring to angels as spirits. In fact, the reference to them as “ministering spirits” in Hebrews 1:14 may be an effective way to define what an angel is. Any discussion of angels must focus on service.[5] Further still, grace and peace come 5 from Jesus Christ (Christos, messiah). We then have the second triplet. Christ is the faithful witness (martyr). Jesus bears a certain type of testimony to the truth concerning the way the world truly is. He sacrificed his life for the sake of faithfulness to God and truth. John will be urging the churches to remain faithful to the point of death (2:10). Christ is the firstborn of the dead, stressing the transition of Jesus into a new eschatological life, giving him pride of place and position from among those who have died. In the new eschatological life that is the destiny of humanity, Jesus of Nazareth will head the procession into that new event. Therefore, Christ is the ruler of the kings of the earth. It is an audacious phrase, considering what happened to Jesus at the hands of the Romans. They brutalized him: stripped him, beat him, threw a kingly cloak around his shoulders and jammed a crown of thorns down upon his brow. Then came the mockery. Soldiers derided him, bowing down before him and crying, "Hail, O King!" How can John refer to one such as him -- this weak and tortured man who, assailed by the world-consuming power of Rome, appears to be anything but kingly -- as "ruler of the kings of the earth"? Such titles have the intent of offering strength to those who undergo persecution. They encourage those who may have to experience martyrdom. He now offers a doxology in the form of another triplet that delineates what Christ has done for and with the faithful. To him who loves us, the only reference to the love of Jesus in the book, and freed us from our sins by his blood, a reference to baptism and the Lord’s Supper, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The images go back to the Old Testament, adopt some of the titles given to Israel, and apply them to the church. Exodus 19:5-6 is suggestive, “you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” The church shares the priestly role of Jesus, connecting it to the redemptive purpose of God for the church. Note that the author stresses that election in Christ, and Christ receiving equal honor with the Father. The language is like that of I Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Such language in Revelation means that things are not as they appear. They are already kings and priests; yet, the reality is not yet public.[6] He now offers a fourth set of triplets that depict those who fear the impending judgment that accompanies the return of Christ. The Christ who will come is already present. The author combines Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 12:10. 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account, all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God. Thus, the exalted Lord shares the life of the Father that embraces all ages.[7] Considering the notion of “first and last,” God is not restricted to being first or last. God stands above the alternative of beginning and end and is Lord of both. One of the challenges of a theology of creation is to express the way in which the eternal God embraces the beginning and end of the creaturely world by not only bringing forth time as the form of existence for creation but by having the divine life enter the created world in way that preserves it and rules it.[8] Further, the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Παντοκράτωρ). Pantokrator” is an intentional contrast with the Roman Emperor. The verse may suggest knowledge of the “I am” saying of John. It concludes with the Almighty, from the beginning to end, from the past into the future, God is the one who has the power. Though the times are uncertain, John is sounding a classic apocalyptic message: This God controls the past, present and future and can be a source of comfort. God is eternal. Unchanging. The same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Hegel stated that God is the “rose in the cross of the present.” The tragic sense of every human life comes through in such a statement. The harsh reality of human life is the presence of so much evil and suffering in human life and history. If we focus upon these realities, we ought to wonder what is the meaning, purpose, and direction of it all. As Moses saw in his vision of God in the burning bush, “I am who I am” becomes a place to stand amid the uncertain realities of human life. Yet, as John also points out, God is one who is, one who was, and one who is to come. I cannot imagine human life without some way of talking about hope for the future.
When the church directs its praise and thanksgiving to God in music, it expresses hope for the future. Such singing does not ignore the realities of uncertainty and suffering that surround much of human life. However, music does direct our gaze from us and toward God, who is the source of life and hope. Human life is far from easy. Some persons bear a larger and heavier cross in life than others do. Yet, suffering, pain, uncertainty, and evil, touch every human life. If we are to bear it with some sense of joy, meaning, and purpose, it will be because we have found a reason to find a rose amid the ambiguities of life.
Mark Twain said that, if heaven is one endless choir rehearsal, he did not think he would bother to try for it. Yet, the Book of Revelation is saying that God created you and me for praise! God has made us, from the first beating of our hearts, to join in creation’s great song of praise to the One in whom we live, move, and have our being. One day, on that day, all those things that keep us from singing – the pain, the heartache, the shame, the oppression, all that which attempts to keep people quiet – God will defeat. The lamb, the one whose birth caused the angels of heaven to break forth in song, will enable the entire world to sing. God will heal the rift between the singer and the song, saints on earth and saints in heaven will lift up their voices in unison. Our restless hearts shall know why they have been restless, because God has created each of us for no better purpose than to praise God with all that we are, to give God, in our work and our worship, honor, power, glory, and blessing forever, singing, “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
I invite you to ponder the notion of time with me. I want to reflect upon the relationship between God and time.
If one can translate Exodus 3:13-14 as “I shall be that I shall be” or “I shall exist as I shall exist,” it will suggest a particular emphasis on the relation of present and future. This passage may interpret what Exodus says. It declares that now, after the fulfilled time, recollection adds to expectation as a category not yet belonging to the Old Testament or at least not yet customary.[9] The verse shows that divine eternity means readiness for time. We have good reason to give clear emphasis to this truth. The Christian message of creation, reconciliation, and redemption as the revelation of human existence as consummated by God, which also means the revelation of the meaning of creation by God, is the word of truth and not a myth of the pious self-consciousness. The eternity of God has temporality. The content of the message depends on the fact that God was, is, and is to be, our existence stands under the sign of a divine past, present, and future. Without the complete temporality of God, the content of the Christian message has no shape. Everything depends on whether the temporality of God is the truth that has its basis in God. Barth develops the notions of God as pre-temporal, supra-temporal, and post-temporal to describe this dimension of God.[10]
When the passage speaks of the being of Jesus in time, it implies much more than that time has a beginning, duration, and end. The use of “alpha and omega” does not speak of timelessness. The risen Lord ascribes to himself a being in time, just as the letters alpha and omega in the Greek alphabet are part of the alphabet. Further, the introduction stresses that the life of Christ embraces a present, past, and future. Here is a strictly temporal being, though it differs from all other temporal being. Again, note the connection to Exodus 3:14, “I am that I am.” The passage speaks of a being in time, but the reference is to the divine coming. It means something like, “I am all this simultaneously. I, the same, am; I was as the same; and I will come again as the same.”
First, the today of Jesus does not cancel his yesterday. The presence of Jesus impels toward His future. He who comes again in glory is identical with the one proclaimed by the history of yesterday and the one present today. The thorough-going eschatology for which the interim between now and one day necessarily seems to be a time of emptiness, futility, and lack only an “unspiritual” community could tolerate such a view. The fact that Jesus will be includes the fact that He is. The fact that He is does not exclude that He is not yet. When this verse says “I am he that is,” the present in which there is real recollection of the man Jesus and the particular and preliminary revelation accomplished in Christ, and real expectation of this man and the final and general revelation of God with Him, this present “between the times” is His own time, the time of the man Jesus.
Second, Jesus not only is. He has also been. The passage directs our gaze backward from the present. What do we see? Of course, we see the pre-crucifixion time of Jesus, but we also “see” the Easter Jesus and the apostolic presentation of him. His “yesterday” includes the prophetic time and history of the people of Israel. As we find in this passage, we can sum it up as “I am – which was.”
We can have assurance that Jesus was. He was a man with a mission whom followers would call the Messiah or the Christ, the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord to the House of David and therefore to Israel.
Third, the being of Jesus in time is a being in the future, a coming being. From the standpoint of the apostles and their communities, we must also say, and with no less reality and truth, that He comes. Christians live in expectation, as well as in recollection and presence. The message of the church is eschatological as well as soteriological and pneumatological. The message involves proclamation of his future and the approaching end of time than of the past in which time has found its beginning and center, or of the present in which we move from that beginning and center to the end of time. If all that we had was past and present, we could look forward to a progressive immanent development of the new life opened up by the resurrection. Entire periods of history have had this view of the church. Such a notion is utopian fabrication. Yet, the New Testament does not contain evidence to support this view. Such a view can do without Jesus. The last time, the consummation, is the time of Jesus, the time of His being. The New Testament is the coming of the Lord in a definitive and general revelation. The Christian community gathers in this hope. He who comes is the same as He who was and who is. The consciousness of time is inherent in the phrase “I am … which is to come.” The future to which we look forward from the past of the man Jesus, is, like this present itself, and the past that lies behind it, His time, the time of the man Jesus.[11]
For us, the past is the time that we live and are in no longer. The future is the time that we do not yet have but will have. The real nature of our being in time is most obscure of all at the very point where it ought to be clear, namely, at the moment that we regard as our present. Here, where midway between the vanished past, and which we have forgotten or only dimly remember, and the unknown future that awaits us, or does not await us we think we can take our ease and enjoy in impregnable security our being and having, and our identity with ourselves, we find that we are insecure. This is our “being in time.”[12]
Revelation 5:11-14 (Year C Third Sunday of Easter) concludes the vision of the Lamb and the scroll. Chapters 4-5 have recounted two unnumbered visions of God and the Lamb. Just prior to this passage, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders have offered a new song of praise to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Rood of David. This one has conquered. Yet, this one is also the Lamb whom political and religious authorities had slaughtered. Almighty God, sitting on the throne in Chapter 4, received songs of worship and praise. We now learn that the Lamb is the one to whom heaven offers songs of praise and worship. o confess Christ as Lord and King is to lay oneself under the obligation of complete subservience to him.[13] This Lamb, the one who was crucified, striped, stabbed, and nailed to the cross to die the most horrible death, this lamb now stands in the center of heaven. To this slaughtered Lamb God has given power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. Everything that God has, now the Lamb has. The Lamb, who knows what it is like to suffer, to bleed, and to die, now rules with God, as God, at the center of a great shout of acclamation. The war still rages, yes, in your life and mine. There is still death. Yet, God and the Lamb have fought the decisive battle. We know how the war ends. Every creature offers the Hallelujah chorus: “And He shall reign forever and ever, Forever and ever, forever and ever.” The four living creatures (symbolizing all creation that offers praise to God) and the elders (representing the people of God) fell before the Lamb and worshipped, worship being the effect of the redemption that Christ brings to creation. The coming of Christ, especially revealed in the resurrection, indicates that God intends to recreate and redeem the world. Revelation 5 is a vision of the great, final victory celebration. Knowing the final vision gives us hope today. In every time and place, praise-filled worship is a proper offering to our God and to the Lamb, the ones who have created, redeemed, and renewed us. This vision of heavenly worship sums up who God and Christ are, and what God and Christ are doing in the world. It prepares us to face the many struggles of life, including a variety of temptations and hardships, by inviting us to carve out time for worship during our daily lives.
Revelation 7:9-17 (Year C Fourth Sunday of Easter) is a vision that is part of an interlude between the sixth and seventh seals that unleash judgment upon the earth. The context of this passage is that the Lamb has broken six of the seven seals. We now have an interlude in the form of two unnumbered visions that reveal the nature of the church as under divine protection. Despite their persecution, the people of God are safe and secure in the presence of God. the images in this text are easy to understand. The 24 elders, a combination of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples, symbolize the whole people of God offering up praises to God. The One sitting upon the throne is God. The lamb is Jesus. The great multitude is those who have gone through the great ordeal, and yet remained loyal to God. They are dressed in white robes, symbolizing victory and purity. The four living creatures symbolize all creation that offers its praises to God. This is also a vision of heaven. Although the church has rightly been criticized in this history for offering pie in the sky, by and by, suggesting that the message of the church must relate to the world in which we live, we also need to ponder whether there is a legitimate hope for that pie in the sky. One can count the number of those who pass through tribulation (verses 1-8), but in this vision, no one can count the vastness of the numbers. This means that those who will go through tribulation on earth merge with the innumerable people in heaven.[14] In the end, such distinctions will not matter, so we must not have undue anxiety in our finite time here with whatever distinctions heaven might include. In the end, supreme happiness will be the lot of all (John Wesley). Their number come from every racial and ethnic group, and they are dressed in while robes. White robes symbolize victory and purity. Their victory was in not allowing the seductions of sin to win their lives. The robes are a gift of God in 3:5 and 6:11. Here, the free choice of human agents bestows them. Some commentators find precedence for this dress in the appropriate garb worn for first-century temple worship. These white garments are the official robes along which they receive a new being and are both empowered for and engaged to a corresponding current activity. One who puts on these clothes become, in 2:14, the bearer of a name that corresponds to this true reality that God enters in the book of life (3:5, 13:8, 17:8).[15] These people have palm branches in their hands. Some commentators see the palm frond tradition rooted in the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Others have combined the two images of white robes and palm branches into a general symbol of victory among the faithful ones. These persons also shout that victory belongs to our God, to the one who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" The angels, the elders as representatives of the people of God, the four living creatures as representatives of all creation, fall before the throne and worship God. The sense of an unmitigated divine victory still directs the praise of these heavenly beings. This vision occurs after six of the seals of judgment have unleashed horror upon the earth. This vision provides an insight into what lays beyond judgment. Thus, the vision now includes seven ascriptions of praise to God, 12 singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." It was common in Jewish apocalyptic literature to have a question-and-answer moment between the one receiving the vision and the vision itself. One of the elders asks John who those are who are dressed in white, and his response is that the elder knows. This entire passage, a momentary hiatus from the horrendous visions revealed by breaking the seven seals, is more concerned with describing how things should be and will be than with events already past. The multitude of white-robed celebrators represents all faithful Christians who survive the tribulations because of God's loving protection. These who have "washed themselves" may have joined battle with a warrior Messiah or died a martyr's death. Verses 15-17 are set forth in a series of three-line stanzas. In both form and content, these final verses remind us of traditional Hebraic prophetic literature. The temple became a metaphor of the community of the new covenant. In this passage, God calls the people of God to a priestly office, serving God day and night. The text repeats much of the image in Isaiah 49:10, where prisoners are free, and will no longer be hungry or thirsty, and they will receive shade from sun and shelter from the wind. "They will hunger no more," "God will wipe away every tear," by appearing in English in the emphatic present. Thus, the seer declares God does dwell with them, believers do not hunger or thirst, and God does wipe away all tears. These words have brought comfort to many over the years. The connection of these verses with 21:3-4 confirm that we are reading a prolepsis of the end.[16] Now they rest from their labors. Now they are in the presence of the great shepherd who wipes away all tears and guides them to the waters of eternal life. Note that these saints, robed in white, are in a great processional, a great parade moving around the throne of God. You and I today are part of that long, more than 2,000-year processional moving toward the lamb. The Lamb will guide us to the springs of the water of life. The saints are those who walk before us, those who show us the way.
Revelation 21:1-6 (Year C Fifth Sunday of Easter) It has the theme of a new heaven and a new earth, one of the unnumbered visions of the book. In context, the people of God have been in the wilderness. Now, John stands on Mount Pisgah. Only the true vision of New Jerusalem gives John the insight into the nature of Babylon. Here is the seventh and final vision of the end in the Book of Revelation that may extend to 22:5.
The book of Revelation is often a confusing book. However, it contains a central message that I believe is clear. The power, wealth, and prestige of this earth seem quite strong. Until this point in Revelation, the book has reported the judgment of God upon the earth. John saw all those strange images that confuse us and make us wonder what the future will look like. He has a vision of Babylon, a vision of the Beast, and a vision of a Dragon. He describes these creatures in detail. They are powerful and fearful creatures. They bring destruction upon the earth. They persecute the church. Yet, despite that, the true church remains faithful to Christ. His vision includes the powers of this world in all their grandeur and glory, doing battle against God and the church. Frankly, the church is not a match for the powers of this world. It seems silly to be a believer in Jesus. Think of the difference between the funerals of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. The princess had the wealth and power surrounding her. The service of Mother Teresa was simple, just like her life.
As we near the end of this book, God easily disposes of worldly power and wealth. What appeared so grand and powerful from the perspective of the earth, was nothing from the perspective of heaven. Do you think that John gained a new perspective? He saw this grand vision of a new heaven and a new earth. He saw a new city, New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming from heaven. God is with us! God’s presence fills the earth! He sees a new creation. This earth has passed away. The imagery is clear. Moses stood on the mountain long ago, and the voice of God announced the covenant of God with Israel. Now, John stands on the mountain, and hears the voice of God again. This time, the announcement is clear: “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.” What God has prepared for you, if you believe, is far greater than anything you can imagine. It is far greater than anything you can acquire here. It is greater than any other sense of power, prestige, or success that you may gain here.
John envisions the realization of the rule of God, portrayed as the time when God finally overcomes the estrangement between God and humanity. The emphasis upon newness suggests that the movement of history has transcended present patterns of the cosmic order. The purpose of God, which is to dwell in community with humanity, will finally reach its fulfillment. God is not just altering a few details. Rather, God is transforming the framework of the universe. [17]
John begins by referring to Isaiah 65:17, envisioning a ritually pure heaven and earth, for the present heaven and earth have passed away. This notion is consistent with other parts of the New Testament. Mark 13:31 says that heaven and earth will pass away. I Corinthians 7:31 says that the present world is passing away. Paul also says in Romans 8:19-23 that creation itself is groaning for its release from bondage so that it can arrive at the freedom of children of God. II Peter 3:10, 13 say that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, but when it comes, the heavens will pass away, and a new heaven and a new earth will come, where righteousness is at home. However, unlike the anticipated fiery destruction of the present earth in II Peter 3:7, John the Seer does not describe how they pass away. Nevertheless, the comparison with II Peter does prepare the way for two aspects of John’s vision. First, it is not only “the first earth” but also “the first heaven” that has seen its present state discontinued.[18] John’s point is that the whole of the created cosmos has “passed away” in favor of the “new” cosmos that God has made. Further, the sea was no more. Deep calls to deep and the waves have gone over me (Psalm 42:7). As John envisions it, all that threatens the salvation of humanity will end.[19] The waters of chaos no longer afflict this new creation. In much ancient Near Eastern creation literature, the roiling, unfathomable waters of the sea are the untamed, disruptive powers of chaos. The sea harbored monsters and demonic forces that constantly threatened human existence. Little wonder that John's vision calls for these unknown waters to dry up and cease to exist. Included in this understanding of “sea” is that the Hebrews walked through the sea on dry land. The spiritual symbolism of that physical description is central to understanding what might seem a minor observation (and a particularly disappointing one for beach lovers). The “sea” here stands as a symbol for all the evil and chaos in the present order. This symbolism appeared earlier in the book when the “beast” arose from the “sea” (13:1) as a kind of embodiment or incarnation of evil. The absence of the “sea” in the “new earth,” then, signifies not only that such evil and chaos have been banished but also that the very wells, if you will, from which it might once again have been drawn likewise no longer exist. In the Testament of Moses 10:1, 6, the kingdom of God will appear throughout the whole creation, the devil will have an end, sorrow be led away, and the sea will retire. We see an emphasis upon the new creation. Renewal of creation is an emphasis in many texts. See Jubilees 1:29, I Enoch 72:1, II Baruch 32:6, 57:2. The point is that a new heaven and a new earth is a prerequisite for the definitive actualizing of the reign of God. The reason is that human conflict has deep roots in the natural conditions of existence as it now is. Though created with independence in mind, it has become the self-seeking of everyone.[20]
The equation of the church as a pre-existent heavenly Jerusalem, as suggested in Galatians 4:26, Revelation 3:12, and Hebrews 12:22, easily suggested itself.[21] We see a second emphasis upon the new city. Sometimes the concept of a heavenly Jerusalem overlaps with that of a heavenly temple. See I Enoch 14:16-20, 25:3, 71:5-7, 85-90, Testament of Levi 3:4-9. As a city now built by God alone, above and outside the old corrupt creation, this Jerusalem is now truly a new creation and a holy city. With Jerusalem as the bride and those faithful believers who remain after the last judgment as the bridegroom, this new creation becomes nothing less than the household of God. The “new earth” is more than just a return to an Edenic garden, for God places in its midst a “new Jerusalem” that comes directly “from God.” The contrast with Eden is later made explicit by mention of the “tree of life” (22:2b; cf. Genesis 2:9). Whereas the earlier “tree of life” stood in the midst of a “garden,” here, it stands amid a city. John’s point is likely that the restoration is not just of the natural, environmental order but extends to civilization and human societies as well. In contrast to the societies corrupted by human sinfulness epitomized earlier as “Babylon the great, mother of whores” (17:1-6), this renewed society comes directly “from God” and is presented symbolically as “a bride adorned for her husband.” A New Jerusalem comes from heaven in a way that focuses upon two things. First, it becomes the center of the new creation. Second, it is also personal in its portrayal as a bride. In Isaiah 62:4-5, the city will no longer be called Abandoned or Desolate, but my Delight and Married. The Lord will take delight in them, like a groom for his bride. This passage offers a hint of Isaiah 65:17-19, where the Lord is going to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people a delight, where the Lord will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in the people of the Lord. In IV Ezra 10:25-28, the vision is of the woman who becomes a city. When God transformed her, she became the heavenly Jerusalem. Ford thinks the city is a corporate personality, the community of the faithful. John later describes the city in the chapter as being a cube (1,500 miles along each side, v. 16). Those dimensions would place the top of the city’s walls at six times the altitude of the International Space Station, which orbits at 250 miles above Earth. Modern English translations mask the symbolism of this number in measuring in our conventional unit (miles) rather than the units used by the author (stadia). Expressed in its own terms, the relationship of the 12,000 stadia to the 12 gates, 12 tribes, 12 foundations, etc. (see vv. 12-14) becomes apparent. The New Testament speaks of an oikodome. It occasionally refers to the outlines of the building as already present. It mentions its completed form. However, for good reason, the New Testament does not identify the latter with the result of human construction. The reference is always to another actuality in which the reality is not merely future to itself, but transcendent. The holy city, New Jerusalem in this passage does not grow up from the earth to heaven, but comes down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. The plan is set out in ideal terms in 21:10-23.[22]
He turns his attention to the people of God, connecting with Hosea 1:9 and I Peter 2:9-10. He is emphasizing the new exodus and the new Sinai. It is the language of covenant, and thus of the cloud descending on Mouth Sinai and Israel being married to God. Here, people do not accomplish this. Rather, the presence of God among the people will accomplish it. In the words from the throne, there is a closing to the description of the new creation. We find covenantal language, as in the notion that they are God’s people, and that God is their God, as we find in Leviticus 26:11-12, Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 37:27, and Zechariah 8:8. According to John's fulfilled vision in this new creation, God at last tabernacles, or dwells, with the people of God. John then hears God speaking from the throne to interpret the vision’s overarching significance. All that has separated humanity from the full realization of the presence of God is what God will remove. he phrasing anticipates the statement in Revelation 21:22 that there is “no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God.” As in Hebrews 8:2; 9:11-12, God’s celestial or spiritual dwelling place (particularly in Hebrews as a kind of Platonic ideal in contrast to the “earthly tabernacle”) is better related to the tabernacle first revealed in the Torah than to the later temple, which was patterned after it.
The new heaven and new earth will not have tears. It will be a state of bliss. Only the eschatological consummation in which God will wipe away all tears can remove all doubts concerning the revelation of the love of God in creation and salvation history even though the love of God has been at work already at each stage in the history of creation.[23] In contrast to this notion, Barth stressed so much the connection between creation and covenant that he loses a sense of the creaturely reality that is a process oriented to a future consummation. He stresses that God will show the righteous of God only in the end of time.[24] The implication of such a promise is the ambiguity that the righteousness of God shows in the world as it is. The praise we offer to God today is an anticipation of the eschatological praise of God, just as worship today anticipates the praise of the heavenly community. In the notion that death shall be no more, we can see that death is unnatural.[25] Then, reminding us of the first emphasis, for the first things have passed away.” The corrupted creation they were a part of has itself disappeared.
God promises that everything will be new, Wisdom of Solomon 7:27 making the same promise, focusing upon redemption.
He then promises the unlimited supply. John uses a common Greek idiom to declare the constancy of this always-present God. Josephus and Philo had already referred to God as "the first and the last." John's use of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet was a linguistic image also used by Hebrew speaking/writing scholars. Hebrew scholars who called God the “truth” emphasized this same notion of a God always present. In Hebrew, the word "truth" is spelled alephe-mem-tav -- using the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus God, the truth, is a God who is present at the beginning, the center and the end of all created existence. Jesus of Nazareth is the ultimate limit of our being, who has definitively manifested himself as personal love. For faith, Christ is the veritable center of history. He is the culmination of all preceding salvation history, the breaking in of the eschatological kingdom of God, the final norm and criterion of all authentic value, meaning, and reality.[26] “The first and the last” is a reference to the notion that the exalted Lord shares the life of the Father that embraces all ages.[27] God is not restricted to being first or last. God stands above the alternative of beginning and end and is Lord of both. One of the challenges of a theology of creation is to express the way in which the eternal God embraces the beginning and end of the creaturely world. Conceptually, the theologian will need to show that God does this by not only bringing forth time as the form of existence for creation but by having the divine life enter the created world in way that preserves it and rules it.[28]
We might expect to have the final scene of this book be a picture of heaven. Yet, heaven is not a perfect world to which we will go someday. Earth is not a shabby, second-rate temporary dwelling from which we shall be glad to depart for good. Earth is a glorious part of creation. Heaven is the abode of God. The created world needs renewal. This renewal occurs as heaven and earth unite forever. The dwelling or glory of the Lord shall be among the people. As John 1 reminds us, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. God coming to this world in Jesus of Nazareth came to an unknowing and unwelcoming people. God will do the same thing on a cosmic scale. God is coming to live in our midst as a healing, comforting, and celebrating presence.[29]
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:6 (Year C Sixth Sunday of Easter) has the theme of the Messianic Jerusalem. In this vision, he is carried away in the spirit (1:10, 4:2, 17:3), denoting a trance that entails a transport from one place to another. This type of transport also occurs in Acts 8:39-40 when the Spirit snatches Philip away from the Ethiopian eunuch. The angel takes him to a great high mountain (closely parallel to Ezekiel 40:2, although the city is already located on the mountain), consistent with other Old Testament encounter with the divine on mountains. For example, Abraham encounters God's provision that spares his son Isaac on a mountain (Genesis 22), Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3-24:18) and is shown the land of Canaan from Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34). In addition, the divine encounter between God and the prophets of Baal occurred on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:19-40). John's location upon the mountain allows him to see the vision: the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of or descending heaven from God. This is the second time John sees the city descending from heaven. Beginning in 21:22, the Temple is absent (Jeremiah 3:15-17, Isaiah 40, 46:1-6.) The heavenly temple has been the place from which the angels announced their judgments, as in 14:15, 17, 15:5-6, 8. From this temple comes the voice that commissions the angels of the plagues to execute judgment on the earth in 16:1. From the same temple comes the voice of fulfillment, 'It is done” in 16:17. For John, the heavenly temple is the habitation of the majesty of God and the mysterious source of the divine commands. Yet, in a final great saying apocalyptic realism, in the New Jerusalem there is no temple: the temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. In this statement lies one of the boldest transpositions of the whole concept of the temple. God is the temple. God and the Lamb in person replace imperfect representations of the presence of God in the temple, so that unrestricted dealings with God are possible. The influence of Christian ideas breaks down the firm structure of Jewish thought and introduces a new element. The notion of a heavenly Jerusalem was a widespread idea in Judaism (IV Ezra 13:35-36; II Apocalypse of Baruch 4:2-7; Galatians 4:25-26; Hebrews 11:10, 14-16; 12:22; 13:14), but John's declaration that the temple is absent in this eschatological city is unique. The absence of a temple may reflect an anti-temple strand of early Christianity (Acts 7:47-51; John 4:21, 23-24). Such a view finds its parallel in the Qumran community, which rejected the Jerusalem temple, and called its own community a temple. Paul, also, thought of his Corinthian congregations as a temple of God (I Corinthians 3:16; II Corinthians 5:1-2; 6:16). Thus, the rejection of the earthly temple and the construal of communities as temples may be the precedents for John's idea here.[30] Sun and moon are absent, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This verse echoes Isaiah 60:19-20, which states that the light of the Lord will negate the need for a sun and moon, while 60:1 says that the light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen. The significance of God's light and glory in the New Jerusalem also occurs in other Jewish texts (Sibylline Oracles 3.787; 5.420-27; Testament of Dan 5:12-13). The theme of light continues as the nations will walk by its light. The kings of the earth, a phrase that occurs eight times in Revelation (1:5; 6:15; 17:2, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:19; 21:24), and in all these occurrences, except two (1:5; 21:24), the ones defeated before because they oppose God and God's people, will bring their glory into it. What is redeemable from the old order enter in. One tradition speaks of the Gentiles in a great battle with the holy city. See Psalm 46, Ezekiel 38-39, Isaiah 17:12ff, 29:8, Micah 4:11, Zechariah 12, Sibylline Oracles 3.663, Jubilees 23:22ff, I Enoch 26, IV Ezra 13. However, another tradition includes the vision of the Gentiles making their way to Mount Zion. Examples are Micah 4:1ff, Isaiah 45:14, 61:7, 60, 65:1ff, Jeremiah 3:17, Zephaniah 3:10, Zechariah 8:20ff, 14, Tobit 13:9ff, Sibylline Oracles 3:772ff. The idea that these kings of the earth now stream into the city of God peacefully reflects the eschatological peace after the cosmic wars of chapters 19 and 20 (19:17-21 and 20:7-10). All of this presupposes that the nations exist. This may mean that the heavenly destroyed just those kings and nations that oppose God and the rest remain. If this is the case, then we should not take the appearance of the phrase "kings of the earth" in the previous chapters as an all-encompassing phrase. The elimination of night suggests time shall be no more, nor shall the darkness of sin. The allusion is to Isaiah 60:3-5, 11, although there the kings are captives. The notion of kings and nations coming to Jerusalem in the end times appears in Jewish literature (Isaiah 60: 3-5, 11; Psalms of Solomon 17:31; Tobit 13:11). Moreover, the depiction of them bringing glory and honor to the city indicates conversion of the Gentiles. Gentile conversion is another common theme in Jewish eschatological texts (Isaiah 45:20, 22, 24; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 2:11; 8:23; 14:16-19; Daniel 7:14). That God will bring all nations to the chosen city of God fulfills God's redemptive purpose for all creation. In saying that nothing unclean, no one who practices abomination, forbidden sexual intercourse (Leviticus 18:26, 27, 29; 20:13; Deuteronomy 12:31; 20:18), or commits falsehood, will enter, suggests Millennial Jerusalem existing before all wickedness is destroyed. Such language of purity echoes Isaiah 52:1 in which God will not allow any uncircumcised or unclean person to enter Jerusalem anymore because her redemption has come. John returns to his Old Testament models of Ezekiel and the Garden of Eden in 22:1-5. John sees a vision of paradise restored, the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flows from the throne of God and the Lamb (Zechariah 14:8), combining the primal river of paradise and the eschatological temple river in Ezekiel 47-48. The consummation of the dealings of God with creation and humanity takes up and transcends what God had given in paradise. The end will not be a restoration of the beginning but will be something new that God consummates with unrestricted fullness the works and ways begun at creation. This river flows through the one broad street that goes through the city, the tree of life on either side of the river, producing twelve kinds of fruit for each month, the leaves being for the healing of the nations. In Jewish apocalyptic, the return of the original conditions in Paradise plays a significant role. Paradise is a heavenly place. It will be the future abode of believers. As in the original paradise, so in that of the last time there will be the tree of life, and this will give believers the wonderful food of immortality. It is a reward for the blessed. The idea of the river of paradise also occurs. The concept of the heavenly city also has a close link with that of paradise. The “tree of life” is a figurative expression for the share of Christians in the glory of the heavenly world. Christian tradition connected this tree to the cross as a “tree” of life. Nothing accursed will be found, for the curses of Deuteronomy 28 and the Holiness Code were revealed in the numbered visions of seals, trumpets, and bowls, so the curse is lifted. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, servants of the Lamb worshipping and seeing the face of the Lamb, the end of all becoming the beatific vision. His name will be on their foreheads. No more night may mean time will be no more, but it may also suggest the darkness of sin is gone. The Lord God will be their light. Light is a biblical image for God. Psalm 4 says that God is the light of the believer’s face. James 1 identifies God as “the Father of lights.” Genesis 1 says that God created light and separated it from the darkness of chaos. Psalm 119 says that God’s word, spoken through the prophets, is the light for the believer’s path. John 1 calls Jesus the Light of the World and so is the salvation he brought. In I John 1:5-7, we read, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” The Bible is telling us that when we walk toward God, we are on the track of life, of spiritual nourishment and of peace. As David put it in the Old Testament, “Indeed, you are my lamp, O Lord, the Lord lightens my darkness” (II Samuel 22:29). The slaves/servants of God will reign on Earth as the people of God. This motif of reigning appears in 5:10 and in 20:6. We find it foreshadowed as early as Daniel 7:18, 27 (cf. I Corinthians 6:2). In effect, John declares the full reversal of the events in Eden. God triumphs and restores humanity to its position of eternal worship of him and rule with him.[31]
The vision of science is that the labor of the ages, its devotion and inspiration, and the brightness of its genius, has the destiny of a vast death and extinction. The temple of the achievement of humanity will become part of the debris of a universe in ruins. For science, such a conclusion is beyond dispute. Any philosophy or religion that rejects this conclusion will not stand the test of reason or experience.[32] Even to think of a type of life beyond physical death is beyond the comprehension of the scientific mind. Such notions are from people who allow their fears or absurd egoism to dominate their thinking.[33]
Such analysis of the Christian hope for the transformation and redemption of the world as we know it does not do justice to its origin. This hope originates in the apostolic witness to the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Their witness is to a genuine surprise from God. True, the disciples had been his followers. Yet, they had recently denied him and abandoned him. Some women went to the tomb to see the dead body. Their witness that he appeared to them after his death, that God had raised him from the dead, was not a belief at which they arrived by reason and experience. They accepted it as a revelation from God. As such, their witness is contrary to what they expected. They had to trust what God revealed to them. If you accept the orthodox, traditional, or classic view of all this, Christians today trust the apostolic witness. If the risen Lord was with the apostles, the risen Lord is with us as well. Yet, if the Father, the God of Israel, raised Jesus from the dead, then he is the first fruit of the resurrection to life eternal promised in Jewish apocalyptic, becoming the basis for our hope of the redemption of human history and therefore the redemption of our existence. Of course, if we can look for the redemption of humanity, we can also hope for the redemption of creation. The basis for the Christian hope is not on something as flimsy as anxiety concerning our personal existence or as flimsy as a wish. The basis is what God has said and done in Jesus of Nazareth. I do not claim such a belief is easy. In my better moments, I am willing to receive this truth into my life and live by it.
The beatific vision is the end of this life and the beginning of a new, eschatological life. God truly sees us, and we truly see God. Does the beatific vision sound too good to be true? Is John offering “pie in the sky by and by”? Will too much talk of the things God will do in the future result in the abandonment of human action now? Realistic eschatology seems to lead to a form of quietism, it would appear. Yet, another side of the story may present itself to us. Preoccupation with the ethical and social justice demands of the present may drive us to our own form of despair. Regardless of the vision, whether communitarian, libertarian, or Islamism, possibilities for world transformation of the political, cultural, and economic order fall short of its need of transformation. An honest appraisal of human experience and history suggests that human potential has exhausted the possibilities for transformation. If all we have is what we can see and touch, then human action itself can lead to depressing results. Transformation seems beyond our reach. In fact, biblical texts like this invite us to ponder the possibility of a world not yet, a world still on the horizon of history, rather than the world we see now. This new world comes from God, who makes all things new. It at least suggests that we need to stop adjusting so much to the world as it is and anticipate today, even if in small ways, the world God is bringing to us.
I conclude with a prayer.
Lord, your life enables us to live as a people of hope. This earth is not our final home. You have placed within us a longing for your beauty, which will consist in the redemption of nature, human history, and our individual lives. Such redemption is the fulfillment of the hope of eternity with you. Yet, my prayer is that you help me to live my life with eternity in my heart and life. Help me to believe, even when it can be so hard to do so, that the world to come far exceeds the world we see and touch on this earth. I thank you for the touch and taste of heaven that I have here. They are gifts beyond measure, stirring longing for more in my soul. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 (Year C Seventh Sunday of Easter) is part of the epilogue that describes Eternal Jerusalem. The heavenly Jesus announces his imminent return, offers promises of eternal life to those who remain faithful, and makes several statements concerning his own identity. The account of the visions and heavenly journeys in this book has had the intent to exhort Christians in Asia Minor to increased faithfulness. The risen Christ says he is coming soon (2:16, 3:11, 22:7 as well), his reward is with him to repay everyone according to their works, 2:23 also portraying the risen Lord as an eschatological judge. Rewards, by definition, are favors or benefits bestowed based on performance. The risen Lord identifies himself with predicates, some of which previous to this were used only of God:
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done” (Matthew 16:27).
“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
“Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward” (2 John 8).
“For he will repay according to each one’s deeds” (Romans 2:6).
Jesus said that those persecuted on his account should rejoice, for their reward is great, a step above the reward others will receive in heaven (5:11-12). The reward is linked to suffering. All we see the justice of this, so there will be no envy of any variety of the reward.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega (1:8 and 21:6 refer to God), the first and the last 1:17 and 2:8 refer to Jesus as well), the beginning and the end (21:6 refers to God)." The author of the work is thus quite comfortable in attributing epithets to Jesus that are also used of God, which demonstrates a view of Jesus’ identity that would be at home with the prologue to the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18). The three predicates all express the idea of Jesus’ eternal existence. The phrases are a statement of the mystery that we mean by the word “God.”[34] They refer to the notion that the exalted Lord shares the life of the Father that embraces all ages.[35] God is not restricted to being first or last. God stands above the alternative of beginning and end and is Lord of both. For him, one of the challenges of a theology of creation is to express the way in which the eternal God embraces the beginning and end of the creaturely world by not only bringing forth time as the form of existence for creation but by having the divine life enter the created world in way that preserves it and rules it.[36] The seventh and final beatitude: Blessed are those who wash their robes, those who have maintained faithful obedience to Jesus and his teachings, so that they will have the right to the tree of life (see 22:2), immortal life, and may enter the city, New Jerusalem, by the gates. The other six are in 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7. The risen Christ has sent his angel to the leadership team of the writer with the content of the Book of Revelation for the benefit of the churches. The risen Christ offers several self-predications, identifying himself as the root and the descendant of David (Isaiah 11:10), the bright morning star (Numbers 24:17, but appearing in 2:28 as well). The next verses have a liturgical ring to them. The Holy Spirit and the church respond to the assertion that he is coming in verse 12 with a hopeful and expectant “Come!” “Everyone who hears,” referring now to the reader of the book, should articulate this same sentiment, yearning for the imminent return of Jesus. “Everyone who thirsts” could refer to an invitation of the Eucharist and it could be an invitation to those not yet part of the Christian community. The risen Lord has testified to the things in the Book of Revelation and assures the churches that he is coming soon. The liturgical response is, in Aramaic, Maranatha! (Come, Lord Jesus). This phrase is used in I Corinthians 16:22 connects to the presence of the Lord at the Eucharist. The request/proclamation for the eschatological coming of the ascended Lord to consummate the kingdom combines with a request for the coming of the risen Lord in the celebration of the Eucharist, a meal that anticipates the coming rule of God. In the second century, the congregation addressed this proclamation to the Logos and to the Spirit.[37] The longing of these struggling, persecuted, fragile churches long for the coming of the rule of God, but receive solace and strength by the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Their longing for Christ to "come" is answered liturgically and experienced spiritually every time the bread is broken and the cup is drunk. In each celebration of the bread and the cup, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. This epistolary postscript is a reminder that the Book of Revelation is the form of a letter. In its most basic form, Revelation is simply a letter sent out by a prisoner-preacher, intended to be read aloud to the small and struggling churches scattered throughout the Asian region. The concluding note is one of comfort, of love, of encouragement. He closes his book with visions of hope and of heaven, promising that at the last we shall enjoy the vision of God because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. John has written to provide pastoral encouragement for Christians confronted with persecution and cruelty. The book intends to help them face their fear, renew their commitment, and sustain their vision. One might legitimately wonder if genuine Christianity can exist if it does live in this expectation. It must live with this promise, and not just celebrate possession, even though that presence is undeniable. It hopes for the world’s redemption and consummation, looking and marching toward it, in a movement from Christmas, Good Friday, and especially Easter.[38]
In my better moments, I believe this. I keep trying to do so. If I were to follow Occam’s razor, the only explanation for this world is this world, rather than an appeal to another world. Christians have more than a pious wish for the end to be as the Book of Revelation describes it. Its foundation, of course, is the resurrection of Jesus. Properly understood, his resurrection points us in the direction of the future redemption of creation, human history, and our individual lives.
In Phaedo, Plato presents a speech of Socrates on the last day of his life, delivered to Phaedo. Scholars think of it as coming from the middle period of the writings of Plato. The theme, quite naturally, is that of death, immortality, and the philosophic way of life. Socrates makes the case that the way of life of a philosopher is to prepare one to die. For Plato, the human mind or soul can get into non-sensible contact with the ideal and eternal objects of the transcendent world. We are briefly at home here, but we are also lastingly at home there (107cd). He argues that the immortal is obviously imperishable. The Form of Good, Beauty, Justice, and so on, is assurance that they do exist with certainty, even if they are present in an imperfect and uncertain way here. The point is that these perfect Forms participate in their sensible imitation in the world. Plato moves toward the end with a mythological story of the nature of the afterlife (107c). If the soul is immortal, we need to cultivate it in this life for the sake of its life in eternity. The guardian spirit of each soul will judge the goodness and piety of their lives. He thinks those who lived pious lives will have release from the prison that earth had become. Those who purify themselves with philosophy will live in the future without the body. They make their way to beautiful dwelling places. We need to share our virtue and wisdom in the course of our lives because the reward is beautiful and the hope is great. Here is the point I want to stress. He makes it clear that a sensible person would not insist upon the truth of the myth. However, he does think it worth risking the belief, for the risk is a noble one. One can be cheerful of one’s soul because one has ignored the pleasures of the body and concerned oneself with the pleasures of learning, such as moderation, righteousness, courage, freedom and truth (114c-115a).
The Book of Revelation presents a noble belief. Its nobility lies in its realism of the human situation. This world is a battle in which we will need to take sides. The economic and political institutions that human beings create can become beastly. They can set themselves against the good people of the nation. They can set themselves against the church. Behind these types of governments are forces of evil. They are demonic and satanic. They are at war with God and therefore with the people of God. The spiritual battle is real. We will need to make choices. Yet, in the drama presented by the Book of Revelation, in the end, the spiritual battle will be a cleansing, renewing, and transforming one. God will find a way to perform a new act of revelation that will bring into existence the redemption of creation, human history, and of our individual lives. The spiritual battle in which we engage in this life will have its fulfillment in this eschatological act of God. We will not have earned it. The act is pure gift and grace. I think speculating about its specifics is not fruitful, however, for it will surprise us how God fulfills this promise. In my better moments, I am willing to live my life with the belief that the surprise of God will come.
[1] Gordon D. Kaufman (Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective, 1968, p. 321)
[2] Ford, Anchor Bible Commentary.
[3] Grundmann (TDNT, Volume 9, 573)
[4] Murphy
[5]
[6] Murphy
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11] Barth, Church Dogmatics (III.1, [47.1]
[12] Barth, Church Dogmatics (III.1, 47.2)
[13] Gordon D. Kaufman (Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective, 1968, p. 524)
[14] Bruce Metzger (Breaking the Code, 1993)
[15] Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.4, p. 7)
[16] Michel (TDNT, Volume 4, 888)
[17] Gordon D. Kaufman (Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective, 1968, p. 321)
[18] (see the definition of apercomai in Bauer-Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon)
[19] Barth (Church Dogmatics III.1 [41.2], 148
[20] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 584)
[21] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 33)
[22] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.2], p. 628-9)
[23] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3.645)
[24] Barth (Church Dogmatics Volume 3.1 [42.3])
[25] Barth (Church Dogmatics III.2 [47.5], 634)
[26] Gordon D. Kaufman (ibid., p. 525)
[27] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 1, 402)
[28] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 2, 140)
[29] —N.T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 187–88.
[30] (David Aune, "Revelation," Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 52c [Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998], 1166-1168).
[31] (Gerald Hawthorne, “Philippians,” Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 43 [Waco, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1983], 17).
[32] Bertrand Russel, Why I am Not a Christian, 1957, 107.
[33] Einstein, Albert. The World As I See It. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1999.
[34] Gordon D. Kaufman (In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology, 1993, p. xix, 414, 438)
[35] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 1, 402)
[36] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 2, 140).
[37] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 320)
[38] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.3, [69.4], 322)
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