Revelation 22: The End

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The River of Life (v. 1-5)

The river of life will flow through the streets and the tree of life will grow on either side with 12 kinds of fruit that grow every month. The leaves of the tree will be for the healing of the nations. There will be no night, the light of God will be your light instead of lamps or the sun.

I'm not really sure what the leaves part means, the rest of it sounds pretty good. I'm guessing that getting enough food was a problem back then, so having food year round coming off of these trees would sound like paradise. I'm also not really sure I understand the thing about light.

According to Guzik, the Greek word that is being translated into "healing" can also mean "health-giving" or "therapeutic". I'm still not sure I really understand what that means.

Jesus Is Coming (v. 6-21)

Jesus is coming very soon, it says so 5 times in this short section.

It's hard to imagine that by soon he meant thousands of years. This is nothing new, we've been over this point a bunch of times.

We see the same justification for this, that the Greek word means suddenly not soon. Given the message here and the apparent urgency being used, I think this is a pretty unreasonable reading of the text.

Let the evildoer still do evil, the filthy be filthy, the righteous do right, and the holy be holy.

What do you mean "let the evildoer do evil"? I thought we were in the business of saving souls? In fact, this might be another time that demonstrates how close we are supposed to be to the end, it is so close you shouldn't even bother converting people any more.

There are some who are not allowed to enter the city gates and get to the tree of life: "the dogs and sorcerers, the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehoods."

This is pretty much the same list we saw before. One thing I find interesting, is that these people are even around on our new earth. If they didn't make it to heaven, shouldn't they be burning in the lake of fire? Are they on the new earth but just not in the city? This doesn't seem to match up too well to our picture of the afterlife.

But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers: What about those outside? We shouldn’t think that outside the walls of heaven multitudes will throng, longing to get in. “The verse does not intend to teach that in the eternal state all manner of wicked men will be living just outside the heavenly city. It simply describes the future with the imagery of the present.” (Mounce)

I'm sorry, but this is completely idiotic. It is clearly talking about the city gates of new Jerusalem. 

The words in this book are true, if anyone adds anything to it or takes anything away from it, you will take part in the plagues and be denied the tree of life.

A last ditch effort to tell people not to edit the book, seems like a reasonable request.

Finished!

Picture from run-nyc.com

Well, that marks the end of the new testament. I can't believe I've now read the whole thing. Now I just have to tackle the old testament =D

What lessons are in this chapter?

--Apocalypse--

Revelation 22:6,7,10,12,20 Jesus is coming back soon

"what must soon take place...I am coming soon...the time is near...I am coming soon...Surely I am coming soon"

--Lists--

Revelation 22:15 list of things that will keep you out of new Jerusalem

"Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."

Revelation 21: The Streets are Paved with Gold

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The New Heaven and the New Earth (v. 1-8)

Then John saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

It's funny, I didn't quite make this connection until the mention of the sea, during the time of the apocalypse, the sea was turned to blood. This made me realize why a new earth is needed, it's because God allowed the old earth to be completely screwed up during the apocalypse. It must have been easier to simply start from scratch that to fix the old one.

A nice new city, new Jerusalem, came down from heaven "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" and God said his dwelling place is with man. He will be with them, he will wipe away every tear. Death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more, as these things have passed away.

Is this a description of heaven? No death indicates the immortality that we normally think of. And no pain, mourning or crying certainly fit well into my mental picture of heaven. And yet this somehow feels much different than the picture I have in my head, it seems much more physical maybe, I'm not sure. I always picture things being up in the clouds, could it be that my image of heaven is heavily influenced by lazy newspaper comic artists who want to get away with drawing clouds instead of landscapes?

Also, let's take a moment to look at the inherent sexism that is contained within the description of new Jerusalem. The bride being adorned for her husband sounds awfully like she's a commodity to me, being served up for his liking. Are we sure these are the people we want to take our morality from?

God says he will make all things new. He will give the thirsty the water of life without payment. For the one who conquers I will be his God and he will be my son.

It's funny to me that it says "without payment". There might be no money at this point in time, but getting here isn't free. If you were rich you had to get rid of all your stuff and sell it to the poor, if you lived through the apocalypse you had to not get the mark of the beast and forgo commerce for 3.5 years. There are countless other costs to get to this point. To say you are getting this water of life without payment is like saying the food on a cruise is free. Sure, I don't have to whip out my credit card at every meal, but I certainly pay for the food.

Not everyone will get this fate though, if you are among the following list, you will burn forever in the lake of fire and sulfur: cowardly, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars.

If you take a close look at the list, the only really bad item is murder. Being a coward seems more of a problem for the person than for anyone else, certainly doesn't seem like a reason to burn someone for eternity. Being faithless is good. I'm not completely sure what detestable means, but I guess like being a coward, it seems like more of a personal problem than anything. As long as everyone consents sexuality is fine. Sorcerers and idolaters just show the time period this thing was written in. And finally liars, well if lying gets you thrown into the lake of fire then everyone will be in there together, because everyone lies from time to time.

The New Jerusalem (v. 9-27)

An angel took John to a high mountain where he could see new Jerusalem coming out of the sky. A ridiculous amount of detail is given about the city, including the fact that it is made of transparent gold. Also, the city was a cube, measuring about 1380 miles long, wide, and tall. The city gives off light, so it doesn't need the sun to shine on it.

It's funny, I was told as a child that in heaven the streets were made of gold. I haven't thought about it in a long time, but it was one of the earlier things set off my bullshit detector. I remember thinking it was obviously a simplified way you would tell a stupid person that heaven is great, but there is no way it would literally have streets made of gold. I always assumed it was some nonsense made up later by some Sunday school teacher who was having trouble communicating the majesty that heaven must really be. It's kinda funny to see it actually in the bible.

What lessons are contained in today's reading?

--Lists-- (I hate these stupid lists and never know how to categorize them)

Revelation 20:8 These things earn you hellfire

"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."

--Sexuality--

Revelation 20:2 Women are commodities

"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."