In the new age the glory of God is not to be a transitory thing, but something which abides permanently with the people of God. The splendour of God is used to satisfy the thirst of the longing heart. The day of the Lord on the world in no way sets aside His dealing with individual souls. Observe another very important fact. The isles will wait upon God and in his arm will they trust ( Isaiah 51:5). Men have been beguiled here and there, and from an early date, to set aside the true bearing of this chapter. This, then, means that God is to make his tabernacle with men for ever, to give his presence to men for ever. But alas! 1 Timothy 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? (2.) In Daniel's time it was not at hand. But when Christ and the church peacefully reign, such is the imagery that suits "a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. "And let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.". This city is seen now as the holy vessel of divine power for governing the earth during the millennium, "having the glory of God: and her brightness was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.". Moral elements too were not wanting: the mystery of lawlessness had long been at work, though the enemy had not yet brought in the apostacy, and still less the manifestation of the lawless one. We must perforce therefore look for a still more complete development before the Lamb judges the beast after the ten horns along with it shall have destroyed Babylon. Hence we have to own the divine source of government even when its holders abandon all such thoughts themselves, and maintain their rule in the world as a thing flowing from the people irrespective of God. These would appear to be (save Judas Iscariot, of course) the twelve apostles that were peculiarly associated with Christ in His suffering path on the earth. So, just what kind of order, or whatever, is only speculation and as such worthless, but it will be interesting when we get there and find out. The God who revealed himself to the patriarchs is the God who also, and far more fully, revealed himself in Jesus Christ; the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. Thus the only use that seems made of the book is negative and exclusive. VI. "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have not yet received a kingdom; but they receive authority as kings (not at but for) one hour with the beast." ", All things are thus made new; and, further, "these words are faithful." Not only are they supposed to be coexistent, but united in their change of feeling against Babylon. "The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour unto it" not into but unto. WebThe third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. In the city of God there will be no darkness. The highest promise of all is intimate fellowship with God, in which we can say: "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (SS 6:3). But it is blessed that He says, "I come quickly;" and it is only Christ who in scripture ever says so. (ii) It may well be that the only intention of John is to stress the splendour of the city of God in which even the foundations were stones beyond price. In verse 14 John has said that the stones are inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, The wall cannot be for defence, for all hostile beings, spiritual and human, have been obliterated or cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8 (KJV): But the fearful ,and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have Such is God's account of Babylon the great. It is an evident contrast with the state supposed in the wheat-and-tare field of Christendom which is found at the end of the age. The race was now in the resurrection state either for good or for evil; and thus it must be for ever. "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress" ( Isaiah 65:19). Here in this world and amidst the things of time our realisation of the presence of God is spasmodic; but in heaven we will be permanently aware of that presence. Take this quite simply and literally. He will wipe away all their tears; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away ( Revelation 21:3-4 ). As his power and will were the first cause of all things, his pleasure and glory are the last end, and he will not lose his design; for then he would no longer be the Alpha and Omega. The word for "end" is telos ( G5056) , and does not simply mean end in point of time but the goal. What makes it the more notable is this, that the rod of iron is promised to us not the sword. Babylon must hear, I do not doubt, the final testimony of God the gospel of the kingdom that is to go forth in the last days; but she loves her pleasure and power, and refuses truth. Even when Jerusalem was obliterated, the Jews never lost confidence that God would restore it. By the freeness of it--it is the free gift of God: He gives of the water of life freely; this will not make it less but more grateful to his people. The glorious incandescent light, of the Shekinah of God, the glory of God. John has seen the doom of the wicked, and now he sees the bliss of the blessed. It will be understood when one says "spiritual" that none is meant save of a wicked kind. That pagan Rome, therefore, should set itself against Christianity was to be expected, and so the fact proved. Not so. No hint whatever is given that they constitute the city, but there is the inscription of their names outside. 23 The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine for it, for the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the Lamb. This new and blessed state will be free from all trouble and sorrow; for, 1. It would have been incongruous to bring in that long description before, because this must have interrupted the flow of the prophetic stream. fashioned it in size of many furlongs, with a giant tower, touching the very clouds, and seen of all, so that all the. Thus eternal judgment was executed at once. God has got a lot of secrets that He hasn't told us yet. Here it is the city described in itself, on which we need not now enlarge. Beyond controversy, however, it is a most unusual and abnormal reappearance, which is altogether exceptional in the history of the world. We had seen Babylon twice: first, in the circle of God's warnings and testimonies; and then as the object of God's judgment under the seven bowls. The Church shall be the metropolis of the world; it shall be honoured and esteemed among the nations of mankind. The heavenly city, which is the full expression of blessedness on high, has no temple because it is all a temple. It does not mean persons merely, but the souls of beheaded persons. Hebrew number 3939 365 - 39 = 11/22, JFK murdered 3,939 COMMA = 45 3 + COMMA (45) + 939. They were both Jesus' first followers and his ambassadors, and they were literally the foundations of the Church. When the Lord takes His own throne, they take theirs by grace. [2.] A mighty angel takes a stone and says, when he cast it into the sea, "Thus with violence shall be thrown down Babylon the great city, and shall be found no more at all." "For the glory of God enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." The altar of the burnt offering, the altar of the incense, and the High Priest's breast-plate were all in the form of a cube ( Exodus 27:1; Exodus 30:2; Exodus 28:16). This is of immense moment doctrinally, because it decisively proves that it is altogether unfounded to assume, as is popularly done, that the Lord only returns at this juncture. It will be a state of nature unexampled for the fruits of the earth and the enjoyment of all that God has made here below. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. It is not fear that is condemned. Verse Only. (1) THE NEW JERUSALEM ( Revelation 21:2 ). But he ought to have withstood it I do not mean in vengeance (for that belongs to the Lord), but as holily hating the sin itself, yet withal in the deepest compassion for his parent. A large house was built round an open courtyard. "And he said unto me, It is done. And now the eternal state comes into view. Tuesday, October 7, 2014 Revelation 21 1 Knit together with Heaven, nurtured and renewed, humanity and earth refreshed, connected, established in Way Foremost. The natural meaning of the word would rather be poisoners; and in fact in St Johns days the two generally went together, and no line could be drawn between them. God uses them for this object,-the setting aside of her, the great religious corruptress, whose centre is found at Rome. She is, the mother of the harlots, but also (and with still deeper guilt) of the abominations of the earth. But the fearful,. Not the timorous sheep and lambs of Christ, the dear children of God, who are sometimes of a fearful heart, on account of sin, temptation, and unbelief; but such who are of cowardly spirits, and are not valiant for the truth, but who, through fear of men, either make no profession of Christ and his Gospel, or having made it, drop it, lest they should be exposed to tribulation and persecution; these are they that are afraid of the beast, and live in servile bondage to him. Why then is the book of life mentioned? "The Spirit of prophecy" and such it is all through the Revelation after the seven churches are done with "is the testimony of Jesus." All and each of these. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 21:8 Greek NT: Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550 , Revelation 21:8 Hebrew Bible , Revelation 21:8 Aramaic NT: Peshitta , Deuteronomy 20:8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall , Judges 7:3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, , Isaiah 51:12 I, even I, am he that comforts you: who are you, that you should , Isaiah 57:11 And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied, and , Matthew 8:26 And he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? These gates could represent the way into the holy city of those who find Christ in the glad morning of their days. But the fearful Those who, for fear of losing life or their property, either refused to receive the Christian religion, though convinced of its truth and importance; or, having received it, in times of persecution fell away, not being willing to risk their lives. "Called" is most evidently inapplicable, because calling supposes that the person is brought out of one condition and raised into another and a better one. Yet religion, be it ever so corrupt, acts as a restraint on human will, as a government does, however evil. But the day is coming when Satan will be allowed to have things his own way. There were names written on the 13 gates which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. We know the Holy Spirit rather as a spirit of communion with Christ. Consequently Christianity, as being directly aggressive on the falsehood of heathenism, was of all things the most offensive to Rome. The normal Greek word for "light" is phos ( G5457) , and phoster ( G5458) is normally the word used for the lights of heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars, for instance, in the Creation story ( Genesis 1:14). Yet it will be found imperfect, for reasons which, I think, will be clear to any unbiassed mind. There were two particular effects of her evil: the one, illicit commerce with the kings of the earth; the other, intoxicating the inhabitants of the earth with the wine of her fornication. Reference-Verse. It was blood-red, and was the commonest of all stones used for engraving gems. When its own season arrives, as it surely will, the divine hindrance is to be removed, and the devil then is allowed to do his worst. Then the prophet falls down to pay homage to the angel; and this gives rise to a weighty admonition. The bride represents those that are spoken of in the normal possession and enjoyment of their privileges. For certain there are two great acts of resurrection, one when the Old Testament saints and the church are caught up to heaven, the other when Satan was bound after the beast and false prophet were thrown into the lake of fire, as well as Babylon judged. Dr. Johnson once remarked bitterly that no man who had the wit to get himself into gaol would ever choose to go to sea. Verse 6 commends these sayings afresh. We shall find that the scripture affords much light to decide the true bearing of the prophecy, and that no application to the past can possibly satisfy the conditions satisfactorily. John goes on to speak of the twelve foundations of the city. Sorcerers Persons who, by drugs, philtres, fumigations, c., pretend to produce supernatural effects, chiefly by spiritual agency. This is the second death, from which there is no recovery. "* There is no thought of making such a paradox to perplex the mind. Pliny describes it as sky-blue, flecked with gold. The principle is very clear. He gets his power and they get theirs for one and the same time. Johns first vision of the New Jerusalem 21:2-8. The gospel had been preached there, as she of Chaldea was not without law and prophet. name; With their gifts in their hands unto the king of heaven ( Tob_13:11 ). The church goes on according to the will of the Lord, who might according to His own purpose lengthen or abridge the space. In describing the state of things as it will be in eternity, John has to use the language of this world, for he has no other. Then the word is, "Award her even as she awarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she mixed, mix to her double. Capnionis, which was used by Erasmus, and lately discovered after a long obscurity by Dr. Delitzsch, reads (not ) . "Let him that heareth," then, be encouraged to "say, Come." Hebrew number 3939 365 - 39 = 11/22, JFK murdered 3,939 COMMA = 45 3 + COMMA (45) + 939. It is plain that what the verse contemplates is neither the Roman power when there was one head of the empire, nor the eastern or Byzantine part of it after that partition, nor the western state of division under the kings who succeeded the deposition of Augustulus; for in the medieval state there may have been ten kings (in contrast with the ancient state of the beast without them but no beast or imperial system with its chiefs. there was no more sea in Revelation 21 1 1:11 means that there will be no oceans no 1:14 seas and no large bodies of even fresh 1:17 water in the new Heavens in the new 1:21 Earth now this point is based simply on 1:24 the apparent Clarity of the statement 1:27 here in this verse there no effort is 1:30 made to obtain a theological 1:32 Nations shall come from the ends of the earth to see the glory of God (Wis 17:34). True, they expressed their hopes in terms of material things; but these are merely the symbols of the certainty that there is eternal bliss for the faithful people of God. WebGreek Reverse Interlinear Layout for Revelation 5:8. For what is happening is the nucleus of an atom is bombarded with slow moving neutrons that upset the delicate balance of the protons in the heart of the atom and it releases them. She will despise everything really divine; she will only use whatever of God's word she can pervert for increasing her own importance, and gaining a greater ascendancy over the consciences of men, and enjoying herself more luxuriously in this world; for she will go far to obliterate all remembrance of heaven, and to make this world a kind of paradise which she embellishes, not with pure and undefiled religion, but with the arts of men and the idolatries of the world. III. In that story the sea, the waters beneath the firmament, became the dwelling-place of Tiamat. The passage is summed up in the words of the reigning Christ: "Behold, I am making all things new." He has to use whatever language and illustrations he can find in an attempt to describe the spiritual quality of life in the eternal state.Johns visions symbolize spiritual realities. The bride breathes out this word to the bridegroom; and the Holy Ghost it is that gives strength to her desire that He should come. and conjunction But now there is but one throne: Christ judges the dead. Come, let us all fall upon the earth and supplicate the Eternal King, the. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 246. That is, the sixth head (reigning then in John's day) was the imperial form of government. See note on the "second death" at Revelation 20:6; (cf. Death, too, shall be gone. John 16:7-11 (KJV) 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come u When the Messiah comes "in his priesthood the Gentiles shall be multiplied in knowledge upon the earth, and enlightened in the grace of the Lord" (Testament of Levi 18:9). Needless to say, you could all have a square mile and if we need more space what you do is just move your ceiling down to a half-mile and you double again the capacity.
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