Vision of the Ages: The Message of Revelation

Preparing for the Future

Revelation 22.6-21

The final cycle of visions in the book of Revelation comes to a climax with the appearance of the New Creation. The old world has passed away and all evil has been removed. Only the people of God remain in the New Heavens and the New Earth, where they will worship God forever and see His very face. Unfortunately, some people have been excluded from this New Creation and are permanently shut out of the presence of God. After this vision fades we come to the formal conclusion of the book of Revelation, which is also the conclusion to the entire Biblical canon. The book ends with both a promise and a warning: Jesus is coming soon, but woe to those who are not ready to meet Him! The book of Revelation has told us much about the future. The end of this book urges us to prepare for the future that has been revealed in the preceding visions.

A New Creation is coming but the time to prepare for this future world is now, while we are still in this world. This New Creation has already appeared in embryonic form and if we want to be able to enter the fullness of God’s new world, we are going to have to belong to it now. The final words of Revelation show us how we can become a part of the future New Creation even while we live in this present world. This world is a staging area for the next world and what we do now will carry over into eternity, either for our eternal good or our eternal ruin and frustration. Life is serious business. If we miss what God is doing, then our lives will have been wasted.

Jesus is coming soon and so is the end of this present world order. The eternal state of things is rapidly approaching, and we must be giving what is eternal the priority in our lives over what is passing away. The present world order seems like it will last forever, and it is often difficult for us to think seriously about our own physical demise and eventual death. We may not live to see the passing of the natural order that is described at the end of the book of Revelation, but we will certainly all have to face our own passing away. Life has a way of distracting us from this eventuality. Even religion can make us too casual about the central issues of life.

The main business of the Christian life is preparing for the future. And we do this with a sense of holy fear because we know what is going to happen to those who are not prepared for what is coming. The Christian can look to the future with hope and expectation because the best is yet to come for the people of God. But we walk by faith and not by sight. The things that are revealed in these glorious visions in the book of Revelation have not yet appeared to our physical senses. It is going to take some grace for us to live in this present world while we make ourselves ready for the world that is coming. We must use the time that God has given us in this world to prepare for the next world. This is the true meaning of life. If we are ultimately excluded from the New Creation, then our lives in this world will have been lived in vain.

Time is going to run out and the world as we know it is going to end. That is the message of this text at the end of the book of Revelation. It is a fitting end to the Bible as well. Time is in the hands of God and He is guiding the history of the world and the future according to His purpose and will. God was there at the beginning when time began, and He will be there to bring time to an end. The Biblical view of time starts and ends with God. The book of Revelation says that God is the Alpha and the Omega. God is the Creator at the beginning and the Judge who stands at the end of time.

In contrast to the Biblical view of time, the pagan view has been cyclical and repetitive, like the cycles of nature. If all you have is the natural order to look at, then reality just seems to be an endless cycle of birth, corruption, and then death. The cycle just keeps repeating itself. This cyclical view of time is ultimately meaningless. The world is like a dog endlessly chasing its tail, going nowhere. If we have no further revelation, then this view of the world is reasonable. The cyclical view is even given some space in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes. Having been given great wisdom, Solomon made his observations about life in this world. He correctly saw how everything seems to just go through various, repetitive cycles. His conclusion was that life under the sun was ultimately meaningless. And it would truly be meaningless unless we have an additional revelation from outside the natural order.

            But there is another view of time besides the cyclical view. We know from the revelation in Scripture that time is linear: there was a beginning when God made the heavens and the earth, and there will be an end to Time when Jesus comes again and brings a New Creation. We do not learn about this from studying the natural world. Nature will only teach you the cyclical view and lead you ultimately to despair about life. The modern materialist sees no higher purpose to his life because all he believes is what he sees in the endless cycles of the natural world that eventually leads to his own demise. There is no hope found in nature. If we are to have any hope of anything beyond the endless cycles of birth, decay, and death then something will have to come from outside. The Bible tells us that there is something, or rather a Someone, who stands outside the confines of this world and has broken into time and history to bring something new.

            The Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is just an extension of the pagan, cyclical view of time. In that religion, it is taught that human beings experience a cycle of birth and death until a higher form of consciousness or enlightenment is achieved and the individual escapes the cycle to enter the impersonal state of Nirvana. In this view of life, there is more than one chance to get it right and escape the endless cycles of birth and death. If you happen to live a bad life, there will be another chance to better yourself in your next reincarnation. You do not have to get everything right the first time around!

            The Bible does not teach reincarnation. The message of the Gospel is much better and more hopeful. Our time in this life is filled with the goodness and grace of God who wants us to turn to Him and acknowledge Him as the source and ultimate meaning of life. We were created by a good and loving God so that we might come to know Him. This seeking after God is the whole purpose of our time on earth. And God is not playing a game of hide-and-seek with us. If we seek God, then we will find Him (See Acts 17.26-28). As the angel said to John, we must worship God because this is the whole point of our lives in this world as well as the world to come. Our time in this world is like a period of training or education. This life is preliminary. The startling implication to this is that it is possible to go through our time in this life and miss the point! One of the biggest lies out there is that our lives are our own to do with as we please. But the Judge is standing there at the end and He will make the final assessment of our lives. Sometimes wicked people seem to be getting away with their rebellion against God. Even wicked men seem to be happy and enjoying life, perhaps living long and luxurious lifestyles. But the feet of the wicked are set in slippery places (See Psalm 73) and time runs out for every man. Time is God’s limitation for sinful man. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.”

The book of Revelation sees the end fast approaching. When Time has finally melted away all that will remain is the fixed state of the eternal order. This is what the text means by this rather unusual statement: “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” In this world the concrete is still wet, so to speak, but it will be set when Time comes to an end. Those who wash their robes will enter the eternal city of God. But those who remain defiled by sin will remain forever outside in alienation from the life-giving presence of God. We are called upon to think about this final state of things and where we will be when eternity sets in. If we are needing to change, the time to begin that change is now.

,            The new world is coming, and we must be made fit to enter it. But “flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” In our natural state, we are not ready to live in the New Creation. The new world that is coming has been prepared for a certain kind of people and we must become the kind of people who can live in this new world. This means that a change must begin while we are still in this world. The change must be something more than superficial. We must somehow be changed from people who are alienated from God and hostile to Him to people who are in fundamental agreement with His nature. We must be changed from people who ignore and even avoid God to people who love and seek after God. We must become people who glorify God and serve Him as He deserves if we want to be a part of the New World Order. Somehow our disorderly, misdirected hearts must be put right before we can enter the New Creation.

            A person who is not prepared to live in the world to come would not even be able to enjoy it. A person who has only lived in alienation from God to suddenly be thrust in the presence of the God that he or she has been diligently avoiding would not be at home in “heaven” at all! The eternal bliss of the Redeemed, on the other hand, will be to finally be in the presence of the One they have been seeking. “The pure in heart shall see God.” But does God not love us just as we are, even in our sinfulness and alienation? Yes, but God also loves us too much to leave us in a state of alienation. He wants to make us His children; sons and daughters who reflect His glory and share His nature. God is not just after a certain kind of behavior but a certain kind of person. He wants to share Himself with us for eternity. We must become the kind of people who want what He wants. Otherwise, heaven could never be heaven.

             It is not uncommon to hear someone talk about heaven as a place where all our dreams come true and we get the things we want. But this is a misleading half-truth. Heaven is not just a state of mind, it is a real place that is eventually going to break through the veneer of this world. Will we want heaven when it breaks through? It is going to require a complete transformation. You must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. There will have to be a change of affections and loyalties. And these changes will certainly put us at odds with this present world order. We must become strangers and aliens in this world so that we can have citizenship in the world that is coming.

There is still a part of us that is attached to this present, evil world. This Old Man belongs to the Old World, and he wants to stay attached to it perpetually! But we have also received something from the New Creation. The Holy Spirit of God has already been sent to dwell in believers and orient them to the New Creation. And if we have received the Spirit of God then we are truly children of God.

Something from eternity has broken into our time and space. There has been an invasion preceding the final victory. In Jesus, Heaven invaded earth and set up a kind of colony or beachhead. When Jesus began preaching He declared that the Kingdom of God had landed, and He invited everyone to orient themselves to this new world order. Another way of looking at this is to say that Jesus came to bring eternal life. The eternal has invaded and is spreading its influence throughout the world. We are invited to come and participate in this new life. “Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Eternal life means that the future has broken into the present.

            People become confused about this offer of eternal life. We often think of something eternal as that which lasts a long time. But eternal life is a qualitative description of something. This is a certain kind of life, not just a life like we have here that lasts a long time. In fact, eternal life is a very different kind of life from the earthly kind of life that we know and have experienced. The only kind of life we have known is a natural or a biological kind of life. But there is another kind of life in the universe, and that is a Divine kind of life. All biological life was created by the Divine life. But the biological life that was created must not be confused with the kind of life that God Himself possesses. The world is alive, but it does not share in the Divine life that is found only in God Himself. You and I are alive, but if left to ourselves we will not share in the Divine Life. But what if that Divine life were to appear and be offered to mankind? What if those who had only known the natural or biological kind of life were able to partake in the Divine or eternal kind of life? When this natural world and all its biological life finally runs out, the only kind of life that will remain is the Divine kind of life. That is the future that is being prophesied in the book of Revelation. Those who partake of this eternal kind of life, this Divine kind of life, belong to that future time and will remain after the heavens and the earth have passed away.

            There are several signs that this coming Age is already breaking through. There are people walking around in this world right now who already possess this Divine kind of life. This Divine kind of life can be seen in the lives of people who have a desire for God and for a kind of life that puts God at the center of everything they do. Eternal life is fellowship with God. We do not have that final, face-to-face kind of fellowship that is going to be there in the world to come. In our present state, we could not handle that kind of life. The eternal life comes to us in a kind of preliminary form, being mediated to us through such things as baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In these sacramental acts, the future is mediated to us in the present and we can receive a kind of life that will never diminish or fade away. The saints belong to the future because the future life lives in them. Becoming a Christian is the closest thing we have to time travel! When the Church gathers for worship it is possible to sort of slip out of time and touch what is eternal. In our hearts or our affections, we already live in the world to come, even though our bodies and the rest of the created world have yet to be redeemed.

            Eternal life is a gift. We cannot earn it, but we must receive it. Likewise, we cannot make the new heavens and the new earth. But we can prepare for it. We are not passive spectators in what God is doing but active participants. If we are going to eventually end up in the presence of God, then we must come to know something about Him now. We primarily come to know God through what He has revealed in Holy Scripture. Therefore, we devote ourselves to Scripture. If we are going to end up in the presence of a holy God, then we must begin in this world to purify ourselves from everything that God would find offensive. This means pursuing holiness and forsaking all worldliness, idolatry, and sin. There are some things we cannot take on this journey. This is not a kind of detached, mystical escapism from this world. On the contrary, Christians are those who give the most meaning to this life, not as an end of itself, but as a kind of prelude to an even greater life. That is why the saints are always the most joyful people. They have something to really live for. We are running towards a heavenly prize and fighting for an eternal crown of glory. Christians never live aimlessly but are always thinking about the goal that is ahead and striving to reach it.

The Church was sent out into the world to be a witness for Christ and His Kingdom. The Church is like a neon sign pointing to what God is doing in the world. It is the people of God who get to invite other people to come and be a part of the New Creation. Not even angels have this great commission of preaching the Gospel to every creature! Since the Church has this commission, it is imperative that she is ready for the work.

            We cannot give what we do not have. One of the great hindrances to the Gospel is the Church itself. How can the Church be the harbinger of a New Creation if she is dominated by the Old Order? The only glimpse that people in the world can get of the New Creation that is coming is what can be seen now in the Church. The Church does not dispense salvation, but it must tell people where the water of eternal life may be found. And it must be evident that the Church is partaking of that life-giving water herself. We share what we ourselves have tasted.

            The Church is the steward of Christ until He returns. And then we must give an account to the Master for how we have managed His goods. The Church must remember that the Master is coming soon. And we must all stand before His judgment seat to give an account of our deeds. The book of Revelation ends on this sobering note. What are we going to do with what Christ has given us? Here at the end of the book of Revelation, and the end of the entire Biblical revelation, it should be clear what we are to be doing as we wait for Jesus to return. The Lord has given His marching orders and we have no right to refuse. 

            Only the Church knows what time it is in the world. We are living at the end of an Age and the beginning of a new world. The only thing that really counts is the New Creation. Everything that is old is disappearing and will soon be gone forever. In the modern world, people often wonder if the Church will last when it is the world that is obsolete and about to pass away.

            There is both a warning and a promise in this message. The warning is for those who chose to live only for the present while ignoring the future that has been revealed to us. But the promise is for those who want something more than this present world has to offer. It is only when we get a glimpse of the future that God has prepared for His people that we will be able to let go of the present world. We will not be eternally homeless. Like Noah and his family on the Ark, we will pass through the flood of God’s judgment and come to rest on the mountains of Ararat to find a new world awaiting us.

            Unless we are ready to enter the New Creation, all our activities will be null and void. The world rushes madly into the future with a million things to do. But only one thing is needful. We are busy and concerned with many things. Some of these things involve religion and ministry. These things are also vain unless we are ready to meet the Lord when He comes. Jesus is coming soon! That is the final word from Heaven. But what does “soon” mean? How many generations of believers have scanned the heavens looking for signs of His coming and waiting for Him to appear? Now more than ever we must hear the cacophony of scoffers mocking the Lord’s promise to return. We do not know when He will come. He means for us to be ready for Him whenever He comes. “The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of heaven breaks.” Either our lives in this world will end, or He will come for us in the clouds. Either way, we are destined to meet Him someday. May we be ready for that glorious day!

Vision of the Ages: "The End and a Beginning" (Revelation 19.6-22.5)

There are several cycles of visions in Revelation, each depicting the same period of history. The final cycle is the most detailed and contains the most revelations. The previous cycle was the seven Trumpets, which depict God’s judgments on the wicked world. But these judgments were always partial. When we come to the final cycle, the seven Bowls, we now see the full fury of God’s wrath leading to the very end of the world.

The seventh Bowl is a summation of the entire cycle and depicts the final destruction of the wicked world order, which is also called Babylon (Rev. 16.17-21). This final bowl of wrath gives a summary of two important themes in this cycle of visions. First, there is the unrepentant nature of the wicked world. Even with all the judgments that God has been pouring out upon the world, the wicked refuse to repent of their sins. Second, the world deserves the wrath of God. God is giving them something that they have earned by their wickedness and stubborn lack of repentance. God’s judgment is not something hasty or capricious. The world has been storing up wrath for the day of God’s righteous judgment. God’s wrath will come on those who have rejected the Gospel of Christ and persisted in their idolatry and immorality.

The wicked world order that will fall under the wrath and judgment of God is called Babylon in the book of Revelation. This borrows on language from the Old Testament Prophets. Babylon in this sense does not refer to any specific location on earth but to a broad, spiritual principle. Babylon is the City of Man or human society in alienation from God. Babylon has always existed within human history and culture and will continue until the end of the world when it will fall under God’s final judgment.

So, as the final bowl of wrath is poured out, the Old Order fades away and a New World comes into view. This New World has already been there, but now it is being revealed in its full glory. The final section of the book of Revelation shows us a series of visions about how the old order will end and the new order will begin. There will be an end and a beginning. These visions are described in mostly symbolic pictures because the realities themselves are so far beyond our experience. Rather than satisfying our curiosity, these visions about the world to come and the eternal order are meant to arouse desire and hope in the heart of God’s people who are still living by faith as aliens and strangers in this world. The visions in this final cycle give us four different perspectives of what the end of the old order will look like as well as the appearance of the New Creation and the eternal order.

The Return of Christ

The key event that will end this present Age and usher in the New Creation is the appearance or the coming of Jesus Himself. The key vision in this final cycle of visions is the appearance of Jesus coming out of Heaven. The world will end with the appearance of a person. The blessed hope of all Christians is to see Christ returning to earth. The epistles of the New Testament are filled with references to Christ’s return and the implications this event has for Christian living. If He is coming again then we must be ready. But rather than discussing the various moral implications of Christ’s return, the vision in Revelation simply describes the nature of His return. The language is symbolic, no doubt, and the vision is meant to teach us about the manner of Christ’s return.

First, He will come publicly. John again sees Heaven opened. This time someone is coming out of heaven. When heaven is opened we can expect a special kind of revelation. John received the book of Revelation when a door was opened in heaven and he was taken up to the heavenly places. But at the end, the revelation to end all revelations will come out of heaven.  The New Testament speaks of Christ’s coming as an appearance or a revelation. Every person who has ever lived will witness this event because all the dead will be raised. No one will miss seeing Him when He appears. The veil that separates the earthly realm from the heavenly realm will be permanently removed so that everyone may see the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory. He is going to appear in this way so that He may be recognized for who He really is. There will be no more doubts about Jesus on that Day. It will be made known that He really is the Lord and that He really does rule the world. 

The Church is sent out into the world to declare the message that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus is the one whom God has chosen to rule the world and to bring in the fullness of the Kingdom. But we must accept this message by faith. At the present, we cannot physically see Jesus ruling in heaven. But one day, Christ will be seen and there will be no more doubts or questions about Him and His position in God’s Kingdom. 

This appearance at the end is necessary for His vindication. Many people have refused to believe in Him and the world has mostly rejected Him. It must be shown openly before the entire human race that Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Secondly, He will come powerfully. When Jesus came into the world the first time, He came in humility as a baby in a manger. But that is not how He will come the second time! When Jesus comes again it will be with power and great glory. He is coming as a conquering king. He is going to judge the world and consummate His kingdom authority. There are still rebellious personalities in the world who have not acknowledged or submitted to Christ’s authority. When He comes again, every knee will be forced to bow down and every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. All rebellion will cease. Christians are those who by faith have already bowed the knee to Christ and confessed Him as Lord. This is how we are saved. His appearing in glory will be the final stage of our salvation.

The End of Evil

These final visions in Revelation are meant to be a source of hope for the people of God in the world. God’s people need this encouragement because the world is a place of tribulation and opposition. The source of this opposition will eventually be put away for good. Evil cannot win, and it is just a matter of time before all evil forces are removed forever. 

The ultimate source of evil has already been identified in the book of Revelation as the Dragon, the great serpent also called Satan or the Devil. Satan started a cosmic war in heaven which then spread to the earthly regions. Satan had some allies in this war which are also revealed in the book of Revelation. Satan used the two Beasts to intimidate and deceive the people of the world into joining his side in this cosmic war. Since Satan has been cast out of heaven to the earth, his main objective is to harass the people of God who are still in the world and within his domain. This final cycle of visions shows how evil has already been dealt a mortal blow. The forces of evil remain in the world for a time while Satan gathers for a final war. But in the end, Satan’s evil attacks against the people of God will come to nothing and everything influenced by Satan will be removed.

Evil is opposition to the will or nature of God. Evil is not an entity equal to God as is taught in the philosophy of Dualism. Something is good or evil in relation to God. If something is in a right relationship with God, then that thing is good. But something that is not in agreement with God is evil. Satan is opposed to God and is therefore evil. Satan has been very successful in turning human beings against the will of God. Satan’s power has been such that the entire world is under his control. No one is immune from Satan’s influence. Humanity has joined with Satan in the cosmic rebellion and has been used to carry out Satan’s schemes. The main objective of Satan is to oppose the people of God and Satan has used wicked people to do this work. The wicked have persecuted and even killed the people of God when they could do so. But the wicked cannot prosper and they will eventually be removed from the world, along with the dark masters who manipulated them. In the world to come the people of God will have with no one to harass them. A time of universal peace is coming, like the calm after a great storm.

In one of the more difficult and disputed sections of Revelation, Satan is bound and no longer allowed to do all that he would in the world (20.1-6). While the exact timing and nature of the 1,000 years have been disputed, it is my understanding that the binding of Satan took place through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This has allowed the Gospel to spread throughout the world. However, before the end comes, Satan’s activities will increase as he gathers for a final blow. At times it may look like Satan is winning, even with his limited capacity. As the end approaches it may seem that the people of God are almost completely overcome. But the book of Revelation is showing us that Satan can never be completely successful and the purpose of God cannot be thwarted. Evil has already been defeated and the true victor in the battle will eventually emerge. No doubt there are those who find it hard to believe that Satan has really been restrained. But the spread of the Gospel throughout the world seems to prove that Satan cannot do all his will. Satan cannot stop the Gospel from being preached. He cannot stop people from coming to Jesus and being brought into the Kingdom of God. Satan cannot stop the saints from serving God and doing His will in the earth. Therefore, Satan’s power in the world has already been broken.

But Satan will be released to make a final assault before the end comes. It seems that the final days will bring an increase in evil activity as Satan makes his final push against the people of God. Satan’s final defeat is assured, but he has not given up his fight just yet. The final push may appear very successful. Like a city besieged and surrounded by an enemy force, the people of God seem to be overmatched by their enemies. In fact, it always seems like God’s people are at a disadvantage in the world. Perhaps God has designed things this way. It is God who delivers His people from evil, especially at the end. God’s people must trust in God’s power. If we were left to ourselves, there could be no victory. But if God is for us, who can be against us?

God will eventually deal with evil. At the end, there will be no doubt about the righteousness of God. God will be glorified, and evil will be laid bare for all to see. Nothing can be hidden from God forever. Everything is going to be brought into the blazing light of His glorious presence. To be even more precise, it is Jesus Himself who will judge the world (Acts 17.31). God the Father has placed the responsibility for judgment into the capable hands of His one and only Son. Every person must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Every evil deed is being recorded in Heaven and will have a just reward. God has not forgotten. Nothing evil will be permitted to enter the world to come. Our only hope is to repent or turn from evil and be reconciled to God before the end is here. After that, the eternal state of things will be fixed. Now is the time for us to recognize the evil in the world and in ourselves and to repudiate all of it. This is the whole point of our lives in this world.

The Glory of the People of God

When the old order finally passes away the people of God will be revealed. Because of the presence of the fallen creation with all its imperfections, the people of God have not been seen for what they have become in Christ. Every person who is in Christ is a new creation. But this new creation has not been revealed yet and is still hidden beneath the wrappings of this natural world. Eventually, the glory of the people of God will be revealed. That is not to say that the people of God are anything special in themselves. God’s people were children of Adam just like everyone else. It is the work of God that makes them into new creatures. The people of God are becoming something that has never been seen before, even among the heavenly hosts. 

In Revelation, there are two images used to convey the glory of God’s people that will be revealed at the end: The Bride of Christ and the City of God. Keep in mind that these are collective or corporate images, not to be applied to individuals but to the whole community of the Redeemed. No individual Christian can be called the Bride of Christ or the City of God. But when they are finally all gathered together at the end, the people of God will be a glorious, beautiful bride and a great city. Both these metaphors or images are needed to convey something about the future state of the people of God. These two images are also used in contrast to the evil world order that is under Satan’s domination.

The people of God are the Bride of Christ. The wedding of the Lamb will be the consummation of history. At the present, the people of God are betrothed to Christ and are preparing themselves to be with Him forever. The people of God prepare themselves for the wedding feast of the Lamb while they are still in this world. The image of a wedding is used to portray the love, intimacy, and joy that will belong to Christ and His people forever. The greatest love story in history is the love that Christ has for His Church, of which the earthly relationship between a husband and his wife is a shadow. The primary characteristics of a bride are beauty and purity. A bride prepares herself for her bridegroom, to be beautiful in his eyes. In the same way, the people of God have removed themselves from the world and kept themselves pure for Christ. In contrast to the Bride of Christ is Babylon, the Prostitute, which is the defilement of sin and worldliness. The whole purpose of God has been to create a Bride for His Son. The full glory of this relationship between Christ and His Church begins in this world but will be consummated in the world to come. The relationship between the Church and Christ in this world has been like an engagement and courtship. But the day of the wedding of the Lamb and His Bride is coming.

The second image of the people of God is that of a city. The two images of bride and city are intertwined in John’s vision. When John sees the Bride, he sees a city. This has created some confusion. The city described here is often interpreted to be the place where the people of God will live forever. But the city is really a symbolic depiction of the people of God themselves. The City of God is the people of God. This city is called the New Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem in the Old Testament came to represent the people of God on earth and the place where God dwelt. The New Jerusalem contrasts with Babylon, the wicked City of Man, which is in alienation from God. So, we see the final destinies of two different societies of people. The City of God is described as beautiful, decked out with all manner of precious stones. While there is nothing particularly beautiful about the people themselves, the beauty comes from the glory of God that is being reflected by His people. God’s people contain some of God’s own nature. The City of God has strong walls and foundations because it will be eternal. In this world, the people of God did not have a permanent residence. But we will be a permanent part of the world to come. 

The most important part of this city is that it is saturated with the presence of God. The City of God is itself a temple in which God will dwell. John sees no temple there because the whole city is one, giant temple. The dimensions are a perfect cube, which reminds us of the measurements of the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. But that earthly Tabernacle was just a shadow of this ultimate reality. The whole goal of salvation has been for God to dwell with His people. This was the original state of man in Eden, it was symbolized in the Tabernacle, and it will be the glory of the Redeemed in the world to come. In this city, there will be full access to the presence of God without any of the hindrances and barriers we have in this world. The glory of the people of God will be the presence of God Himself. The glory of God will shine in the Redeemed like the light reflected in a mirror. In this world our reflection of God’s glory is poor. But when all the saints are perfected and gathered together there will be a Divine glory there that will be put on display for the ages to come.

The New Creation

The New Jerusalem is a depiction of the people of God themselves, in the aggregate, not the place where they will live. But the vision also gives a depiction of the new world, the New Creation, where the people of God will spend eternity. The end of the Bible takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible and reminds us of the Garden of Eden. In Genesis Paradise was lost. In the book of Revelation, Paradise is regained. The old order that had been subjected to the curse of death will pass away and the creation itself will be renewed. The New Creation will be different from the world we know, but not so different as to be unrecognizable. The major differences will be the absence of the curse brought into the world by sin, and the presence of eternal life that comes from having direct, unmitigated access to the presence of God.

The book of Revelation does much to shatter the idea of a completely spiritualized, immaterial heaven. The idea of the soul being released from the body and everything material has more to do with Greek philosophy than with Christian revelation and hope. The New Testament teaches the resurrection of the body and the regeneration of the material universe rather than the immortality of the soul. The creation of the material universe was God’s original idea and He has no problem with Matter. In fact, the whole purpose of redemption is to reclaim what was lost to sin and the curse of death. Revelation shows us a new world where all the effects of sin and death have been removed and creation has entered a new stage of glory. 

The hope of heaven is the hope of a redeemed earth in which the people of God will live in new, immortal bodies. We must not think of these new bodies as being something immaterial but of a different order. In the same way, the New Creation will be a material universe of a different order. Everything that is cursed by sin will be removed and the creation will rise to a level that no human being has ever seen before, not even in Eden. Revelation does not say that God is going to make all new things, but that He is going to make all things new. This is not a teaching isolated to the book of Revelation. The Apostle Paul taught the regeneration of the created universe. Our physical bodies, along with the created universe will be redeemed and set free from the bondage of corruption (See Romans 8.18-25). 

The whole point of salvation is to get us ready to inhabit this New Creation. Obviously, the work of salvation is not completed yet. The old order is still here. But the people of God have already been made into new creations in Christ and the work will be finished when we get our new bodies and set our feet on the new earth.

The other major feature of this New World will be eternal life. The curse of death will be gone so no one will die. But there is more to understand about eternal life than just the absence of physical death. Death and life are more than what happens to our physical bodies. Death and life are always connected to the presence or the absence of God. To be with God is to have eternal life. To be separated from God is to experience death. To have eternal life is more than just existing forever. Eternal life is a certain kind or quality of life that is shared with God Himself. To have eternal life is to share in the Divine Life. That is life as God intended for human beings. A great work had to be done by God to bring us this eternal life, which involved God becoming a man and dying so that we might live forever with Him instead of separated from Him. 

The vision in Revelation shows us different pictures of eternal life. The first is the River of Life. A river is a source of life. Wherever the river flows, things live and grow. The same is true with God’s life-giving presence. When we are there in the New Creation we will be at the very source of life itself. And we will also have access to the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life was lost in Eden, but it will be restored in the New Creation. We will have access to the very source of the Divine Life and we will live as we were created to live.

We must be prepared for this New Creation or we will not be able to enjoy it even if we were allowed into it. Of course, there will be people who will not be allowed in it, not because God was unwilling to let them in, but because they refused to be made ready for it. The way we begin to prepare to live in the new world is to start to have a desire for God. Even a little spark of a desire for God will do at first. But those who want something other than God will not have Him or the New Creation that He will make. How could a person go through this life avoiding or even rejecting God and yet hope to live happily in a world where the main feature of the place is the presence of the very God they have always been trying to avoid? 

The good news is that anyone can begin to prepare for the New Creation. The gift of eternal life is given even now. The New Creation will just be the fullness of eternal life. To enjoy the fullness, you must have the foretaste of the Divine Life. And that very gift is available for the asking.

For those who have already accepted the offer of eternal life, these final visions in Revelation simply show us that the best is yet to come. These are previews of coming attractions that should arouse holy desires in the heart of every child of God. All Christian living in this world is done with the next world in mind. We live in hope. 

Our hope is not in the future being promised by the progress of human civilization. Our hope is in the future promised by the living God. This is the same God who made the first heavens and earth and who has promised to make new heavens and a new earth. 

In the meantime, there is a cross to be born before a crown can be worn. But this brief glimpse of the world to come will help us be patient and keep the faith in this world as we wait for the next world to come into view. 

The Righteous Branch: A Christmas Sermon

Jeremiah 23:5

Jeremiah had one of the most difficult assignments of any prophet of God in the Old Testament. He was sent to the people of Judah to warn them about the impending invasion of Babylon and the destruction of the capital city of Jerusalem. The people of Judah, especially her leaders, firmly believed that, because Jerusalem was the city of God where the Temple was built and where the throne of David had been established, there was no real threat from any foreign power.

But Jeremiah continually prophesied against the sin of the nation and especially about the sin and failures of Israel’s leadership; the kings who sat on David’s famous throne in Jerusalem. Because of their failure to lead the people back to God, God was going to remove the city of Jerusalem and there would no longer be a descendant of David ruling there. Jeremiah’s ministry lasted right up to the time when the Babylonians came and knocked down the walls of the holy city and carried the king away into captivity in Babylon, leaving the city of David in a state of desolation. For the people of Judah, this was the one thing that seemed to spell the end of their world and all their hopes.

But in all his predictions about Jerusalem’s fall, Jeremiah also gave hope for the future, beyond the period of captivity in Babylon. This would not be the end of the nation. God would not desert them completely, despite His temporary wrath against them. Eventually, another ruler would spring forth from David’s line. He would be a righteous king, approved by God, and successful in all his endeavors. A righteous branch from out of David’s kingly line would come to do what all previous rulers and leaders of Israel had failed to do. The people of Israel were looking for a king who could save them from their troubles and give them peace and security. Jeremiah promised that this king would come, even when this looked to be impossible.

The fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy would require a man from David’s line, a man who was perfectly righteous in the sight of God, and a man who would be a king. The only person who could have fulfilled these requirements was Jesus Christ. The Gospel makes it clear that there was more to this prophecy than just the political fate of Judah and restoring them to their land. God was really leaking something about how His great plan of salvation would finally be accomplished.

The prophecy required that a man come from David’s royal lineage. The righteous branch springing forth from David’s line was fulfilled when Jesus was born. This fact was announced at his birth and then confirmed in the inspired writings of the Gospels. Matthew and Luke are particularly interested in the events surrounding the birth of Christ and in connecting these events to Old Testament prophecies. Both Gospels connect the birth of Jesus to David’s royal succession. The Messiah had to come from David’s family. Both Matthew and Luke give careful attention to the human ancestry of Jesus. In Luke, the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1.32). 

Matthew also focuses on the Davidic lineage of Jesus, but in a subtle fashion. When the holy family is forced to flee from Herod into Egypt, Joseph decides to then resettle in Nazareth. Matthew writes that this fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2.23). But a careful reader of the Old Testament will recognize that those exact words were never uttered by any prophet. Rather than quoting an exact phrase, Matthew is referring to several prophecies about a ruler coming forth from David’s royal lineage. The word from which the town of Nazareth is named means a shoot or a branch. Jesus is a Nazarene, which means that Jesus is the shoot or branch who would come from David to rule over Israel.

The prophecies about the Messiah promised that He would be a physical descendant of King David. The Jews were expecting a flesh and blood Messiah. They understood that much at least. The New Testament makes Christ’s physical descent from David a major point of the Gospel.

In his greatest exposition of the Gospel, the letter to Rome, Paul said he was “set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1.1). The Messiah can be identified by his human genealogy. The Savior was not going to be born a Greek, a Roman, or a Babylonian. He was going to come from the seed of Abraham and from David’s royal family. In the modern world when we want to give our qualifications for a job or position we present a resume. Our resume usually lists our experience and accomplishments which qualify us for the position. But in the ancient world, your resume would have been your genealogy. When the Gospel writers present Jesus’ lineage they are giving us His resume for being the Messiah that God had promised Israel. Jesus has the right qualifications to be the Christ who fulfills the promises and prophecies God made to Israel in the Old Testament. 

Gentile Christians often seem to miss the importance of these facts. We often disconnect the Gospel and Jesus from the story of Israel and the Old Testament, as if Jesus just appeared out of nowhere. But the Savior of the world could not have just appeared suddenly, as if from nowhere. Think of how confusing and mysterious that would have been! Instead, God had carefully prepared for the coming of His Son into the world. God set aside a special people and prepared them for what He was going to do in the world.

That is why the Gospel is for the Jew first. They were the people chosen to bring the Savior into the world. Without the whole history of the Jewish people, the birth of the Savior would have had no context at all. Jesus is called the King of the Jews. And He is that before He is anything else to us. Jesus was not born in Rome or Athens but in Bethlehem of Judea. The Savior of the world was and is a Jew. When we become Christians, we are becoming a part of the whole history of God with Israel.

Of course, Jesus is not just for the Jews. He is also the seed of the woman, prophesied by God Himself in Genesis 3:15. Because Jesus is a human being He can be the Savior of all people descended from father Adam. Matthew and Luke both show Jesus’ birth in the context of Judaism and the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. But John begins his Gospel in a more universal context. The old philosophers had always been wondering about the Logos or the meaning and logic of the universe. John picks up this language and uses it. There is a Logos behind the world from which everything has been made. But then John says that the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1.14). John also identifies this Logos as God (Jn. 1.1). The central teaching of Christianity is that a member of the Godhead put on a human body and came into the world to be with us.

If this is a struggle to grasp, you must know that it is one of the mysteries of the faith and has always been difficult. The greatest controversies in the early history of the Church were concerned with the Deity and the humanity of Christ. Where the old heretics went wrong was in denying either Christ’s humanity or His deity. Some of the early Gnostics thought it was revolting that God should have a human body, so they taught Jesus only appeared to be human and would have left no footprints there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Modern heretics say that Jesus was certainly a man but not God. But the Scriptures hold out both His humanity and His deity. All true Christians believe that Jesus is both God and man and this is something completely unique in history. There is no other religious leader who has claimed to be God.

Unlike other religions that only teach an ethic or a way of life, Christianity is based on the unique identity of the Founder. This means that it is important what we say we believe about Jesus. Of course, we must believe that He was a real man. But simply believing that Jesus was a real, historical person does not make you a Christian. We must believe that Jesus is the Messiah who came to fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament. We must believe that Jesus was the Divine Word who became flesh. If we receive Him as the Son of God, then He will make us sons of God.

The prophecy not only required a man from David’s line but a man perfectly righteous in the sight of God Himself. Jeremiah’s message was that the leaders of Israel had failed miserably. The people had broken the covenant and were going to be sent into exile. Of course, Israel’s situation was the situation of the entire human race. All of Adam’s children were sinners who had been alienated from God. God’s revealed solution to this problem, as prophesied by Jeremiah and by other prophets of God, was to send a man who would be righteous in God’s sight and because of his righteousness and approval would be able to save the people and restore them to a right relationship with God. And that is what Jesus came into the world to be and to do.

As a man, the Son of God kept the Law of God perfectly. Jesus was the only perfect man, the only perfect Jew under the Law, who has ever lived. Jesus was born under the Law so He could redeem those who were under Law (Gal 4.4-5). We were under the bondage and the condemnation of the Law, but Jesus never was under the Law’s condemnation. We know very little about the first thirty years of Jesus’ life. He appears in the Temple at age twelve and confounds both His parents and the religious leaders. Even at the tender age of twelve, Jesus knew that He had to be about His Father’s business. For the entire span of His relatively short earthly life, Jesus did nothing but the Father’s business. And this is what makes Jesus unique: He was the only man in history to only, always do the will of God. He never sinned. He never broke a commandment. He kept the Law perfectly.

The idea that God is a law-giver, even though it is basic Bible doctrine, is unpopular in our culture. But if God is our creator, then He has the right to give us commands. And when God gives a command it is never a suggestion that is optional. God’s Law must be kept.

The covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai was based on God’s Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments. God’s Law is God’s Word and is an expression of His nature, which cannot simply be ignored or set aside lightly. God made it clear to Israel that if they broke His Law and were unfaithful to the covenant He made with them, He would curse them. Jeremiah and the other prophets came along to tell Israel that they had indeed broken that Law and were to face the covenant curses God had promised.

Breaking a command of God, even one, brings a curse. Adam and Eve had also experienced this reality when they disobeyed God. It is the story of the whole human race, not just for Israel. The whole story of the Old Testament is about the collective failures of humanity. We just kept doing what our father Adam had done in Eden. Israel received a special revelation of God’s Law, but they did not keep it. Everyone, even God’s chosen people, were failures. Setting aside His Law was not an option. The Law had to be kept, but no son of Adam or daughter of Eve could do that. Sin had mastered the children of Adam.

What did God do? God started over. Jesus is a new start, the second Adam. Adam sinned and was cursed. Israel sinned and was cursed. But Jesus did not sin. He was tempted like us, yet He did not sin. So, God could start over in Jesus with a perfect man who was the Head of a new humanity. This is exactly Paul’s argument in Romans when he says: “as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5.19). Adam’s race was condemned, but Christ’s race is accepted as righteous. Jesus succeeded where Adam failed, so Jesus is now the progenitor of the New Humanity. In Adam we were unrighteous, in Christ we are righteous. “Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface, stamp Thine image in its place: second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love.”

This is a difficult doctrine in our individualistic culture. The idea that one person can stand in or represent many other people seems unfair. But we are very familiar with this concept, which is called a Federal Head, in the legal process. When people have trouble with the law, they hire a representative, a lawyer, to make their legal case. If you have a good lawyer, you get a good deal in court, even if you are guilty. Jesus is our Federal Head, our representative, who can legally represent us before a righteous God. Even though we are guilty, we get a good deal with God because we have a good representative in Christ. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2.1). We are not righteous. But He is righteous. We are accepted by the Father in Him.

There was a man in the Old Testament named Mephibosheth. He was the son of Jonathan, King David’s friend. After Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle and David was made king of Israel, many of Saul’s sons were killed. But David had made a covenant with Jonathan. And so, David found Mephibosheth and invited him to stay with him in Jerusalem and eat at his table every day. There was nothing in this for David personally. Mephibosheth was not a great warrior who could fight in David’s army. Mephibosheth was lame in both his feet. But he got a free ticket to live with the king just because of the covenant David had made with His father, Jonathan. You and I are Mephibosheth. We have been invited to come to God because of the grace of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Even with the lameness in our feet, our sin, we are still able to come and eat at the King’s table. But it is not for anything we have done or anything that we can bring to the table. It is only because of the righteousness of King Jesus.

It is not hard for us to look at ourselves or at each other and find faults. But if you look at Jesus, you will never find any faults. In fact, Jesus just looks better and better! Most people who object to Christianity usually do so because of the imperfections of Christ’s followers, but seldom because of Christ Himself. That is really no surprise. We freely admit our failures. But we see no failure in our Lord. And neither does God the Father. God is perfectly pleased with His Son. And if we are in Christ, God will be pleased with us and will credit righteousness to our account.

The coming of Christ brought in a new order. We must come to God in Christ. Christ has fulfilled the Law, so we no longer come to God through Law, we come through faith in Christ. The covenant God made with Abraham was based on a promise of blessing through His Seed, not through law, and now that Seed has come. And so, we can all agree with Paul’s desire to “gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3.9).

The fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy also required a king to reign. Jesus was born to be a king and that fact was announced before His birth. His royal credentials were presented and confirmed. He was the heir to David’s eternal throne that God had promised to David himself.

David was a shadow of the Christ who would come from his own body. David was the king that God had chosen, not the one that the people had recognized. Saul was the kind of king the people had wanted. The same thing was true of Jesus. He was God’s King, but not the kind of king who could be recognized or accepted by the world. The Romans would see him as an upstart and as a rebel. The Jews wanted a man of war who would kick out the Romans and reestablish their earthly power.

The fact that there was no room for Him in the inn in Bethlehem was a precursor to Jesus’ earthly life. He came to His own, prepared people, but they did not recognize or receive Him. Jesus was going to be made King by God, not by the praise and adoration of men. He came to do the will of God, not the will of men. He came to establish the Kingdom of God, not an earthly kingdom. The world did not and still does not want Him as their King, which was also prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures (See Psalm 2; 110). The world has always been in rebellion against God’s authority and will not accept His choice of Jesus as King. Jesus is a threat to the world and to everyone who wants to live his own life. Of course, you don’t get to vote for who is king. The only vote that counts in this case is God’s choice. God has exalted Him and given Him a name above every other name.

There can be no grey area here. No middle ground is possible. We either accept Him as the king or we are against Him. This kind of absolute truth is what continues to be a stumbling block to our relativistic culture. But the Scriptures make no apologies for calling Jesus the Lord of all. The fact that He is God’s chosen king means that He is everyone’s king. He is not just the King of the Jews. He is the King of Africa, China, England, Pakistan, Russia, and even the United States!

The will of God is absolute, but it is always good. Satan has tempted humanity to believe that God is an evil ogre who is keeping us from really being free and enjoying ourselves. It is the oldest of lies. We have believed that it was better to go out on our own in the world rather than submit to God’s authority. The source of all our trouble and all our insecurity stems from the fact that we have left the Father’s house, like the Prodigal Son, and are trying to make it on our own. When we seek His Kingdom first, then everything else comes with it, and we can rest in His love, like a son in the arms of his father. There is a direct connection between Christ’s authority and our security in God’s love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ because Christ is at the right hand of God.

In the musical, The Fiddler on the Roof, when all the Jews are being forcibly evicted from their homes, one of the young men asks: “wouldn’t this be a good time for the Messiah to come?” In all their troubles it had been a question that the Jews had been asking for centuries. But not the Jews only. It is deep in the heart of humanity to want a savior who can bring us out of our troubles and into a place of peace and security. All people continue to look for saviors: political, economic, personal, philosophical and religious. We want someone to save us from our sorrows, insignificance, loneliness, and anxiety. We want to feel that we are secure and that our lives matter and that everything might turn out to be okay in the end. We want hope. We want peace. And we want joy. This is what the world talks about at Christmastime. But every year at Christmastime people look around at the world and wonder why things are still such a mess. What are we doing wrong? Wouldn’t this be a good time for the Messiah to come? But He has come. One of our favorite Christmas songs declares “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Why has He come? “He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” But how do we get His blessings? “Let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare Him room.”

Vision of the Ages: The Seven Bowls Part 1

The Final Judgement of the World

Revelation 15.1-19.5

We now come to the final cycle of visions in the book of Revelation. This cycle is structured by the image of seven bowls full of the wrath of God that is poured out on the world. After these bowls of wrath are poured out we are then given a more detailed view of the World Order, which is called Babylon, and why God’s wrath is being directed against it.

In the last cycle, we were introduced to the enemies of Christ and His Church. There is the ultimate enemy, which is the Dragon, or Satan, and two beasts that Satan uses to wage war on the Saints in the earth. Another adversary, Babylon, is mentioned in the last cycle but becomes the focus of the final cycle of visions. The final section of Revelation can be divided into two parts: the first part is the judgment of Babylon in 15.1-19.5. The second part is 19.6-22.5, which depicts several different perspectives of the end of the world.

In the previous section, when the enemies of Christ and His people are revealed, the cosmic enemies are shown first because these are the ultimate source of the opposition. The earthly or human part of the opposition is shown last. But when the enemies are judged the order is reversed and the human opposition from the World Order, or Babylon, is shown first. There is a practical reason for this reversed order in the final cycle: Babylon, or the wicked World Order, is the enemy by which the saints in the earth have been directly attacked. Opposition from the World is opposition from other people around us, which is quite close and personal. So, it is a point of encouragement to the people of God to see the judgment of the World Order first, since this has been the most direct, though not the ultimate, source of opposition. In the middle of the conflict, it is often difficult for us to see that the outcome of the war has already been decided. Sometimes it looks like the World has the upper hand and that the saints are losers. But God has not forgotten how the World has treated His people.

The vision that is depicted by the seven bowls of wrath helps us understand something about the nature of the World Order, or Babylon, and why God’s wrath is going to destroy it completely. If we understand the meaning of this vision we will also see the condition of our own hearts in relation to the World.

The Nature of the World

In this vision, the World is called Babylon:

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead, was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations” (Rev. 17.1-5)

Babylon was a very real kingdom or empire that once dominated the ancient world, including the people of Israel. It was Babylon that carried the kingdom of Judah into captivity, as announced by God’s prophets, especially the prophet Jeremiah:

Flee from the midst of Babylon; let everyone save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine therefore the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies. (Jer. 51.6-9).

God promised that Babylon would fall and that the people of Judah would return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city of God.

But all of that was ancient history by the time the Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos writing the book of Revelation. The churches John wrote letters to were under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Now, Rome is ancient history for us. So, what does Babylon have to do with the Church today? Whatever the symbol of Babylon is referring to, it must be something relevant to the church in every place and every Age.

This section of Revelation is especially concerned with those things that will happen at the end of the world. Therefore, the symbolic Babylon must be something still with us today and will be with us until Jesus comes. Some interpreters of the book of Revelation believe that Babylon is a reference to Rome and the judgment of that evil empire that so violently persecuted the early Church. But this interpretation fails to do justice to the universal scope of this vision. Rome may have been the Babylon in John’s time, but there would be a Babylon that the people of God would have to continually face before the end comes.

What is seen in the visions here in Revelation is an image of the World, or worldliness. The World in this sense is not the created world of nature. This term refers to the world of humanity in a state of alienation and rebellion against God. Satan is the god of this World, and those who are a part of this evil system unwittingly serve the will of Satan rather than the will of God. Christians have been delivered from the evil system and brought into the Kingdom of God. The World system is marked by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2.15-17). In Revelation, the World system is called “Babylon” as a kind of theological shorthand. And in these visions, we see a glimpse of its nature so that the people of God know the challenges they are facing. Babylon is an enemy just like the Dragon and the Beasts.

Babylon is pictured in two ways in the vision: as a city and as a prostitute.

 

Babylon: The City of Man

Ancient Babylon was a city that was pagan and idolatrous. It was in every way a contrast to the city of Jerusalem, which was the only city on earth associated with the living God. God’s presence was represented in Jerusalem by the Temple, but there was no temple to Jehovah in Babylon. The city of Jerusalem came to represent the presence of God with His chosen people. Jerusalem was the City of God. In contrast, Babylon represents the City of Man. The City of Man could have other names as well: Babel, Sodom, and Egypt could also represent the idolatrous, pagan world that is the enemy of God and His people. We could say that the whole story of the Bible is a tale of two cities: The City of Man versus the City of God. This contrast between these two cities, or societies of people, is made very clear in the visions of Revelation. In this cycle, we have the vision of the wickedness and the judgment of Babylon, the City of Man, in stark contrast to the glory of the City of God, which is the New Jerusalem. These cities represent people, not places. These are groups of people who together form two different kinds of societies.

At the present, these two cities co-exist in the world. But this will not always be the case. One of these cities is destined for destruction and at the end of time, these two groups will be eternally separated from each other. Each person belongs to one city or the other. We want to make sure we are in the right city because the outcome of this struggle has already been determined.

The people of God had to spend some time in exile and captivity in Babylon. This is the very same situation for God’s people today: we are also in a kind of exile in the world. We are surrounded by paganism and idolatry. We are IN Babylon, but we are not OF Babylon. Babylon represents a major challenge to the faith of God’s people. We must be faithful while in Babylon, trusting that God will care for us and eventually deliver us. The prophets gave hope to the people of Judah that they would eventually come out of captivity in Babylon and return to the Promised Land. In the same way, the people of God in the world have the hope of salvation and of entering the New Creation. But during our time in Babylon, we must resist the paganism that is all around us, much like Daniel and his friends had to do. Babylon is hostile to the people of God and we are not promised an easy time. We do not fit in with the World’s godless agenda and they will not appreciate the presence of people with another allegiance. Jesus warned His disciples that the World would hate them because it hated Him and His Father. Becoming a Christian is kind of like joining a resistance movement. Christians are resisting and often protesting the ways of Babylon all the while calling people to join us and find something better than what this present, evil World offers us. God has given us an alternative to Babylon.

 

Babylon: The Great Prostitute

There is another image for the World here in Revelation, and it is somewhat shocking and difficult: The World is a great prostitute. She is pictured as a woman richly and seductively dressed, enticing potential lovers. The Prostitute promises intoxicating pleasure to her lovers and her appeal has been very successful. The Prostitute represents yet another strategy Satan has for recruiting the world to join his movement and oppose the people of God. The allure of worldly pleasures is a seductive offer than many people are not able to resist. The Devil was even bold enough to tempt Jesus by showing Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Jesus was not fooled by this offer, but many men take the bait and are snared by the Prostitute. The woman is a PROSTITUTE and that means her pleasures only come at a price. The price for her affection is your soul. You cannot serve God and jump in bed with the Prostitute. Jesus warned us that we cannot serve two masters: we must choose between God and the unrighteous mammon of this world. There are those people who hear the good news about the Kingdom of God, but they are too distracted by “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.” It is a serious warning for those of us who live in the affluent West. Here in America, the seduction of the Prostitute has been one of Satan’s most effective strategies for recruiting servants. The elusive “American Dream” is nothing more than the siren call of the Prostitute dressed up in modern clothes.

These images are in Scripture to teach us even deeper, spiritual truths about our relationship to God. The World has no covenant relationship with God, which is why she is called a Prostitute. A Prostitute is not in a covenant relationship with a single spouse but will give her affection to any and every lover who comes along. Such is the idolatry of the world and its many spiritual lovers.

In stark contrast to the Prostitute is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. There is another group of people in the world who are in covenant with God and are promised in marriage to Christ at the end of the Age. The Prostitute is promiscuous and defiled. The Bride is faithful and pure, which is why her garments are white. Until the Bridegroom comes, and the Marriage Feast begins, the Bride is to remain faithful to her Beloved and keep herself pure for Him alone. Just like a bride wants to make herself as beautiful as she can for her bridegroom on their wedding day, the Church is preparing to meet Christ and live with Him forever when He comes again. This is the whole goal of the Christian life. The Apostle Paul said to one of his churches: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” This means total devotion is required or there can be no relationship at all. There must be marriage faithfulness; there can be no spiritual promiscuity. God is jealous for the love of His people. The prophets had warned Israel about the dangers of spiritual adultery. Behind this image in Revelation is the explicit parable in Ezekiel about Oholah and Oholibah. These two girls represented the people of Israel and Judah who were in covenant with God yet lusted after other lovers and become defiled, unfaithful whores (See Ezek. 23). “They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth.” This is how God views the unfaithfulness of His people!

This vision in Revelation serves as a warning both to churches and individual Christians who are being tempted by the spirit of worldliness. It seems that one of the seven churches of Asia had been seduced by worldliness. The Church at Laodicea was lukewarm about its relationship to Christ but said to itself “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” Such is the complacent attitude of those under the spell of Babylon’s seduction. Unfortunately, the Church has often been seduced by worldliness. This is primarily how Satan has assaulted the Church in the Western World. We have not felt the hard hands of bloody persecution. Instead, we have felt the soft flesh of the Prostitute. When Martin Luther looked at the Church in his time, he wrote against its worldliness and corruption and called it Babylon. But the Church in every Age must identify the infiltration of Babylon. No Church is immune to the seduction of worldliness. And that is why the Scriptures contain such exhortations as: “love not the world, neither anything in the world.” The World is to the Church what Potiphar’s wife was to Joseph. In our hearts, we must run away from her deadly embrace.

The Wrath of God against the World

There are many similarities between this cycle of the seven bowls and the previous cycle of the seven trumpets. Both cycles depict God’s wrath against the World. Like the previous cycle, the judgments echo the story of the Exodus and the plagues that God sent on Egypt. But the previous cycle depicted only partial judgments. The seven bowls depict the fullness of God’s wrath. Here we are seeing the final judgment of the World Order and its ultimate collapse. Everything culminates with the pouring out of the seventh bowl of wrath:

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath (Rev. 16.17-19)

God’s wrath is currently being revealed from heaven against the wickedness of the World Order. But the World endures. One of the most important aspects of the book of Revelation is the “now and the not yet” of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has broken into human history. The Christ has been exalted into Heaven. And yet, the Old Order is still here. Satan and his Kingdom of Darkness is still powerful in the world. There would be a period when the two kingdoms are in the world together, just like the field in Jesus’ parable that had wheat and tares growing up at the same time. The Jews expected the coming of the Kingdom of God would mean the immediate removal of evil. They expected that the evil Age would abruptly end and the Kingdom would begin. This is reflected even in the preaching of John the Baptist who told the Jews: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” But Jesus did not do that. Not yet. What really has happened is an overlapping of two Ages. The final Day of Wrath has been delayed. But the book of Revelation shows us that it is coming.

God sent prophets to Israel who proclaimed that a Day of Wrath was going to come on the world. This “Day of the Lord” would be a cataclysmic event for all the nations and would even impact the created order. God is going to bring all the nations of the world together and confront them and punish them for their wickedness and rebellion. At times it seems like the wicked World is having its own way, ignoring God and His law, and persecuting His people. But God is going to have His Day and will call the world to account for its deeds. There are several prophetic oracles about the coming Day of the Lord:

“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it (Isa 13.9)”.

“That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes” (Jer. 46.10).

“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (Ezek. 30.2-3).

“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth” (Zeph. 1.14-18).

The book of Revelation is simply showing what the prophets already foretold. So, we should not think that wrath is just an Old Testament idea. In the book of Romans, which is the most extensive exposition of the Gospel in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2.5). The people who persist in wickedness and rebellion against God are storing up wrath for themselves on the Day of the Lord. The wrath of God is like water rising behind a dam that will eventually burst through and flood the world. The Gospel warns us about this wrath that is coming and urges repentance. God is being patient with mankind. But God’s patience should not be confused with tolerance.

God is always opposed to what is evil. Those who object to God’s wrath need to understand that God is opposed to evil because He is good! If God is good then He must be opposed to everything and everyone that is evil. The book of Revelation is making it clear that the wrath of God against the world order is right. The World deserves wrath because it is corrupt and evil to the core. God’s judgment of it is good, righteous and deserved.

The World has gathered together to oppose God and His Christ. Humanity declared war on God! God is not going to let the challenge to His glory and sovereignty go unanswered. The World’s rebellion is going to be crushed. Obviously, this is not something difficult for the Lord to do. God spoke the world into existence and another command from Him can easily unmake it. It is always wrong for us to fear men. God is the one we should fear. The wrath of Almighty God is the most terrifying force in the universe. The fact that the World does not fear the Lord and is willing to rebel against Him is a testimony to the power of sin in the human heart. The World is so set against God, even the plagues described in this vision do not bring about any change or repentance.

The Dragon launched the original rebellion against God and the World has joined in this cosmic rebellion. The World Order deserves the same treatment as the Devil because it has become his ally. Rather than worshiping God, the World has chosen to worship the Dragon and the Beast. If the Dragon and the Beast deserve the wrath of God, then so does the World. God is going to crush Satan’s kingdom and every other kingdom that aligns itself with him. There is no neutral ground in this cosmic conflict.

The strategy of the Dragon was to pursue and persecute the people of God. Satan used the people of the World to do his dirty work of opposing the Saints. Without any just cause, the World has persecuted and even slaughtered the people of God. The blood of God’s saints, prophets, and martyrs cries out for justice, just as the blood of Abel did at the beginning. God has not forgotten the blood of his people who have been killed by the wicked World. There will be a Day of Vengeance when God will repay the World for how it treated His people. At the present, we pray for those who persecute us. But when the Day of the Lord comes, the time for pity and compassion for the ungodly will be over.

There is an emphasis on love and tolerance in this culture of ours. People want to hear about love and acceptance, not judgment and destruction. But warnings about wrath abound in Scripture and we cannot ignore this reality. The Gospel is good news because we understand the reality of God’s wrath and that there is a way of salvation from its destruction.

The end of the world will be a cosmic reenactment of the Exodus: like ancient Egypt, the World Order will fall apart under the wrath of Almighty God. But there will be a group of people protected from the judgments who will sing a song of deliverance on that Day of Wrath just like Israel did at the Red Sea! The people of God have no reason to fear the end of the world or the wrath of God because they are kept safe by the blood of the Lamb, just as Israel was saved from death by the Passover blood of the lamb upon their doorposts. While there is still time before the final judgment, we are to make the necessary preparations for that Day.

The Destruction of the World

The language in this vision is in the present tense: Babylon IS fallen! It is as if these things have already happened. God is sovereign and He has decreed that these things will happen. The future is not in doubt.

The World will not change. Jesus did not come to change the World and the Church is not going to change the World. Not even these plagues can bring about a change in the World. Salvation is about coming OUT of Babylon “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” The Gospel calls us to leave the World Order and join the Kingdom of God, which is the only kingdom that will be left standing at the End. Babylon itself is destined for destruction.

Reasons for the Destruction of the World

In this vision, there are several reasons given for Babylon’s destruction and then we get to hear the reactions of two different groups of people to the destruction of the World Order. We are not left to wonder why God is judging the World. There can be no doubt about the World’s corruption and the righteousness of God in judging the great Prostitute. We are being assured here in this vision that God has not forgotten the evil of the World Order, though it sometimes appears to us that Evil is winning the fight. God will have the last word and justice will be done on the wicked World.

This vision serves as a source of comfort and encouragement for the people of God who often suffer in the world. The People of God do not suffer in vain. We must also remember in the light of these revelations that we must not take vengeance for ourselves when the world mistreats us. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom. 12.19). God’s people are known as peacemakers in the world.

People who continue to sin against the Lord will pay a terrible price for their disobedience. Let us be clear about this. People will suffer the wrath of God for the wicked things that they did. The World will be judged according to its works. “Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.” If we want to be a part of the Kingdom of God our works must change. Everyone is sowing something by their works and eventually, we will have to reap what we have sown in this life. There is nothing in Scripture that gives the hope of salvation and eternal life to people who persist in willful disobedience.

The World Order has always lifted itself up against the knowledge of God and sought to assert its own agenda over the will of the Lord. We can trace this all the way back to the ancient Tower of Babel when men gathered together to build the prototype of the City of Man to make a name for themselves. The World Order has no interest in the glory of God but always seek their own glory. “As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning.” Furthermore, the World Order has always sought to be independent of God, as if they are in control of their own destiny. There is a kind of arrogant self-assurance that undergirds the World Order as if they themselves are gods rather than mortal men. Eventually, God is going to permanently bring down the lofty pride of life and humble those who think they can live without God and in defiance of His will.

It is one thing to be corrupt. But it is quite another thing in the eyes of God to actively try to corrupt others and pull them down into ruin. The Prostitute ruins men’s lives and damns their souls. For this reason alone, she deserves to be destroyed. “For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her.” There is an image of the corrupting influence of the World in the book of Proverbs:

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol (Prov. 9.13-18).

Folly, the opposite of Divine Wisdom, is like a prostitute who lures fools into her bed. She promises pleasure but only brings death. Like the Prostitute that she is, the wicked World Order has actively sought her lovers and lured them to their destruction. The World appears to offer men every advantage and pleasure but it is really causing harm to humanity and taking them away from what is truly good. Because of her corrupting influence, God will destroy her, along with all her corrupted lovers.

 

Reactions to the World’s Destruction

These sections in Revelation are patterned closely after passages from the Old Testament prophets responding to the judgment of God on pagan cities of the ancient world that harassed Israel and were especially wicked. The ancient city of Tyre was going to be overthrown and the prophet Ezekiel depicts the lamentations of the mariners who had grown wealthy from her trade:

At the sound of the cry of your pilots the countryside shakes, and down from their ships come all who handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand on the land and shout aloud over you and cry out bitterly. They cast dust on their heads and wallow in ashes; they make themselves bald for you and put sackcloth on their waist, and they weep over you in bitterness of soul, with bitter mourning. In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you and lament over you: ‘Who is like Tyre, like one destroyed in the midst of the sea?’ (Ezek. 27.28-32)

There are those who mourn the fall of Babylon because they had benefitted personally from her. The merchants and rulers of the earth grew wealthy and indulgent on her luxuries, despite her wickedness: “And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.” “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.” The love of money and all the pleasures that it buys was the besetting sin of the World Order. It is no wonder Jesus warned His disciples about the dangers of materialism: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things”. If you want to test how much of a hold Babylon has on your heart, you can ask yourself how devastated you would be if you lost all your wealth and material possessions. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

But those who have suffered under Babylon’s rule will rejoice when they see it fall. The saints have no sentimental feelings for the World and will be glad to see it gone. We are looking forward to the new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Because we have already made our exit from Babylon in our hearts, we will be able to merge with the Eternal Order and acknowledge that God’s judgments are just and true.