REVELATION 21 PARALLEL KJV AND GREEK BIBLE (NEW It is true that we find sayings like: "God created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell." I think that God is doing that to show us that the value system is totally different in heaven as it is here. The picture is always there and its elements are always the same. The presence of God with his people in heaven will not be interrupted as it is on earth, but he will dwell with them continually. (2) FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD ( Revelation 21:3-4 continued). The friendships of the evil are not lasting. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come: and let him that heareth say, Come: and let him that is athirst come: let him that will take the water of life freely." WebGreek Reverse Interlinear Layout for Revelation 8:13. Further, a negative point of great importance is presented by the seer, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty is the temple of it, and the Lamb. What is true of the Old Testament is true of the literature between the Testaments. Again, that it supposes Rome after it had professed the name of Christ I think is not to be doubted, if only from the expression "mystery" attached to Babylon. Gates of pearl are a symbol of unimaginable beauty and unassessable riches. God will gather others to him ( Isaiah 56:6-8). And who would defraud either the soul of salvation, or the Lord of showing it? The most staggering use of precious stones in this picture is that the gates of the city of God each consist of one vast pearl. The east is the place of the rising sun and the beginning of the day. It takes an equivalent power to hold the nucleus of an atom together that is released when the nucleus is unbalanced.Now, God who holds together the universe by the word of His power, and we are told this in the scripture; He created it by the word of His power and by Him all things are held together. (iii) The chapter ends with a threat. Revelation 21:8 - Bible Verse Meaning and Commentary Such lists are probably given so that believers can identify such people and that such people should take warning and repent. Again and again it has happened that an age of brilliance has been followed by an age of darkness. What makes it the more notable is this, that the rod of iron is promised to us not the sword. This is the second death. Its Hebrew name means the stone of Tarshish. God is to make his dwelling-place with men. 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. Its gates will never be shut by day, 26 for, as for night, there will be no night there. 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 ). The church cannot hear of Him as the bright morning star without at once desiring that He should come. "And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is near." mighty, everlasting God. The "saved" is a term which, so far from belonging to the nations, is expressly applied to the Jewish remnant when it is a technical term. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a 10 great and lofty mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and it had the glory of God. Here it is the positive worship of the creature besides the Creator, yea, and notoriously more than He. 10. It is therefore no wonder that both the Apostles speak of it as a real crime connected with murder and other works of the flesh, as well as with idolatry. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was pl.") It is the divine judgment of man eternal judgment. The seventh bowl contained under it the fall of Babylon, which "was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.". Revelation 21:8 - Compare Bible Verse Translations - Bible Revelation 21 If the books proclaim the evil works of the dead that stand before the throne, the book of life offers no defence on the score of God's grace. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations unto it. It does not mean persons merely, but the souls of beheaded persons. Matthew Arnold spoke of "the salt, estranging sea." And so it is with this very Babylon that comes before us here. They "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.". , . Now, this new earth will be orbited by the New Jerusalem. The account given of Babylon inRevelation 17:1-18; Revelation 17:1-18 does not follow Revelation 14:1-20 or Revelation 16:1-21 in point of prophetic time, but differs from them in structure. [1.] ON THE REVELATION "A TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST" by Tony Garland Description - Garland's work is one of the best commentaries available on the book of the Revelation. So we find the Lord has room for all that is the fruit of His own grace only, for the appeal of grace, even when there is not the answer to it. At the beginning there will have been carnage, as we know, among both the western powers and the eastern powers. see that it is in connection with the foregoing not merely His coming for us who will keep the sayings of it, but for those whom He will find here below "to give to each as his work is.". If only an imperial city, what has this to do with mystery? The Ascension of Moses (10: 6) says that the sea will return into the abyss. For there follows another company of martyrs who suffered when the beast set up his worst and final pretensions. Accordingly the resuscitated Roman empire will carry men away by a storm of wonder at its revival. When a person dies, it will be a positive curse from God; if he die even a hundred years old, it will be like a baby dying now. And the building of the wall was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. * It is to Him that God has given all judgment not necessarily to us. In 2Baruch it is said that God made the heavenly Jerusalem before he made Paradise, that Adam saw it before he sinned, that it was shown in a vision to Abraham, that Moses saw it on Mount Sinai, and that it is now present with God ( Bar_4:2-6 ). Verse Only. I admit that there may be something more in the symbol than the literal hills of Rome, because they are said to be also seven kings. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. Again, to my mind it seems demonstrably true that the relation to the beast here brought before us must in all fairness be allowed to look onward to a later stage of Babylon. Those who dwell in this new world live a completely new and blessed life eternal life. We may and ought to take God's promise as present payment; if he has said that he makes all things new, it is done. And all liars Every one who speaks contrary to the truth when he knows the truth, and even he who speaks the truth with the intention to deceive i.e., to persuade a person that a thing is different from what it really is, by telling only a part of the truth, or suppressing some circumstance which would have led the hearer to a different end to the true conclusion. They were both Jesus' first followers and his ambassadors, and they were literally the foundations of the Church. Revelation 21 What, then, is the symbolism? Not having steadfast endurance, - EBCNT, cowardly (etc) . 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. It has been remarked by another, and justly, that the expression "they shall be priests of God and of Christ" summarily puts out of court the interpretation that supposes a figurative resurrection. How this precisely fits in, let me say, with the state of feeling in these modern times; for "constitutionalism," as men call it, is the fruit of the Teutonic system supervening on that of the broken up Roman empire. 21:5-6 And he who is seated upon the throne said: "Behold, I make all things new." "I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God" (alluding to this very city) "[is] with men." But "nations of them which are saved," is a most anomalous expression, and betrays man as the author of it. It would have been incongruous to bring in that long description before, because this must have interrupted the flow of the prophetic stream. 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. But, Rev. ( cf. 15 He who was speaking with me had a golden measuring rod, that he might measure the city and its gates and its walls. The certainty of the promise averred: These words are faithful and true; and it follows, It is done, is as sure as if it were done already. The first foundation was a jasper; the second, a sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, 20 an emerald; the fifth, a sardonyx; the sixth, a carnelian; the seventh, a chrysolith; the eighth, a beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprase; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, gather yourselves together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat flesh of kings, and flesh of chiliarchs, and flesh of strong [men], and flesh of horses, and of those that sit on them, and flesh of all, both free and bond, both small and great." Verse 6 commends these sayings afresh. John takes his picture of the man with the measuring rod from Ezekiel 40:3. I'm not going to add to it. The cube was the symbol of perfection. Here observe, (1.) The liars are those who were guilty of untruth and of the silence which is also a lie. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. But there is a time coming when power will cease to be ordained of God; and this is the point to which the last condition of the beast refers. "And his name is called The Word of God." It is true that there is a strain of Jewish thought which expected the annihilation, or at least the enslavement, of the Gentiles; but there is much on the other side, and voice after voice speaks of the time when all men shall know and love God. The fearful Who are the fearful, if not all men? But even in this present world those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted, and death is swallowed up in victory for those who know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection ( Matthew 5:4; Php_3:10 ). This is of great importance. The spiritual power is wholly in the hands of the false prophet. "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is an eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth unto destruction." It is often said that the Jews looked for nothing but the destruction of the Gentiles. Buildings do not make a Church nor liturgy, nor form of government, nor method of ordination to the ministry. There is no uncertainty whatever in the case. The first heaven will pass away, and the new heaven shall appear; the light of heaven will be seven times brighter; and the new creation will last for ever (Enoch 91:16). The rabbinic dreams of the re-created Jerusalem were vast enough. To them, as Plato said, "the unexamined life was the life not worth living," and so the unexamined faith was the faith not worth having. Such is the meaning of the verse "The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished. That is, Satan will be the spring of its final rise and power; he, and not God in any way whatever, will give it its character. And the city is foursquare [it is squared], and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs [fourteen hundred miles approximately]. While these sins do mark some believers who follow the dictates of their flesh (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21), they more generally identify the lost. Although there is such a levelling of human distinctions, and men have to do directly with God that is men raised from the dead or in their changed condition we still see the holy Jerusalem "the holy city, new Jerusalem," separate from the rest of those that fill the new heaven and earth. The simple fact of conquering far and wide, and of exercising vast political power in the earth, does not constitute any title to such a name. "And the angel said unto him, Wherefore didst thou wonder? But the fearful - Having stated, in general terms, who they were who would be admitted into that blessed world, he now states explicitly who would not. And it appears to me that here we are bound to account for the presence of these others that are at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, but appear as guests, and not at all in the quality of the bride. In the city of God there will be no darkness. Thus the difference is complete between past history (if we look at the extinction of the empire and the rise of the ten kingdoms) and the certain fulfilment of the prophecy in the future, when we look at what God has really told us. Once again it has a double background. The King James Version gives a wrong impression when it translates deilos ( G1169) by "fearful." Isaiah has a picture of the day when all nations will go up to Mount Sion to be taught the law and to learn to walk in the ways of God ( Isaiah 2:2-4). He has, I think, exactly that class in view when He sanctions the calling him who hears to say "Come." Second, it was made to the son who was to inherit David's kingdom. I am the, Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The particulars are reserved for a later point in this prophecy. see notes at Revelation 9:17; and Revelation 14:10; and Revelation 19:20; and Revelation 20:10. which is the second death . From Rome saints had suffered; and it was easy to see that the revealed persecutress is called Babylon, and identified with the governing city of Rome. What I judge, then, is that the guests, or those that were called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, refer clearly to the Old Testament saints. But then while there is such a call to Christ, while the believer is not to be afraid, but to call on the Lord to come, the church does not forget those that are poor sinners, let them be deeply conscious of it, or let them be those that are only made willing by the grace of God (which is the feeblest expression of the sinner's need, just as you have the feeblest expression of the saint in the previous call). In verse 14 John has said that the stones are inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles. Eze 48:3035 ) Tools Rev 21:9 The elders do show us the heavenly heads of priesthood (embracing, as I believe, the Old Testament saints and those of the New); i.e., they are not limited to the church, Christ's body. Amen. With that love of freedom which they carried from their German forests, they would not allow the one iron rule of the ancient empire to subsist longer, but set up each their own kingdom in the different fragments of the dismembered empire. Both Plato and Aristotle refer to the fact that in Greece the good man was called "four-square" (Plato, Protagoras 339 B; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1. But it was no such evil which astounded the prophet. They durst not encounter the difficulties of religion, and their slavish fear proceeded from their unbelief; but those who were so dastardly as not to dare to take up the cross of Christ, and discharge their duty to him, were yet so desperate as to run into all manner of abominable wickedness--murder, adultery, sorcery, idolatry, and lying. The Gothic hordes were not yet incorporated with the empire, still less were they horns of the beast, nor did they give their power to it, but destroyed it rather. On that account it was altogether out of place to pay homage to him instead of to the God who had sent him to serve. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for, brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord. The woman was there seen sitting on a scarlet-coloured beast, i.e., the well-known imperial power of the Roman Empire, "full of [the] names of blasphemy" in its wicked opposition to God, and clothed with the forms we have already seen "seven heads and ten horns." 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone. In the coming of the Lord all include His coming to the habitable earth. It should be, "and shall be present. We know that the change of all those caught up takes place in the twinkling of an eye. It is true, the beast's judgment is only referred to as a defeat under the hand of the Lamb. Surely this stands for the continuity of the Church. The unbelieving are those who refused to accept the Gospel or those who with their lips accepted it, but by their lives showed that they did not believe it. All these things have their place in Babylon the great. It is one of those cases which every now and then appear where God checks and reproves our foolish curiosity, as He alone knows how to do perfectly. Between the twelve gates there were twelve spaces, and the idea is that between these spaces there was one vast foundation stone. This is the first resurrection.". Now, these are the angels that had those seven final vials. Not that any of those judged (and the scene described is solely a resurrection of judgment) are said to be written there: we are shown rather that they were not found in that book. Webwhich is to be understood not of the renovation of persons at conversion, when a new heart and spirit are given, and men are made wholly new creatures; for this is the work of the Spirit, and which is done daily, and is not peculiar to any particular period of time; nor of the renewing of the church state at the beginning of the Gospel, when the Verse Only. I will tell thee the mystery of the woman." This explains, it seems to me, the wounded head that was afterwards healed. 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. "I will raise him up at the last day." Line-By-Line Order: Verse-Reference. He taught that in the invisible world there existed the perfect form or idea of everything upon earth, and that all things on earth were imperfect copies of the heavenly realities. All the causes of future sorrow shall be for ever removed: There shall be neither death nor pain; and therefore no sorrow nor crying; these are things incident to that state in which they were before, but now all former things have passed away. It sounds like a dream, doesn't it? There is no doubt of the symbolism which John intends. Can anything be less reasonable (even taking that ground, low as it is) than that the various rulers of the western powers, Catholic kings, join the Pope in destroying his own city, or his own church, whichever Babylon may be made? This being so, it adds immense clearness in the understanding of the book. prosperity, says the Lord of hosts ( Haggai 2:9). Man converted will then not merely reach the natural term if I may so say of a thousand years, but pass that bound. Why then is the book of life mentioned? When the thousand years expire, Satan reappears on the scene to the sorrow and ruin of the Gentiles who were not born of God. Consequently there will be an increase in population such as never has been approached since the world was made, yet it afterwards appears, that Satan will not fail to turn the masses of the nations into one vast rebellion against the objects of God's special favour on the earth the saints wherever they may be, and the beloved city of Israel, as we have seen. We read, for instance, of the cloud which filled the house at the dedication of Solomon's Temple ( 1 Kings 8:10-11). Here you may see the reason for saying that the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures are not absolutely the church, because when that symbol applies, and the one of the bride comes forward, we have got others too. Greek "So he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness" a thorough waste as to the knowledge or enjoyment of God. Not the same word as that applied to Simon and Bar-jesus in the Acts, but cognate with that used above, Revelation 9:21, and rendered witchcrafts in Galatians 5:20. Everything that could attract the natural man was there; and all that which to him looks fair enough on the side of religion. But the holy city was not only square; it was in the form of a perfect cube. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. The principle is very clear. Thus the language of symbol is as definite as any other. But there is one curious point. The abominable Those who are polluted with unnatural lust. 2. This remains true also in its own place, as we shall find; and when it is a question of reward, this is precisely the grand point; but when it is a question of the bride above, that is the way in which it is presented here, as we may see clearly from verse 8. The thrones were already filled. We may illustrate it by the members of a family. Greek 16 The city lies four-square, and its length is the same as its breadth. These compose the third class here spoken of. 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. WebRevelation 21:8 King James Version 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have It was common enough for cities to be built in the form of a square; both Babylon and Nineveh were like that. Pliny describes it as shining with a golden radiance. Verse Only. And Jesus sits on the great white throne. I am not raising any question about the ten. (i) More than once John insists that there will be no night in the city of God. "Let him that heareth," then, "say, Come." God has not told us how, nor is it our business. Then follows the proclamation of the angel, and the invitation to the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of all the great ones of the earth. Holman Christian Standard Bible Then I There is an old story of a man who was weary of battling with the sea. To this earth He is coming, and not merely to the new earth in the eternal state. He intends us to see that the whole of the holy city is the Holy of Holies, the dwelling-place of God. WebGreek Reverse Interlinear Layout for Revelation 6:15. It is not now the temple opened there, and the ark of the covenant seen when Israel's security is seen, as the object of God's counsels; nor is it a door opened above, as we saw it when the prophet was giving his introduction to the prophecy of God's dealings with the world as a whole, though in both cases all manifestly clusters round the Lord Jesus. God in His providence did sanction the great empires of old; and the principle continues as long as the church is here below. Separate Line. As long as Rome was pagan, there was neither the full bearing of the seven heads, nor did so much as one of the ten horns exist. "Come ye blessed of the Father inherit," Jesus said, "the things that were prepared for you from the foundations of the earth"( Matthew 25:34 ). Thus the name of Christ, not merely as the root and the offspring of David, but as the bright morning star, calls out responsively the heart of the church, and this too under the guiding activity of the Holy Ghost. The elements will be dissolved and melted with a fervent heat. 21:8 Greek NT: Westcott and Hort / [NA27 and UBS4 variants] / / , . Part at least of that picture John got from Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 48:30-35). "After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great crowd in heaven, saying, Alleluia, the salvation, and the glory, and the power of our God: for true and righteous [are] his judgments: because he judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Even though this passage does not say that sin will be absent in the eternal state, is seems quite clear that there will be none since the consequences of sin will be absent. After so long a tarrying how blessed! There are three gates on the south. We have already seen that the Babylonian story of the creation of the world is of a long struggle between Marduk, the god of creation, and Tiamat, the dragon of chaos. Without price I will give to the thirsty of the fountain of the water of life.". Some things which seem unbearable are seen to be a path to glory when seen in the light of God. The son is doubly guilty, because he saw his father's nakedness and felt it enough to hide. Nations who never knew God will run to him ( Isaiah 55:5). We do not mend matters by hasty conclusions, we only complicate the truth. There is at least the possibility that John was thinking of the city of God as the consummation of the old idea of the city of the Gods, but far outshining it. WebCHAPTER 21 Revelation 21:1 . They shall bring 27 to it the glory and the honour of the nations; but nothing unclean shall enter into it, nor shall he who practises abominable things or uses falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be to him God, and he shall be son to me. "He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. I am not aware of any MS. in its favour, though some versions represent it. But it is what each saint has, though the blessed thought here is that the church has it not merely in the way of each person possessing his own; the bride has the whole of it (that is, the church in glory). Separate Line. [2.] Verse Revelation 21:8. The sons of the stranger will learn to love God and to serve him. There is nothing more to hear of nations; nothing more to do with separate countries, kindreds, or tongues. ", 2. All image worshippers are idolaters in every sense of the word. All the effects of former trouble shall be done away. It is no longer a question of sustaining His saints in grace, but of sovereign power for judging the earth. 2. b T. Bab. It is God's word of privilege to Israel: "I will give you for a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth" ( Isaiah 49:6). By and by, after our translation to heaven, He will work, and as vitally in those who bow to God, when it will be the reception of the prophetic testimony which is here owned to be none the less the testimony of Jesus. Her part in the corruption of the high and the intoxication of the low her idolatrous character has come before us. So here a description is given of the bride, the Lamb's wife, and we learn how it is that God will use her for unmeasured goodness and blessing and glory in the millennium, as the devil during this age has used Babylon to accomplish his wicked plans here below. This may suffice for Revelation 18:1-24. Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Shall have their part in the lake which burneth, - notes on Revelation 20:14. Wheat and tares grow together till the process of judgment separates. Men have been beguiled here and there, and from an early date, to set aside the true bearing of this chapter. But is there any reason why we should content ourselves with the measure enjoyed of old? 2. By the tenure and title by which they enjoy this blessedness--by right of inheritance, as the sons of God, a title of all others the most honourable, as resulting from so near and endeared a relation to God himself, and the most sure and indefeasible, that can no more cease than the relation from which it results. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Let us bear this in mind. I speak not of anything that might be deemed exceptional or peculiar, but of two acts of raising saints. "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will, set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with, sapphires. New Testament, Vol. 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 And I heard the great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, [God is now going to dwell in the midst among His people.]