2022-02-11
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week we discussed God’s Books of Life and Death. This week, we will look at the description, given in REV 21: 21-27 of the New Jerusalem. To understand this better, we should know that there is a Holy Trinity and an Unholy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is the three personalities of our one God: The Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The Unholy Trinity is Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. Satan, God’s former angel once called Lucifer, is a murderer and a liar [IS 14: 11-12; EZEK 28: 11-19-refered to as the “king of Tyre”; JN 8: 44]. He was the main purveyor of evil. He was the accuser, the dragon [REV 12: 9-10]. The beast [REV 13: 1-3, 9] or sea beast was the political leader of evil, and the false prophet or earth beast was the evil religious leader of the three [REV 13: 11-14]. Revelation was revealed in a vision to an aged apostle, John, who was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos in about 98 AD. It deals with events still in our future and is the last book of the NT.
Now, let’s look at the description of the New Jerusalem, given to us in REV 21: 21-27. “The twelve gates were 12 pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” It may come as a surprise that the Lord has given us so much information about the future and what heaven looks like. Whether one believes this is a metaphor or the accurate description of heaven as it will be, the concept is here to motivate us to gain eternal life by means of our own faithful obedience to God’s teaching and proclamation of Christ’s Messiahship.
We are not to see the New Jerusalem until some key events have taken place. There will be the Millennium during which Christ returns to earth preceded by a sign seen in the sky. Prior to this time, an angel bound Satan in the abyss for 1000 years. Satan is set free for a time after that to deceive those people on earth who worship him and don’t receive God’s mark on their foreheads. The second death (hell, Gehenna, or the lake of fire and -brimstone, sulfur) has no power over the righteous people of that time, who have God’s mark of protection. The devil is then, thrown into the lake of fire, as were the beast and false prophet. Hell is eternal torment and suffering. This is followed by the great White Throne judgment, in which God’s Books of Life and Death are opened, and each person is judged according to what they have done written in them. Hades is the waiting place for those who will go to hell; Paradise is the waiting place for the physically dead who will enter heaven. All those whose names are written in God’s Book of Life will never endure second death but will enter heaven [REV 20: 1-15]. The book of REV is not the only one that either prophesies the end times or discusses the events of the end times. As shown in this devotion, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and 2 PET 3 do too. In 2 PET 3, be sure to read vss. 7-15, especially vss. 8-9. What greater love of God can one find in giving us this vital information to motivate us to righteousness?!
PRAYER: O Lord, we are so grateful that You have given us so much information to motivate us to gain eternal life. Your agape (love) for us is a blessing, so undeserved but so transformative to our earthly lives. Whether the description of heaven is taken as an allegory or as reality doesn’t matter. What does matter is the opportunity You have given us to learn the Scriptures and to decide we will be obediently faithful to You. We thank and praise You for giving Your Son the strength to overcome His human temptations [LK 22: 42] and go to the cross, so we can be saved, justified, and eternally forgiven [JN 3: 16; RO 4: 3; 1 JN 1: 9]. His sacrifice is so powerful that it can enable us to have faith in You, trusting that what You tell us is truth [HE 4: 12] and that nothing can separate us from Your agape [RO 8: 38-39]. You are our one and only God, and we proclaim Christ, our faith in You, and the wisdom of Your teaching [2 TIM 3: 16-17]. In Christ’s holy/mighty name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit directs me to begin writing about joy-another of His gifts, in GA 5: 22-23 next week. In today’s devotion, I shared good information from the Scriptures about heaven and hell. These are things in our future, depending on our response to God’s writing. Each of us (myself included) must make a decision, if we walk through the door marked FAITH or reject doing so. We are likely to meet people who make both decisions (singularly) in our earthly lifetimes. We should observe them in times of stress and in times of calm. God has given each of us the ability to do so and come to our own conclusions. We must ask ourselves: What will give us the better quality of life? Are our criteria for happiness those which will enable us to gain eternal life or not? What are the blessings God has given me? Have we lived according to God’s teaching or against it? Answering these questions for ourselves is one of the most important things we can do. Our answers should reflect honesty and truth, or we will live lives without God’s ethics and ability to tap into His wisdom. PS 139: 23-24 is a prayerful request to God to examine the state of our hearts. Remember PS 145: 17-19, and we will find comfort in these words. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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