Revelation 21: Shades of Zoroastrianism

Then I saw a fresh new sky and a fresh new earth: for the first sky and the first earth went away, and the sea is no longer.

And the holy city—a fresh new Jerusalem—I saw coming down out of the sky from God, having been made ready as a bride having been adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne, saying: “Behold, the tabernacle of God with the people, and God will reside with them, and they will be people of God and God will personally be with them.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no longer; neither mourning nor tumult of grief, nor painful toil will be any longer. The first [creation, see above] has gone away.

Then the One sitting upon the throne spoke: “Behold, I make all fresh new,” and [the One] says, “You write, because these the words are faithful and truthful,

Then [the One] said to me, “They have come to pass. I myself, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. I myself to the thirsting will give freely from the fountain of the water of life.

“The conquering will receive all things as their own inheritance, and I will become to that one God and that one will be to Me a son.

“But to the fearful and faithless and those turning away in disgust and murders and sexually immoral and those doing drugs (also sorcery) and idolatry and all the liars, their share is in the lake of consuming fire and brimstone, it is the second death.”

Revelation 21:1-8

John’s oracles and Jesus’s teachings on heaven and hell come through about five hundred years of growth in understanding as the Hebrew people languished in exile, then returned to rebuild Judah. During this “intertestamental” time, a very interesting thing happened in Babylon.

Zoroastrianism

Reaching back thousands of years into the mists of prehistory, nomadic tribes from the Asian steppes and southeastern Europe migrated further west and south bringing their ancient beliefs with them and eventually settling in the regions now known as Iran and Northern India. The Indians preserved their version of these archaic people’s religion in the Vedas, the sacred writings of Hinduism. Current-day Iran, which once was part of Babylonian empire, produced what would become Zoroastrianism.

Zarathustra (c. 628–551 BCE)

Actually, scholars place Zarathustra’s time period from anywhere between 6,600 years to 2,500 years ago. The above dates seem the most likely to me (you’ll see why). At twenty years old, Zarathustra left his family to become a priest and spend the next ten years meditating in the mountains. At about thirty years old, he had his first vision of God. An archangel named Vohu Mana (Good Thought) appeared and took Zarathustra up into heaven. There the presence of Ahura Mazda—the one true God, bringer of both light and darkness—took on the form of a prophet to instruct the young priest. Once returned to earth, the priest became a prophet, developing the prehistoric belief system of his heritage into a new monotheistic religion and doctrine.

In a coincidence that should raise eyebrows, Judah’s Babylonian Exile significantly overlaps this inception of Zoroastrianism. The siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE led to the deportation of seven thousand members of Judah’s best families into Mesopotamia (where lay Babylon). Jerusalem’s destruction ten years later flooded Mesopotamia with the rest of Judah’s exiles.

So, we do the math. Zarathustra was thirty-one when the first Judahite exiles arrived, just exactly when he began to preach monotheism. He was a contemporary of Judah’s prophets Jeremiah, Huldah, and Zephaniah, and he would certainly have been acquainted with the famed prophet Daniel, who arrived a young teen with these first exiles.

Moral Dualism

Zoroastrians believe in a spiritual realm populated by good and bad spirits over whom reigns a Supreme Being, Ahura Mazda, the only God worthy of worship, Who works in the world through Spena Mainyu, the Holy Spirit of God. There is also an evil spirit, Angra Mainyu, not equal with God in power, clever but not wise, who battles continually with God. These spiritual beings inhabit heaven and hell, the destinies of human beings in eternity.

Humans are free to choose between these two opposing spiritual forces, and each human action furthers either Ahura Mazda’s truth or Angra Mainyu’s lie. The Zoroastrian believer seeks after good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. This threefold path guides the heart of the Zoroastrian faithful: knowing good comes through the divine help of Vohu Manah, the manifestation of God’s good mind, through one’s own divinely inspired conscience, and the aspect of God Who calls out to human beings.

Eternal Destiny

After death, a soul spends three days sitting at the head of the now-dead body, contemplating its deeds. This is an agonizing time of reflection, knowing the soul of a good person will be comforted by God forever, while the soul of an evil person will be tormented forever by demons. Souls must then cross the Chinvat Bridge, an enormous blade of a very long sword, to reach their final destination.

1. When good deeds outweigh the bad, the blade of the sword will swivel to its broad side and the soul crosses into paradise with ease. (Click here to see a soul being weighed)
2. But the evil soul cannot keep its balance on the sword’s treacherously thin and sharp edge, and so falls into the torments of hell. (Click here to see souls that fall off the Chinvat Brideg)

Zoroaster prophesied that his coming had occurred at the beginning of the final age of humanity, which would last three thousand years. By our counting, that would mean the end of the world is a mere 403 years away, at this point.

Final Judgment

Zorostrian sacred writings predict the world will end when a comet called Gochihr plummets to earth, melting metals and minerals with its “fire and halo,” burning the entire globe in a planet-wide conflagration. 

A Savior

“Zoroastrians expect three saviours to come at 1000-year intervals. The first one is called Aushedar, ‘the developer of righteousness’. He is to be born from a virgin and is also an offspring of Zoroaster himself whose seed has been preserved in a lake and when the 15 year old virgin baths in the lake she is impregnated and the first saviour is born.

“When he reaches the age of 30, the sun stands still for 10 days at the noon-day position. This is where the sun stood before Ahriman (Evil) attacked the perfect world. Through the coming of the saviour some good will prevail and for three years people will live more harmoniously and conditions will improve and the renovation of the universe starts. Some bad and harmful creatures belonging to the forces of evil will perish (like wolves).”

Iran Chamber Society (emphases added)

A second savior will come in like manner

A Dangerous Monster

“Evil … will reappear in form of Azhi Dahaka (Zahak in Shahnameh) a monster who was earlier defeated and imprisoned on top of Mount Demavand by the hero Thraetaona (Thahmoureth). The monster will escape, invade the world and will smite the sacred elements, fire, water and vegetation. Another hero Keresapa (Jamshid) will rid the world from this one and power of evil will be further reduced.”

“However Azhi manages to escape.”

Iran Chamber Society (emphases added)

The third and final savior will

“… defeat all the forces of evil. The perfect state of the world arrives with death, disease and all forces of evil and disorder to be defeated forever.”

Iran Chamber Society (emphases added)

Final Judgment

“Soshyant raises the dead from the spot where life had departed from them. All people will be lead to the place of judgment where they will see their good and bad deeds. The wicket will go back to the hell and the good to heaven for three days and three nights. The last judgement of the individual was only concerned with the soul, while the universal judgement is concerned with both body and soul and involves resurrection of the body. Humans as whole beings are put through several tests like passing through molten metal.”

“… molten metal will destroy Hell and Azhi. Ahriman becomes impotent and annihilated. With the earth leveled and humans restored to their ideal unity of body and soul the whole creation will be once more the perfect combination of spirit and matter that God intended it to be.“

Iran Chamber Society (emphases added)

It seems a great deal of revelation was given during this seventy-year period of interchange between the exiles of God’s people and the spiritually attuned among their captors.