Revelation 21: Template of Eternity

John begins his oracle with the same sweeping away of creation he announced previously. Compare the two entries:

“Then I saw a throne, immense, white, and the one sitting upon it, from before the face of him flew the earth and the sky, and a place not discovered for them.”

“… 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.”

Revelation 20:11, Revelation 21:1

Prophecy of a New World

Peter, who preached side-by-side with John in the early years after Pentecost, alluded to the same cataclysmic recreation in his second letter, possibly referring to Isaiah’s prophecy. Compare their statements:

“… the heavens will pass-away with-a-roar, and the elements will be destroyed while burning, and the earth and the works in it will be found.”

“stretching out the heavens
    and laying the foundations of the earth
    and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

2 Peter 3:10 (DLT), Isaiah 51:16 (NRSVUE)

Isaiah also prophesied of God creating an entirely new world:

“For I am about to create new heavens
    and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
    or come to mind.

“… For as the new heavens and the new earth,
    which I will make,
shall remain before me, says the Lord,
    so shall your descendants and your name remain.”

Isaiah 65:17; 66:22 (NRSVUE)

Many see John’s vision as a literal dissolving away of creation as we now know it and the creation of a new universe that is yet to be. The sky (space and all that is in it) is replaced as well as the earth. The disappearing sea may mean the new planet will have fresh water lakes and rivers only, and the land once covered with water will now be available for human habitation.

Both for premillennialists and postmillennialists, this event takes place after the Millennium has been fulfilled.

Others understand this new creation as the establishment of the New Covenant in Christ, as the writer of Hebrews describes, explaining,

“In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”

Hebrews 8:13 (NRSVUE, italics added)

A Spiritual Fulfillment

If this is the case, John’s oracle is meant to be seen as spiritual. Each believer is a new creation in whom the old nature has passed away. The “sea” that is no more may be the sea of unbelieving Gentile nations and people groups all over the earth who have now become believers. The city of Jerusalem who is also a bride are both metaphors for the church made ready to become the wife of Christ.

God will dwell within this holy city, and within the bride herself. There will be a profound oneness, just as Jesus prayed there would be,

“As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

“Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

John 17:21–24 (NRSVUE)

For amillennialists, there is a natural progression of thought from Chapter 19 through to this chapter, for Chapter 20 is a summary of the church age begun on Pentecost. This oneness is a fulfillment of God promising, through Moses and through Ezekiel, to tabernacle among God’s people, which began with the infilling and subsequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit given in Acts 2:1-4.

Or, this is a literal restructuring of earth so that the heavenly  and spiritual realms are now so visibly interwoven with physical creation that God will be palpably and permanently present on earth with all people. All believers—all humankind now on earth—have been purified and glorified—“adorned for her husband”—made ready to be with the Lord in this real way forever.

Along with all the “former things” that will pass away will go heartache and tears, death and mourning, pain and painful toil that the load of sin first weighed down upon Adam and Eve. Even now, Christians are experiencing something of this future glory, as Paul illustrated,

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSVUE, emphases added)

John is writing about the complete fulfillment of God’s announcement made through Isaiah,

“Do not remember the former things
    or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.”

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NRSVUE, emphases added)

It Is Finished

John recorded Jesus’s final word on the cross as  Τετέλεσται, “It is completed.” Now, the voice from the throne says  Γέγοναν, “These things have come to pass.” The voice identifies himself as the Alpha and Omega of John’s first vision of Jesus, and the one who gives freely from the fountain of life to all those who thirst, just as Jesus promised in John’s Gospel.

The assurances Jesus gave at the beginning of John’s Apocalypse are now come true, for the ones who have prevailed receive the riches of heaven, and the ones who have rejected God now reap the results.

Outline for the New Creation

These first eight verses provide a basic outline of how the final chapters of John’s revelation will be given.

Views summarized from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg