The last chapters of Revelation give us a glimpse of a new heaven and a new earth. God will purify this earth to usher in His Kingdom, free from crime, fear, and pain. Soberly, how you live now proves if you belong there. If we love and obey God here, we will in eternity; if we love sin now, we will not magically desire His Kingdom later.

Host: Steve, we have been talking through the Book of Revelation, and we have come to the end of this glorious book. Talk to us about how it ends.

Steve: Well, chapter 19 describes the coming of Jesus Christ to take over this world as its rightful ruler. Chapter 20 is judgment. And then in chapter 21 and on into chapter 22, we are shown the New Jerusalem that comes down out of Heaven. And then the rest of chapter 22 is basically the epilogue of the book. But really the conclusion of this book is a description of where believers can expect to spend eternity with the Lord.

Host: Man, I reread that this morning and you just can't help but want to be a believer when you read that. It's like, man, I don't want to miss that. Lord, whatever is in me that might get in the way, just crucify it, get it out of me. I want to be there.

Steve: Absolutely.

Host: Well, the first verse of Revelation 21 says that the first earth has passed away. I've always heard that means that this old earth is just going to blow up or be burned up. But you found that that's not necessarily agreed upon by everybody.

Steve: Yeah, actually, when I studied the Book of Revelation, I used nineteen different commentaries. Of those nineteen, only five of them believe in complete annihilation of the universe and of earth. But most of them believe that, really, what is being described in the Bible is more of a renovation. Let me use an illustration I used in my book, The Time of Your Life in Light of Eternity. As I was talking about what Heaven is going to be like in this book, I was reminded about something that happened back in the 1660s in London.
      London at that time was overrun with people from all over Europe. The tenements on the west end especially were crowded with people and they were living in squalor. Rats were infested everywhere. And what happened was the rats, unbeknownst to the people, were carrying bacteria that became the plague. And that plague broke out in Europe and tens of thousands of people were dying in London.
      Well, the next year when the summer came around, the plague broke out again and then at the worst possible time, a fire broke out and the fire ravaged those old rickety buildings and just swept across the city, burning it out. At the time, it seemed like a catastrophe of all catastrophes. But actually, what happened is it eradicated the plague. And yes, they had to rebuild, but they rebuilt on purified ground. That is what's going to happen. It's not that the actual physical world, the universe and so on has to be destroyed and completely done away with. When Peter is talking about the world being destroyed by fire, he is describing a purification process that's coming upon this earth. I believe the same earth is going to be here, but it's going to be in a purified form.

Host: Even as you're talking about that, my mind is going back to the Old Testament and the burnt offering, where the offering was completely consumed and it was a picture of that sin being completely cleansed and burnt up. That's an interesting analogy that you draw there. It helps us to understand that better. And when we look at these two chapters, 21 and 22, we see several times the words “no longer” coming up. What's the significance of that phrase?

Steve: When John is describing what this glorious land is like, how could he put into human language something that none of us have experienced? So, he's doing it in a negative way. There's no longer going to be any sea, which is what it says here in the first verse, meaning that whole pool of corrupted mankind. That's what that's representing. And there's no longer going to be any death. There's no longer going to be any mourning or crying or pain. There's no longer going to be any curse. There's not going to be any night. He's describing a world that has been ridded of all the negative elements that we consider part of normal life. What would it be like for there to be no crime, no selfishness and no pain? What would that be like? That alone is enough to really make you want to be there.

Host: Yeah, it really is. Even as you're describing that, I'm thinking, man, what must it have been like for John to be seeing these things? It’s incredible what the Lord is laying out before him here.

Steve: Yeah, and he was in his 90’s. So, you know that he realizes it's only a short time before he is going to be there himself. What an amazing thing.

Host: There is an intriguing statement in chapter 22. It says in verse 11, “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” (Revelation 22:11, NASB 1995) What does that mean?

Steve: You know, one thing that I have to continually remind myself as I'm going through the Book of Revelation is that it is written for someone to read. It's not just to tell a story, but it's trying to accomplish a purpose. This is another one of those statements of warning. Whatever spirit you are in, that is what you're going to be in throughout eternity. So, make sure you're in the right spirit.
      The punishment of sin is more sin. And the reward of holiness is more holiness. So those who have given themselves over to sin throughout their time on earth, their eternal punishment is really just giving them what they have shown they wanted. It's not so much an arbitrary law put in place by God because He wants to hurt people. They are only reaping the fruit that they have sown. And the same with the godly people. We are only going to reap the fruit that we have sown during our time on earth.

Host: Yeah, I think back to one of our earlier discussions when we were talking about that point in time where men, women and children must choose whether they're going to take the mark of the beast or not. And I know the response from most people is, “Oh, if it comes to that, then I'm not going to take the mark of the beast.” But the truth is that however you're living your life now, will define what you will do then.

Steve: Yeah, absolutely. And every day you stay in that mindset and in that lifestyle, you're making it more certain that you will want to do that in the following days. So, you can't just think that you're going to have a sudden change of heart at the last minute. It's not going to happen that way.

Host: Right. One of those warning phrases that we hear Jesus Himself saying many times is, “Those who have an ear, let them hear.” You can hear it in His words. He's pleading with us. Listen to what the Spirit is saying. He loves us and He doesn't want to see us go to destruction.

Steve: Yeah, when it comes right down to it, I think the Book of Revelation is given to people as a gift to show us where things are headed. But it's always with what Jesus is saying in mind. “Anyone who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” Never mind the way the culture is screaming at you to believe something differently. This is the truth and this is where it's going. And now is the day of salvation. We need to respond to the Lord as we hear these things now and make the necessary changes in our lives that will keep us going down the right path so that we end up on the right side when it's all said and done.

Host: Amen. Steve, thank you so much for taking the time over these many discussions to give us some insight into this wonderful Book of Revelation.

Steve: It's been a real blessing. I'm glad I was able to do it.