Understanding the Book of Revelation
Many of you know we are working on a new Apostolic Record or what people call the New Testament. A huge undertaking in this was completing the Book of Revelation, which is the fourth book we have completed. In retranslating and reformatting the Book of Revelation, supplying thousands of scriptural references and hundreds of footnotes that support and endorse what we call the fulfilled view, I came to understand the book – in fact the whole of scripture much better.
One of the things I realized is when Jesus is asked by Peter, James, John, and Andrew when the end of that age would be, and what would be the sign of His coming, and Jesus plainly stated that no man knew the day or hour, nor the angels of heaven but only His father, that there WOULD come a time when Jesus would be given (of His Father) a great deal of information about the final day and hour where He would be REVEALED.
The Revelation's Message
And so we come to the Book of Revelation – or The Book of Christ being revealed for who He is. And so the Book opens up and John tells the seven churches that the end was at hand, and that everything in that he was about to reveal to them was “about” to happen. And then he goes into twenty chapters of super esoteric depictions, all based and borrowed from the Old Testament. And then after describing everything that was at hand or about to happen quickly (those are Jesus' words to the Seven churches, not mine) John winds the whole revelation up by describing what would be thereafter – meaning once everything in the twenty chapters were fulfilled in that day to them/then. And he gives a short description of what will be once all the devastation and horrors fell upon Jerusalem.
So listen to what is first written at verses 1-5 as John says:
1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Beautiful imagery if you ask me – of course, it's not to be taken literally in my estimation but has spiritual meaning behind every word.
Final Words from Revelation
Now jump with me to verse 13 where Jesus speaks and says:
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And then John adds:
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
So, let me work through these last two passages together with you. Remember, all the dust has settled. All the trumps blown, all the vials emptied, all the imagery complete. Everything that could be shaken had been shaken and now John speaks to what remains and he says: 14 Blessed are they… (Who? They? More souls. After all of the things described in Revelation are complete and we are given a description of what the New Jerusalem which is above contains, John writes, “Blessed are they! See the Kingdom above, the New Jerusalem will increase forever.
The Commandments and the Kingdom
John is referring to here are those who would approach and enter the kingdom once everything was fulfilled. These are those in Christ – neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond or free – just “they.” Not the Mormons, or the Catholics, or the Reformed or the Baptists – they. They who? “Blessed are they that do his commandments,” John writes.
Isn’t that interesting? They that DO His commandments. Taking scripture in hand, what are His commandments? 1st John 3:23 sums it up as it says, "And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment." Believe and love, as He gave commandments. Blessed are they who do this, John states, before adding “that they (who DO HIS COMMANDMENTS) may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Fascinating. Especially the may part – used twice.
A number of other translations say, “that they might have the right to the tree of life and may enter in THROUGH the gates of the city.” What city? The heavenly city, established above. The New Jerusalem. And then having established this clearly, John adds at verse 15: "For outside (meaning outside the city and the gates one uses to enter into it) are . . ." And he describes six conditions. Notice that faithlessness or unbelief is NOT one of them. Instead he says that outside the city are:
- Dogs
- Sorcerers
- Whoremongers
- Murderers
- Idolaters
- Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie
The Six Conditions
Fascinating, isn’t it? Dogs,
I do not think in our day we are equipped to understand what the term dog meant to John. But if we want to consider as many of the potential views as possible, dogs are thought to be people who speak falsehoods for money, people who are filthy in their personal affectations toward sin, specifically “lickers” (like the dog that licked the sores of Lazarus in Jesus parable) or “humpers” of objects living or dead. In Matt 7:6 the dog is a symbol of "a cultically impure person" (BDAG), Phil 3:2 – dogs are symbols of evil, "infamous people" (BDAG). And 2 Peter 2:22 uses the dog as a being that returns to its vomit representing a person who is once saved and then rejects Jesus' salvation (v20, 21). All of these things are found in the Old Testament where it uses dogs. (Judges Eccl 9:4, 1 Sam 17:43, 2 Sam 3:8, 9:8, 16:9, 2 Kings 8:13, Ps 22:16, 20, Prov 26:11, 17, Isa 56:10).
Sorcerers and Their Meaning
The next term he uses to describe those outside the city is Sorcerer, comes from the Greek word, pharmakea. Of course, we all recognize the English word taken from this, Pharmacy, but don’t let that cause you to believe that taking medicines will send you outside the Kingdom. In Greek, pharmakeia usually applied to some use of spells, magic, sorcery, witchcraft, enchantment or drugs in the practice of idolatry. Getting high as a means to indulge in metaphysical worship of pagan deities – which was big in Biblical times and remains a practice out to this day.
The point, I believe, is the focus and worship of other deities, calling on them to fortify one's empowerment and life. And while I do not believe that Satan is at work any longer in our day, I do believe that there are powers and dark deities in the cosmos that provide power to those who tap into them – and that often the tapping in is accompanied by illicit drug use. Musically, I am a major fan of the band Tool. But I realize, from their own admissions
The Nature of Those Outside the New Jerusalem
John adds, and whoremongers with the Greek word being pornos. Of course when we read pornos we think of pornography, and when we read whoremonger we think of whores being females and mongers being someone who deals or sells something – like a warmonger or a fishmonger. In that day and age, pornos or whoremonger spoke more specifically to male prostitutes, which was all the rage in ancient Greek and Roman days, with monger describing the selling of whoredoms. Of course, the general meaning which is probably a permissible interpretation here, is anyone who trades in sexual licentiousness – including aberrant shameless intercourse of any kind, prostitution, the pornography trade, wife swapping – all of that.
The word pictures those who live by such things without remorse. I have had my visits to porn for sure but as a believer it is always with remorse and a desire to turn from the exchanges. To be a whore, fish or warmonger paints someone as being steeped in the practices of whores, fish or war as a lifestyle. John adds murderers – phoneus – which means “intentional criminal taking of life.” Self explanatory. But it does not describe killing alone – remember, “criminal intentional taking of life.”
The Sin of Idolaters and Liars
And idolaters also join the list John provides of those who will be outside the gates of the New Jerusalem with that Greek term being idololatrace which in its essence means image, but by extension means the worshipping of an image or idol – which in the face of the living God would mean the worshipping of anything or anyone that is not God – including objects, images, powers, deities, money, self – whatever what someone worships (meaning the focus their time, adoration and attention on it) instead of the True and Living God. And then as icing on the cake John adds, “and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” That is pretty sobering because most of us have told lies – but the key seems to be those who both LOVE and TELL lies. The Greek is Pseudo, a word familiar to us in the English as it means falsehoods. When I was in high school we called people who were trying to appear to be something that they weren’t pseudos. “She’s such a pseudo” because she was pretending falsely to be something she was not. But to LOVE and TELL lies is the direct work of evil and opposite the nature and ways of the living God.
Comparison of the Kingdom
So that is John’s laundry list of those who are outside the New City above. Of course, the list is not exhaustive but representative of the souls not inside. I think it's important to compare the two descriptions to help bring some clarity to what John has described.
THOSE IN THE KINGDOM
- WHO? they that do his commandments,
- WHICH ARE? Believing on Jesus and loving as He gave commandment
- WHICH RESULTS IN? that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
THOSE OUTSIDE THE KINGDOM
- WHO? Those who do not his commandments
- WHICH ARE? Those who do not believe on Jesus and love as he commanded
- WHICH is manifested IN? Dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
This, I believe, is the picture of the afterlife that has existed since the wrapping up of the former age and has continued out to today for every person who dies and exits this world.
