Part 8
Second Unnumbered Story of
Revelation
The New Jerusalem Appendix
Epilogue
© 2009 George E. Blanford Jr.
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The 5th and 6th narrations of the ‘story’ of Revelation
are presented in the Second Unnumbered Story of
Revelation
Tribulation
Judgment
Fifth
20.4
19.11-23
Sixth
20.9
20.11-15
Triumph
20.4-6
21.1-8
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Heaven is now wide open (cf. 11.19, 15.5)
The Rider on the white horse—the Victor
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Not the rider of the white horse in 6.2
He is Faithful and True
 He defends the poor and meek
 He makes war on the enemies of the earth—the Dragon and the Beast
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His name is unknown
  Word of God is an everlasting mystery
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Cloak dipped in blood—Isaiah 63.1-3
 It is before battle  it must be his blood
 John is looking back on the 10th plague of Egypt (Exodus 12.23, 29-30; Wisdom
18.14-16)
 Another paradox of images: Victor = Victim (Lion = Lamb)
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Sword of his mouth = the proclamation of the gospel
Rule with an iron rod (2.27, 12.5) contrasts with 21.24-22.3
Treads the winepress of God’s wrath
 It presses the blood of God’s enemies which they must drink (Isaiah 49.26)
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King of kings and Lord of lords
 Hope for those oppressed by the Beast
 Warning to the oppressors that he is the ultimate ruler
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All the imagery clearly points to Jesus Christ
The Armies of Heaven
The ‘called, chosen and faithful’ (17.14), the 144,000 (14.4) and angels?
Clothed in white linen (6.11) like the bride of the Lamb (19.8) made
white in the blood of the Lamb (7.14)
 Ride white horses of victory
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Vultures commanded to eat the carrion
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Recalls Ezekiel 39.17-20: The battle against Gog was
depicted as a sacrifice where God’s enemies are the
sacrificial meal
 Gog, king of Magog, became the archetype of Israel’s
enemies
 John uses Gog and Magog as nations (20.8) (the inhabitants
of the earth)
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Victory is taken for granted—the vultures are commanded
before the battle
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The battle
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Against the forces mustered at Armageddon
(16.16)
 Kings of the earth are those who blindly follow the
Beast (17.12-14)
 They destroyed the harlot = Rome (17.12, 16-17)
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This will be their fight against the Lamb (17.14),
the final eschatological battle
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Victory
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It is total and immediate
 The armies are spectators
 The Victor alone slays with the Word
of God, which is life-giving
The two Beasts are captured and
thrown in to the lake of fire and
brimstone without a fight—
annihilated
 Kings of the earth
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 Among the slain in 19.21
 Will bring their glory into the
heavenly Jerusalem (21.24)
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The true victory is won by the Lamb
on the cross
(William Blake, 1805)
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Meaning
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Violent imagery does not imply violent means
 The ultimate response to injustice and oppression
comes only from the Lamb
 Christians must courageously face oppression with nonviolence
 Their principal weapon of opposition is the gospel
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Satan is bound following his
banishment from heaven
(12.10) after giving his
authority to the Beasts
The victory in heaven came with
Christ’s death on the cross
 ‘Thousand years’ is symbolic
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 It corresponds to the ‘thousand
years’ of Christ’s reign (12.4-6)
 It has no chronological meaning
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
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John describes heaven between Christ’s death and the Last Judgment
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The faithful, especially martyrs, reign with Christ after death
 They experience the ‘first resurrection’
The unfaithful will remain dead
 ‘Thousand years’
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 From Jewish speculation about the temporary triumph of the righteous before the Last Judgment
 Various time periods were in circulation
 A thousand years became the most commonplace (Ps 90.4, 2 Pet 3.8)
 They realized that 24 hours was too short to create the world, so they began thinking that each
day of creation was a ‘thousand years’
 The thousand years of the righteous corresponds with the Sabbath rest of God
 For John, it signifies the time from Christ’s death on the cross to the Last Day (St. Augustine,
City of God, 20.1-9)
 Millenarianism has altered this view for many today
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Resurrection
We see John’s attempt to express the difference that must exist for the state
between death and the parousia with the state of everlasting life that will
follow
 He introduces new concepts
 First death = ordinary human death
 First resurrection follows the first death for those who follow the Lamb—
the martyrs
 Second death is condemnation of the unjust after the Last Judgment—
annihilation?
 Second resurrection is the reward of the just after the Last Judgment
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Satan (the Dragon ) is the real villain
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The ‘loosing’ of the Dragon allows him to be at the
muster of Armageddon, but he never regains power
God’s people are now encamped around the
‘beloved city’ = the New Jerusalem
There is no battle. God’s enemies are consumed by
fire
The Devil joins the two Beasts in the lake of fire—
evil is annihilated
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Judgment is before the One who sits
on the throne
 All the dead are judged
 Book of Deeds—the good and evil
works performed by humans
 Book of Life—the list of those
predestined for salvation
 The books are John’s way of
acknowledging that we will be
judged for our works while at the
same time we are saved only by
Christ
Hans Memling, 1467-1471
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Details of the judgment scene
Heaven and earth no longer exist
 Dead come from the sea, Death, and
Hades (Sheol)
 Jews did not believe that those
who drowned at sea had access to
Sheol
 Death and Hades are annihilated in
the lake of fire
 Those whose names are not in the
Book of Life are thrown into the lake
of fire (annihilation or everlasting
punishment?)
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Michelangelo, 1534-1541, Sistine Chapel
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John follows tradition in describing a new heaven and a new earth
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Isaiah 65.17-66.2; 2 Peter 3.10-13
The sea, a place of chaos (Gilgamesh), no longer exists
New Jerusalem  new people of God, a new covenant
Death, sorrow and pain will be no more
God dwells with his people
God speaks (also see 1.8)
He speaks the creating word to bring the new heaven and earth into existence
 He attests that all that John has seen and heard is “trustworthy and true”
 “It is done”—God is timeless: the new heaven and earth exist now
 As Alpha and Omega, he is origin of all , end of all, all tend toward him and all is
found in him
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New heaven and earth  a cosmos redeemed and
perfected
Not a restoration of the cosmos of Adam and Eve
 Transformed beyond imagination
 We are reminded that humans are intimately connected with
the universe
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Promise to the victor: God will be his god and he will
be God’s child
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John has pastoral concerns and lists lurid sins that have no
place in the New Jerusalem
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The bride is the
antithesis of the
harlot
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Introduced by one of
the angels of the bowls
as the harlot had been
Harlot:Rome
::Bride:New Jerusalem
 rivals
France, tapestry, 14th Century
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Description is based on Ezekiel 40.1-47.12,
48.30-35 and Isaiah 60
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Gates are not exits for the tribes of Israel, but
entrances for the nations
Gates are named for the tribes, their foundations
for the apostles
Its measurements are those of an angel 
heavenly
The city is a cube i.e. a perfect structure with a
symbolic and unrealistic dimension, 12,000 stadia
(1500 miles) = 144 angel cubits
Building materials of precious and semiprecious
stones  heavenly
 The type of stones are the same as on the high
priest’s breastplate (Exod 28.6-30)
Spain, 1047
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There is no temple
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God dwells with the people
The whole city is a ‘temple’
God provides all the illumination of the city
The splendor and wealth of the nations and kings who were
destroyed are brought into the city
Pastoral warning
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There is no evil in the city
If we expect to be its citizen, to be in the Lamb’s Book of Life,
we must root out evil in ourselves now
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Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 47.1, 6-7, 12) of water flowing
from the temple sanctuary is duplicated for the new
Jerusalem
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The water flows from the throne of God
Trees of life grow providing food and medicine to heal
the nations
God and the Lamb will be on their throne and they
will reign and be worshiped forever and ever
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Balances the prologue
Focused on the hearer/readers
 John for a second time prostrates himself before an angel
and is again rebuked (22.8-9)
 Commanded not to seal up the book
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 Opposite of the usual command in apocalyptic (Dan 8.26,
12.4, 12.9, Rev 10.4) because these events will come soon
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Speakers are not well identified
Final warning: Don’t mess with this revelation (22.18-19)
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Presider
Most of the epilogue can be put into a liturgical dialogue with
the presider acting at times in persona Christi
These words are trustworthy and true.
The Lord God who inspires the prophets
has sent his angel to show his servants
what must soon take place.
Presider
Behold, I am coming soon!
Blessed is the one who keeps the words
of the prophecy of this book.
Outside are the dogs, sorcerers, and
fornicators, the murderers and idolaters,
and all who love and practice deceit..
Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book.,
for the time is near.
Let the evildoer still do evil,
And the filthy still be filthy,
And the righteous still be righteous,
and the holy still be holy.
Behold, I am coming soon,
bringing my reward with me,
to repay every one according to what one has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last,
the beginning and the end.
Blessed are those who wash their robes,
so as to have the right to the tree of life,
and may enter the city by the gates.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to give you this testimony for the Churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David,
the bright morning star.
Assembly
Presider
Assembly
Come!
Come!
Come!
Take the water of life freely.
Yes, I am coming soon.
Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus!
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Conclusion of the letter
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A liturgical blessing
Presider The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
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The Pre-story
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The 2000 year history of the church is added to the salvation
history at the time when Revelation was written
 It includes the heroic faithfulness of her saints and the churches
role in sanctifying the faithful
 It includes the sinfulness of members of the church and the failure
of the church to always fulfill her mission
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The ‘story’ continues to unfold
The church and the saints always face some form of tribulation
Final judgment is still in the future, but everyone faces their
own particular judgment when they die
 Those who have been faithful will be rewarded with the
Beatific Vision
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Relating the characters of our ‘story’ to the characters of
Revelation
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The One on the Throne, the Lamb and the Dragon remain unchanged
One should be careful in trying to identify the Beast(s)
 Rome was a totalitarian regime
 For those living under a totalitarian regime that opposes the church,
identifying the Beast with that regime might be appropriate for them
 Nazi Germany did not oppose the church in general
 Communist regimes have a mixed record although they do not support the
church
 Rome had a culture opposed to the church
 Can secularism/consumerism be identified with the Beast?
 Can humanism/enlightenment/positivism be identified with the Beast?
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Relating the events of our ‘story’ to the events of Revelation
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Revelation expresses the elements of the story in many ways
 Tribulation
 War
 Physical calamities
 Seduction by the Beast
 Battle at Armageddon
 Final judgment
 Sealing of the faithful
 Harvest and vintage
 The fall of Babylon
 Annihilation of evil in the lake of fire and brimstone
 Triumph
 Liturgies of silence, singing and praise
 Life in the New Jerusalem
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These are not intended to foretell exactly how these events will happen
Perhaps Revelation is best viewed as a metaphor for the ‘story’ of
salvation