Abstract
The book of Revelation is filled with frightening images: A great red dragon, beasts from the sea and land, the bowls of God’s wrath, a great whore, an apocalyptic battle, and the final judgment. When the seventh trumpet blows, we learn of God’s plan “for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Rev 11:18).
American pop-culture has picked up on these horrors, most recently in the apocalyptic comedy This Is the End (2013), in which Los Angeles is destroyed by earthquakes, cannibals eat survivors, and the righteous are transported to heaven in beams of blue light. Cinematic jokes about the end-times have been around since Ghostbusters (1984), in which a character says, “Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes. . . . The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together . . . mass hysteria!” That’s pop-eschatology, and a lot of it is grounded in the vision of John in Revelation.
But destruction, doom, and damnation are not the final word in Revelation. Instead, the book ends with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, and the restoration of the Garden of Eden. The promise of the last two chapters of Revelation is a new relationship with God, one that is both intimate and eternal, in which people live in harmony with God and with all that God has made. This bond is a restoration of the original creation in Genesis, and it contains the best of numerous biblical images—a new heaven and earth, a city, and a garden.
First, new heaven and earth. As ch. 21 begins, John sees “a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (21:1). This new creation is one in which the past is forgotten, and even the sea, which is a symbol of watery chaos, is “no more.” This transformed creation fulfills the expectation of the apostle Paul that “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21).
But what does it mean for creation to be transformed and “set free”? The coming of a new heaven and a new earth does not give humans license to abuse creation, trusting that God will provide a replacement. John Polkinghorne, the theoretical physicist and Anglican priest, argues that God’s “new creation is the divine redemption of the old” (The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996], 167). The new creation transforms the old, moving it into a closer and healthier relationship with its Creator.
In so many ways, we struggle today with a creation that is in bondage to decay. We look around and see the fouling of air, land, and water. We look at our relationships and see sinful brokenness between friends, colleagues, spouses, and family members. We look inside ourselves and see the decay of our morals and our aspirations. There is hope to be found in Revelation’s vision of a new heaven and earth, in which the creation itself will be liberated from decay, redeemed from sin, and moved into a right relationship with God.
Second, a city. John sees “the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). New Jerusalem is the new relationship that God has made with the followers of Christ—Paul says that this Jerusalem from above “is free, and she is our mother” (Gal 4:26). This holy city is the beautiful place where God and humans will live together eternally, a city that descends to earth instead of remaining in heaven. But this is not simply a vision for the future: “The New Jerusalem vision is meant to be God’s vision by which we live our lives right now” (Barbara R. Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation [New York: Basic Books, 2004], 142). New Jerusalem is the polar opposite of the Roman Empire of John’s day—a place in which violence, greed, captivity, and death have been replaced by peace, generosity, freedom, and life.
In this city, the voice of God speaks from the throne, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them” (Rev 21:3). God chooses to live among people, in a restored and renewed paradise on earth. God then says, “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life” (21:6). This free gift of life-giving water reminds us of the importance of fresh, clean water for the continuation of life on planet earth. It also reminds us of the importance of the spiritual water given by Jesus when he speaks of “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Good water is needed for life, both physically and spiritually.
Third, Rev 22:1–7 speaks of a garden—a Garden of Eden, restored in the center of the city. This is a powerful message about God’s desire for the human world to exist in harmony with nature, and it serves as biblical support for the church’s commitment to the stewardship of the earth. Christians across the theological spectrum are now learning that they “serve a God who wants this creation to flourish, and [God] is capable of restoring even the most run-down corner of Earth” (Jonathan Merritt, Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet [New York: FaithWords, 2010], 154–55). Each of us can play a part in God’s healing and restoration of the world.
In the urban garden of Revelation, we hear an echo of the creation story from Genesis, in which a “river flows out of Eden to water the garden” (Gen 2:10). In Revelation, an angel shows John “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Rev 22:1–2). In Revelation, the Garden of Eden is restored through a river of life-giving water. The eschatological and ecological poisoning of the water has been reversed, and gone are the days when springs of water “became blood” (16:4), when the great river Euphrates “dried up” (16:12), and when “a third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water” (8:11).
In the Eden of Genesis, “the L
Best of all, says Revelation, “the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face” (22:3–4). Faithful people will finally encounter God and Christ directly, as the apostle Paul dreamed when he wrote, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). The light of God will shine directly on those who worship him, and together the Lord and his servants will “reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:5).
Before the fall in Genesis, God walked with Adam and Eve and talked with them directly. As the old hymn “In the Garden” (1913) says, “He walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.” Now, in New Jerusalem, the garden is restored and people can once again see God and Jesus, face to face.
This section of Revelation ends with an angel saying that the Lord “sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place” (22:6), introducing a note of urgency into the vision. Then Jesus himself says, “See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:7). Keeping the words of the prophecy is one of the ways that the servants of God prepare for the return of Jesus. These words challenge the reader to take the words of Revelation seriously, and allow them to be life-shaping.
Keeping the words of Revelation includes steps to harmonize humans and nature, in line with the vision of God’s new heaven and new earth. This means practicing stewardship of the earth, caring for the world that will be the location of New Jerusalem, and taking actions to free creation from decay. Revelation can lead us to do the work of healing and to provide life-giving water to others—both clean drinking water and the spiritual water of Jesus Christ.
Christians today are embarking on forty-day “carbon fasts” aimed at reducing their personal carbon footprint—removing light bulbs at home, turning off computers at night, and eliminating unnecessary car trips. Churches are developing “green teams” that promote recycling, replace energy-inefficient appliances, and create community gardens. Denominations are supporting education, regulation, and economic incentives to combat pollution of air, land, and water. All these efforts are driven by the biblical message of care for God’s creation.
Revelation warns that God has a plan “for destroying those who destroy the earth” (11:18), but the horror of this outcome can be avoided. People of faith can restore the earth by creating communities that reflect the values of God’s garden in the city, places in which healthy relationships exist between people and nature, as well as between people and God.