ISSL Reflections August 7 2022 Revelation 21:1–9 Post 2

IV.
Let’s continue our thoughts today on the “homes” that seemed promised in this passage.

V.
Revelation 21:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“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;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

VI.
The “home of God … among mortals” promises many blessings.

But what about the other “home” that is mentioned – “the lake of fire”?

We have to notice its mention here.

What do you make of it?

Do you consider it a place of “eternal punishment” as many have taken it over the ages?

Or is it a way to speak of those who refuse to be God’s “children” and walk away from the blessings in “a new heaven and a new earth”?

What paths can we take as we walk from “the first earth” to the “new earth”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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