NOTES for Rev 21:1-8

A new earth is the dream of a person in grief and sorrow. When everything around us is collapsing and the world appears to us as a mass of wicked and evil deeds, there is nowhere we can hide from the nightmare of the news. Then there arises the problem of finding “another globe,” a problem that is absurd even to contemplate. And yet this thirst for another earth, another heaven, and a holy city where everything will unfold differently is neither a riot of fantasy nor self-deception. Anyone who dreams of another earth illustrates Jesus' words: “In My Father's house are many dwelling places...” (John 14:1-3). Even if we know nothing of the Bible's existence and have never read it, Christ's word still works within us with sighs too deep for words.

John's words that God "shall wipe away all tears", can be understood in the sense that now that the world is completely transformed, and there is no place for the evil in it, the believers have no more of what to cry: because now, in the fullness of the Kingdom, already do not threaten them any loss and any separation with those who are close and dear to them. But it is not all the same, probably, still all the truth. Indeed, any utopia, even the most radiant and glowing, any project of the most remarkable, the most just society has never answered the question how to be with those who did not live and will not live up to the triumph the same utopia. Of course, in practice the activists for "a brilliant future" turned out very often selfless enthusiasts, very often ready to give not only all their strengths, but also their life for the realization of what themselves alive wouldn’t have seen in any way. But indeed, such enthusiasm quite exactly witnesses the fact that people possessing it drew the strengths and inspiration not from this "bright future", which did not yet exist, but from some other source.

When it comes to the Kingdom, the problem, at first sight, is resolved by the general resurrection: because, in addition to that, each receives the possibility of joining the kingdom, to which he was faithful during his life. And nevertheless: indeed, the poured tears can’t be returned back, what was was, the past evil remains real as much as for us in general is real our past. How to be with it? The answer here, like as it may seem strange at first sight, can be forgiveness and liberation of the repentant sinner from any sin, including the sin committed consciously, which in the Kingdom is given to everyone. Formerly, before the coming of Christ into the world, one could repent of all sins, but here is to purify oneself from it, deliver oneself from the consequences of what was committed was possible only in case the sin was not voluntary, if the will of the sinner was not spiritually fed by a sinful act.

And in another case, the consequence of the sin hung over the man who committed it throughout his life, and also after death the evil committed by him disappeared nowhere, affecting sometimes the people, who were connected to the sinner, or the descendants of the sinner, as well as people connected to him. This situation could change only by recreating the world again. Or by bringing into it the Kingdom, which by its breath is capable of transforming it. But indeed, such transformation delivering completely from the power of any sin, also means that Christ is capable of changing not only the future, but also the past! And it is not surprising: because apparently in the Kingdom, the past, the present and the future are related to each other not as linear as in the not transformed world.

But if that was the case, then the day of the triumph of the Kingdom, the evil will not remain not only in its eternal present, but also in that past, where there was place again for evil, before the Kingdom revealed itself in all fullness. It will not remain because the very past will not remain: it will only remain this wrong side of the new world, where is ousted the world possessed by the evil, this outer darkness, of which the Savior says to John in the revealed vision as "a pit filled with fire", and the eternal present of the Kingdom, where there won’t be place for any evil, in any time it was related according to the measures of the former world.

The end of time today appears to many people as some final catastrophe, after which, even if anything remains, it will certainly be unfit for any kind of life. The word "apocalypse" itself has come to mean the beginning of something terrible and at the same time endless and hopeless. But John, meanwhile, speaks of something else.

He speaks of a new age and of a world renewed by God's breath. Of a new heaven and a new earth. And this new world appears not somewhere in the cosmic distances, on another planet or in another dimension, but here, on our earth, beside us and around us. Nature does not disappear; it changes, acquires a new quality, and begins to function according to different laws.

One of the consequences of this changed functioning is the fact that neither illness nor death will have any place in the renewed world. This is not surprising: human nature is also changing. It is being renewed. And the main meaning of the changes taking place is that this renewed nature is no longer subject to evil. In spiritual life, evil manifests itself as sin; in natural life, as entropy. There is no place for either one in the renewed world. But if this is so, then there can be no place in it for sickness or death. Both are precisely typical examples of the triumph of entropy, disintegration, and degradation.

Of course, when the matter concerns a human being, one must speak not only of nature, but also of spirit. The human being is the only creature in nature whose life is determined not by the natural component, but by the spiritual one. Even in his present state, the human being as a natural creature depends strongly on his spiritual state. And in the new quality, after the transformation of human nature, this dependence becomes even stronger.

Now a person's physical state is completely determined by his spiritual state. And the spiritual state of a person living in the Kingdom is by definition full and whole. In other words, he lives a full life. The life of the Kingdom in all its fullness. This means that the physical life of such a person on the new earth under the new heaven will also, by definition, be full and whole. Without illness and death. In all fullness.

John's words that God will "wipe away every tear" can be understood to mean that now, when the world has been completely transformed and there is no place for evil in it, the faithful have nothing left to cry about: now, in the fullness of the Kingdom, they are no longer threatened by any loss or any separation from those who are close and dear to them. Yet this is probably not the whole truth. After all, any utopia, even the most radiant and shining one, any project of the most wonderful and most just society, has never answered the question of what is to become of those who did not live, and will not live, to see the triumph of that very utopia.

In practice, fighters for a "bright future" quite often proved to be selfless enthusiasts, often ready to give not only all their strength but even their lives to accomplish something they themselves would never have any chance of seeing during their lifetime. But such enthusiasm itself testifies that the people who had it drew strength and inspiration not from that "bright future," which did not yet exist, but from some other source.

When it comes to the Kingdom, the problem, at first glance, is solved by the universal resurrection: through it everyone receives the opportunity to share in the Kingdom to which he was faithful in life. And yet: tears that have been shed cannot be taken back; what happened, happened, and past evil remains real to the same extent that our past is real to us at all. What, then, can be done about this? The answer here, strangely enough at first glance, may be the forgiveness and liberation of a repentant sinner from every sin, including sin committed consciously, which is given to everyone in the Kingdom.

Earlier, before Christ came into the world, it was possible to repent of any sin, but to be cleansed from it, to be freed from the consequences of what had been done, was possible only if the sin was not voluntary, if the will of the one who sinned had not spiritually fed the sinful act. In any other case the consequences of the sin weighed on the person who committed it throughout his life, and even after death the evil he had done did not disappear, sometimes affecting the people connected with the sinner, or the descendants both of the one who sinned and of the people connected with him.

This situation could be changed only by recreating the world anew. Or by bringing into it the Kingdom, which by its breath is able to transform it. But such transformation, which fully frees from the power of any sin, also means that Christ has the power to change not only the future, but the past as well. This is not surprising: in the Kingdom, it appears, past, present, and future relate to one another in a way that is not as linear as in the untransformed world.

But if that is so, then on the day of the Kingdom's triumph evil will remain neither in its eternal present nor in that past where evil still had a place before the Kingdom was revealed in all its fullness. It will not remain because the past itself will not remain: there will remain only that underside of the new world, where the evil that once possessed the world is driven out, that outer darkness of which the Savior speaks, which in John's vision is revealed as the "pit filled with fire," and the eternal present of the Kingdom, where there will be no place for any evil, whatever time it belonged to by the measures of the former world.

For many people today the Apocalypse is associated with the end, with a worldwide or even universal catastrophe. Yet the Book of Revelation ends in a completely different way. At the end there is not catastrophe, but renewal. A new world. A new heaven and a new earth. And the heavenly Jerusalem descending from the new heaven to the new earth. All these images are traditional for Yahwistic visionary experience, both prophetic and apocalyptic. Strictly speaking, the coming of the Messiah and the appearing of the Kingdom were linked with the renewal of creation even in pre-exilic times.

But "behold, I make all things new," sounding from God's mouth, also has a deeper meaning. Indeed, God does not simply create the world once and then leave it without His presence and without His support. The world is created by God constantly. The "in the beginning" where God "creates the heaven and the earth" is in God's eternity. And with respect to the created world, it can be revealed only in the fullness of the universe, in the totality of all its spaces and all its times. This means that the world is created, or rather renewed, by God at every moment and at every point of its existence.

A slowing of this process is possible only as a consequence of a rupture in creation, and rupture is possible only as a consequence of the fall - of a human being or an angel. If God's renewal of the world ceased altogether, the world would immediately collapse, disappear as such, and turn into chaos, into something formless and without qualities. And now, when the world has been renewed by God's breath and has become the Kingdom in fullness, it is entirely natural that its very existence has become constant renewal.

Indeed, breath is nothing other than the constant renewal of the one who breathes, who at one and the same time is always the same and always other. And the world as God's Kingdom was intended to exist precisely in this way. Now, after transfiguration, it finally begins to correspond fully to God's design for it. The words that "the sea is no more" are symbolic and testify that in the world there are no longer forces opposed to God, for in the Bible the sea symbolized precisely these forces. And the heavenly Jerusalem symbolizes the Kingdom as such.

For Jerusalem, for example in the visions of Isaiah of Babylon, where the features of the heavenly city are already visible, is not simply buildings, but first of all people, inhabitants. And the Kingdom consists of its inhabitants, of the people dwelling in it. Their relationships with one another, with God, and with Christ form the structure of the Kingdom. And the spiritual backbone of the Kingdom is Christ's own relationship with His Father. On these rests the heavenly Jerusalem opened to John - the triumphant Kingdom on the renewed earth under the renewed heaven.