9 The fulfilment of the promise consummated: the eschatological kingdom in Revelation
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The fulfilment of the promise consummated: the eschatological kingdom in Revelation
Given the story line up to this point, it should not surprise us how it ends in Revelation 21 – 22. Moyer Hubbard writes:
The entire biblical story, from beginning to end, can rightly be described as an epic of new creation. As its prologue opens with Elohim’s creation of heaven and earth, so its epilogue closes with the dramatic appearance of the new heaven and new earth. . . . Creatio originalis gives way to creatio nova as the one seated upon the throne announces, ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ (Rev. 21:5).
The final place of the kingdom, the new creation described in Revelation 21 – 22, appears as the consummation of a complex biblical continuum reaching all the way back to creation. This consummation depicts the new heaven and new earth as a paradisal new Eden, new Jerusalem and cosmological temple that is, in the climax of the covenants, filled with God’s presence. Moreover, the end also relates to Israel’s universalized land promises that reach back to Abraham and all the way to Eden. In fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that ‘in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Gen. 12:3), ransomed people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (5:9) are restored to a new creation with its new Jerusalem reminiscent of Eden. In this new creation, the geographical boundaries of ‘the land’ expand to the entire new creation in ways that remarkably reflect the visions of the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. That is, Revelation 21 – 22 interprets the future fulfilment of the prophets, and the entire Old Testament, by collapsing temple, city and land into one paradisal end-time picture portraying the final reality of God’s covenant presence with his people.
The new creation as Edenic paradise
Scripture is about God’s restoring paradise for his glory after humanity lost it. As paradise, the new Jerusalem is the fulfilment of what Eden was designed to be. For example, both Eden and the new Jerusalem reference the waters of life (Gen. 2:10–14; Rev. 22:1–2), the tree of life (Gen. 3:22–24; Rev. 22:2), precious stones (Gen. 2:11–12; Rev. 22:18–21; cf. Ezek. 28:13) and God’s presence with his people (Gen. 3:8; Rev. 21:3–5, 22–23; 22:4–5). In contrast to Eden, however, this paradise is free from sin, securely protected from evil and the evil one, and permanently filled with God’s presence. Indeed, the various correspondences and echoes of Eden, Jerusalem, the temple, the Holy of Holies and Zion ‘serve to demonstrate that the present vision is the consummation of all those hopes, lest any detail of the OT should have been omitted’. The divine paradisal intention of Genesis 1 – 2 is not merely recaptured in the new heaven and new earth; it is astonishingly surpassed.
The new creation as temple
Perhaps the most surprising element given the centrality of the temple in the life of Israel is that the new creation contains no temple. Revelation 21:22 declares, ‘And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb’ (Rev. 21:22–23). Though various prophets had formerly anticipated the whole city as the site of God’s presence, as truly his holy mountain, John is the first to eliminate the temple altogether. Instead of the temple being the exclusive place of God’s presence, John declares that the entire ‘paradisal city-temple of Revelation 21:1 – 22:5 encompasses the entirety of the newly created earth’. The most evident sign of this city-temple is its perfectly cubic shape (21:16). This glorious description is like no other previous place on earth, but is more akin to the holy of holies (1 Kgs 6:20). Thus the new earth now serves as the place of God’s presence.
In Genesis 1 – 2, Adam and Eve were to extend the geographical boundaries of the garden-temple until Eden covered the earth. Over time, then, the whole earth would become a garden-temple filled with their progeny – little priest-kings – and the earth would be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The same is true for Abraham and the nation of Israel. Revelation, however, presents as accomplished what they failed to do through the triumph of the Lamb. The Edenic imagery in Revelation 21 – 22, then, shows that the building of the temple, which began in Genesis 2, is complete in Christ, and his people will encompass the entire earth.
The new creation as city (new Jerusalem)
The Bible itself portrays the move from creation to the new creation as movement from a garden (Gen. 2) to a city (Rev. 21 – 22). The progression from a garden to a city symbolizes the progression and completion of God’s teleological purposes. Furthermore, the symbol of a city is significant. Dumbrell writes:
For biblical readers the city is preeminently a symbol of world government. Therefore, the New Testament asserts the fact of final Kingdom of God rule, combining people, place and divine presence. With the advent of the New Jerusalem we have moved to the end. Unlike Ezekiel 40–48 (upon which Rev. 21–22 is so much dependent), the new city does not rest upon a cosmic mountain (cf. Ezek. 40:2), but ‘comes down’ to earth and turns the whole earth into a paradise by his presence.
Through the rich imagery of Revelation, then, John shows that redemptive history in general, and the promises of the Edenic creation in particular, are consummated in a new heaven and new earth as a paradise, temple and city. In other words, Eden has not merely been regained and the Promised Land possessed; they have been radically transformed through the life, death, resurrection and rule of the Lamb who won a new creation for his people.
In John’s final vision, the Old Testament types of Eden, land, temple and city are, in the light of Christ and his work of creating a new people and place, coextensive and fulfilled in their antitype—the new heaven and new earth. And, contrary to popular belief that the consummation is merely a spiritual or ethereal place, Ladd rightly notes, ‘Biblical thought always places man on a redeemed earth, not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence.’ Eden, as the new temple-city, and the land, designed to recapture and advance the idyllic conditions of Eden, now reach their terminus in the new creation. Beale notes:
The original Eden, Israel’s old temple, old land, and old city, never reached the universal goal for which they were designed. As such, they became imperfect typological realities pointing forward to a time when these would again become eschatological realities, whose design would reach their final goal.
This final picture at the end depicts a glorious return to God’s people living in his place under his rule, and thereby tying together the creation and placement of humans in Eden, the redemption of Israel and, finally, God’s eschatological purposes to bring blessing to the world. Indeed, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever (11:15). God’s people will once again dwell in the land of promise – for ever.