On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 27: The City of God

Image above by Octave 444 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 27: The City of God

Before we commence with Revelation chapter 21 and the City of God, we should pause to speak about the references to the Book of Life. This Book of Life, as we had mentioned briefly in our discussion of The Camp of the Saints, is not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament (in the podcast version I failed to say explicitly, which I later added to the notes). But there certainly does seem to be at least one reference in the Old Testament to the same Book of Life of the Revelation, and that is found in Daniel chapter 12. Other passages may arguably be interpreted as references to the Book of Life, especially if they are taken out of context, so before we discuss the reference in Daniel, these passages we shall discuss briefly.

For example, in Exodus chapter 32 we read “33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” This passage can indeed be interpreted in an ominous manner if it is taken by itself and cross-referenced to the verses where the Book of Life is mentioned in the Revelation. But that is not honest, and since all men sin and fall short of the glory of God, as Paul had professed in chapter 3 of his epistle to the Romans, and since in the sight of Yahweh no living man is justified, as David had professed in the 143rd Psalm, then the City of God would evidently be a very deserted place. But that interpretation, as we have also explained in our last presentation, is absolutely contrary to all of the promises of Yahweh and the parables and other statements of Yahshua Christ. To see why that verse from Exodus chapter 32 (32:33) should not be cross-referenced to the Revelation in that manner, we shall read a broader selection of passages from Exodus, to put it into its proper context.

From Exodus chapter 24: “4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.”

So Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh into a book, and as we shall see, that book is later called the Book of the Covenant. Those words of Yahweh are the terms of the Old Covenant to which the children of Israel had agreed, which are found in Exodus chapters 19 through 23, where many of the commandments of the law were first given at Sinai. But even though Moses was told to write those words, Yahweh was their author, so later on, in Exodus chapter 32, Moses attributed the book to Yahweh where we read: “31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. 33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.”

With this it should be perfectly evident why the passage at Exodus 32:33 cannot be cross-referenced to the Book of Life in the Revelation, because the full passage is explicitly referring to the Book of the Covenant which was described earlier, in Exodus chapter 24. Much later in history, while the Scriptures do not explain it explicitly in this manner, when the children of Israel had sinned and were put off in divorce by Yahweh, every one of them were blotted out of the Book of the Covenant, while at the same time they were promised a new covenant. So the Old Covenant was pronounced broken in the words of the prophet Zechariah, which we read in chapter 11: “10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.”

But even there in Zechariah, there is a prophecy of aspects of the making of the new covenant where we read in the very next verses: “12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” These words were later interpreted by the apostles as having been fulfilled in the money for which Christ was betrayed to His enemies, arrested and crucified, an act which made the confirmation of the New Covenant possible.

So these mentions in Exodus to a book from which men may be blotted out are references to the Book of the Covenant, and not to the Book of Life. The books of Moses are referred to quite often as the Book of the Law, but it is not entirely clear whether that particular phrase often merely refers to Deuteronomy, or always to the entire Pentateuch, or Torah as it is also commonly called. In 2 Kings chapter 23, it is called the Book of the Covenant on several other occasions, where it is apparent that the phrases may have even been synonymous. So where it speaks in that chapter of the young king Joash we read: “1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD…. 21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant…. 24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.” By this last verse where the words of the law are described as being in the Book of the Covenant, it is fully evident that the books of the law were being referred to where it was called the Book of the Covenant.

In the 69th Psalm, which is attributed to David, we read a plea concerning the wicked where David refers to a “book of the living”, but that is not necessarily the same as the Book of Life of the Revelation. So we shall read in part: “21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. 22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. 24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. 27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.”

Paul of Tarsus also paraphrased part of this Psalm in Romans chapter 11 where he wrote “7 What then, what Israel seeks after, this it did not attain to? But the chosen have succeeded, and the rest were hardened, 8 just as it is written, ‘Yahweh has given to them a spirit of slumber, eyes that see not, and ears that hear not, unto this very day.’ 9 And David says, ‘Their dining table will be for a snare, and for a hunting of beasts, and for a trap, and for a repayment to them;” 10 ‘Their eyes will be darkened to not see, and their backs continually bow.’” So where Paul had said “what Israel seeks after, this it did not attain to? But the chosen have succeeded, and the rest were hardened,” neither was he referring to Israelites in reference to those who were hardened. Rather, where he spoke of Israel, where he said “the chosen have succeeded” he was referring to the true Israelites in Israel, as they are the chosen and for which he wrote later in that same chapter that “all Israel shall be saved”. Then, where Paul wrote this he was still comparing Jacob and Esau, the Israelites and the Edomites in Palestine, a comparison which he had begun in Romans chapter 9, and for which reason he also wrote in that chapter that the word of God has not failed, “6 … since not all those who are from Israel are those of Israel”, it is evident that the chosen, the children of Israel in Judaea, did indeed succeed.

So Paul cited David’s 69th Psalm in reference to the Edomites in Israel, and in that Psalm neither was David necessarily referring to Israelites, since his own life was often a type for the trials of Christ, and since this is a Messianic prophecy from which several passages were cited by the apostles in reference to events in the trials of Christ. In several other Psalms David had prayed that Yahweh root his enemies, or the wicked, “out of the land of the living” (52:5), or praised Yahweh while expressing gratitude for his own walk in “the land of the living” (27:13, 142:5, and see also the unattributed Psalm 116:9). For these reasons we should interpret David’s reference to the “book of the living” in the 69th Psalm as an allegory for life in this world, the land of the living, and not the world beyond. The enemies of Christ, among which are all of the children of Esau, were never in the Book of Life in the first place, so the references to the Book of Life are not referring to them.

So once again we find that there actually is no conflict in Scripture, as the words of Moses concerning the blotting of sinners out of the Book of the Old Covenant, or the words of David praying that Yahweh remove the wicked from the book of the living do not conflict with any of the promises of Yahweh or the parables of Christ concerning the ultimate salvation of the children of Israel, and since all Israel shall be saved, none of the children of Israel can possibly have their destiny in the Lake of Fire, as Christ had assured His disciples that all of the sheep shall enter into the Kingdom of God.

But finally, the one reference which very well should be associated with the Book of Life in the Revelation is found in Daniel chapter 12 where we read: “1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." But here we do not interpret this as a singular event, nor do we interpret Michael to be a title for Christ. The meaning of the Hebrew word for Michael is usually interpreted as a question, “Who is like God?”, and earlier in Daniel, in chapter 10, it is explained that Michael is only one of several “chief princes” whereas Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate and not merely one of a group of angelic peers in that sense in which Michael is mentioned in Daniel. Finally, the advent of Christ does not forebode a time of trouble for His people, but a time of deliverance and redemption.

Rather, as we hope to have sufficiently explained throughout this commentary on the Revelation, the children of Israel have been in a time of trouble, the same trouble mentioned in Daniel. But they have an assurance that if indeed one is truly of the children of Israel, one is written in the Book of Life, and therefore they shall indeed be delivered. However even with that deliverance, Daniel then utters a warning: “2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” So everlasting life is not necessarily a promise of everlasting bliss, but everlasting contempt implies that the contemned shall indeed have life. As we have already said earlier in this commentary in reference to this passage, this we would cross-reference 1 Corinthians chapter 3 where Paul spoke of men with no good works nevertheless being saved, but lacking any apparent reward because all of their works in this life are destroyed in the fire. That fire of which Paul had spoken burns and it is still burning.

In Revelation chapter 12 the Woman, who represented the twelve tribes of Israel, was taken into the wilderness and nourished with the Gospel of Christ for a thousand two hundred and sixty years. Then in Revelation chapter 17 John was taken back to the wilderness where he saw that the Woman had become a Whore as the children of Israel had joined themselves to the beast, which is the globalist system of international commerce, world government and ecumenical religion organized and controlled by world Jewry, and therefore they had also given their kingdom over to the beast. But in Revelation chapter 19 there is a vision of the collapse of this system, which is called Mystery Babylon, from which the children of Israel are then called to separate themselves, and at the return of Christ the beast is thrown into the Lake of Fire. So the Bride which prepared herself for the wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation chapter 19, and who is the Cit of God, represents another condition of the same children of Israel.

We often hear the question “Where are we in the Revelation?” The proper answer is this: we are beyond Revelation 16:12, the pouring of the sixth bowl of the wrath of Yahweh, because the kings from the east are a great power in the world today, of which the people of Christendom are unrighteously in awe, and to whom they are also indebted and beholden over these past several decades. Then we are also beyond Revelation 17:17, because since the Federal Reserve Act in the United States, but even sooner in some of the other Christian Israel nations, our kingdom has indeed been handed over to the beast. Currently and for over two centuries now, all of the people of the earth are deceived by the unclean spirits emanating from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the False Prophet, while they are bound in usury under the economic control of the Jewish bankers.

Now we await that seventh bowl, or vial, of the wrath of Yahweh, which causes Babylon to finally fall, and which is mentioned at Revelation 16:17 and then described more fully in chapter 18. Once that last bowl of the wrath of Yahweh is poured, it is time to hear the call, “You come out from her, My people, that you should not partake in her errors, and that you would not receive from of her wounds.” The children of Yahweh shall at that time render to their enemies double the treatment they had received while they were enslaved to the beast. As the prophet Micah says, arise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion! Then as it says in Obadiah, all the heathen nations feeding themselves on the mountain of Yahweh, which is Zion, which is the children of Israel, shall drink of the cup of the wrath of Yahweh, and they shall be as though they had not been.

So Revelation chapters 19 and 20 each describe the King of Kings, Yahshua Christ, the rider on the white horse, who shall destroy all of His enemies and everyone who is not written in the Book of Life – which we interpret as His Gospel since He is the Word of Life – which means an absolute end to all of the world's mongrelized and alien peoples, including Satan himself, who is the Canaanite Edomite Jew and all of his Arab relations. In chapter 20 it is evident that this event occurs some time after Satan has brought all of the world’s heathen nations into the Camp of the Saints, and that describes world circumstances as they are this very day. The Jewish media outlets constantly boast that Jews are at the vanguard of mass immigration movements throughout the nations of Christendom, so they must be the Satan who is gathering the world’s nations against the Camp of the Saints. It should also be made fully evident in those same chapters, both from the circumstances of history and from its role in the world today, that world Jewry is indeed the eighth beast, operating in the world in this very age, and that world Jewry is indeed the Gog of Scripture which is one and the same as the eighth beast.

There is no mincing these words, and Christ had also said in Luke chapter 9 that “26 Indeed whoever would be ashamed of Me and My words, him the Son of Man shall be ashamed of, when He should come in the His honor and that of the Father and of the holy messengers.” All of these people who have come against the children of Israel in this present age shall indeed be fully destroyed. If they are not true Christians whose names are found in the Book of Life, then the Word of God says that they shall go into the Lake of Fire, which is the same fire prepared for the Devil and his angels as Christ had attested in the parable of the sheep and goat nations. These words are indeed the Gospel of God. We have seen the veracity of this interpretation of Revelation chapters 19 and 20 where we had compared numerous passages containing similar prophecies which are found throughout the words of the psalms and prophets, and also in the words of the apostles of Christ and the parables of the Gospel. This is the whole story of the Bible, the destruction of all of the enemies of God and the salvation of one man’s family, as they had been justly punished for their sins.

The pop music idol John Lennon, who was an agent of the beast, had sung “imagine there's no heaven”. It should be sung instead, “imagine there are no wicked race-mixing bastards like John Lennon”, and then there shall be heaven indeed! But that is what Revelation chapters 21 and 22 describe: heaven on earth. The prophet Joel had written when Israel and most of Judah were already into captivity. In the book of his prophecy, in chapter 2, Yahweh promised to an Israel already in captivity that “25 … I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of Yahweh your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.” In Revelation chapters 19 and 20 we see the fulfillment of the parables of Christ where the tares of the field, the bad race of fish or the goat nations are all destroyed, and they are the locusts, the cankerworms, the caterpillars, and the palmerworms of that prophecy in Joel.

The locust, the cankerworm, the caterpiller, the palmerworm. If these worms described by Joel are the “great army” which Yahweh sent among the children of Israel, as he brought them here with hooks in their jaws according to Ezekiel, manifestly in order to chastise and to test Israel, then these worms are another allegory for the beasts with which Yahweh had sown the house of Israel and the house of Judah in these times, as He spoke in Jeremiah chapter 31. The locust, the cankerworm, the caterpiller, the palmerworm, the Arab, the Negro, the Oriental, the Mestizo, are also the nations from the four corners of the earth which Satan is described as gathering against the Camp of the Saints in Revelation chapter 20. The end of them is described in 2 Peter chapter 2, where the apostle explained that the spots in Christian feasts of charity, the natural brute beasts who sit among Christians and share their blessings unworthily, are made to be taken and destroyed. They have no other fate, for everything that offends and all of those not found written in the Book of Life shall go off into the Lake of Fire, into eternal destruction. They shall be as though they had not been, and as we have also explained, that is how Yahweh God shall sanctify Israel, for example as He had promised in the closing verses of Ezekiel chapter 37.

Now here in these last chapters of the Revelation there is a vision of life following the fulfillment of that promise – which, we must pray, lies not too far off in our future. Therefore we shall commence with Revelation chapter 21:

XXI 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth departed, [the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have “passed by”] and the sea is [A has “the sea I saw”] no longer.

The new heaven and earth represent a new organization of the people of Yahweh God in a cleansed land. For example, in Ezekiel chapter 39, a chapter which we have already seen is related to these last chapters of the Revelation, the Word of Yahweh says: “12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land”. So likewise, after the Old Testament kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and Israel is taken into captivity, we read in Isaiah chapter 65 “17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” That also represented the children of Israel as they were reorganized into a new land, as they migrated into Europe.

However those chapters of Isaiah also have far-reaching implications, and we read in chapter 66: “22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.” Therefore, in that same manner we read in 2 Peter chapter 3: “10 But the day of the Prince shall come as a thief, at which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements shall dissolve with burning heat and the earth and the works in it shall be discovered. 11 Thusly with all of these things being dissolved in such manner, it is necessary for you to be in holy conduct and piety, 12 expecting and being anxious for the coming of the day of Yahweh, on account of which the heavens being ablaze shall dissolve and the elements melt burning with heat. 13 But we may expect new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness dwells.”

As we have also often said, the sea in prophecy often represents the great mass of the world's peoples. Here the sea is no more, it no longer exists. This is the meaning of the parable of the net, found in Matthew chapter 13: “47 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a net having been cast into the sea and it gathers from out of every race, 48 which when it is full, bringing up upon the shore and sitting they gather the good ones into vessels, but the rotten ones they cast out. 49 Thusly it shall be at the consummation of the age, the messengers shall go out and they shall separate the wicked from the midst of the righteous 50 and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” The sea shall be no more, it is no longer necessary, because all the fish shall be removed! The bad fish shall not be cast out of the boat and back into the sea, but rather, they shall be cast out into the Lake of Fire. Therefore it is not that there are no more oceans, but rather that the word is used as an allegory.

That the sea represents the mass of the world's peoples is also evident in Isaiah, at 27:1, where Yahweh says, speaking in reference to the day of His wrath at the end of chapter 26, which is also described here in the Revelation, “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” As it does here in the Revelation, the dragon represents world Jewry and all the other descendants of the serpent, or the fallen angels, in the sea of the world's peoples. These are also the bad fish, and these are the tares of the field and the goat nations. All of these shall be cast into the Lake of Fire. An entirely Adamic world shall be heaven indeed.

2 And I saw a new holy city Jerusalem descending from out of heaven from Yahweh, having been prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Later in this chapter, in verse 9, John is told to “Come! I shall show to you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” Yet Yahshua Christ never called Himself a bridegroom in reference to the physical city Jerusalem, but He called His disciples the “sons of the bridechamber”, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 9 and Luke chapter 5. In Hosea chapter 2, after having put the children of Israel off in divorce, Yahweh promised to betroth them once again where we read: “4 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her”, where we see another description of the Woman of Revelation chapter 12 being brought into the wilderness, allured as she was spoken to for a thousand two hundred and sixty years through the Gospel of Christ, and then a little further on it says: “19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.”

Therefore the holy city here represents the body politic of the children of Israel, just as we had interpreted the reference to the great city which was divided into three parts in Revelation chapter 16. Then, if the disciples of Christ are the “sons of the bridechamber”, we see that He is one and the same as Yahweh God who had made that promise in Hosea, and the disciples of Christ must also be descendants of the same children of Israel whom Yahweh had promised to betroth. In Revelation chapter 3, in the message to the church at Philadelphia, we read in part: “12 He who prevails I shall make him a pillar in the temple of My God that he would no longer go outside, and I shall write upon him the Name of My God and the name of the City of My God, of the new Jerusalem which descends from heaven from My God, and My new Name. 13 He having an ear must hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies!” The word Philadelphia meaning brotherly love, and the city of God being an allegory for the children of Yahweh who are born from above, never going outside means never departing from one’s people, but instead, clinging to the Tree of Life as Adam was told to do in order to have eternal life, in Genesis chapter 3.

Thus we read in Isaiah chapter 54, where it addresses the children of Israel, along with most of Judah, who were in the Assyrian captivities: “5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” Yahshua Christ, proclaiming for Himself to be the Bridegroom, is the same God and Redeemer of this passage of Isaiah.

3 And I heard a great voice from out of the throne [The MT has “heaven”; the text follows א and A], saying: “Behold! The tabernacle of Yahweh is with men, and He shall dwell [א has ‘He dwells’] with them, and they shall be His people, and Yahweh Himself shall be [A and the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert ‘the God’; the text follows א and the traditional MT manuscripts] with them, 4 and He [A has θεὸς, God or Yahweh] shall wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall not be hereafter, nor grief, nor crying, nor toil [א wants ‘nor toil’], it shall be no longer: the former [literally ‘first’, πρῶτος] things have departed!”

The Codex Sinaiticus (א) has the final clause of verse 4 to read “it shall be no longer that the sheep have departed”, an interesting reading which no other manuscript seems to support. The traditional Majority Text manuscripts have “it shall be no longer, because the former things have departed.” The text here follows the Codex Alexandrinus (A) and the Majority Text manuscripts which follow Andreas of Caesareia.

In the 118th Psalm we read that: “22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. 23 This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” The builders were those original Israelites who had demanded an earthly king, sinfully rejecting Yahweh as their king, as it is described in 1 Samuel chapter 8: “7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” Three times that passage from the Psalm is recorded in the New Testament as having been cited by Christ in reference to Himself. But if He is the cornerstone, there is a need of many other stones to complete a building, which is the true temple of Yahweh. Therefore addressing the dispersed Israelites to whom he had written, Peter likens Christians to living stones, in 2 Peter 2: “4 Coming forth to Him a living stone [which is Yahshua], indeed having been rejected as unfit by men but honored elect before Yahweh, 5 and yourselves as living stones are built a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Yahweh through Yahshua Christ. Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture: 'Behold, I place in Zion an honored elect corner stone, and he believing in Him shall by no means be ashamed.'” Peter was not necessarily referring to Yahshua Christ as He was rejected by the Judaeans, which Peter evidently employed as a literary device, but by the ancient Israelites in the time of Samuel, as Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate.

The true Tabernacle of Yahweh is Yahshua Christ, who is Yahweh God in the flesh of Adamic man. In Leviticus chapter 26 we read: “12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” He shall do that as Yahshua Christ, in the body of an Adamic man, so being, as Paul described Him in Romans chapter 8, the “firstborn among many brethren” (8:29). This is evident in many other places, such as the declaration concerning the Christ child in Matthew chapter 1 where it says “ 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Furthermore, in Ezekiel chapter 37 we read where Yahweh said: “27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen [or properly nations] shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” The fulfillment of this is described here in these last chapters of the Revelation.

The apostle Paul had interpreted the City of God, Jerusalem in the heavens, in the same manner which we have here where he wrote and made an allegory of Mount Sinai in Hebrews chapter 12: “18 For you have not approached touching a mountain and being scorched with fire, and in gloom and in darkness and in tempest, 19 and to a trumpet’s peal, and to a sound of words, which those hearing had declined, not a word to be agreed by them. 20 For they did not bear that being commanded: 'And if a beast should touch the mountain, he should be stoned.' 21 And so dreadful was that having appeared, Moses said 'I am frightened' and trembling. 22 But you have approached Mount Sion and the city of Yahweh who lives, Jerusalem in the heavens, and to myriads of messengers, to a general gathering 23 and to an assembly of those first born being registered in the heavens, and to Yahweh judge of all, and to the Spirits of those righteous having been perfected; 24 and to a mediator of a new covenant of Yahshua, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel.” The children of Israel, therefore, are the heavenly Jerusalem as Paul had described, the city of Yahweh from heaven, those who are “born from above”, as Christ had told Nicodemus, which is recorded in John chapter 3.

5 And He sitting upon the throne said: “Behold! I shall make all new things!” [the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have ‘I shall make new all things’] And He says [א and the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “to me”]: “Write! Because these words are trustworthy and true!”

Here I must offer a digression. There are people in this world who are often admonishing others to save the whales, or to save the spotted tree owl, or the tree frog, or to save the ozone layer. But it is folly for man to think that he, himself having been created, has any control over this planet outside of the will of God. Men cannot save the creation of God, but Yahweh God shall decide what He preserves, and what He creates. Such people may be likened to a rat taking care for its own cage, or a chicken wanting to reinforce its coop, or perhaps more appropriately, to a chicken proclaiming that the sky is falling. They don’t know God because they don’t have the spirit of God so they imagine that they themselves can play at being god, and entice, or even cajole others into that same humanist frame of mind. The truth is that the God who had said “Let there be…”, and there was, can do that same thing once again if He so chooses.

The Greek phrase concerning new things may have been translated “Behold, I shall do all new things!” It is translated in that manner by Brenton in his Septuagint in Isaiah chapter 43 (43:19), and although the Greek word order is slightly different that is inconsequential. Additionally, the language does not permit that old, preexisting things are going to be made new. Rather, it is stating that things not having existed before shall be created, or perhaps shall be done, if ποιέω is interpreted as to do rather than to make. There is also a paraphrase of that passage from Isaiah by Paul of Tarsus, which used a different verb, at 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he says in allegory: “Therefore if one is among the number of Christ a new creation, the old things pass away. 'Behold! New things have come!'” But as it is here in the Revelation, the rendering of this verse in the King James version is implausible, that somehow all things become new where we read “Behold, I make all things new”. In all three of these passages, here and in Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians and in Isaiah, since there is only one word in the neuter gender, καινά, which literally means new things, the words cannot be separated, since they are a single unit.

6 And He said [א has “says”] to me: “They are made! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end! To he who thirsts I shall give freely from out of the fountain [A wants “of the fountain”] of the water of life.

The water of life is mentioned by Christ in John chapter 4, where He told the woman at the well that “10 … If you knew the gift of Yahweh and who it is saying to you ‘Give Me to drink’, you would have asked Him and He would have given to you living water.”

The King James Version has the exclamation “It is done!” rather than “They are made!”, for which we may compare the clause “It is done!” as it is also translated in that version at Revelation 16:17, where the same verb is in a 3rd person singular form, γέγονεν. Here the phrase “they are made” comes from a single Greek word, γέγοναν, which is a 3rd person plural form of the same verb. It cannot possibly be “it is”, but only “they are”. This also helps to support the rendering in verse 5, “I shall make all new things” and not, as the King James Version has it, “all things new”.

The Codex Sinaiticus (א) and the manuscripts of the Majority Text are wanting the word εἰμι in the text, and have γέγονα rather than γέγοναν. [καὶ εἶπέν μοι· γέγονα ἐγώ τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος.] The verb γέγονα is a Perfect Active 1st person singular form of the same verb which is mistranslated in the King James Version, and it may also be translated as “I am”, rather than the 3rd person “they are”. As it appears in these manuscripts, along with the missing verb εἰμι, the clause may be read: “And He said [or says in א] to me: I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end!” So the King James Version had departed from the Majority Text here. Our text follows the Codex Alexandrinus (A) [καὶ εἶπέν μοι· γέγοναν. ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος] Where the clause has the 3rd person form of the verb, it is interpreted as a separate exclamation declaring a fulfillment of the promise that “I shall make all new things” in verse 5. The phrase ἐγώ εἰμι appears frequently in Isaiah and in the Gospels where Christ had used it to describe Himself, and it is typically translated as “I am”.

This is the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. Therefore here Yahshua Christ is proclaiming to be “the Alpha and the Omega”, as he also had proclaimed on two occasions in Revelation chapter 1 (1:8 and 1:11). But this claim to be the first and the last was also made by Yahweh God, on three occasions in Isaiah, in chapters 41, 44 and 48 (41:4, 44:6, 48:12). From Isaiah 41:4 “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” Then from Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” Finally, from Isaiah 48:12 “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.”

Therefore, the only way that Yahshua Christ can claim to be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, is for Him to be Yahweh God Himself, which of course He is, as it is explained in John chapter 1. As we shall see further on in this chapter, the Roman Catholic concept of a trinity, and all those who dispute the deity of Christ, are quite wrong. The Word was with God, God was the Word, and the Word was made flesh and walked amongst us, and He is Yahshua Christ. Yet in Isaiah chapter 43 we read, where the children of Israel are once again addressed: “10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” Much later, when Thomas looked upon the risen Christ, as it is recorded in the Gospel of John, and exclaimed “My Lord and my God!”, he knew precisely what he was saying.

7 He who prevails shall inherit these things and I shall be a God for him [א and the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have “them”] and he shall be a son [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “they shall be sons”] for Me.

Hannah, the mother of Samuel, is recorded as having said, in 1 Samuel chapter 2: “9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.” The overcomers are indeed the children of Israel. Therefore, Paul says in his comparison of Jacob and Esau, in Romans chapter 9: “16 So then, it is not of he that wishes, nor of he that strives, but of he Yahweh shows mercy upon.” The strength of men does not empower the overcomers to overcome, but only the mercy of God.

In response to the question “are those being preserved but few?” Yahshua Christ had warned the apostles, as it is recorded in Luke 13:24: “Strive to enter in through the narrow door, because many, I say to you, shall seek to enter and they shall not prevail.” Paul had explained that also, but in a different way in Philippians chapter 2: “14 Do all things apart from murmuring and disputing, 15 that you would be perfect and with unmixed blood, blameless children of Yahweh in the midst of a race crooked and perverted – among whom you appear as luminaries in the Society, 16 upholding the Word of Life for a boast with me in the day of Christ, that not in vain have I run nor in vain have I labored.” The keeping of the commandments of God means the keeping of the bloodline of Israel. The overcomers are all of those Israelites who remain unsoiled at the end of the age.

8 But for the cowards and the faithless and abominable [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “the abominable faithless”] and murderers and fornicators and drug-makers [φάρμακος] and idolaters and all those who lie [A has ‘and all liars’], their fate [μέρος, literally part, share or portion] is burning in the lake in fire and sulfur, which is the second death!”

The word for cowards here, δειλός, is an adjective accompanied with a definite article, and therefore it is used as a noun. As the adjective is defined by Liddell & Scott it means “of persons, cowardly… vile, worthless… lowborn, mean… [and] of animals, afraid of…”For that last definition an example using a mouse was included. Then, in a secondary sense, the definition continues: “more commonly, miserable, wretched,” with several other examples from Homer. Where it appears in the Septuagint, Brenton had translated it as either fearful or cowardly. Here as a Substantive, it is cowards, being plural, as that is the most literal meaning, but the precise sense or shade of meaning intended is difficult to determine. Christ had also used the term in Matthew chapter 8, an account which is also provided in Mark chapter 4, and as it is in Matthew we read: “23 And with His boarding into a vessel His students followed Him. 24 And behold, a great commotion happened on the sea, so for the vessel to be covered by the waves, but He slept. 25 And coming forth they roused Him saying ‘Prince, save us! We are being destroyed!’ 26 And He says to them: ‘What, are you cowards, you of little faith?’ Then arising He censured the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. 27 Then the men marveled, saying ‘From whence is this man, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’”

As Paul of Tarsus wrote in Romans, all men are liars, whether they know it or not, because no man has perfect knowledge. But all bastards are lies, and every bastard is a lie because they are not something which Yahweh has created. To corrupt the Word of God, or to love and make lies is beyond the mere act of telling one. Fornicators are those who have engaged in any sort of illicit sexual activity, among which is race-mixing (i.e. 1 Corinthians 10, Jude 7). The word drug-makers here is from the Greek word φαρμακός, which is often translated as sorcerer. It literally describes a manufacturer of φάρμακον, which is a drug or a medicine, and the act of using or administering them is φαρμακεία, which is condemned as a sin in Revelation chapter 9 (9:21). In early times, in the poet Homer and in the later Classical period, the word φαρμακός also had another use in ancient Greek, and Liddell & Scott offer another definition for that other sense of the word: “one who is sacrificed as an atonement for others, a scape-goat, [citing] Aristophanes; and, since worthless fellows were reserved for this fate, φαρμακός became a general name of reproach, [citing] Iliad, Demosthenes.” This use of the word probably arose in the sense of a person who is used as a cure. So in that manner, it may be said that Yahshua Christ is the only true φάρμακον for all Christians.

As it is described in Revelation chapters 19 and 20, all of the enemies of Yahweh God have already been cast into the Lake of Fire, along with all who are not written into the Book of Life. This verse is therefore exemplary, that there are none of these left, and there shall be none of these in the Kingdom of Yahweh. It is not a new warning, it is a statement of what had already happened. It cannot be used to somehow annul the promises of God, that all Israel shall be saved, and all of their sins forgiven. If their sins are forgiven, then they have been cleansed and they are no longer any of these things. So whether any Israelite had sinned in one of these ways, he was cleansed by God, while the other races were never cleansed.

Likewise Paul made similar statements, where he wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 5: “9 Or do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of Yahweh? Do not be led astray: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor rapacious shall inherit the kingdom of Yahweh.” But as we have asserted here, where Paul continued he wrote: “11 And these things some of you may have been, but you have cleansed yourselves; moreover you have been sanctified, moreover you have been deemed fit, in the name of Prince Yahshua Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” Therefore, in Revelation chapter 12 we read: “10 And I heard a great voice saying: ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God has come, and the authority of His anointed, because the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, he accusing them before our God day and night. 11 And they prevailed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they had not loved their lives even to death.’”

The phrase “second death” may be appropriately connected to the fate of those people who are without the Spirit of Yahweh which He imparted to Adam: the aliens and descendants of the seed of the Serpent of Genesis chapter 3, which is much broader in scope than the descendants of Cain alone. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was already a tree, which is an allegory for a race of people, even before Adam was placed into the garden, where it is already found. It is in reference to these children of the serpent, the fallen angels, and to the bastards which they had spawned that the apostle Jude had used the phrase “twice dead” in his epistle at verse 12: “12 These are the spots in your feasts of charity, feasting together without fear, tending to themselves, clouds without water being carried away by the winds, late-autumn trees without fruit, twice dead being uprooted, 13 stormy waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness is kept forever!”

This term does not properly refer to any of the children of Israel, or even the children of Adam, as Paul of Tarsus explained in Hebrews chapter 9: “24 For Christ entered not into holy places made by hand, representations of the true, but into heaven itself, to appear now in the presence of Yahweh on our behalf. 25 Nor that He should present Himself often, just as the high priest enters into the holy places each year with another’s blood; 26 since it was necessary for him to suffer often from the foundation of the Society, then now once in the consummation of the ages He [Christ] has appeared for an abolition of sin through His sacrifice. 27 And inasmuch as it is reserved for men to die once, and judgment after that, 28 so also Christ had been offered once to make contribution for the errors of many. He shall appear a second time apart from sins, to those who look to Him for preservation.”

Furthermore, in relation to this assertion, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 5: “12 For this reason, just as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the Society, and by that sin death, and in that manner death has passed to all men, on account that all have sinned: 13 (for until the law sin was in the Society; but sin was not accounted, there not being law; 14 but death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned resembling the transgression of Adam, who is an image of the future. 15 But should not, as was the transgression, in that manner also be the favor? Indeed if in the transgression of one [Adam] many die, much greater is the favor of Yahweh, and the gift in favor, which is of the one man Yahshua Christ, in which many have great advantage. 16 And not then by one having sinned is the gift? Indeed the fact is that judgment of a single one [Christ] is for condemnation, but the favor is from many transgressions into a judgment of acquittal. 17 For if in the transgression of one [Adam], death has taken reign through that one, much more is the advantage of the favor, and the gift of justice they are receiving, in life they will reign through the one, Yahshua Christ.) 18 So then, as that one transgression is for all men for a sentence of condemnation, in this manner then through one decision of judgment for all men is for a judgment of life. 19 Therefore even as through the disobedience of one man the many were set down as sinners, in this manner then through the obedience of One the many will be established as righteous.”

Now the vision returns its focus once again to the Bride:

9 And one from among [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “And one of”] the seven messengers having the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying: “Come! I shall show to you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” [The MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have the end of the clause to read “… the bride of the Lamb, the wife!” The traditional manuscripts of the Majority Text have “… the wife, the bride of the Lamb!” The text follows א and A.]

Earlier, in the opening verses of the chapter, the Bride was introduced as “a new holy city Jerusalem descending from out of heaven”, however we should not lose sight of the fact that the city is a metaphor for the body politic of the children of Israel, as the word for city, πόλις, was also often used in ancient Greek.

10 And he took me away in the Spirit up to a mountain great and high [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “great high mountain”], and showed to me the holy [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “and great”] city Jerusalem descending from out of heaven from Yahweh, 11 having the effulgence of Yahweh [A wants “having the effulgence of Yahweh”], [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “and”] her radiance like precious stone as jasper stone, clear as crystal [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “like precious jasper stone as clear as crystal”] ; 12 having a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and above the gates twelve messengers [A wants “and above the gates twelve messengers”], and [א inserts “their”] names inscribed [א has “written”] which are the names [א and the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “the names”; the text follows A and the traditional MT manuscripts, which vary slightly] of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel: 13 from the east three gates, and from the north three gates, and from the south three gates, and from the west three gates [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “and” in each of these clauses; A transposes “south” and “west”] . 14 And the wall of the city has [א wants “has”; the text follows A and the MT, which vary slightly] twelve foundations, and upon them the twelve names of the twelve ambassadors of the Lamb.

Ostensibly, since the city itself is an allegory for the children of Israel, then the names of the twelve tribes are themselves the twelve gates, because the only way to gain entrance into the City of God is to be born of one of those tribes! The City of God is the people of God, the body of Christ, the children of Israel. The scheme of the gates also corresponds with the arrangement of the twelve tribes around the tabernacle in the wilderness, which is described in Numbers chapter 2.

The foundations of the City bear the names of the twelve apostles of Christ. Yahshua Christ had attested, as it is in Matthew chapter 15, that “24 … I have not been sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel!” Likewise, we read in Luke chapter 19: “8 Then stopping Zakchaios said to the Prince: ‘Behold, half of my property, Prince, I give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything of anyone, I return it fourfold!’ 9 And Yahshua said to him that ‘Today has preservation come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham! 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which has been lost!’”

Only the children of Israel were “lost”, as we read in Jeremiah chapter 50: “6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.” Then again, in Ezekiel chapter 34: “6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.” Later in the chapter, Yahweh promised that He Himself would search for His sheep, which is fulfilled in the Gospel of Christ. Yet even earlier, in a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53: “5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Therefore the mission of the apostles was one of reconciliation, as Paul often described his own ministry, in order to bring the children of Israel back to Yahweh in Christ. So James addressed his epistle to “the twelve tribes in the dispersion”, and Peter addressed his first epistle to “the elect sojourners of the dispersion of Pontos, Galatia, Kappadokia, Asia and Bithunia”, while his second epistle was a follow-up letter sent to that same group. Likewise, after his arrest Paul had attested in Acts chapter 26 that “6 … for the hope of the promise having been made by God to our fathers I stand being judged, 7 for which our twelve tribes serving in earnest night and day hope to attain…” and then throughout all of his epistles it may be demonstrated that each of them were written to various dispersions of the ancient children of Israel. Therefore, for example, Paul had informed the Romans that “8 Therefore I say, Yahshua Christ came to be a minister of circumcision in behalf of the truth of Yahweh; for the confirmation of the promises of the fathers; 9 and the Nations [the nations of Israel] for the sake of mercy honor Yahweh; just as it is written, ‘For this reason I will profess You among the Nations, and I will sing of Your name.’ 10 And again it says, ‘Rejoice, Nations with His people.’” Each of the citations in that passage are references to the nations of Israel, one by David in the 18th Psalm, and the other, which defines these nations, from the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Now the city is measured:

15 And he speaking with me had a golden measuring-rod [literally “a golden reed for a measure”; the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have only “a golden reed”], that he may measure the city and her gates and her wall. 16 And the city lies foursquare and her length as great as [A inserts “also”; the text follows א and the MT] the breadth. And he measured the city with the rod [literally “reed”] for twelve thousand stades, her length and the breadth and the height are the same. 17 And he measured her wall, a hundred forty-four cubits measure of a man, which is of a messenger.

The city is foursquare just as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was foursquare, and just as the sheet in the vision of Peter in Acts chapter 10 was foursquare. The breastplate made for the high priest, as it was described in Exodus chapter 28, was also foursquare. All of this helps to signify that the City of God is meant for the children of Israel exclusively, because it is measured to fit only Israel. Likewise the measurement of the city, being twelve thousand stades in each direction, is also calculated. In order to sate the inevitable curiosity, the Greek στάδιος (4712) was 606.75 English feet, and therefore 12,000 stades is very close to 1,379 English miles.

As for the height of the walls, the cubit or πῆχυς (4083), according to Liddell & Scott, is “the fore-arm, from the wrist to the elbow… as a measure of length, the distance from the point of the elbow to the end of the little finger… containing 24 δάκτυλοι [fingers] or 18 ¼ inches…” Therefore if we were interpreting the passage literally, the height of the wall would be 219 feet. 

18 And the structure of her wall was [A wants “was”; the text follows א and the MT] jasper, and the city pure gold like pure glass. 19 And the foundations of the walls of the city all adorned with precious stone: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh olivine, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates twelve pearls, each one of the gates was from of one pearl. And the streets of the city pure gold, as transparent glass.

The City of God apparently has the same stones for its foundation which are found in the breastplate of the high priest of the children of Israel, and since each stone represents one of the twelve tribes, here there are twelve layers in the foundation, so that the City of God is founded for those same tribes, and their names are on the twelve gates.

From Exodus chapter 28, here is a partial description of the construction of the foursquare breastplate: “17 And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. 18 And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. 19 And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. 20 And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. 21 And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.”

There are some differences, but the stones here are jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, jacinth, and amethyst., where the stones in the breastplate of the priest are sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, and jasper. While only eight of the names of the stones are translated in the same manner in English, the four which are different may be accounted for in the fact that some stones cannot be identified precisely by their original Greek or Hebrew names. For example, sardonyx is a type of onyx, the word translated from Hebrew as diamond is jasper in the Greek of the Septuagint, and ligure, which is leshem [לשם] in Hebrew, is said to have probably been jacinth. Therefore we may be confident that if we could resolve all of these names properly, the two lists would actually be the same, as our own precursory inspection of the names produces 8 of 12 matches, and 9 if we count leshem as jacinth.

So as we have asserted, the City of God is an allegory for the children of God, so also it is here, that the description of the city descended from heaven, with its gold and precious stones and 12 gates, is an allegory for the people of the twelve tribes of Israel, who have the Spirit of Yahweh and who were therefore “born from above”, as the apostle John in his first epistle contrasts those born of God and those born from beneath, or in the world. The stones are those of the breastplate made for the high priest, each stone also representing a tribe of Israel, for which see Exodus 28:17-21. While the names of the stones are somewhat different, that may be partially due to a misunderstanding of the meanings of the ancient words by their interpreters, for the Exodus was written roughly 1600 years before the Revelation of John, and in a different language.

22 And I saw no temple in her, for Prince Yahweh Almighty is her temple, and the Lamb.

The words for “the Lamb” here are in the Accusative Case, τὸ ἀρνίον, in all of the manuscripts. They must be the object of the verb ἐστιν, which is a third person singular form of εἰμι or to be. The word for temple, ναὸς, is in the Nominative Case and is therefore it is properly part of the subject, which is difficult to express in English without conjunctions, but perhaps we can do so by changing the punctuation. In that manner, the Greek words ὁ γὰρ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ναὸς αὐτῆς ἐστιν καὶ τὸ ἀρνίον may have been more properly read “for Prince Yahweh almighty, her temple is also the Lamb.” Yahshua Christ, as He had professed in the Gospel, is the Temple of Yahweh, Yahweh God dwelling in the body of a man, as He is Yahweh God incarnate.

Either way, the Lamb is described as the Temple of the City of God. So the Lamb, which is the physical body of Yahshua Christ, is the Temple of Yahweh. Speaking of Christ, Paul wrote in Colossians chapter 2: “2 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Divinity bodily.” While it cannot be expected that the entire essence of the being which is Yahweh God could inhabit the body of a mere man, yet the body of Yahshua Christ is indeed His Temple. Likewise, the children of God are spirits born from Him and they also dwell in earthly temples, for which reason Paul had mentioned “treasure in earthen vessels” in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 (4:7).

23 And the city has not need of the sun nor of the moon that they would illuminate her, for the effulgence of Yahweh illuminates her, and her lamp is the Lamb.

Yahweh God is the true Light of the World, as Yahshua Christ was described in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John, and also the bright and morning star, which is how Christ describes Himself here in Revelation chapters 2 and 22 (2:28, 22:16). As the sun and moon are often allegories for earthly government in the prophets, as they are also in Revelation chapter 6, here Yahweh Himself as Yahshua Christ is King over Israel, which He had promised in Hosea chapter 13 where we read: “9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?”

This passage of the Revelation also evokes the 19th Psalm, which is attributed to David: “1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

Paul of Tarsus cited verse 4 of that Psalm in Romans chapter 10, where he wrote: “17 So then, faith is from hearing, but through hearing the word of Christ. 18 But I say, have they not heard? Yea, rather, ‘into all the land went out their voice, and to the western extremities of the habitable world their words.’” While the interpretation of certain of Paul’s words differs somewhat, that is certainly the verse which he was citing.

In the allegories of the 19th Psalm, the heavens in verse 1 seem to represent the children of Israel as the stars of God, preaching the Gospel and enshrining the Son, for whom the sun is a representation. But by enshrining the sun, they are enshrining the Son, Yahshua Christ, who is the Light of the World and therefore here in the Revelation He is the Lamp of the City of God. Where in the first words of the acts of His creation Yahweh had declared “Let there be light”, Je was actually declaring His imminent presence in the world as Yahshua Christ. No man saw that Genesis chapter 1 (1:3) light until Christ was declared the “9 … the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

24 And the Nations shall walk by her light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their honor into her, 25 and her gates shall not be closed by day (for there shall not be night there), 26 and they shall bring the honor and the dignity of the Nations into her.

The Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, in either the 27th or 28th editions, gives no indication of any manuscript which may insert the words “of them that are saved” after the word for nations in verse 24, which are found in the King James Version.

The Nations here may refer to the nations of the children of Israel, or even to the nations of the entire race of Adam, although only the children of Israel would comprise the City of God. The Nations here being interpreted as being the Adamic Genesis 10 nations, this would have been the manner in which Abraham himself would have understood the promise in Genesis chapter 22 where we read: “8 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” The first promise of the restoration of the Adamic race is found in Genesis chapter 3: “22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”. This precedes, and is apart from, the special covenants which Yahweh later made with Abraham and Jacob, and neither the later covenants nor the promises to the patriarchs repeal or annul the earlier promises to the wider Adamic race.

As Christ said to His enemies, from Matthew chapter 12: “41 The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this race and they shall condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Ionah, and behold: a greater than Ionah is here! 42 The queen of the south shall be raised in the judgment with this race and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold: a greater than Solomon is here!” The men of Nineveh were Adamic descendants of Shem through Asshur, and the queen of the south an Adamic descendant of Ham, evidently through Sheba. Therefore it is safe to conclude that the entire Adamic race is resurrected, as Paul had explained in Romans chapter 4, which we have already cited.

On the other hand, the phrase “kings of the earth” must now be referring to the children of Israel. In Revelation chapter 5 we read of the Lamb: “8 And when He received the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb each having a lyre and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, 9 and they sang a new song, saying ‘You are worthy to receive the scroll and to open its seven seals, because You have been slaughtered and You have purchased for Yahweh with Your blood out of each tribe and tongue and people and nation 10 and have made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they shall rule over the earth!’” There, “each tribe and tongue and people and nation” all are references to the scattered children of Israel.

27 And there may not enter into her anything common and which [A wants the article translated as “which”; the text follows א and the MT, wherein some manuscripts vary slightly] makes an abomination and a lie, except those written in the book of life of the Lamb [א has “the book of life of heaven].

Anything common is anything which has not been properly sanctified to God, and in the Word of God, only the children of Israel, of all people, have ever been sanctified. Anything which makes an abomination or a lie has not been created or ordained by God, and nothing of the sort will ever enter into the City of God. For this Christ had prayed, in John chapter 17, on behalf of those whom He had been given by the Father, and He said in part: “17 Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. 18 Just as You have sent Me into Society, I also have sent them into Society. 19 And on behalf of them I sanctify Myself, in order that they also would be sanctified in truth.” For that same reason He told his apostles earlier that same evening, in John chapter 15, that “3 You are already clean through the word which I have spoken to you.”

So in the closing verses of Ezekiel chapter 37, just after a promise that Israel shall be gathered and reunited under David the king, which is a type for Christ, but just before the description of the invasion of the Camp of the Saints which was also summarized here in Revelation chapter 20 and prophesied in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, we read: “26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” That covenant of peace is evidently the new covenant which was more explicitly promised in Jeremiah chapter 31, where Yahweh had also promised to cleanse all of the sins of the children of Israel, in which case they may indeed enter the City of God.

For this we also read, in Joel chapter 2: “15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.”

There are no promises of sanctification or cleansing for anyone other than the children of Israel. There is no betrothal to Christ promised in Scripture to anyone other than the children of Israel.

This concludes our commentary for Revelation chapter 21.