The Recreation
Revelation chapters 20&21 Psalm 147:5 Ezekiel 39:2
Since the Bible teaches that God's "understanding is infinite, " then it seems quite unreasonable to believe that God could do anything unreasonable. Everything that God does must have good and creative purposes. God may act in mysterious ways that He does not explain in His Word, but these actions always effect good and creative purposes. God's actions always conform to His Infinite Love and Reason.
Despite the nature of God's Being, some Christians resort to superstitious beliefs about God's nature such as that God would send an infant to hell simply because it died without being baptized. All such unreasonable beliefs are basically idolatrous, even if believed by Christians. All beliefs which depict God as being unreasonable or uncompassionate can only be idolatrous because they display false ideas about God's Being. "God is Love." Read I John 4:8.
On the other hand, God hates evil and He will judge sin and cleanse His universe of all evil when He recreates the heaven and the earth. This means that God will demonstrate His great Compassion and Love when He recreates, because sin is a misuse of God's Ideas in that sin consists of false combinations of His Ideas. God's Infinite Ideas themselves cannot be misused, but limited copies of His Ideas can. Even so, sin is a violation of Love itself. God must cleanse His universe of sin because it is always destructive whereas God is always creative. God cannot allow sin to remain in His universe because it would always constitute a threat to the absolute joy and peace which He intends to give to His future creations, as well as being a constant threat to the very Being of Love itself.
God's judgment of pure evil will be quite harsh, and for good reason. Revelation 19:20 and 20:10 reveal that the Devil, the Beast and the False Prophet will be cast alive into the lake of fire where they will be tormented in full consciousness forever. Revelation 14:9-11 also reveals that those humans who receive the mark of the beast will also become so fully demonic that they also will be tormented in the lake of fire forever. On the other hand, Revelation 20:11-15 reveals that all of the human dead will be raised to be judged by Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment according to their works. Since the works of all those who receive the mark of the beast can only become completely evil after having received the mark, then only that part of their consciousnesses which completely adheres to evil will be tormented forever. That part of their consciousnesses which adhered to ordinary sinfulness and goodness before they received the mark will be part of the dead that are raised to be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment. This division of consciousness rests on the premise that since man was created in God's image and God's Consciousness is one with His Word, then the being of man has to be, at all times, one with that of which he is conscious and of that which he chooses to do. In fact, the very fall of man into original sin effected a division of his consciousness into a consciousness of good and a consciousness of evil. Hence, the consciousness of man has been divided into that evil which he chooses to do, and that good which he chooses to do.
God's eternal torment of pure evil will become quite necessary in order to occupy the demons' minds with absolute pain so completely that they will never be able to concoct any more false combinations forever. This condition will constitute a good, creative and compassionate combination of God's Ideas since it will forever eliminate any possibility that evil can ever cause any pain and sorrow to God's future creations. God will create a way to neutralize the harmful effects of evil forever, and thus create a good combination that will ensure that only joy and peace and love will prevail in all of His future creations. God holds the eternal power to turn even evil toward the good.
Consciousness becomes that of which it is conscious. Demonic minds totally given to evil must be neutralized by eternal torment so that their consciousnesses will become eternal torment and will thus no longer be able to concentrate on inventing evil. This is the good system that God will use to turn evil toward the good.
Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39 Revelation 20:1-3
Immediately following the battle of Armageddon, Christ will begin His thousand year reign over earth. Revelation 20:1-3 records that God will send an angel to capture Satan, bind him with a great chain, and cast him into the bottomless pit. Satan will be prevented from having any influence over mankind during the thousand year reign of Christ. After the thousand years, the Bible teaches that Satan "must be loosed a little season." God's Word does not exactly explain why this must happen. One speculative reason emerges from Ezekiel's prophecy about the battle of Armageddon. Ezekiel 39:2 prophesies that one sixth of the beast's evil armies will survive the battle. These evil men will return to their countries, and outwardly they will force themselves to accept the rule of Christ. But some consciousness of their evil will remain within them and foment a secret resentment and rebellion against Christ. Their condition will show that evil will not have been entirely eliminated from the hearts of some men even under conditions in which Satan has no connection to them. Their condition will serve to prove that men's hearts can only be fully changed to a consciousness of goodness by a complete repentance of their sins and a total submission in faith to Christ's rule in their hearts and in their world.
Revelation 20:7-10
Revelation 20:7-10 records that after the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will go out into the world to inspire all who harbor secret evils to rebel openly against the rule of Christ. Satan will lead this evil army against Jerusalem but God will completely devour them with fire from heaven. Perhaps, one of the purposes of the thousand year reign of Christ will be for God to prove that evil cannot be completely controlled by any outward rule of Goodness, but that evil can only be eliminated from creation either by a recreation of the hearts of men through salvation by God's grace, or by its absolute destruction. After this final war, Satan will then be cast into the lake of fire where his consciousness of evil will be expunged by his consciousness of his eternal torment.
Revelation 20:4-6
Revelation 20:4-6 relates the story of the resurrection of all who remained faithful to Christ during the Tribulation period, and who were martyred for refusing to worship the beast. This first resurrection is not the same as the resurrection at the Rapture of the church. God's Word calls this the first resurrection simply to distinguish it from the second resurrection of the dead at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ.
Revelation 20:11-15
Revelation 20:11-15 records the story of the resurrection of the dead and the Great White Throne Judgment that follows the final war. Great significance adheres to the revelation that those in the first resurrection are raised to life, while those of the second resurrection are recorded as still being dead even as they stand before God for their judgment. Even so, they must retain some form of consciousness, for otherwise their resurrections would mean nothing. God must consider them to be dead because they have no consciousness of Eternal Goodness, but whatever consciousness they do possess will be concentrated solely on limited goodness and evil only. To God, death is a loss of fellowship with Him. Adam and Eve died spiritually when they disobeyed God and lost their daily fellowship with Him, and limited good and evil became a part of their consciousnesses. For a short time, Adam and Eve were completely depraved and lost because their limited goodness could never be enough to overcome their limited evil. But God restored them to limited fellowship with Him through prayer and worship when He shed the blood of an animal and clothed them in its skin. This prophecy demonstrated that God would provide a way for all future humans to be thoroughly cleansed of their depravity and restored to an eternal fellowship with Him through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son.
Colossians 1:15-23 Revelation 21:1-8 Mark 9:43-48 Isaiah 66:24
When the above verses are compared, a great but hidden truth emerges from God's Word. Colossians 1:15 reveals the Diety of Christ which is an open revelation of scripture. Verse 16 relates that Christ created "all things" defined as "in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,......" This teaching can only mean that Christ has created absolutely everything that exists; all material things that are visible, as well as all invisible things such as ideas, feelings, forces, and information. This means that absolutely everything that can be felt or thought or experienced in any way, physical or mental, must be real. God always meant for the elements of this reality to be used in good and creative combinations. Sin amounts to the misuse of the elements of God's creations; that is, the false combinations of His ideas that have destructive effects.
Colossians 1:20-23 reveals that Christ will "reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." When combined with the revelation that Christ has created "all things," then the unavoidable conclusion must be that Christ will one day recover, reconcile and recreate "all things" that He has created including all of His elements that have been misused in false combinations. Revelation 21:5 reinforces this conclusion where Christ states: "Behold, I make all things new." Colossians 1:21-23 refers to all who accept Christ as their Savior while still living on the old earth. God will recreate the souls and spirits of these believers the moment they believe. They will be "born again" at the moment they repent and believe in Christ. Read John 5:24 and Colossians 3:10. Their sins will be washed away by the blood of Christ and they will receive the eternal life of Christ Himself and they will be destined to live with Christ in heaven forever. Read Revelation 1:5.
Revelation 21:3-5 reveals that recreated men will be living on the recreated earth after God has destroyed the old earth and heaven and has recreated them. Since "all things" that God has created are good and belong to Him, then God can only recreate these new men from all of His good elements which He will recover from the resurrected dead when He judges them. These recreated men will never be allowed to go to heaven, but will remain on earth forever. The saints in heaven who were recreated when they were "born again" on the old earth, will enjoy a special relationship with God because they will be His sons and daughters who will enjoy an inheritance equal to that of Christ Himself. Read Romans 8:16-17.
Revelation 20:11-15 Revelation 21:5 Revelation 21:8 Revelation 22:14-15
The above verses, read in conjunction with each other, reveal a hidden truth in God's Word. This message begins with the Great White Throne Judgment where God begins His recreation of heaven and earth and also "makes all things new." At this Judgment, God resurrects the dead who stand before Him to be "judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." This must mean that all of the works of the dead have been recorded in heaven, and that God will judge both their good and their evil works. Revelation 20:14 relates that death and hell will be destroyed in the lake of fire. The "whosoever" of verse fifteen refers to these dead whose deaths will be destroyed in the lake of fire. Only their deadness will be destroyed, not their good works. Their good works can possess no deadness since they were created by God in the first place.
Revelation 21:8 and Revelation 22:15 reveal that the lake of fire and the second death are the same place. These verses also relate that the deadness of the dead will "have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Clearly, the second death has to be quite different from the first death since the second death destroys the first death. From Genesis throughout the Bible, death always means a personal separation from fellowship with God. Since this first death will be destroyed by the second death, and since God has promised in Revelation 21:5 that He will "make all things new," which can only mean all of the good things which He has created; then all of this taken together can only mean that God will recover all of His good works from the dead and use them to recreate a new human race to live on His recreated earth. Read Revelation 21:3-5.
Therefore, as Revelation 21:8 and Revelation 22:15 taken together relates, only the deadness of the resurrected dead, which is the same as their sins which separate them from God, will be destroyed in the lake of fire. God will separate His good works from the resurrected dead for recreation, and consign their dead works to be destroyed in the lake of fire. Revelation 22:15 refers to these dead as being "dogs." A dog is less than human, and so these sinful dead can only be less than human. Since the Bible teaches that the lake of fire will burn forever, then these dead must burn forever but how much consciousness will they possess since they are less than human?
Mark 9:43-48 Isaiah 66:24
When Jesus taught in Mark: "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched;" He meant exactly that which He said. He did not mean that complete humans would suffer in the lake of fire, but only their "worms." Jesus' reference to "worms" can only mean that only the nasty parts of the dead with their consciousnesses of their sins will be consigned to the lake of fire. In other words, God will reduce the consciousnesses of the sins of the dead until they equal that of worms. This means that the fully conscious suffering of the dead in the lake of fire is not taught in scripture.
Other scriptures may also indicate the truth of this hidden message. In John 10:10, Jesus seems to be teaching that those whom He came to give life may constitute a different group from those whom He came to give the abundant life. The first group may refer to those recreated humans who will inhabit His recreated earth, and the second group may refer to those who hear the gospel, repent and believe in Jesus, are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and whom the Spirit of God recreates in soul and spirit while they still live on the old earth. Read John 5:24.
I Corinthians 15:22 seems to teach that the entire human race who died in Adam will also be made alive by Christ. Verse 23 refers to the resurrection of Christ which will also result in the resurrection of His saints at the Rapture of the church. But then, verses 24-28 refer to the time of the end when Christ will recreate all things. At this time: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." The dead in the lake of fire cannot be both dead and alive at the same time. This condition can only mean that God will destroy their deadness in the lake of fire; while, at the same time, God will recover all of their good works, which have always belonged to Him, to be recreated as men living on a recreated earth. If the dead suffer fully conscious in the lake of fire, then this would not be much of a life. This kind of life would be more like a living death, but God has promised that He will destroy death.
I Timothy 4:10 plainly teaches that God is "the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." This seems to teach that God will restore life to all men. Those who believe the gospel while still living on the old earth will enjoy a special relationship with Jesus in that they will be the recreated children of God who will live in untold bliss with God in heaven forever. God will recover and recreate the good works of the rest of humanity as new men living on a new earth.
This hidden message of the Bible (KJB) could also shed light on why Jesus stated in Revelation 3:15-16 that He preferred that the Christians be either hot or cold and not lukewarm. He literally said that lukewarm Christians made Him sick to His stomach. People who are spiritually cold are probably not saved at all, but that did not disturb Jesus because He knew that He would recreate them to live on the earth in the end. He also knew that the hot or fervent Christians would immediately be welcomed into the bliss of heaven when their bodies died. But the lukewarm Christians would be the backslidden ones, living worldly lives. Jesus knew that in accordance with Hebrews 10:29-31 and II Peter 2:20-22, He will punish backslidden Christians to a much greater degree than He will punish even the spiritually cold. This was the knowledge that so grieved Him and made Him feel sick. The punishment of the backslidden Christians will be temporary and for their correction only. This punishment will be worse than that of the unsaved because of the terrible remorse that they will feel; the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" as the Bible describes it, because of their knowledge of the grief that they have caused their Savior. Jesus came into the world to save sinners from the tyranny of Satan and from eternal punishment for their sins. He did not come to save mankind from any temporary punishment for their sins. Eventually, according to the judgment of God, the backslidders' punishment will cease, and He will bring them home to heaven to live in bliss with Him forever. True Christians never lose their salvation. Read Philippians 1:6.
This hidden message could also account for the meaning of Jesus' cry from the cross in Luke 23:34: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Jesus' cry was a prayer to His Father that He should forgive everyone who was responsible for His crucifixion, which means the whole human race since all men are sinners. It does not seem reasonable that God would have ignored Jesus' plea, and refuse to forgive even those who would never repent. Surely, God would have granted His Son's request that He should forgive the entire human race for His Son's crucifixion. But God would fully answer Jesus' prayer if He forgives and recreates His repentant saints the moment they believe and brings them home to heaven when they die, except for the temporary punishment of the backslidders; but also forgives and recreates unrepentant sinners to live on His recreated earth, after they have served their time of punishment in hell.
Colossians 1:20 further reinforces this view where it states: "And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself;....." This phrase teaches that through the cross of Christ, God will "reconcile all things unto Himself." Since Colossians 1:16 teaches that God has created absolutely everything that exists, then the ineluctable conclusion of verse 20 must be that God will reconcile and recreate "all things" that He created in the first place that have been soiled by their misuse in sinful combinations. The second part of verse 20 states: "by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." This clearly demonstrates that God will "make all things new," as recreated men on a recreated earth, and as recreated saints living in a recreated heaven.
Revelation 20:13 Revelation 21:1
Revelation 20:13 records that these dead, whose good works will be recreated, will be raised from the sea, from death and from hell. These must be three separate places since the beast rises from the sea which contains the bottomless pit, the false prophet rises from the earth which contains hell and the Devil was the lord of death until Jesus took the keys of death and hell from him when Jesus descended into hell after his crucifixion. God judges these dead "according to their works." This can only mean that God judges them according to both their good and evil works when they lived as men on the earth.
Verse fourteen relates that death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire which is the same place as the second death. Revelation 21:1 also records that God will eliminate the sea which contains the bottomless pit. All of this put together can only mean that the second death must be a completely different place or condition from the first death since it destroys the first death. Verse fifteen further relates that those not found in the book of life; that is, the dead, will be cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed.
Keeping in mind that God has created all things and that in the end He will recreate all things, then His judgment of the dead can only indicate that God will divide the consciousnesses of the dead into that of their good works which are based on Ideas that belonged to God in the first place, from their consciousnesses of their evil works which is their deadness. God will recover His goodness from the dead in order to recreate new men to live on His recreated earth. Read Revelation 21:3-5. God will also cast their separated consciousnesses of their dead evil works into the second death so that the dead will forever be conscious of their eternal destruction by the flames of the lake of fire. In this way, God will create a good system that will forever neutralize the evil effects of sin that comes from the hearts of men. Read Revelation 21:8 and Revelation 22:15.
Revelation 21:1-8
Revelation 21:1-8 describes God's recreation of the heaven and the earth. The key to understanding this portion of scripture inheres in God's statement in verse five: "Behold, I make all things new." As Revelation 4:11 and John 1:3 and other scriptures teach, God literally created all things; not just all physical things but all thoughts, ideas and emotions. God literally created everything that can be an object of consciousness. In the recreation, God recovers and reclaims absolutely everything that He has created and recreates the heaven and the earth, and men as well, so that no trace whatsoever remains of any sin and evil.
Revelation 21:2-3 relates that God's recreated Jerusalem will descend to earth and become the capital of the new earth. God will reside within this holy city and will rule the earth from there. God will rule over a recreated earth as well as His saints in heaven and in His new city. These new humans will be recreated from all of God's good things which He will recover from the dead at the Great White Throne Judgment. These new humans will not be the same persons as the dead who are judged, but will be recreated from a pool of good works that God will have recovered. They will retain no trace of sin or any possibility of inventing any sin in the future. Many of these new people will be Jewish people living in Israel which will be the only nation left on earth. God will thus fulfill His promise to the Jews that they will inherit the earth. Verse four teaches that these new people will live in a state of joy and peace forever. This shows that God will renew His original purpose for creating the earth, that humans should live in a paradise forever.
Revelation 21:5 constitutes a promise that God will recover absolutely all of His good things that have been misused in false combinations. and that He will reuse them to recreate the heaven and the earth and a new human race. God will have no reason to recreate His saints for they will have already been recreated in spirit and soul when they were born again, and their bodies will have already been recreated in the Rapture of the church. Since the old earth, and even heaven itself, have to some extent been touched by traces of evil; God will break the whole of it down and recreate it all so that no possibility of any traces of evil can ever be found within any of His recreations.
In Revelation 21:6, God affirms that He was the beginning of the test of His Love when He initiated the history of the earth for that purpose, and that He will be the successful end of that test in His recreation. He further affirms that the "water of life" which symbolizes the Holy Spirit will be freely given to all of His recreated humans as it has already been given to His saints. Eternity consists of an endless series of beginnings and endings, but God's test of His Love amounts to only one beginning and ending within an infinity of beginnings and endings.
In Revelation 21:7, God speaks about His saints and not about the recreated humans. Only God's saints are His sons and daughters. Read John 1:12. Only God's saints have "overcome the world" by their identification with Christ through faith in Him. Read John 16:33. Only God's saints "inherit all things." Read Romans 8:14-17. The main difference between God's saints and the recreated humans is that His saints retain their own individual personalities and consciousnesses forever. God never divides the consciousnesses of His saints, but He does separate their sins from their lives at that time during their earthly lives when they repented of their sins, put their faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit washed them in the blood of Jesus. God recreates the souls and spirits of His saints when they are born again, and He will recreate their bodies at the Rapture of the church. Read Mark 8:35. The saints are the ones who proved the great value of God's Love when they freely chose to accept His grace. One of the results of this difference is that the saints will be allowed to travel anywhere within heaven and on earth that they wish to go. However, backslidden saints will not be allowed to enter the City of God because they failed to live clean lives on the earth and thus dishonored God's grace that saved them. God's reward for some of the best saints will be that they will be allowed to attend schools of higher learning in order to learn any truths that they will be able to understand. The saints will be allowed to create any good combination of ideas that they wish. The saints will enjoy many privileges denied to the recreated humans. The saints will truly "inherit all things." The recreated humans will be restricted to lives on the new earth. They will each be different people than their former selves on the old earth. Some of them may retain parts of their former personalities because they did a lot of good works on the old earth. God will reward all good works, but His rewards for His saints' good works will be far greater than any of those given to the recreated humans. The saints receive the grace of God, but the recreated humans will receive only the mercy of God.
The wording of Revelation 21:8 is quite significant in that it does not seem to indicate that whole persons will be cast into the lake of fire, but instead seems to state that only each sinners' consciousness of their sins will be so cast into the second death. Even the worst person has some good in them. But verse eight only refers to the totality of evil within each person, and does not mention any goodness. This condition would seem to indicate that the consciousnesses of the dead will be divided, with God retaining their good works which were originally created by Him, separated from their consciousnesses of their evil works which God casts into the lake of fire. In this way, the lake of fire becomes a good system which serves a good purpose in that it neutralizes the effects of sin by an eternal consciousness of its burning. Thus, by the means of the eternal torment of the Devil and his demons, and by the neutralization of the effects of sin by its eternal burning in the lake of fire; God will create two good systems that will totally eradicate all evil, and any possibility of evil, from all of His future creations. The main difference between the first and second deaths would seem to be that the first death separates the sinner from God temporarily, and the second death separates the consciousness of sins from God's creations forever.
In Revelation 21:9-26, the Apostle John attempts to describe the tremendous beauty of the City of God. John states that this City is the bride of Christ because many of God's best saints will be allowed to live there. All of the saints of God's church will eventually get to heaven which is a much larger place than just the City of God. Verse 24 states: "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it:...." The light of the City of God will lighten all of heaven, for both those who are inside or outside of the City.
In Revelation 21:27, the Word of God (KJB) again emphasizes the absolute separation of evil from purity within God's new creations. The second phrase of this verse does not state that all of those written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be allowed to enter the City, but only that no one except those written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be allowed to enter.
In Revelation 22:1-7, John attempts to describe the absolute bliss of those whom God allows to live within the City of God. They will be allowed to see Jesus and worship Him whenever they desire. The statement that "they shall reign for ever and ever," would seem to indicate that God will give them some kind of authority within His new creations. But the total ecstasy of these saints far exceeds any of John's feeble attempts to describe it.
Revelation 22:8-19
Revelation 22:8-19 sums up God's final and complete separation of good and evil with evil being thoroughly neutralized and all good things that God has created being recovered, rewarded and recreated. Verse eleven emphasizes God's absolute division of the filthiness of evil from the holiness of righteousness. Jesus' words in verse twelve reveal the truth that God will reward every good work by every person and not just those of believers only. In order to do this, God must recover all goodness and neutralize all evil in the lake of fire.
Jesus indicates in verse thirteen that He initiated the test of His Love through His creation of the history of mankind, and that He has finished it. But His words also demonstrate that His eternal nature consists of an endless series of beginnings and endings with an endless series of new creations. God possesses an Infinity of Ideas from which He can draw to use as patterns for an endless series of creations.
Verse fourteen clearly teaches that only those Christians who endeavored throughout their entire lives to live strictly in obedience with God's Word will be allowed to enter and live in the City of God. All carnal or indifferent believers will be allowed to live in heaven after they have suffered a period of punishment for their correction according to the judgment of God, but they will be barred from the City of God. Those who live in the City will enjoy a greater bliss than those who live in heaven outside the City.
The use of the word "dog" in verse fifteen is quite significant. The teaching seems to be that just as a dog is wholly that which it is and cannot be anything different, so those sinners whom God exiles from His new creations are equal to their evil and cannot be more than that. In other words, sinners in the lake of fire must be less than human. In fact, Jesus taught in Mark 9 verses 44, 46 and 48 that their consciousnesses would equal that of worms. These truths emphasize the fact that God will completely separate good from evil in order to recover and recreate the good and neutralize the evil. The use of the word "without" can only mean that God will absolutely exclude all possibility of evil from His entire new creations.
In verse sixteen, Jesus teaches that He has used the Apostle John, whom He likens to a angel, to record His Revelation and that He will make sure that it gets to all of His churches throughout history. This prophecy has come true. He further reinforces His former teachings that He is the true Jewish Messiah, and that He is the "light of the world" and the Savior of all mankind.
Verse seventeen reemphasizes Jesus' own teaching that God has charged the church with the responsibility of spreading the gospel that Jesus is the Savior to all mankind, and that the Spirit assumes the responsibility for causing those who hear the gospel to thrist for the "water of life." The phrase "the water of life" symbolizes the gospel, and the word "athirst" symbolizes the power of the Holy Spirit to cause those who hear the gospel to yearn for the gospel to fill their hearts and satisfy their spiritual needs by washing away their sins by the blood of Jesus and filling the emptiness that sin causes within them. God guarantees that "whosoever will" can "take the water of life freely." By this statement, God reassures each individual human that he possesses free will. Because of His Omniscience, God certainly knows all who will be saved; but at the same time, He has guaranteed that He will never refuse salvation to any person who freely and sincerely chooses to accept the gospel by faith. Anyone who repents and believes in Christ will not only certainly be saved, but they can also be sure that God always knew that they would be saved. God's foreknowledge does not predetermine any person's salvation because His foreknowledge is not activated until the moment of decision which is an eternal moment. Whether or not any person gets saved depends solely on their own free choice. Yet, it is not their choice that saves them, but the sacrifice of Christ in their place that saves them, which grace they freely choose to receive by faith.
In verses 18 and 19, God ensures that anyone who attempts to change any part of His entire Word in order to make it state something that it does not teach, cannot be saved until such a time as they repent of this sin and accept the gospel by faith. The only unforgiveable sin is that of a complete rejection of the call of the Holy Spirit to accept Christ as Savior. These verses do not apply to believers who misinterpret the Word, but only to nonbelievers who try to change the Word. All believers must accept the basic truths of God's Word such as the Diety of Christ, and His perfect life and His sacrifice, death, burial and resurrection for their personal salvation. They must also believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Anyone who tries to change these truths cannot be a believer. A Christian can misinterpret God's Word while at the same time accepting its basic truths. For example, those who believe that they can lose their salvation after God has eternally saved them, have simply misunderstood the doctrine of salvation. They have not rejected it. Only nonbelievers attempt to change God's Word. All true believers are eternally saved, but those who backslide into sin God will certainly punish for their correction. For these reasons, believers who backslide so far that they begin to try to change God's Word, will still not lose their salvation because of II Timothy 2:13. Yet, backslidders can be certain that God will severly punish them for their correction, even following their bodily death.
Great significance attaches to the phrase in verse 19: "God shall take away his part out of the book of life...." The exact wording of this phrase does not state that God will remove the whole person from the book of life, but only that part of the unbeliever that is dead. Since the deadness of the unbeliever is the same as his sins, then this phrase is an affirmation that God will condemn only the consciousness of sins to the lake of fire. God will recover the good parts of the unbelievers written in the book of life in order to use them to recreate a new humanity to live on the new earth.
Revelation 22:20-21 Romans 9:28
Revelation 22:20 affirms the truth taught in Romans 9:28. Even though the history of the earth should extend through thousands of years, this is not a long time to God. John concludes with a prayer that Jesus will come quickly. In verse 21, the Word of God (KJB) concludes with God reassuring His church that His grace will remain with every one of its true members until Jesus returns.
The final question to be answered is: Why did God hide this message? Why did not God simply openly reveal this message in His Bible? The answer could be that God hid this message because He knows human nature all too well. God knew that if this message were preached openly, some people who hear the gospel would choose to reject it by reasoning that they can live a sinful life, endure hell when they die, and settle for a recreated life on the new earth. But God wants full fellowship with all humans in heaven. God wants as many saved as possible. II Peter 3:9 teaches that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." In a sense, the recreated humans do perish because they will not be the same persons as they were. God also can but enjoy a limited fellowship with them because on the new earth they will have to travel to the New Jerusalem to worship God, and then only from outside the city. But God will enjoy full fellowship with His redeemed saints who live with Him in the new heaven.
