No Night There

"And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there."  Rev. 21:25

The apocalyptic vision of John is filled with conflict and hope.  He has written the great document called the 'Revelation' in order to comfort harassed believing ones who have experienced formidable persecution because of their Faith.

The God who cannot lie gave this series of visions to John that he may know that the great "LIE" of unaccountable human autonomy will wear out.

The lie, the great lie that started in Gan-Eden, and the subsequent history of the rise and fall of so many civilizations founded on tenacious hubris.  At the end of man-centered history the intrinsic darkness thereof was caused to cease by divine fiat. The Light shined into the darkness and the darkness the was not powerful to overtake it.

The word for darkness in the Greek Text is 'skotia' and it means the consequences of darkness.  This is the essence of the matter for John.  His theology is characterized by contrast and dichotomy.  Light verses darkness, life verses death, eternal life verses eternal death nothing is ever given over to doubt.  God cannot lie, therefore his word is always trustworthy.

The malignant power of darkness has sank into the abyss from which it emerged.  The powers of darkness are overcome by the Wrath of the Lamb.  I've always marveled over those words 'The Wrath of the Lamb.' Even the Psalmist-Poet wrote that 'He that sits in the heavens laughs' at the insistent and feeble rhetoric of men who believe contrary to commonsense evidence that independent of God he may live forever.  The ingrained lie is not easily removed-it is in fact the primal idolatry.

John can see that the day of darkness is gone and the Day of God is here, and all of the Universe is relieved of the stress of man's imposed rule.  The sacred space now extends to all of the universe.  God is ALL in All and the removal of human power and oppression is greeted by inexpressible joy by the redeemed of the Lord.  Fear has been consigned to the flames of woe-everlastingly so.  MAD or mutually assured destruction  will be a forgotten story.  This was all once upon a time.  Now, however, the Iesous reigns in glory.

God shall wipe away all tears.  Amen.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.