NOTES ON THE HEAVENLY VISION: REFLECTIONS ON THE LAST BOOK OF REVELATION – PART III: THE RIVER OF LIFE

SCRIPTURE. “Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Christ), in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer exist anything that is cursed [because sin and illness and death are gone]; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve and worship Him [with great awe and joy and loving devotion].” – REVELATION 22:1-3, AMP

QUOTATIONS

DARWIN. “I am glad that you were at [Handel’s] ‘The Messiah.’ It is the one thing I should like to hear again. But I dare say I should find my soul too dried up to appreciate it as in olden days. For it is a horrid bore to feel as I constantly do; that I am a withered leaf, for everything except Science.” – Charles Darwin, “Letter to J. D. Hooker,” June 17, 1868; edited

KING. “I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the River of Life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that Mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech,’ Oslo, Sweden, December 1964; edited

BOUNDS. “The Life-Giving preacher is a man of God, whose heart is ever athirst for God, whose soul is ever following hard after God, whose eye is single to God, and in whom by the power of God’s Spirit the flesh and the world have been crucified, and his ministry is like the generous flood of a Life-Giving River.” – Edward McKendree Bounds, “Our Sufficiency Is of God,”  ‘Power Through Prayer,’ Chapter 2, c. 1900; edited

Selah.

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

America and her Church are in trouble, deep trouble. In fact, I have been arguing for the better part of the last five years, that we are in more peril today than ever before as a free-standing Republic. And that is saying a lot.

While the current struggles play themselves out on the collateral Stages of politics, science, economics and the leading intellectual centers, the fundamental crisis we all face is a ‘Spiritual’ one. Or as others have rightly argued in the past few years, America is in the fight of her life for the very Soul of the Nation.

Which takes me back to America’s First Spiritual Crisis in the early 1700s, that spawned one of the greatest American sermons ever preached: JONATHAN EDWARDS’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” delivered on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut. For any number of compelling reasons, it seems sharply appropriate to the Present Era.

At least ever since I heard with my own ears that nationally renowned “expert” on the Book of Revelation assure my old church congregation:  “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘God is in a really good mood!’”

Roger that, Pastor. Perhaps you need to get back on your meds.

THE CONTEXT. To clarify this sort of toxic confusion, it is important to get a sense of just what was going on in this Colonial Era, both politically and spiritually, to appreciate the necessity of Edward’s fiery remonstrance to the Church.

And its extraordinary impact for helping to save a Nation.

“New England in the early-mid-1700s was going through ‘enormous change’ as many non-Congregational outsiders moved into the Colony, which had been newly taken over by the English government [in 1691] as a Royal Colony under the direct control of the King [George III], leading to an upswing in political activism, the other great concern of New Englanders since 1630. The original Congregational faith began to be fully transformed by ‘the ideas’ of other Protestant faiths. It’s not that New Englanders no longer cared about Religion. It’s just that they no longer had a traditional Congregationalism to turn to, and even if they had, it would no longer have fully met their needs. ‘The First Great Awakening’ of the 1730s-40s was not a cause of the Decline of traditional Congregationalism but a symptom of it.” – R. SÓS, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in Context,” ‘The Historic Present,’ Nov. 7, 2011; edited

Most Christian historians agree that it was the Enlightenment’s Secularism that began to ‘replace’ Christian Orthodoxy, leading the way to much of this Decline, as the Colonies’ System of Moral Order that bound it together was dissolving. This in turn led the colonists to place inordinate importance on financial gain and social activity outside of Church bounds, including the increased use of alcohol, as they increasingly departed from the Christian Vision.

Didn’t take long for Edwards and other Reformers to conclude that God was not, in point of fact, in a ‘good mood’ at all. Indeed, He appeared to be quite ‘Angry’!

THE SERMON. The Editors at Got.Questions take us to the next step in their Summary of the overall theme, tone and content of this historic, desperately needed Sermon. A number of direct quotations serve as graphic illustration of Edwards’ extreme intensity.

“‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ uses DEUTERONOMY 32:35 [read it] as its starting point, particularly the clause, ‘Their foot shall slide in due time.’ The message of the Sermon can be summarized: ‘It is only the mercy of God the keeps people from falling into Hell, and God is free to withdraw that mercy at any moment. In ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ Jonathan Edwards used vivid illustrations of Hell and the perilousness of life in order to ‘force’ people to consider the Reality of their Eternal destiny and to invoke a decision to receive Jesus Christ as Savior.

‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ is definitely a ‘Hellfire and brimstone’ Sermon. Many question this method of evangelism. The idea of scaring a person into trusting in Christ is offensive to some. However, Hell truly is a horrible place (Revelation 20:10; ‘place of endless torment’). And many people do not understand the urgency of their need of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). There is a time and a place for a sermon such as ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.’ It, and sermons like it, played a crucial role in the First Great Awakening.” – Updated January 4, 2022; edited

Selah. Please pause right here and process the gravity of that observation.

DK’S TAKE. Again, I have been arguing as intensely as Edwards for the past five years that the American Church has fallen into a nearly unprecedented ‘Spiritual Lethargy’ similar to but worse than 18^th Century America. Today’s Pop Psych Christianity features sermons laced with cute aphorisms, lots of smiley face exhortations, a feigned tear or two, and an overall air of material optimism.

Stuff that fairly turns my very adult stomach, beloved, and catapults me straight toward the exit door these past three years especially (cf. ‘Seven Minute Rule’).

THESIS. I further propose that the great majority of the American Church has become increasingly ‘Life-less,’ beloved. You can feel it when you walk in the door, and begin to suffocate by it as the teaching is about as stirring as yesterday’s stale bread, its entertainment value notwithstanding.

What I propose is a wholesale, critically necessary RETURN to some good old fashioned, ‘Fire and Brimstone’ preaching from American Pulpits. To a healthy ‘Fear of the Lord,’ if we are to have the slightest hope of any sort of even limited “Awakening,” to say nothing of a ‘Great’ One.

1. THE SERMON OF SERMONS

EDWARDS’ TEN ARGUMENTS. Here I am going to propose that today’s Church can take some Life-Giving Lessons from Edward’s epic Sermon, by doing something truly revolutionary: Telling America ‘the Truth’ of her current despicable spiritual condition!

• ONE. “There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into Hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist Him, nor can any deliver out of His hands.—He is not only able to cast wicked men into Hell, but He can most easily do it.”

• TWO. They ‘deserve’ to be cast into Hell; so that Divine Justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God’s using His power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, Justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine Justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, ‘Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?’-Luke 13:7. The sword of Divine Justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere will, that holds it back.”

• THREE. “They are already under a sentence of Condemnation to Hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the Law of God, that eternal and immutable Rule of Righteousness that God has fixed between Him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to Hell. John 3:18: ‘He that believeth not is condemned already.’ So that every unconverted man properly belongs to Hell; that is his place; from thence he is. John 8:23: ‘Ye are from beneath.’ And thither he is bound; it is the place that Justice, and God’s Word, and the sentence of His unchangeable Law assign to him.”

• FOUR. “They are now the objects of that very same Anger and Wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of Hell. And the reason why they do not go down to Hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as He is with many miserable creatures now tormented in Hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of His Wrath. Yea, God is a great deal ‘more angry’ with great numbers that are now on earth: Yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than He is with many of those who are now in the Flames of Hell.”

• FIVE. “The Devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as ‘his goods’-Luke 6:12 [sic].The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw His hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old Serpent is gaping for them; Hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.”

• SIX. “There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into Hellfire, if it were not for ‘God’s Restraints.’ There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a Foundation for the Torments of Hell. There are those ‘corrupt principles,’ in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of Hellfire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in Scripture compared to ‘the troubled sea,’ Isaiah 57:20.”

• SEVEN. “It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very ‘Brink of Eternity,’ and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the Pit of Hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen.”

• EIGHT. “Natural men’s prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, Divine Providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men’s own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: But how is it in fact? Ecclesiastes 2:16, ‘How dieth the wise man? even as the fool.’”

• NINE. “All wicked men’s pains and contrivance which they use to escape Hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from Hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of Hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid Damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail.”

• TEN. “God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of Hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of Eternal Life, or of any deliverance or preservation from Eternal Death, but what are contained in the Covenant of Grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the Covenant of Grace who are not the children of the Covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the Covenant.”

• CONCLUSION. “And let every one that is yet ‘out of Christ,’ and hanging over the Pit of Hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now harken to the loud calls of God’s Word and Providence. This ‘Acceptable Year of the Lord,’ a Day of such great favors to some, will doubtless be a Day of remarkable vengeance to others. Men’s hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in His Elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now ‘in a little time,’ and that it will be as it was on the great Out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the Apostles’ days; the Election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. [NOTE: The population of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time was about 30,000. The Spirit at Pentecost fell upon only 3,000 – 10%].

If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this Day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a Season of the pouring out of God’s Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to Hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, ‘the axe’ is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.” – MATTHEW 7:19

CHRIST’S CODICIL. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them publicly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me [you are banished from My presence], you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].’” – MATTHEW 7:21-23, AMP

Selah, beloved: ‘Blessed Assurance’ vs. ‘Pompous Self-Delusion.’ Indeed: “Examine yourselves as to whether or not you are in the faith. Test yourselves!” – 2 Cor. 13:5

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Christ), in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer exist anything that is cursed [because sin and illness and death are gone]; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve and worship Him [with great awe and joy and loving devotion].” – REVELATION 22:1-3, AMP

So now in stunning, exhilarating, magnificent ‘Contrast,’ that same increasingly Angry God, yet still, still Loving, offers each and every one of us a virtual and, I believe, an actual RIVER OF LIFE from which to draw and drink deeply as Divine Solution for all that has proceeded this part of our discussion.

KEY IDEAS.  As always, with unlimited reverence for every single Word of God in this passage, we break it all down into its central terms.

• RIVER. From the Greek term, ‘Potamos’ [ποταμό], or: “A torrent, stream or current; running water, a brook or ‘freshlet’ that is drinkable; can also refer to a flood of waters. A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. A natural river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water.” DK: But this River is different, beloved. More about this follows.

• WATER OF LIFE. The key word used here is ‘Zóé’ [ζωή]: “A direct reference to the Life of the spirit and soul [the animating force of all creaturely life in the Universe]; both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence; ‘derived’ – i.e., it always (only) comes from and is sustained by God’s Self-Existent Life [from the Father’s Throne and the Lamb]. The state of one who is possessed of vitality or is ‘animate’: The Lord intimately shares His Gift of Life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His Eternal Life.” DK: It is the Divine Well, “clear as crystal,” from which we shall drink eternally in endless revitalization. And now drink, viz. the presence and overflow of ‘the Holy Spirit.’

• TREE OF LIFE. On either side of this magnificent River flowing from the Father and the Son, straight down the “middle of its street,” is the ‘Tree of Life.’ From the Greek, ‘Xulon’ [ξύλον]: “A reference to wood or timber; also, a beam from which anyone is suspended; a gibbet (an upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals as a warning); ‘a Cross;’ a cudgel, stick or staff.”

• 12 KINDS OF FRUIT. Here, either symbolically or literally – or both – are what the Greek labels, ‘Karpos’ [καρπός]: “Fruit, generally vegetable, sometimes animal; deed, action, result; profit, gain; properly, ‘fruit’; (figuratively) everything done in ‘true partnership with Christ,’ i.e., a believer (a branch) lives in union with Christ (the Vine). By definition, fruit results drinking from the River. JESUS CHRIST: “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch [follower of] Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] ‘He cuts away’ (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.” – JOHN 15:1-2, AMPC

• LEAVES FOR HEALING. Another mystery of Heaven, are these “leaves” (‘Phullon’ [φύλλον], “sprout or appendage from a branch”) that are for: “healing of the nations.” From ‘Therapeia’ [θεραπεία]: “Refers to ‘a cure;’ also, medical service; giving of care and attention, especially medical attention (treatment); hence healing; those who render service; by metonymy, household, i. e., body of attendants, servants; the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again.” DK: My sense here is that following the Great Tribulation and God’s “smiting of the nations” in the midst of it (cf. Rev. 19:15), they will need healing from their brokenness.

• ETERNAL BOND-SERVANTS. From the Greek term, ‘Doulos’ [δοῦλος]: “A slave who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another, his will altogether consumed ‘in the will of the other’ (cf. Mt. 8:9, 20:27, 24:45-46 etc.); properly, someone who belongs to another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of their own; namely, of believers who willingly live under Christ’s Authority as His devoted followers; i.e., one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will, without any personal reservations.” DK: Do you see, beloved, how the current “My Rights! Movement’ is so very Antichrist at its very core? Warn them!  

COMMENTARY. “All streams of earthly comfort are muddy; but these are clear, and refreshing. They give life, and preserve life, to those who drink of them, and thus they will flow for evermore. These point to the quickening and sanctifying influences of ‘the Holy Spirit,’ as given to sinners through Christ. The Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, applies this salvation to our souls by His Newness-creating Love and Power. The Trees of Life are fed by the pure waters of ‘The River’ that comes from the Throne of God. The Presence of God in Heaven is the health and happiness of the saints. This Tree was an emblem of Christ, and of all the blessings of His salvation; and the leaves for the healing of the nations, mean that His Favour and Presence supply all good to the inhabitants of that blessed world.

The Devil has no power There; he cannot draw the saints from serving God, nor can he disturb them in the service of God. God and the Lamb are here spoken of as One. Service there shall be not only Freedom, but Honour and Dominion. There will be no night; no affliction or dejection, no pause in service or enjoyment: No diversions or pleasures or man’s inventing will there be wanted. How different all this from gross and merely human views of heavenly happiness, even those which refer to pleasures of the mind!” – MATTHEW HENRY, ‘Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,’ 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

Selah, beloved, and drink in all you can as I begin to close.

1. LAST THOUGHTS

I think it was in January of 1981, as I was running into my second mile on a lovely, sunny day in north Stockton, California, about 15 months after my conversion to Christ and Faith on October 30, 1979. I had been sort of living a better life for God, but, well, not entirely.

Ahem. Most of the details shall remain confidential.

I had heard about this ‘fullness of the Holy Spirit’ stuff a few times, but didn’t really understand it. Then I read a book by Episcopal priest DENNIS BENNETT entitled, ‘The Holy Spirit and You’ (1971) that spoke of the spiritual gifts and the crucial role of the truly Spirit-filled life that the Early Church experienced with such powerful effectiveness.

So while entering my second mile or so that day, I was pondering all this in my mind and heart, and uttered a reasoned request to the Lord that went something like this:

“Father, I don’t know about all this Holy Ghost stuff since I am so new at this. But as You well know, I am still struggling with some things, so if this is truly from You, I need all the power I can get! Will You please ‘hit me, Lord!’ – IF this truly be You.”

THE ‘ACCELERATION.’ Concerning this admittedly controversial area, a line I had read in Bennett’s book had stuck with me: “No matter how cleverly we may work out our theories, if they don’t agree with the Scriptures, they are unacceptable” (1971, p. 23). That placed my prayer on pretty safe ground, I should think, so here’s what happened that important day.

As I asked God to “Hit me!” in the only vernacular I knew back then, I was instantly ‘enveloped’ in what I would later learn was the unmistakable Presence of the Lord’s Spirit. I cannot fully describe it, save to say it was glorious, causing me to shoot my hands straight up in the air, praising Him as never before – all while still running!

It lasted only a minute or so, and then gently subsided. I was somewhat stunned by all this, so because I am still at times such an empirical schlemiel (“Can you say, Didymus”?), I dared to ask God: “Hit me again, Sir!” And He did, beloved. And He did.

THE POINT. Not long after that, several things transpired. One, I was asked to teach the entire Book of Revelation for my church for the first time, in 1981. Second, I was completely delivered from a 20-year struggle with alcohol by March 1982. Third, in the Spring of 1983, I was invited to join the faculty at Regent University in Virginia, and nine months later was appointed as Regent’s founding director of the graduate program in Public Affairs Journalism in 1984.

Acceleration, my friends – viz. the Holy Spirit’s ‘fullness.’

The Prophet Zechariah possibly best summed it up: “Then he said to me, ‘This [continuous supply of oil] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [prince of Judah], saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of whom the oil is a symbol],” says the Lord of hosts.’” – ZECHARIAH 4:6, AMP

THE RATIONALE. Whatever doctrinal questions you may have about this, what shall I call it, this ‘Immersion’ into His Presence, I refer you to the Scriptures, as did Mr. Bennett, for the answers (cf. Matt. 3:11; John 1:33; Acts 1:5, 8; 2:1-4; 4:3; Eph. 5:18 – Read and pray!).

Perhaps I’ll teach on this in the days ahead, but for now, merely ask Him to make sure you are ‘filled to the full’ by His Spirit. HE is our River of Life, beloved, or as JESUS OF NAZARETH said it so plain:

“If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.” – JOHN 14:15-17, AMP

CODA. Thus, if I obey in any way, if I have any merit or ability, if any goodness is found in me at all, it is because of HIM, dear ones. The One whom Jesus sent to abide with us so vital to these Last Times, when only His Blaze of Light can dispel our present Darkness. For me at least, He is the very key to being: ‘All in!’

Ever your servant, DK

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