The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 22 and the Glorified Saints

MP3: The Mighty Angels of Revelation 22
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

The Lights Are Always On

Vic Batista: Revelation 22:5 reveals that the New Jerusalem is open 24/7. They don’t ever turn the lights off there!

“There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

Nathan Jones: Yes, the New Jerusalem is not going to be primarily lit by the sun because God provides the light. My son thought he was clever and queried me, “Then how does the other side of the earth get lit?” I answered, “There will still be the sun and stars and moonlight to light the other side of the New Earth, but they will provide a lesser light compared to the radiant light God will provide.”

Just think about how the sun is so bright we can’t even look directly at it. Direct exposure to the sun will burn our eyes if we stare at it for too long. And yet, God is a greater light in our solar system than even the sun! Isn’t that amazing?

Vic Batista: The Hubble Telescope is prying its lens across the universe. We have scientists trying to find out if there is life out there on other planets. And yet, the Bible tells us everything that we need to know about extraterrestrial life. That’s why sometimes I want to say to these scientist, “Guys, how about just picking up the Bible and trusting what God has already written in His Book?”

Nathan Jones: I recently picked up from Sam’s a tremendously large book called The Cosmos. It displays fantastically beautiful pictures of all the different planets in our solar system. We get a glimpse of the universe from as much as the Hubble Telescope is capable of viewing from our little corner of the galaxy.

What we learn is that the universe goes on forever. The universe is comprised of countless star systems, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. We are talking about billions upon billions of uncountable stars, which means even more planets. God has created an incredible universe that exists well beyond our comprehension. We have all eternity to know God and His creation. That’s something to get excited about!

We have all #eternity to know #God and His creation. That's something to get excited about! Click To Tweet

Our Glorified Bodies

Vic Batista: Once we are resurrected into our eternal, glorified bodies, our brains should be functioning not at 10% to 20% capacity, as some doctors claim, but we will be able to comprehend the mysteries of the universe at the full 100%!

Nathan Jones: First Corinthians 15:35-58 describes what the glorified body will be like for those who are saved. Our future body will be a perfected body. They will not be perishable, but built in power and strength. They’ll never gets sick. They’re made in the image of Jesus Christ, in other words, His resurrected body is a template for our glorified bodies. Jesus’ resurrected body looks fully human, so we know that we are still going to look like ourselves. We will be clothed, wearing white robes.

Jesus’ resurrected body was also capable of accomplishing amazing feats. Jesus ascended into Heaven, so maybe we will also be able to fly. Jesus would just pop into rooms. I think He liked scaring the Apostles. Maybe we will be able to travel across time and space like we were no longer concerned about traversing great distances. There’s just so much potential concerning what our glorified bodies will be capable of achieving.

The most important ability our glorified bodies will have, as we read in Revelation 22, is that these bodies make it possible for us to stand before God and see Him face-to-face. Our current earthly bodies could never stand before the Almighty. We would be burned up because they’re so impure.

Vic Batista: Today, we have to keep going to the gym to work out on keeping these old bodies healthy. But, a time is coming when there will be no more sweating to stay in shape, right?

Nathan Jones: Yes, that’s likely. We are eating in Heaven from the Tree of Life, which Revelation 22:2 tells us “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Now, if we are in perfected bodies, that begs the question, why should we need healing? This passage has led some to believe that maybe our eternal bodies are only eternal because we go back to the Throne of God once a month to obtain that life-giving food. In other words, we spend eternity dependent on God, as it should be, for our eternal life because He is the source of life.

So, there is the question about whether these glorified bodies are eternal all on their own, or are they eternal because they are dependent on God? I think verse 2 leans towards us being dependent on God. And, that is a good thing, because that physical limitation keeps us coming back to God each month. Being dependent on the Tree of Life makes it so that we surely understand where our true source of life springs out of — God Himself. It keeps us humble, and most importantly, it keeps us from rebelling against God.

Will there be the temptation to rebel in the Eternal State? Our glorified bodies are sinless, so we shouldn’t want to rebel against God, but a third of the angels once rebelled against God and they were sinless at one point. This brings up all sorts of difficult theological implications and scenarios. These hints from Revelation 22 about what life will be like creates more questions than provides answers.

Vic Batista: I think that’s okay, for I always file everything that I don’t understand under “Need More Information.” We’ll pull out those cards when we finally get to Heaven and are allowed to receive further information.

I agree that one of the mysteries filed under “Need More Information” is Revelation 22:2 which talks about the leaves used for the healing of the nations. There are certain aspects about the afterlife we aren’t privy to just yet, but when we are in Heaven, much will be revealed to us.

Nathan Jones: That it will! God will likely be spending a lot of time answering questions. I have a ton of questions for Him, and He has a ton of answers.

What’s great is that since God created an infinite universe, then He possesses an infinite mind. We will spend an eternity getting to know God better with no end of learning. We will constantly be learning about God, about His creation, and how He thinks about various things. Our own wisdom and knowledge will grow. Today, a guy who has earned two or three PhD’s we think is the smartest guy on the planet, but after a few thousand years of living on the New Earth, each of us might hold like ten PhD’s worth of information, and it will just keep going!

We will spend an #eternity getting to know #God better with no end of learning! Click To Tweet

Vic Batista: I’m so excited, because while I certainly don’t know everything and have so many questions, the learning will never end! I’m also so glad that I will be dependent on my Lord throughout eternity and will just be thankful to even be there.

Nathan, you and I have children. Do you remember when your children were very small and every five minutes they were asking you a question? “Why is this, Dad?” “What is that?” And, you gave them an answer. I’ll bet that’s how we are going to act like in Heaven with our Heavenly Father.

Nathan Jones: I sure hope we don’t drive Him as crazy as my kids drove me crazy with their questions. But, that’s a good thought, for God being omnipresent will have no problem being able to answer all of our questions all at the same time.

Will God give us the answers, or will He make us spend the time learning the answers? That is another unanswerable question at this time. I’m not sure that God is going to give us all the answers to the questions we have, as some people claim, that when we get to Heaven we will become all-knowing like God. I can’t see that being the case whatsoever. Clearly the text shows us that we will grow in wisdom and knowledge over time, but we obviously won’t become omniscient like God when we get to Heaven.

The Free Gift

Vic Batista: The opportunity for eternal life remains open today for whomever receives Jesus as their Savior. John 3:16 teaches that, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” That opportunity for people to come to Christ remains open as long as they are alive, but we must be warned that each of us lose that chance upon our death.

Revelation 22 describes Heaven on Earth, the wondrous city of God called the New Jerusalem. The invitation is available for anyone to become a member of that great city when they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Nathan Jones: Yes, entry into Heaven requires that we finally surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. Why should we hold onto that rusty old penny of sin, when there is an abundant eternal life living forever with God. God loves us so much that He made forgiveness possible by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus is the perfect Divine and Man who died for an imperfect people, only to beat death by resurrecting from the dead.

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, He forgives us of our sins. He cleanses us of our guilt. And, Jesus grants us the promise found in Revelation 22:5, which says, and we “shall reign forever and ever.”

There’s an amazing life in store for us, if only we grab hold of that free gift of eternal life by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.

In the eightieth segment of our series “The Mighty Angels of Revelation,” we’ll keep looking at Revelation 22 as a mighty angel continues taking us on a tour of that great city of God!

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

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