Revelation Chapter 22

Rev. 22:1,2.

1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Here the angel continues to show John the wonderful things of the city of God. These two verses talk about a river of life coming from the throne of God and the Lamb, located in the middle of a street in the New Jerusalem. On each side of the river, in the middle of the golden boulevard, is the tree of life.

What does this tree of life bring to your mind? It takes you back to the garden of Eden. If you remember, after the Fall God had to place guardian angels at the entrance to the garden to prevent Adam from eating of the tree of life and living forever, yes, the substance of this tree would have kept Adam alive forever, even in his fallen state! This tree is made available to the inhabitants of the new earth that will enable them to live in divine health, without sickness or disease. The tree bares twelve kinds of fruit and yields its fruit every month. Isaiah 66:23 says, that all flesh shall come up "from one new moon to another" to worship before the Lord of hosts. The Septuagint says from "month to month." The people of the new earth come to the holy city from month to month to partake of the fruit of the tree of life. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations, this does not mean that there will be sickness or diseased people in the new earth, for the curse will have been lifted. The leaves of the tree are for the preservation of the natural life of coming generations. The tree and river will be a distinct divine provision for the pleasures of life for all peoples. The residents of the New Jerusalem will enjoy the fruit of the tree, as was promised to the overcomer (2:7; 22:14). The fruit will be a source of enjoyment for the nations. The leaves will be a provision from God for preservation of natural life and eternal health.

Rev. 22:3,4,5.

3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

5 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.

This fulfillment of the promise to the overcomer (3:12) is the conclusion of John's vision of the New Heaven, the New Earth, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Eternal Kingdom.

The language proves that God the Father is referred to, as well as the Son. The marks of the curse, sin, sickness, death, decay, weeds and pain in childbirth will no more be seen on earth. Every breeze will be balmy and life giving, every scene beauty, and every sound pleasant.

Verse 4 will be a fulfillment of the promise in Matt. 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." God's servants, the glorified saints, will reign with God and Christ forever and ever in the eternity future over peoples who will serve Him from a willing heart. What a glory it will be to see Him face to face!

In v.5 we again have the declaration that there is no need of any light source for the Lord God Himself gives the light. And how long will they [saints] reign? Not only for the 1000 year Millennium, but forever and ever. Who will they reign over? The creation of God who are as Adam was before the Fall.

Rev. 22:6,7.

6 Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

7 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."

One of the angels says to John that these words are faithful and true. What words? The words of the whole book that he has just written, because they [the words of this book] are faithful and true, meaning that the things herein recorded will definitely, without a doubt come to pass. Now notice that the Lord God did not only send His angel to John (his servant) but to His servants, who of course, are the believers who hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

"Shortly come to pass," either refers to the swiftness with which the things prophesied will take place when they do occur as in Chapter 1:1, without any reference to their nearness or remoteness. Or, if it means before long, it is in reference to the method of computation of Him with whom a thousand years are as one day, and does not mean near at hand as we compute nearness.

"Behold I am coming quickly," He is coming suddenly, swiftly, in the twinkling of an eye. No one will know the day or the hour of the Lord's imminent return; once His return becomes imminent after the midpoint of the seventieth week.

"Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." You will be blessed if you obey and heed the admonitions, warnings and commands of this book of Revelation instead of your church doctrines, creeds, constitutions and man made rules and regulations.

Rev. 22:8,9.

8 Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

9 Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

John is so awed by this revelation that he falls down to worship the messenger. The angel says here that he is a fellow servant of John, as he had been the fellow servant of his brethren the prophets. The term "fellow servant" implies that they were all on a common footing as servants of the great God; therefore he was not a proper object for John to worship. Angles and men are all a part of God's creation and belong to the same class in the service of God.

Rev. 22:10,11.

10 And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

11 "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."

This book is not to be sealed up because it was to be put to immediate use to warn people of all ages of things that were to come. "The time is at hand," the time to get this message out is now. With the passing of history a better understanding of this book has been realized.

The punishment of sin is sin and the reward of holiness is holiness. The idea is that time is so short there is hardly any room for change, but the warning here is, change while there is still time, for what you are now you will be in eternity.

Rev. 22:12-17.

12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."

14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

When Jesus comes He is coming quickly and He is bringing His reward with Him. Listen Christian friend; you will be rewarded according to the work you have done. If you have done your work out of a love for Jesus you will have been obedient to the Word and your reward will be great. But if you are working just to look good in the pastors eyes, or if you are involved in areas of leadership as a status symbol so people will look up to you and make you seem important you will not be rewarded for that type of involvement.

If you want to be positively rewarded when Jesus comes then develop and maintain your relationship with God. Be obedient to His Word, and then get involved in the work that He wants you to do.

In V.13, Christ proclaims His co-equality with God.

If we want to be blessed and have the right to the tree of life then our allegiance and our obedience are not to be to some denomination's man made creed, but to the commandments of Jesus Christ as v.14 so plainly tells us.

Verse 15, is again a warning for people now. Listen the whole of the New Earth will be the Kingdom of God and all of the one's talked about in this verse are outside of His kingdom in the lake of fire unable to be a part of His kingdom. It is interesting to note that the last sin condemned in the bible is lying. It also was the sin of lying that brought the fall of the human race. These solemn words should be a warning for all in the churches that make light of lying and deceit.

In V.16, we see that these things are to be told in the churches, which not only includes the seven churches of revelation but the churches throughout the world. The reason being that no matter what generation enters the seventieth week, they will have been warned and prepared themselves for what is to come and will be able to come through it victorious overcomers.

Verse 17, gives a worldwide invitation to all who are thirsty, come and take of the water of life freely. The Lord's love for mankind would not be satisfied in merely preparing the blessings of eternal life, opening the way to them, and announcing that all may come who would; but He sends out an earnest invitation to come. None of those who are lost will ever have occasion to complain that the provisions made for their salvation were not enough. "Come!" has been the cry of God Himself, from the lips of the prophets from the lips of the apostles and from the lips of preachers down through the centuries. Accept Him now while there is still time. This is an evangelistic appeal to those who are presently living in the kingdom of darkness to enter the kingdom of light.

Rev. 22:18&19.

18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;

19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

These verses give a very severe warning to everyone who can hear. If you take it upon yourself to add to the things that are in this book of Revelation, God will add to them the plagues that are written in the book. If you take away from the words of this prophecy your name will be taken out of the Book of Life. Listen one way to take away from this book is to suppress some part of it. Do not be guilty of this my friend.

Rev. 22:20&21.

20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The word of God is given to instruct us in reference to the plan of salvation. The second coming of Christ is to be the climax and consummation of that great plan. It is most appropriate, therefore, that the book should close with the solemn announcement, "Surely I come quickly." Is our relationship with God such that we can join in with fervent hearts in the response of the apostle, "Even so come Lord Jesus."

Closing Comments

Now that we have come to the end of this study, I know that there are people who will say that I have come against the pre-trib view as an argument to strengthen the pre-wrath view. This is not true. The pre-wrath view, I believe, stands by itself because it is based on scripture. I have studied the pre-trib view and have come to the conclusion that there is no scriptural support for it, therefore it is correct to expose the deception that this view presents.

As I have endeavored to show the truth of the pre-wrath I have exposed some of the errors of the pre-trib view, by doing that, I know I will be wrongly accused of coming against some denomination or people. What I am coming against is a doctrine that cannot be supported by scripture. I do not believe that views regarding the end times should be grounds for division or separation. But, when denominations, because of a man made constitution, makes dogma out of a doctrine and disallows people who have a different belief than what the constitution says, full rights and privileges as a member, they force separation and division. This causes a great disservice and a negative witness to the body of Christ and to the world.

What I have been hearing over the pulpit by pre-tribbers is a condemnation of the pre-wrath view, designed to instill fear into the people so as to discourage them from reading anything or listing to anybody giving a biblical discourse as to the validity of the pre-wrath view from a scriptural viewpoint. Some of the things that I have heard said are: if you believe something other than pre-trib, you are a part of the group that says "The Lord delayeth His coming"; you have an evil heart; you are a false teacher; you are deceived by doctrines of demons and 2 Thess. 2:11,12 applies to you.

I approached a pastor that said some of these things over the pulpit and asked him if he knew what the pre-wrath view was. From his answer, I knew that he did not understand what he was talking about. You see I have no problem with anyone preaching pre-trib and imminence if that is what they believe, and if they would give scriptures as to why they believe it. I do have a problem with a preacher coming against another viewpoint without having first looked at that viewpoint from a biblical perspective to see if, or where it is wrong. If after studying a viewpoint and have scripturally concluded that it is wrong, then show people scripturally where it is wrong, then you are being true to the word of God. The sad part about it is that when he was condemning what was against his belief, he gave no scriptural support for what he believed. In fact he point blank refused to discuss scriptures with me and refused to give me scriptural support as to his belief.

When I come against the pre-trib view, I show scripturally why it is not correct. If you still want to hold to that view, then that is your choice. But I feel impacted upon to present the truth, because to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Truth is never given to scare, but to prepare.

I have shared my heart, not to change your mind and get you to believe what I believe, but to show you the truth, so the Holy Spirit can convince you of its validity.

At the very beginning of the book in Rev. 1:3, we have a blessing pronounced, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Then at the end of the book we again have a blessing for those who heed the words of this prophecy. Evidently God thought so important that we heed the things in the book of revelation, that He repeated this beatitude; it appears once at the beginning of the book and once at the end: "And behold I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book (Rev. 22:7). One of the reasons we will be blessed if we heed the prophecy is that we will be prepared to be overcomers, thus, inheriting the promises to overcomers.

Satan would like to either, convince us that we cannot understand the book of Revelation, or lead us to believe that our interpretation of it is correct, both of which will prevent us from examining its message. God, realizing this, promised blessings to those who read it, understand it, and obey the things found in the prophecy.

When truth is found, it always stands in judgment of us, we never stand in judgment of it!

Because of the seriousness of the issues presented in this study, every reader must carefully draw his own conclusions based on the scriptures--checking the positions expressed in the study by scripture, not by the views of a denomination, church handbooks, pastors or scholars. All of these are fallible, whereas God's word is infallible and inerrant in the most absolute sense. Therefore the only test of truth is God's word. I cannot, and remain true to God's Word, amend my views for the sake of outward harmony or personal acceptance. I love every brother and sister in Christ, but my allegiance is to God's Word, because when He comes I want Him to find faith in me instead of in some denominational religion.

I consider every true believer, no mater what your views on the tribulation are, to be my brother and sister in Christ, no matter what our differences may be.

My prayer is that when Jesus comes He will find us being obedient and true to His word and His word only.

EVEN SO COME LORD JESUS!