The Hope of the Believer … No. 17

WRITE IT DOWN!

Then! heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” —Rev. 14:13

Early this morning I was reading the last chapters of the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, its ancient title. We call it Revelation, which is also a correct title, but not Revelations, in the plural, as it is often called. I was pondering that marvelous line in chapter 21:10 where the apostle relates what one of the seven angels showed him: “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”

I was sharing a fraction of John’s ecstasy. The angel bore him away to an enormous high mountain “in the Spirit” so he could see the whole of the great city as it came down out of heaven. I was thinking about what the story is supposed to mean to us, such as representing the transformation of humanity by an act of God, but I concluded that it must have all been very real to John. Laid out before him in the vision was the New Jerusalem, so glorious that it defied adequate description. I could understand why now and again in the Apocalypse the apostle is tempted to fall down and worship the angel that shows him such things. I was thinking about what a thrill it is that we as Christians will one day experience what John did and more.

About that time my dear Ouida came in to tell me she needed help with Mother Pitts, who is now bedfast. When I am gone someone has to come in to help Ouida with her mother. I told her that she disturbed me at a good time in that I was about to go into orbit and I needed something to bring me back to this mundane world. As we moved Mother Pitts’ frail body from the bed to chair, where she now has to be syringe fed, I had the feeling that what we were experiencing is part of what the book of Revelation is about. It is about life and death. It is about hope in a troubled world. It is about a very old man, not long for this world, having visions and revelations.

I tell Ouida that caring for Mother Pitts in her last days is like sitting with her on the platform of a railway station waiting for the train to come to take her to another world. The wait seems endless. She grows weary waiting. Now and again it seems that we can faintly hear the train’s whistle in the distance, but it seems never to arrive. It may be that when the train finally pulls into the station and Mother Pitts is ushered on, bound for glory, that we will be tempted to go along with her. But it doesn’t work that way. We have to wait our turn. What is important to remember is that when we leave this world we are not leaving home but going home.

While death itself is joyous for the believer, the ordeal of dying can be one of life’s bitterest experiences. Even when there is no disease attacking the body, as is the case with Mother Pitts, old age gradually takes its toll. We sometimes keep on living long after life has lost all meaning. It is as if we were supposed to die but do not know how. After all, it is something we do only once. The Bible teaches that only God has the key to death. We can’t just up and die when it suits us. When death is preceded by an ongoing, painful and debilitating illness, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, it is a tragedy that is almost unbearable for anyone, and for the Christian it is a problem of suffering that appears to have no answer.

But if waiting on the platform for the glory train to arrive is a good analogy, then Ouida came up with at least part of the answer. When I reminded her that some folk not only have to wait at the station for a long time, some have to wait in pain and agony, like those I visit at the nursing home. Ouida said, “But the Lord will see to it that none of us is called upon to suffer more than he can bear.” Yes, and it could be added that he is with us in both the waiting and the suffering. And he can use both for our good and his glory —even when we can’t understand how!

While rummaging in Revelation, always a source of ecstatic hope for the believer, I was impressed how now and again a particular assurance is underscored with Write it down! That is the case with the great promise in Rev. 14:13 where it not only says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on,” but the voice from heaven tells the prophet to put it in writing. It is a way of emphasizing the importance of the message to be put in writing, as if heaven were saying, “This is a vital truth.” While at the outset John was told to put in writing what he saw and send it to the seven churches (Rev. 1:11), he was nonetheless told again to write down certain things.

Paul does a similar thing in the pastoral letters. There are some five “faithful sayings” which he introduces with “Faithful is the saying,” and sometimes he adds, “and worthy of all acceptation.” This could appear odd to the reader, who might respond, “Isn’t it all faithful and worthy of acceptation, so why single out certain points?” The answer is that while all truths of Scripture are equally true they are not all equally important. So a writer deems some points so crucial that he finds ways to underscore them. Therefore when Paul wrote that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom he was chief (1 Tim. 1:15), it was such a vital truth that he emphasized it as particularly faithful and worthy of acceptance.

Write it down! In all cultures and throughout all history things have been sealed, certified, and clarified by being put in writing. I recall sitting in a restaurant with business men on one occasion when verbal agreements were made. One of them took a paper napkin and wrote out the basics of the agreement, and they both initialed it. They had the agreement in writing even before legal documents were drawn up. Write it down! It is something we all understand. It is noteworthy that Scripture makes use of this very common human practice. God not only makes a promise, he puts it in writing!

We don’t know whose voice it was there in Rev. 14 that the prophet heard. Perhaps an angel’s or even the Lord’s. That it came out of heaven is sufficient. John had already been writing down what he had seen; now he was to write down what he had heard. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. It is such a precious truth let us put it in writing and send it abroad!

To die in the Lord means to die knowing him and loving him as Savior. It means to be close to him, trusting in him, even unto death itself, perhaps even martyrdom. What “from now on” means is uncertain, but it probably refers to the fact that the Christian is immediately blessed and at home with God from the moment he dies. Paul could write that he had the desire to depart and be with Christ (Philip. 1:23) and in 2 Cor. 5:8 he says that when he is absent from the body he is at home with the Lord. I take it that the promise in Rev. 14:13 is also the effect that those who die in the Lord are immediately blessed in heaven.

The following verse would suggest as much, for the blessed dead “rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” All that is meant by a heavenly rest is for the believer immediately upon death. That their works follow them indicates that their noble deeds in this life will determine their reward in the next. While we are saved only by God’s grace, it is evident that good works will determine rewards. Good deeds are all that we can take with us when we die. Gold, silver, pleasures of the flesh, and the honors bestowed by men all have to be left behind. But our good works will follow us, and they will make a difference in heaven.

Another impressive instance of heaven telling an earthling to write down its promises is in Rev. 21:5 where “He who sat upon the throne” at last speaks. Throughout the Apocalypse there are references to the one who sits upon the throne, which is believed to be Christ himself, but he never speaks until this occasion when he tells the apostle to write it down. “Behold, I make all things new.” It is surely one of the most significant lines in all the Bible in that it refers to God’s promise to transform all creation as well as mankind.

That passage goes on to say, “And he said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” Again we have to conclude that since all that God says is true and faithful, these words are true and faithful in a special way. Since they give expression to a highly significant promise, Write it down!

We should revel in the face of such a promise. It is so mind-boggling in its implications that one might reasonably reject it as incredible and simply too good to be true. But that is the mystery of faith. It believes to be true that which is too good to be true. It would be great if there were at least one person in every congregation with that kind of faith, for such a faith would surely be so contagious that it would spread to others. How can our hearts be other than filled with joy when we believe that we are destined to live in a body, a world, a heaven, a universe all made new.

It may be to difficult for us to imagine a world where there is no more sin and no more death. It will be a world, even a universe, that will look as if it had just been created, and with indescribable beauty and glory. They will not actually be new, but will be so transformed (implying very basic changes) as to seem new. The first heaven and the first earth will have passed away, or the new appearance will be so magnificent that it will seem so. That there will be no more sea, which is part of this renewal, is no insignificant point. That the seas cover some three-fourths of the surface of our globe renders it largely unfit for general habitation, and it serves to keep nations and people separated. Such an arrangement may be necessary to the present state of affairs, for the vast oceans certainly have their purpose, especially for the thousands of species of animals that live in the water. But the new order of things will be so different that seas will not be needed, so it will be possible for the new humanity to occupy all the world.

What makes this promise so beautiful that it was given (written!) to a suffering world and a persecuted people, and that may be the condition of our planet until our Lord comes to renew it. All tears will be wiped away, which is to say that there will be no more tragedies, no more heartaches, no more sorrows. Death will be no more. All that can be called “former things” will have ended; all things will then be new.

The believer can exult in such hope without knowing when or how God will bring all this about. However and whenever it is, it is enough to believe that we will have new bodies, new abodes, new work to do amidst new heavens and a new earth. That we ourselves will be made new, while still our personal selves, is reason enough for us to praise him who sits upon the throne. We are to believe that he is not only the only wise God, but that he is able to keep us from falling and to present us blameless before his glorious presence with exceeding joy (Jude 24).

Write it all down! And hide it in your heart! —the Editor