NEW JERUSALEM AND THE KINGDOM OF JESUS CHRIST

The Book of Revelation is not a book meant to decipher end times prophecies and the return of Jesus at a future time. It describes how Jesus conquered the world as the Slain Lamb.

The author of the Book of the Revelation was written by John, which could refer to the beloved Disciple who wrote the gospel and the letters of John or it could be a different John - a Messianic Jewish prophet who traveled about and taught in the early church. Whichever John it was, he makes it clear in the opening paragraph what kind of book he has written.

1 Apocalypse of Jesus Christ [Apocalypse, or revelation, of Jesus Christ], which God gave to him to make open to his servants, which things it behooveth to be made soon. And he signified, sending by his angel to his servant John,

² which bare witnessing to the word of God, and witnessing of Jesus Christ, in these things, whatever things he saw.

John calls the book a revelation or apocalypse. The Ancient Greek word ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis) refers to a type of literature very familiar to John’s readers from the Hebrew scriptures and from other popular Jewish texts. Apocalypse recounted a prophet’s symbolic dreams and visions that revealed God’s heavenly perspective on history and current events so that the present could be viewed in light of history’s final outcome.

John

John says this apocalypse is a prophecy, which means it’s a word from God spoken through a prophet to God’s people, usually to warn or comfort them in a time of crisis. By calling this book a prophecy, John is saying that it stands in the tradition of the biblical prophets and is bringing their message to a climax. And this apocalyptic prophecy was sent to real people that John knew.

The book opens and closes as a circular letter that was sent to seven churches in the ancient Roman province of Asia. Seven is a meaningful number for John. It’s a symbol of completeness based on the seven-day Sabbath cycle in the Old Testament and John has woven seven into every single part of this book.

With this opening John has given us clear guidance about how he wants us to understand this book. Jewish apocalypse is communicated through symbolic imagery and numbers. It is not a secret predictive code about the timing of the end of the world. Rather John is constantly using these symbols that are drawn from the Old Testament and he expects his readers to discover what the symbols mean by looking up the text he’s alluding to.

The fact that Revelation is a letter means that John is actually addressing the situation of these first century churches. While this book has much to say to Christians of later generations, the books meaning must first be anchored in the historical context of John’s time, place, and audience.

Revelation: 1-3 - Jesus’ Message to the Seven Churches

John was exiled on the island of Patmos and he saw a vision of the risen Jesus exalted as king of the world. He was standing among the seven burning lights and John is told this is a symbol of the seven churches in Asia Minor that’s been adapted from the Old Testament book of the prophet Zechariah in chapter 4:

¹  And the angel turned again, that spake in me, and raised me, as a man that is raised (up out) of his sleep. (And the angel who spoke to me, returned, and raised me up, like a man who is raised up from his sleep.)

² And he said to me, What seest thou? And I said, I saw, and lo! a candlestick all of gold, and the lamp thereof on the head thereof, and seven lanterns thereof on it, and seven vessels for to hold oil to the lanterns, that were on the head thereof. (And he said to me, What seest thou? And I said, Lo! I see a gold candlestick, and a lamp on top of it, and seven lanterns on it, and seven vessels to hold oil for the lanterns, on top of them.)

Jesus starts addressing the specific problems that face each church. Some members were apathetic due to wealth and affluence, morally compromised, eating ritual meals, sleeping around in pagan temples but others among the church remained faithful to Jesus. These faithful servants were suffering harassment and violent persecution and Jesus warns that things are going to get worse.

A tribulation is upon the churches that will force them to choose between compromise or faithfulness, which was said in Revelation 2:9-10:

⁹ I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty, but thou art rich; and thou art blasphemed of them, that say, that they be Jews, and be not, but be the synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰ Dread thou nothing of these things, which thou shalt suffer. Lo! the devil shall send some of you into prison, that ye be tempted [that ye be proved]; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful to the death [Be thou faithful unto the death], and I shall give to thee a crown of life.

By John’s day the murder of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero was passed and the persecution of Christians by Emperor Domitian was likely underway. The temptation was to deny Jesus either to avoid persecution or simply to join the spirit of the Roman age. Jesus calls them to faithfulness so that they can overcome or literally conquer and Jesus promises a reward for everyone in these churches who does conquer.

I go over this in my PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS - PART 1

Each of these rewards is drawn directly from the books final vision about the marriage of Heaven and Earth. So this opening section sets up the main plot tension that will drive the storyline in this book.

Will Jesus’ people endure?

Will they inherit the new world that God has in store?

And why is faithfulness to Jesus described as conquering?

The rest of the Book of Revelation is John’s answer.

Revelation: 4-5 - Jesus’ Opens the Seal

Next John has a vision of God’s heavenly throne room and he describes it with imagery drawn from many Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7). Surrounding God are creatures and elders that represent all creation and human nations and they’re giving honor and allegiance to the one true Creator God who is holy.

In God’s hand is a scroll that’s closed up with seven wax seals. It symbolizes the message of the Old Testament prophets and the sealed scroll of Daniel’s visions, which are all about how God’s kingdom will come here fully on Earth as in heaven:

⁴ But thou, Daniel, close the words, and aseal the book, till to the time ordained; full many men shall pass, and knowing shall be manyfold. (But thou, Daniel, close up the words, and seal the book, until the time ordained; yea, a great many shall live and die, and knowledge shall be manifold.)

- Daniel 12:4

But it turns out no one is able to open the scroll until John hears of someone who can. It’s the Lion from the Tribe of Judah and root of David who can open it, which describes the Old Testament descriptions of the Messianic King who would bring God’s kingdom through military conquest. In Isaiah 11 it describes the root of Jesse, who is King David’s father:

11 And a rod shall go out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend (out) of the root of it.

² And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of strength, the spirit of knowing and of piety;

³ and the spirit of the dread of the Lord shall fill him. He shall deem not by the sight of eyes, neither he shall reprove, either convict, by the hearing of ears; (and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him/and the spirit of reverence for the Lord shall fill him. He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor shall he rebuke, or convict, by the hearing of his ears;)

- Isaiah 11:1-3

Also in this verse Daniel explains how the “Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit” shall rest on the coming Messiah (Jesus).

Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

1. Wisdom

2. Understanding

3. Counsel

4. Fortitude

5. Knowledge

6. Piety

7. Fear of God

This is what John hears but then what he turns and sees it is not an aggressive lion king but a sacrificed bloody lamb who’s alive standing there and ready to open the scroll. Remember the significance of the word ‘hears’ and ‘sees’ for later.

⁶ And I saw, and lo! in the middle of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the middle of the elder men, a lamb standing as slain, that had seven horns, and seven eyes [and in the middle of the elders, a lamb standing as slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes], which be [the] seven spirits of God, sent into all the earth.

- Revelation 5:6

This is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible. John connects Jesus (the lamb standing slain) with the Holy Spirit (Seven Spirits of God).

This symbol of Jesus as the slain lamb is crucially important for understanding the Book of Revelation. John is saying that the Old Testament promisee of God’s future victorious kingdom was inaugurated through the crucified Messiah. Jesus overcame his enemies by dying for them as the true passover lamb so that they could be redeemed.

Because of the Resurrection, Jesus’s death on the cross was not a defeat, it was his enthronement and the way he conquered evil. This vision concludes with the lamb alongside the one sitting on the throne and together they are worshipped as the one true creator / redeemer and the slain lamb begins to open the scroll. It’s a symbol of his divine authority to guide history to its conclusion.

Revelation: 6-16 - Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls

The next section of Revelation goes over the three cycles of seven: seven seals (chapters 6-8), seven trumpets (chapters 8-11) and seven bowls (chapters 15-16). Each cycle depicts God’s kingdom and justice coming here on Earth as in Heaven. Some people think that the ‘Three Sets of Seven Divine Judgments’ represent a literal linear sequence of events that either happened in the past or could be happening now or are yet to happen in the future when Jesus returns.

In order to understand its true meaning you have to notice how John has woven all the sevens together. The final seven bowls come out of the seventh trumpet and the seventh seal, while the seven trumpets emerge from the seventh seal. They’re like nesting dolls - each seventh contains the next seven. Also notice how each of the series of seven culminates in the final judgement and they have matching conclusions.

This is why it’s more likely that John is using each set of seven to depict the same period of time between Jesus’s resurrection and future returned from three different perspectives.

Seven Seals

So the slain lamb begins to open the scrolls first four seals and John sees four horseman. It’s an image from the book of Zechariah 1:

⁸ I saw by night, and lo! a man going on a red horse; and he stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, that were in the depth, and after him were horses red, diverse (dappled), and white.

⁹ And I said, My lord, who be these? And an angel of the Lord said to me, that spake in me, I shall show to thee what these be. (And I said, My lord, what be these horses? And the angel of the Lord who spoke to me, said to me, I shall show thee what these horses be.)

- Zechariah 1:8-9

These 4 horseman symbolize times of war, conquest, famine and death. In other words a tragically average day in human history.

Then the fifth seal depicts the murdered Christian martyrs before God’s heavenly throne and the cry of their innocent blood rises up before God like smoke from the alter of incense. Then they are told to rest because more Christians are yet to die. We’re not told why but we are told that it won’t last forever.

The sixth seal is God’s ultimate response to their cry and he brings the great ‘Day of the Lord’ that was described in Isaiah 2 and Joel 2:

2 Sing ye with a trump in Zion, yell ye in mine holy hill. All the dwellers of earth be disturbed; for the day of the Lord cometh, (Sing ye with a trumpet in Zion, yell ye upon my holy hill. All the people of the land be troubled; for the day of the Lord cometh,)

- Joel 2:2

And the people cry out ‘Who is able to stand?’. And then John pauses the action with an intermission to answer that question. John sees an angel with a signet coming to place a mark of protection of God’s servants who are enduring all this hardship and he hears the number of those who are sealed - 144,000. This number is like a military census and is similar to the one in the Book of Numbers chapter one.

There are 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. The number of this army is what John heard, just like he heard about the conquering lion of Judah.

But in both cases, what he then turned and saw was the surprising fulfillment of those military images in Jesus, the slain lamb. What John is saying here is that he expected / HEARD of a conquering Messiah with the army of 144,000 men from the 12 tribes of Israel but instead he SAW a Messiah who was peaceful and was here for the whole world, not just the tribes of Israel.

So when John sees this messianic army of God’s kingdom, it’s made up of people from all nations fulfilling God’s ancient promise to Abraham in Genesis 17:

³ And Abram felled down low on his face. And God said to him,

⁴ I am, and my covenant of peace is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of many folks (and thou shalt be the father of many nations);

It’s this multi-ethnic army of the lamb who can stand before God because they’ve been redeemed by the lamb’s blood. This peaceful army is now called the conquerer not by killing their enemies buy by suffering and bearing witness just like the lamb.

After this the seventh and final seal is broken but before the scroll is open the seven warning trumpets emerge and fire is taken from the incense altar. It symbolizes the cry of the martyrs and it’s cast onto the Earth bringing the ‘Day of the Lord’ to its completion.

Seven Trumpets

Now with the seven trumpets John backs up and he retells the story again this time with images from the Exodus story. So the first five trumpet blasts replay the plague sent upon Egypt:

1. Hail

2. Blood

3. Poison Water

4. Darkness

5. Demon Locusts

And then the sixth trumpet releases the four horsemen that came from the first four seals. But then John tells us that despite all these plagues the nations did not repent just like pharaoh didn’t in the Exodus story. So it seems that God’s judgment alone will not bring people to humble repentance before him.

Then John pauses the action again with another intermission. An angel brings the unsealed scroll that was opened by the lamb. And just like Ezekiel, John is told to eat the scroll and then proclaim its message to the nations. Finally the lamb scroll is opened and now we will discover how God’s kingdom will come here on Earth.

The scrolls content is spelled out in two symbolic visions:

First John sees God’s temple and the martyrs by the alter and he’s told to measure and set them apart. This is an image of protection taken from Zechariah Chapter 2:

² And I said, Whither goest thou? And he said to me, That I mete Jerusalem, and Judah; (to see) how much is the breadth thereof, and how much is the length thereof. (And I said, Where goest thou? And he said to me, So that I can measure Jerusalem, and Judah; to see how much is its breadth, and how much is its length.)

But then the outer courts in the city are excluded and they get trampled down by the nations. Now some think this refers literally to a destruction of Jerusalem that happened in the past or will happen in the future. But what is more likely John is following the tradition of Jesus and the apostles who all used the new temple as a symbol for God’s new covenant people:

⁶ Know ye not, that ye be the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

¹⁷ And if any [man] defouleth the temple of God, God shall destroy him [God shall lose him]; for the temple of God is holy, which ye be.

- 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

The Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit

In that case, this is an image about how Jesus’ followers may suffer persecution by the nations but this external defeat can’t take away their victory through the lamb.

This idea gets expanded in the scrolls’ second vision. God appoints two witnesses as prophetic representatives to the nations. Once again some people think this refers literally to two prophets who will appear one day in the future. But John calls them “lampstands”, which is one of his clear symbols for the churches.

So this vision is more likely about the prophetic role of Jesus’ followers who are to take up the mantle of Moses and Elijah and call idolatrous nations and rulers to turn back to the one true God.

But then all of a sudden a horrible beast appears, the same beast from Daniel Chapter 7, and the beast conquers the witnesses and kills them. I go over this prophecy in my PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS - PART 6

But then God brings them back to life and vindicates the witnesses before their persecutors and the end result is that many among the nations finally do repent and give glory to the creator God in the Day of the Lord.

Do you see the pattern yet?

What the true meaning of the Book of Revelation really is?

Think about the story so far.

God’s warning judgements through the seals and through the trumpets did not generate repentance among the nations just like the Exodus plagues only hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

But the lamb Jesus, he conquered his enemies by loving them, dying for them. Now the message of the lamb’s scroll reveals the mission of his army, the church. God’s kingdom will be revealed when the nations see the church imitating the loving sacrifice of the Lamb. Not killing their enemies but by dying for them. It is God’s mercy shown through Jesus’ followers that will bring the nations to repentance.

So far, Revelation has been the symbolic story of the moment Jesus unlocked the Holy Spirit (7th seal) to be received to the people of the world (7th Trumpet).

This surprising claim is the message of the open scroll that John has placed at the exact center of the entire book. After this the last trumpet sounds and the nations are shaken as God’s kingdom comes here on Earth as it is in Heaven.

So now we know how the church will bear witness to the nations and inherit the new creation but who was that terrible beast that waged war on God’s people?

The Signs (=Symbols)

After the seven trumpets, John stops the drumbeat of sevens with a series of of visions that he calls ‘signs’ ( symbols) and these chapters are full of them. These visions explore the message of the open scroll in greater depth.

The first one reveals the cosmic spiritual battle that lay behind the suffering of the seven churches under Roman persecution. It’s a manifestation of that ancient conflict that began in Genesis chapter 3. The serpent, who represents the source of all evil, is depicted here as a dragon. It attacks a women and her seed, which represents the Messiah and his people.

Then the messiah defeats the dragon through his death and resurrection and it’s cast to Earth. There the dragon inspires hatred and persecution of the Messiah’s people but they will conquer the dragon by resisting his influence, even it kills them. John is trying to show the churches that neither Rome nor any other nation or human is the real enemy. There are dark spiritual powers at work and Jesus’ followers will announce Jesus’ victory by remaining faithful and loving their enemies just like the slain lamb.

John’s next vision retells the story of the same conflict, but this time in the earthly symbolism of Daniel’s animal visions. John sees two beast empowered by the dragon. One of them represents national military power that conquers through violence. The other beast symbolizes the economic propaganda machine that exalts this power as divine. And these beasts demand full allegiance from the nations and that’s symbolized by taking the mark of the beast and his number 666 on the forehead or hand.

John knew about the Sun and constellation worship of the pagan religion and how the number 666 represented the number of all 36 deities that encompassed it. I go over this in my ANTEDILUVIAN OBSESSION - PART 4

John was letting his readers know that nations become beasts when they exalt their own power and economic security as a false god and then demand total allegiance. So Babylon was the beast in Daniel’s day, which was then followed by Persia, then Greece and now Rome.

Standing opposed to the beastly nations and the dragon is another king. It’s the slain lamb. He’s with his army who have given their lives to follow him. And from the new Jerusalem, their song of victory goes out to the nations and what John calls ‘The Eternal Gospel”. They call everyone to repent and to worship God and to come out of Babylon that will fall.

Then John sees a vision of final judgement. It’s symbolized by two harvests. One is a good harvest of grain as King Jesus comes to gather up his faithful people to himself. The other is a harvest of wine grapes. It represents humanity’s intoxication with evil. They’re taken to the winepress and trampled.

Now, throughout all these sign visions, John is placing a stark choice before the Seven churches.

Will they resist the lure of Babylon and follow the lamb or will they follow the beast and suffer its defeat?

Seven Bowls

Now that the choice is clear, John replays a final cycle of seven divine judgements, symbolized as pouring out seven bowls.

Now we know from the lamb’s scroll and from the sign visions that many among the nations do repent. But as the Exodus plagues are repeated and poured out through the bowls, there are many people who do not repent. They resist and curse God just like Pharaoh.

And so it all leads up to the sixth bowl as the dragon and the beast, they gather the nations together to make war against God’s people in a place called Armageddon. This refers to a plain in northern Israel where many battles were fought by Israel against invading nations.

Some people think this sixth bowl refers to an actual future battle. Other people think that it’s a metaphor for God’s final justice on evil. Either way, John’s clearly taken images from the book of Ezekiel about God’s battle with Gog, who was Ezekiels’s symbol of the rebellious nations gathered before God to face his justice.

And that’s what comes in the seventh bowl. It’s the fourth and final depiction of the “Day of the Lord”, when evil is defeated among the nations once and for all.

Revelation: 17-22 - The Coming of God’s Kingdom

Now, John has fully unpacked the message of the Lamb’s unsealed scroll he goes back to expand on three key themes that he’s introduced earlier: the fall of Babylon, the final battle to defeat evil and the arrival of the New Jerusalem. Each one of these explorers the coming of God’s kingdom from a different angle.

Remember the coming of God’s Kingdom is in reference to the Holy Spirit, which I mention in my SECOND COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Fall of Babylon

An angel shows John a stunning woman who’s dressed like a queen but she’s drunk with the blood of the martyrs and of all innocent people. She’s riding the dragon beast from the sign visions, the symbol of the rebellious nations.

She’s called Babylon, the prostitute.

The detailed symbols of this vision personify the military and economic power of the Roman Empire but John is also doing more. In this vision, John has blended together words and images from every single Old Testament passage about the downfall of ancient Babylon, Tyre and Edom.

John is showing how Rome is simply the newest version of the Old Testament archetype of humanity in rebellion against God. They come together and form nations that exalt their own economic and military security into a false god. This isn’t something limited to the past or the future but rather a portrait of the human condition throughout history. Babylon’s will come and go, leading up to the day when Jesus returns to replace Babylon with his kingdom.

But how will Jesus’ kingdom come?

The Final Battle

Up to this point, the day of the Lord has been depicted as a day of fire or earthquake or harvest and now it’s depicted as a final battle and it’s told twice. It results in the vindication of the martyrs.

Now John takes us back to the sixth bowl where the nations were gathered to oppose God and all of a sudden, Jesus appears. He appears as the great hero, the word of God riding on a white horse and he’s ready to conquer the world’s evil but pay attention… He’s covered with blood before the battle even begins and that’s because it’s his own. Jesus’ only weapon is the sword of his mouth, which is an image adapted from Isaiah 11:

⁴ but he shall deem in rightfulness poor men, and he shall reprove in equity, for the mild men of [the] earth. And he shall smite the land with the rod of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips he shall slay the wicked man. (but he shall judge the poor with justice, and he shall rebuke the meek, or the humble, of the earth with equity, or with fairness. And he shall strike the land with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill the wicked with the spirit of his lips.)

Jesus, who shed his own blood for his enemies, now comes proclaiming justice and will hold accountable those who refuse to repent. They need to repent of how they participated in the ruin of God’s good world and the destructive hellfire that they’ve unleashed in God’s world justly becomes their own God-appointed destiny.

After this, John sees a vision of Jesus’ followers who have been murdered by Babylon and they’re brought back to life and they reign with the Messiah for 1,000 years. Then after this, the dragon who inspired humanity’s rebellion against God rallies the nations of the world together to rebel against God’s kingdom. But before God’s throne of justice, they all face the consequences of eternal defeat.

And so the forces of spiritual evil and everyone who doesn’t want to participate in God’s kingdom are destroyed. They’re given what they want: to exist by themselves and for themselves.

And so the dragon and Babylon and all who choose them are eternally quarantined, never again able to corrupt God’s new creation.

The Marriage of Heaven and Earth

An angel shows John a stunning bride that symbolizes the new creation that has come forever to join God and his covenant people. God announces that he’s come to live with humanity forever and that he’s making all things new.

John’s vision here is a kaleidoscope of Old Testament promises. This place is a new Heaven and Earth, a restored creation that’s healed of the pain and evil of human history. It’s also a new Garden of Eden, the paradise of eternal life with God. But it’s not simply a return back to the garden, it’s a step forward into a New Jerusalem, a great city where human cultures and all their diversity work together in peace and harmony before God.

² And I John saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from heaven, made ready of God, as a wife adorned to her husband. [And I John saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from heaven of God, made ready as a wife adorned to her husband.]

- Revelation 21:2

Notice how the city of Jerusalem is coming down from Heaven, the same way Jesus comes down as the Holy Spirit. The new Earth described at the end of Revelations is describing the Earth after Jesus died on the cross. How Jesus unlocked the seals of Heaven to be accepted by the people of this Earth through faith. How the OLD world became the NEW one under Jesus Christ, the slain lamb and the NEW Covenant with God.

There’s no temple building in the new creation / New Jerusalem because the presence of God and the lamb that were once limited to the temple now permeate every square inch of the new world.

²² And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God almighty and the lamb, is the temple of it.

²³ And the city hath no need of the sun, neither [of] moon, that they shine in it; for the clarity of God shall lighten it; and the lamb is the lantern of it.

- Revelation 21:22-23

As you can see, John was describing in the Book of Revelation the NEW Kingdom of God, which includes Jesus Christ, the lamb, the Holy Spirit and the Tabernacle, as the NEW Temple. The New Jerusalem represents the entire Kingdom that was created after Jesus Christ died on the cross. The Book of Revelation is fulfilling the prophecy about the New Jerusalem that was discussed in the Old Testament in books like Zechariah:

⁴ and said to him, Run thou, speak to this young man, and say thou, Jerusalem shall be inhabited without wall, for the multitude of men and beasts in the middle thereof. (and said to him, Run thou, speak to this young man, and say thou, Jerusalem shall be inhabited like a city without walls, for the multitude of the people and of the beasts in its midst.)

- Zechariah 2:4

And there’s a new humanity there, fulfilling the calling placed on them all the way back on page one of the Bible: to rule as God’s image, to partner together with God in taking this creation into new and uncharted territory.

¹⁶ I Jesus sent mine angel, to witness to you these things in churches. I am the root and kin of David [I am the root and kind of David], and the shining morrow star.

¹⁷ And the Spirit and the spousess say [and the spouse, or wife, say], Come thou. And he that heareth, say, Come thou; and he that thirsteth, come; and he that will, take he freely the water of life [and he that will, take freely the water of life].

- Revelation 22:16-17

And so ends John’s apocalypse and the epic storyline of the whole Bible. John did not write this book as a secret code for you to decipher the timetable of Jesus’ return. It’s a symbolic vision that brought hope and challenge to the seven first century churches and every generation of Christians since

It reveals history’s pattern and God’s promise that every human kingdom eventually becomes Babylon and must be resisted in the power of the slain lamb. But there’s a promise that Jesus loved and died for this world and he will not let Babylon go unchecked.

The Book of Revelation is a beautifully symbolic piece of literature that wraps up the complete story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

This entire thread was based off the BibleProject’s Animated Series, which I highly recommend: