Why is there no more sea in Revelation 21?
Oct 14, 2024 16:25:07 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on Oct 14, 2024 16:25:07 GMT -5
I've read various commentaries about this. Most don't make much sense and some are downright ridiculous - they just take "sea" at face value and ignore the context/symbolism, and simply say that there will be no more oceans. Frankly, there are millions upon millions of God's people who love the oceans and seashore, and I don't see Him denying us that...not to mention, the oceans are home to all the wonderful sea creatures! If you go back to the creation account in Genesis it says "seas," plural, not "sea," singular; also, God said they were "good":
"And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good."- Genesis 1:10
I totally reject the notion that there will be no more glorious oceans; they may be smaller, but they most certainly will be there for our pleasure in the new heavens and the new earth!
Here are some of the better commentaries I've come across. The first one is from Randy Alcorn, who has written some wonderful books about heaven, and who quotes the great Charles Spurgeon:
How Can You Say There Will Be Oceans on the New Earth When Rev. 21:1 Says Something Different?
By Randy Alcorn
March 18, 2010
If you’ve ever spent a leisurely day on a golden beach or sailed across the vast ocean or observed the beauty of God’s underwater creatures, you may be surprised that John, taken in a vision to the far future, says that on the New Earth “the sea was no more.” But when we take a closer look, we see that perhaps there will be great bodies of water there after all.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4
In my book We Shall See God, which contains 50 devotionals with insights on Heaven from Charles Spurgeon, he writes:
Charles Spurgeon“And the sea was no more.” Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean. The new heavens and the New Earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, there is literally to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores.
Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Eastern mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea is mournful to imagine; it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious.
There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division—the sea separates nations and separates peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work; there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling waves lie between us and many a kinsman whom tonight we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go, there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea.
The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous waves, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; Earth is constant only in its inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys.
No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of Paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings and changes and storms shall be ended! Jesus will always keep us above water there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.
Excerpted from Morning and Evening, December 19 (evening).
When we read about no more seas, we think of God’s doing away with the oceans that cover most of his beloved Earth. We think there will be no more surfing, tide pools, snorkeling, and fun on the beach, and there will be no more wonderful sea creatures. From Spurgeon’s viewpoint, and most of us would feel the same way, that sounds like bad news. While Spurgeon’s meditation from Morning and Evening is very brief, in tribute to him I’d like to further develop from Scripture the issue he raised, making a case I think he might have appreciated.
When Revelation 21:1 says that “the sea was no more,” we must try to understand sea in exactly the way the writer and his readers of the book of Revelation would have understood it. To the great majority of them, the sea was devoid of the romantic properties many of us associate with it. Rather, the sea consisted of those vast, icy, treacherous, stormy waters that separated families, destroyed ships, and drowned loved ones. It posed a constant threat, with its great creatures that swallowed up seafarers and its salt waters that poisoned people on the open sea who craved freshwater. With that understanding, “no more sea” was a reassuring prospect!
Author and Bible teacher Steven Lawson points out, “To the ancient peoples, the sea was frightful and fearsome, an awesome monster, a watery grave. They had no compass to guide them in the open sea. On a cloudy day, their ships were absolutely lost without the stars or the sun to guide them. Their frail ships were at the mercy of the tempestuous ocean’s fearsome, angry storms. The loss of human life in the sea was beyond calculation.”
But let’s look at a larger picture. Of course, it was God who created the seas (Genesis 1:9-10). Like everything else he made, they were very good (Genesis 1:31). But the Curse had a devastating effect on creation, including the ocean waters.
Even if Revelation 21:1 is a literal promise of “no more ocean,” this doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of large bodies of water. Revelation tells us a great river flows right through the capital city (22:1-2). How much more water will there be outside the city? Flowing rivers go somewhere. Some of the world’s lakes are huge and sealike, so theoretically the New Earth could have even larger lakes. Huge lakes could, in effect, be freshwater oceans.
Ezekiel 47 speaks of the water flowing from the Temple, which parallels the water flowing from the Messiah’s throne on the New Earth (Revelation 22). Ezekiel says, “I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river” (47:7, niv). Then he is told, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live” (Ezekiel 47:8-9, niv).
Ezekiel 47 goes on to say, “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (verse 12). This promise is applied directly to the New Earth in Revelation 22:2. Since this is clearly a New Earth passage, it appears that the reference to “no more sea” in Revelation 21 may simply mean “no more sea as we now know it.”
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of C. S. Lewis’s books in the classic Chronicles of Narnia series, the talking mouse Reepicheep is on a quest to find Aslan’s country, which can be seen as a type of Heaven. As Reepicheep nears Aslan’s country, the salt water transforms into pure, refreshing, life-giving “sweet” water. Will something similar happen on the New Earth?
Romans 8 suggests that “the whole creation,” not just human beings, will experience a renewed existence on the New Earth. Since most of the Earth’s species live in the ocean, it seems likely some of them will be re-created. (I believe they will live again; all creatures who have souls will, and none of the animal kingdom has a sin nature.) Surely it would be easy for God to enable today’s saltwater creatures to live in freshwater. I think this is more than wishful thinking, and there are biblical grounds to support Spurgeon’s instinct that there may well be bodies of water of some sort on God’s New Earth.
I’ve done enough snorkeling and diving to know it’s exhilarating and worshipful to be immersed in the God-made undersea world. Twenty years ago I took out a boat and went snorkeling with one of my daughters and some friends. Suddenly, in very deep water, we heard the melodic sounds of whales calling to one another. We floated, nearly motionless, as the sounds grew louder and louder. We found ourselves absorbed in musical beauty and power that defied words. I felt indescribably close to God during that almost magical experience.
While I can’t be sure, I believe we will swim and dive in large bodies of water, perhaps without tanks or masks, opening our eyes wide and playing with God’s creatures of the deep. And if not, of course, God will have still better things in store for us, all of them for his glory and our delight!
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Why is there no more sea in Revelation 21?
Revelation 21:1 says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." Why would there be no more sea?
This passage puzzled me for a long time, too. After all, most of us enjoy the sea -- boating, swimming, snorkeling, etc. The sea is beautiful, and majestic. It would be a shame if there were nothing to take its place in the new creation.
But in ancient Hebrew thought, the sea was a dangerous place. Among Israel's neighbors, Yam was the terrifying sea-god. Unlike their neighbors the Phoenicians (modern Lebanon), the Israelites were not especially fond of boats. The primeval waters of Genesis 1 are frightening and chaotic. During "de-creation" (the Flood), the primeval waters deluge the earth, although Noah's family is rescued. The Red Sea too is the scene of divine rescue, although the waters flood back once the Hebrews have crossed to dry land, killing the pursuing Egyptians. Joshua too crosses the water (near Jericho), a similar miracle preparing the way for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land.
Skye Jethani expressed it well: "The massive power and unpredictability of the sea is why ancient peoples saw it as a symbol of evil. The inhabitants of ancient Israel, who were not a seafaring people, viewed the ocean as a realm of chaos, destruction, and darkness. Rather than a delightful place for recreation, to them the sea was a dark abyss to be feared. In their literature, including the biblical narrative, the sea became a metaphor for the forces of evil and disorder that stood in opposition to their God of order and beauty" (With: Reimagining the Way you Relate to God, 136).
I also like the way Philip Graham Ryken put it: "The sea represents everything that chafes and frets under the dominion of God; everything that is out of our control. But there is nothing like that in the new heaven and the new earth. Everything there is under the orderly blessing of God" (in D. A. Carson and Jeff Robinson Sr., eds., Coming Home Essays on the New Heaven and New Earth, 125).
So when John tells us that there will be no more sea, God is assuring us that in the new world there will be no more evil, chaos, or danger. I imagine (speculate) there will be no shortage of beauty and majesty! If the ocean is no more, then something better will have taken its place.
Further thoughts (sent in by an American friend):
I have become convinced that the “sea” of Revelation represents the people of the lost world. (Revelation 17:15 pretty much says as much. See also Revelation 16:3-6). The “sea” is a good metaphor because it is an unstable and dangerous place. In contrast, the “land” of Revelation represents the people of God.
The “beast” of Revelation 13:2 comes out of the “sea,” meaning that this beast comes from the world. In Revelation 10:2-6 there is an angel who stands with one foot on the “land” and the other on the “sea,” meaning that he has authority over both the people of God and the people of the world.
Further evidence: the second beast comes out of the “land” (Revelation 13:11). When we get to Revelation 19:20 this beast is referred to as a “false prophet.” It makes sense that a beast who is influencing the people of the “land” (people of God) would be called a false prophet while the beast who was influencing the people of the “sea” (people of the world) would receive no such designation.
As for the beast himself: I have come to believe that the number of the beast, 666, is a reference to 1 Kings 10:14. In this passage 666 is the amount of gold that Solomon received annually. Any studied Jew would have recognized that Solomon was doing a number of things that God had said not to do (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). Therefore “666” would be a good metaphor for worldly wealth and for the love of same.
So back to Revelation; we find that the beast of greed for worldly wealth comes out of the people of the world. Then there arises a philosophy within God’s people that it is okay to lust after the greed of the world. This would be the second beast who is also a false prophet. He teaches salvation through wealth.
Jesus' death and resurrection dealt a mortal wound to greed -- or at least it should have been. The resurrection proves the relative worthlessness of seeking salvation from wealth. Nevertheless, greed survived and flourished among both the people of the world and among God’s people until God throws greed into the lake of fire.
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What does Revelation mean when it says, “There was no longer any sea”?
17 July 2024
Revelation 21:1 states, “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” There is no reason not to interpret this literally, indicating that God’s new earth will not include vast areas of saltwater across the globe. Naturally, bodies of freshwater, like the river mentioned in Revelation 22:1, could still be plentiful in the new earth.
Prophecies concerning Jesus’ first coming were fulfilled literally. Similarly, non-prophetic sections in the Bible are also mostly literal. If a particular passage is not intended to be taken literally, there will be clear contextual indicators: for example, an inanimate object used to represent a living entity (Jesus is the bread), life attributed to an inanimate object (the trees clap their hands), or an expression inconsistent with the described subject (Herod is a fox). Revelation 21:1 lacks such indicators; hence, there is no valid reason to interpret the revelation that the new earth will lack a sea as figurative.
As Revelation 21 reads like an actual depiction of the new heaven and new earth, and since Scripture offers no alternative explanation, verse 1 likely means exactly what it says: in the new earth, there will be no sea. (Again, let me point out the difference between "no more sea" - singular, and "no more seaS" - plural.)
By adopting a literalist approach, we recognize that there are alternative interpretations of the declaration that there was no longer any sea. Some individuals believe that the “sea” in Revelation. In Revelation 21:1, it refers only to the Mediterranean Sea. When John peers into the future, he sees that the Mediterranean is gone. Elsewhere in Scripture, the Mediterranean Sea is simply referred to as “the sea,” for example, Joshua 17:10. (This explanation does make sense, although I tend to go with what I've copied in the next portion of this post, i.e., God's people [people of the earth] as opposed to the multitude of those who aren't His [people of the sea])
Others believe that the statement “there was no longer any sea” is a figurative reference to there being no more divisions among humanity. In our current world, the oceans provide natural barriers between nations and people groups. According to this interpretation, John’s vision predicts that, in the new earth, humanity will not be separated by any means.
Another view is that the statement “there was no longer any sea” refers to the absence of anything that is perilous, unpredictable, or tumultuous. The sea in John’s time was often viewed as a place of danger and changeableness. Jesus spoke of “the roaring and tossing of the sea” as part of the tribulation of the end times, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;” (Luke 21:25). Psalm 46 speaks of the need to trust God, although the sea’s “waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (verse 3). According to this interpretation, God’s promise is that the new earth will not be a place of turmoil or fear.
Earlier in Revelation, the “sea” was the source of the satanically empowered beast, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” (Revelation 13:1). This has led some to interpret the statement “there was no longer any sea” in Revelation 21:1 to mean that the source of evil in the world is gone. No longer will there be an opportunity for rebellion in God’s creation. John’s statement that there will be no more sea in the new earth is the first of seven things that are “no more.” The other six promises are that the new order of things will have no more death, mourning, weeping, pain «And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. », (Revelation 21:4), curse «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: », (Revelation 22:3), and night (Revelation 21:25;Revelation 22:5).
Revelation 21:1 and the statement that there was no longer any sea is part of a description of the re-creation of the whole universe, after the tribulation, after the millennium, after the final rebellion. Things will obviously be very different on the new earth from what they are now. The current earth is mostly covered by water, but the new earth will have a different geography and therefore a different climate.
In the end, the key is that God will make everything beautiful in His time. Whatever He has planned for us, it will be for the best. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him «But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, Neither have entered into the heart of man, The things which God hath prepared for them that love him. », (1 Corinthians 2:9).
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What the Bible says about Sea as Symbol
Matthew 13:47-50
In the fourth pair of the parables of Matthew 13, Jesus continues to instruct His disciples apart from the general multitude to which He had spoken earlier. The seventh parable in the chapter, the Parable of the Dragnet (verse 47) teaches that in the professing church, the good and evil who intermingle on earth will be completely separated "at the end of the age." This set time of separation will be, for the good, a time of rejoicing in a bright, eternal future, but for the evil, it will be a time of mourning before eternal oblivion.
In Matthew 4:18-20, Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," providing a partial interpretation of this parable. When Jesus Christ later made the twelve disciples fishers of men, they went out and brought in "catches" of converts. Thus, the church, composed of the "called," are caught in God's net, which His servants draw in.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John had been fishermen prior to their calling, so to them, the idea of the dragnet was a familiar and vivid picture. Their work entailed using a net - a dragnet - of great length, weighted by lead and designed to sweep the bottom of the sea, gathering fish in masses. Two boats would drag this net between them, sweeping a section of the Sea of Galilee, after which the sailors would haul the net to shore. There, the fishermen would go through the entire net, keeping the good fish but burning the substandard ones to avoid catching them again later.
The symbol of "the sea" is similar to that seen in the beasts rising out of the sea and out of the earth (Revelation 13:1, 11). It designates origination, representing the realm of the earth. Christ's origin is the realm of heaven, but the beasts, part of a corrupt system, come from the sea and the earth. The sea, a body of water, symbolizes "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:15).
In the parable, when the fish are caught in a net thrown in the sea, Jesus signifies that members of His church are "the called" out of the world (Romans 1:5-6; 8:28). The dragnet gathers some of every kind; God's net catches fish without partiality to age, sex, race, ethnicity, class, wealth, intelligence, language, beauty, and so forth. His interest is in developing our character and whether He can work with us (Romans 2:11; 5:8; 9:18, 21).
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"And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good."- Genesis 1:10
I totally reject the notion that there will be no more glorious oceans; they may be smaller, but they most certainly will be there for our pleasure in the new heavens and the new earth!
Here are some of the better commentaries I've come across. The first one is from Randy Alcorn, who has written some wonderful books about heaven, and who quotes the great Charles Spurgeon:
How Can You Say There Will Be Oceans on the New Earth When Rev. 21:1 Says Something Different?
By Randy Alcorn
March 18, 2010
If you’ve ever spent a leisurely day on a golden beach or sailed across the vast ocean or observed the beauty of God’s underwater creatures, you may be surprised that John, taken in a vision to the far future, says that on the New Earth “the sea was no more.” But when we take a closer look, we see that perhaps there will be great bodies of water there after all.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4
In my book We Shall See God, which contains 50 devotionals with insights on Heaven from Charles Spurgeon, he writes:
Charles Spurgeon“And the sea was no more.” Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean. The new heavens and the New Earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, there is literally to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores.
Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Eastern mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea is mournful to imagine; it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious.
There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division—the sea separates nations and separates peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work; there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling waves lie between us and many a kinsman whom tonight we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go, there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea.
The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous waves, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; Earth is constant only in its inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys.
No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of Paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings and changes and storms shall be ended! Jesus will always keep us above water there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.
Excerpted from Morning and Evening, December 19 (evening).
When we read about no more seas, we think of God’s doing away with the oceans that cover most of his beloved Earth. We think there will be no more surfing, tide pools, snorkeling, and fun on the beach, and there will be no more wonderful sea creatures. From Spurgeon’s viewpoint, and most of us would feel the same way, that sounds like bad news. While Spurgeon’s meditation from Morning and Evening is very brief, in tribute to him I’d like to further develop from Scripture the issue he raised, making a case I think he might have appreciated.
When Revelation 21:1 says that “the sea was no more,” we must try to understand sea in exactly the way the writer and his readers of the book of Revelation would have understood it. To the great majority of them, the sea was devoid of the romantic properties many of us associate with it. Rather, the sea consisted of those vast, icy, treacherous, stormy waters that separated families, destroyed ships, and drowned loved ones. It posed a constant threat, with its great creatures that swallowed up seafarers and its salt waters that poisoned people on the open sea who craved freshwater. With that understanding, “no more sea” was a reassuring prospect!
Author and Bible teacher Steven Lawson points out, “To the ancient peoples, the sea was frightful and fearsome, an awesome monster, a watery grave. They had no compass to guide them in the open sea. On a cloudy day, their ships were absolutely lost without the stars or the sun to guide them. Their frail ships were at the mercy of the tempestuous ocean’s fearsome, angry storms. The loss of human life in the sea was beyond calculation.”
But let’s look at a larger picture. Of course, it was God who created the seas (Genesis 1:9-10). Like everything else he made, they were very good (Genesis 1:31). But the Curse had a devastating effect on creation, including the ocean waters.
Even if Revelation 21:1 is a literal promise of “no more ocean,” this doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of large bodies of water. Revelation tells us a great river flows right through the capital city (22:1-2). How much more water will there be outside the city? Flowing rivers go somewhere. Some of the world’s lakes are huge and sealike, so theoretically the New Earth could have even larger lakes. Huge lakes could, in effect, be freshwater oceans.
Ezekiel 47 speaks of the water flowing from the Temple, which parallels the water flowing from the Messiah’s throne on the New Earth (Revelation 22). Ezekiel says, “I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river” (47:7, niv). Then he is told, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live” (Ezekiel 47:8-9, niv).
Ezekiel 47 goes on to say, “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (verse 12). This promise is applied directly to the New Earth in Revelation 22:2. Since this is clearly a New Earth passage, it appears that the reference to “no more sea” in Revelation 21 may simply mean “no more sea as we now know it.”
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of C. S. Lewis’s books in the classic Chronicles of Narnia series, the talking mouse Reepicheep is on a quest to find Aslan’s country, which can be seen as a type of Heaven. As Reepicheep nears Aslan’s country, the salt water transforms into pure, refreshing, life-giving “sweet” water. Will something similar happen on the New Earth?
Romans 8 suggests that “the whole creation,” not just human beings, will experience a renewed existence on the New Earth. Since most of the Earth’s species live in the ocean, it seems likely some of them will be re-created. (I believe they will live again; all creatures who have souls will, and none of the animal kingdom has a sin nature.) Surely it would be easy for God to enable today’s saltwater creatures to live in freshwater. I think this is more than wishful thinking, and there are biblical grounds to support Spurgeon’s instinct that there may well be bodies of water of some sort on God’s New Earth.
I’ve done enough snorkeling and diving to know it’s exhilarating and worshipful to be immersed in the God-made undersea world. Twenty years ago I took out a boat and went snorkeling with one of my daughters and some friends. Suddenly, in very deep water, we heard the melodic sounds of whales calling to one another. We floated, nearly motionless, as the sounds grew louder and louder. We found ourselves absorbed in musical beauty and power that defied words. I felt indescribably close to God during that almost magical experience.
While I can’t be sure, I believe we will swim and dive in large bodies of water, perhaps without tanks or masks, opening our eyes wide and playing with God’s creatures of the deep. And if not, of course, God will have still better things in store for us, all of them for his glory and our delight!
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Why is there no more sea in Revelation 21?
Revelation 21:1 says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." Why would there be no more sea?
This passage puzzled me for a long time, too. After all, most of us enjoy the sea -- boating, swimming, snorkeling, etc. The sea is beautiful, and majestic. It would be a shame if there were nothing to take its place in the new creation.
But in ancient Hebrew thought, the sea was a dangerous place. Among Israel's neighbors, Yam was the terrifying sea-god. Unlike their neighbors the Phoenicians (modern Lebanon), the Israelites were not especially fond of boats. The primeval waters of Genesis 1 are frightening and chaotic. During "de-creation" (the Flood), the primeval waters deluge the earth, although Noah's family is rescued. The Red Sea too is the scene of divine rescue, although the waters flood back once the Hebrews have crossed to dry land, killing the pursuing Egyptians. Joshua too crosses the water (near Jericho), a similar miracle preparing the way for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land.
Skye Jethani expressed it well: "The massive power and unpredictability of the sea is why ancient peoples saw it as a symbol of evil. The inhabitants of ancient Israel, who were not a seafaring people, viewed the ocean as a realm of chaos, destruction, and darkness. Rather than a delightful place for recreation, to them the sea was a dark abyss to be feared. In their literature, including the biblical narrative, the sea became a metaphor for the forces of evil and disorder that stood in opposition to their God of order and beauty" (With: Reimagining the Way you Relate to God, 136).
I also like the way Philip Graham Ryken put it: "The sea represents everything that chafes and frets under the dominion of God; everything that is out of our control. But there is nothing like that in the new heaven and the new earth. Everything there is under the orderly blessing of God" (in D. A. Carson and Jeff Robinson Sr., eds., Coming Home Essays on the New Heaven and New Earth, 125).
So when John tells us that there will be no more sea, God is assuring us that in the new world there will be no more evil, chaos, or danger. I imagine (speculate) there will be no shortage of beauty and majesty! If the ocean is no more, then something better will have taken its place.
Further thoughts (sent in by an American friend):
I have become convinced that the “sea” of Revelation represents the people of the lost world. (Revelation 17:15 pretty much says as much. See also Revelation 16:3-6). The “sea” is a good metaphor because it is an unstable and dangerous place. In contrast, the “land” of Revelation represents the people of God.
The “beast” of Revelation 13:2 comes out of the “sea,” meaning that this beast comes from the world. In Revelation 10:2-6 there is an angel who stands with one foot on the “land” and the other on the “sea,” meaning that he has authority over both the people of God and the people of the world.
Further evidence: the second beast comes out of the “land” (Revelation 13:11). When we get to Revelation 19:20 this beast is referred to as a “false prophet.” It makes sense that a beast who is influencing the people of the “land” (people of God) would be called a false prophet while the beast who was influencing the people of the “sea” (people of the world) would receive no such designation.
As for the beast himself: I have come to believe that the number of the beast, 666, is a reference to 1 Kings 10:14. In this passage 666 is the amount of gold that Solomon received annually. Any studied Jew would have recognized that Solomon was doing a number of things that God had said not to do (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). Therefore “666” would be a good metaphor for worldly wealth and for the love of same.
So back to Revelation; we find that the beast of greed for worldly wealth comes out of the people of the world. Then there arises a philosophy within God’s people that it is okay to lust after the greed of the world. This would be the second beast who is also a false prophet. He teaches salvation through wealth.
Jesus' death and resurrection dealt a mortal wound to greed -- or at least it should have been. The resurrection proves the relative worthlessness of seeking salvation from wealth. Nevertheless, greed survived and flourished among both the people of the world and among God’s people until God throws greed into the lake of fire.
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What does Revelation mean when it says, “There was no longer any sea”?
17 July 2024
Revelation 21:1 states, “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” There is no reason not to interpret this literally, indicating that God’s new earth will not include vast areas of saltwater across the globe. Naturally, bodies of freshwater, like the river mentioned in Revelation 22:1, could still be plentiful in the new earth.
Prophecies concerning Jesus’ first coming were fulfilled literally. Similarly, non-prophetic sections in the Bible are also mostly literal. If a particular passage is not intended to be taken literally, there will be clear contextual indicators: for example, an inanimate object used to represent a living entity (Jesus is the bread), life attributed to an inanimate object (the trees clap their hands), or an expression inconsistent with the described subject (Herod is a fox). Revelation 21:1 lacks such indicators; hence, there is no valid reason to interpret the revelation that the new earth will lack a sea as figurative.
As Revelation 21 reads like an actual depiction of the new heaven and new earth, and since Scripture offers no alternative explanation, verse 1 likely means exactly what it says: in the new earth, there will be no sea. (Again, let me point out the difference between "no more sea" - singular, and "no more seaS" - plural.)
By adopting a literalist approach, we recognize that there are alternative interpretations of the declaration that there was no longer any sea. Some individuals believe that the “sea” in Revelation. In Revelation 21:1, it refers only to the Mediterranean Sea. When John peers into the future, he sees that the Mediterranean is gone. Elsewhere in Scripture, the Mediterranean Sea is simply referred to as “the sea,” for example, Joshua 17:10. (This explanation does make sense, although I tend to go with what I've copied in the next portion of this post, i.e., God's people [people of the earth] as opposed to the multitude of those who aren't His [people of the sea])
Others believe that the statement “there was no longer any sea” is a figurative reference to there being no more divisions among humanity. In our current world, the oceans provide natural barriers between nations and people groups. According to this interpretation, John’s vision predicts that, in the new earth, humanity will not be separated by any means.
Another view is that the statement “there was no longer any sea” refers to the absence of anything that is perilous, unpredictable, or tumultuous. The sea in John’s time was often viewed as a place of danger and changeableness. Jesus spoke of “the roaring and tossing of the sea” as part of the tribulation of the end times, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;” (Luke 21:25). Psalm 46 speaks of the need to trust God, although the sea’s “waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (verse 3). According to this interpretation, God’s promise is that the new earth will not be a place of turmoil or fear.
Earlier in Revelation, the “sea” was the source of the satanically empowered beast, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” (Revelation 13:1). This has led some to interpret the statement “there was no longer any sea” in Revelation 21:1 to mean that the source of evil in the world is gone. No longer will there be an opportunity for rebellion in God’s creation. John’s statement that there will be no more sea in the new earth is the first of seven things that are “no more.” The other six promises are that the new order of things will have no more death, mourning, weeping, pain «And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. », (Revelation 21:4), curse «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: », (Revelation 22:3), and night (Revelation 21:25;Revelation 22:5).
Revelation 21:1 and the statement that there was no longer any sea is part of a description of the re-creation of the whole universe, after the tribulation, after the millennium, after the final rebellion. Things will obviously be very different on the new earth from what they are now. The current earth is mostly covered by water, but the new earth will have a different geography and therefore a different climate.
In the end, the key is that God will make everything beautiful in His time. Whatever He has planned for us, it will be for the best. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him «But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, Neither have entered into the heart of man, The things which God hath prepared for them that love him. », (1 Corinthians 2:9).
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What the Bible says about Sea as Symbol
Matthew 13:47-50
In the fourth pair of the parables of Matthew 13, Jesus continues to instruct His disciples apart from the general multitude to which He had spoken earlier. The seventh parable in the chapter, the Parable of the Dragnet (verse 47) teaches that in the professing church, the good and evil who intermingle on earth will be completely separated "at the end of the age." This set time of separation will be, for the good, a time of rejoicing in a bright, eternal future, but for the evil, it will be a time of mourning before eternal oblivion.
In Matthew 4:18-20, Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," providing a partial interpretation of this parable. When Jesus Christ later made the twelve disciples fishers of men, they went out and brought in "catches" of converts. Thus, the church, composed of the "called," are caught in God's net, which His servants draw in.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John had been fishermen prior to their calling, so to them, the idea of the dragnet was a familiar and vivid picture. Their work entailed using a net - a dragnet - of great length, weighted by lead and designed to sweep the bottom of the sea, gathering fish in masses. Two boats would drag this net between them, sweeping a section of the Sea of Galilee, after which the sailors would haul the net to shore. There, the fishermen would go through the entire net, keeping the good fish but burning the substandard ones to avoid catching them again later.
The symbol of "the sea" is similar to that seen in the beasts rising out of the sea and out of the earth (Revelation 13:1, 11). It designates origination, representing the realm of the earth. Christ's origin is the realm of heaven, but the beasts, part of a corrupt system, come from the sea and the earth. The sea, a body of water, symbolizes "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:15).
In the parable, when the fish are caught in a net thrown in the sea, Jesus signifies that members of His church are "the called" out of the world (Romans 1:5-6; 8:28). The dragnet gathers some of every kind; God's net catches fish without partiality to age, sex, race, ethnicity, class, wealth, intelligence, language, beauty, and so forth. His interest is in developing our character and whether He can work with us (Romans 2:11; 5:8; 9:18, 21).
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