Exploring the Spiritual Depths of Revelation
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
Revelation 21:1-7
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, the 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,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. "
Psalm 148:1-13 (responsive reading for live service)
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women, old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
~Saint Augustine
Read the written message below with music videos
It says that John was “in the spirit” when he had the visions described in the quite trippy book of Revelation, and the images described there (often about the future, as well as a new heaven and a new earth) bring to mind hallucinogens as well as the visions of my favourite mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg. For many, especially for many Christians, the book of Revelation has been a tough nut to crack, and many of its most famous elements are misconstrued due to things like Left Behind and other narratives that play up added stories about the antichrist. The book has been interpreted on many levels (even by my grandfather, who wrote a book on how it’s a hidden critique of the Romans!), but these interpretations often lack a good throughline or cohesiveness with the rest of scripture, seemingly missing the opportunity to tie the clearly metaphorical Revelation with the metaphors found throughout scripture. However, there’s one interpretation that does just that, in fact, this interpretation (written in 1766 by Emanuel Swedenborg) is the very same book that opened my eyes to the depth of scripture and its interconnectedness with the heart of other traditions. Moreover, he describes how, just like Jesus’ metaphorical parables, the entirety of Revelation is an allegory for human transformation, inviting us to allow a new heaven and a new earth to descend into our very lives in this very moment.
Now, that isn’t to say that Swedenborg thought Revelation was only a clear allegory for the ups and downs of human spiritual transformation, inviting us to positive transformation through its deeply interconnected scriptural reflections, warnings, and invitations. He also believed that Revelation was a book that indeed prophesied aspects of the future, warning us 1,900 years ago of the human tendency to use religion, scripture, and even irreligion to control and dominate others, describing through metaphorical imagery how the Christian church would use its power to misuse the Bible and subjugate others throughout the couple of millennia that would follow.
And it is just this tendency to control and condemn and misuse the gifts of life that Revelation invites us to cast into the “fiery lake,” burned up and released in the fire of the love and wisdom shining in our awareness and at the root of each of our lives. Revelation, at its heart, is a story of redemption and renewal. We’re told that this renewal is always available to us, and in fact, our natural state is in a sense “always new,” but we’ve come to cloud it over with our identification with our thoughts, attachments, and bodies.
As the late Rev. Dr. George Dole often noted, if the beginning of Genesis is the parable of how humanity turned away from God-consciousness, the garden, and the tree of life, to instead accept a divisive and judgmental “knowledge of good and evil,” then Revelation is the return to this God-consciousness, describing a future where we all know God in our own way, not needing any mediators nor any falling back into the ignorance of the past. If the eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” represents becoming more head-centered instead of heart-centered, then the return to the tree of life in the midst of the city in Revelation is the promise that we will find our hearts once again.
It's important to note that the tree of life was never destroyed, we just spiritually moved away from it and out of the garden. And so, the return to the tree of life doesn’t require us to build up the tree, but to come to know that grand source of love and wisdom already at the root of our lives in every moment, at the heart of awareness itself. As Jesus often said, “turn around/repent” to find your unity with God; as we start to turn inward toward our source, we also allow the New Jerusalem to start to further descend into our lives, just as it is described as doing in Revelation. When we stop investing so much in the “tree” of our knowledge, projections, and judgments (when we stop identifying with these ideas and stop following them around), we come to find that even our mind becomes a pleasant place to be, we see a new earth! And as we come to notice the sense of “I AM” at the root of living, the transcendent tree of life itself, we find that there’s an ever-new heaven at the root of awareness that we’ve always missed even though it’s always been there.
To me, this is the directly and immediately practical part of the story told in Revelation. But there’s also a lot more going on! All inviting us toward a greater understanding and acceptance of life and Spirit. Swedenborg believed that the new earth also described a future where humanity in its earthly living would experience heaven and a deep unity with “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Indeed, God says in our reading from Revelation 21 that those there “will be my children.”
Emanuel Swedenborg attributed his insights on these matters to God (of course!) and the experiences he says he had exploring heaven, hell, and the spiritual realm. From these reported insights of the angels and his application of his scientific mode of observation (he was quite the scientist for most of his life), he came to share many insights about scripture, life, the afterlife, and God. One such insight is that scripture has many levels, from a natural (literal) level to multiple layers of parable or metaphor, which he believed made scripture what it is (similar to how it says that Jesus always spoke in parable). He also believed that scripture is often also quite prophetical, speaking about the future on many different levels – just as it says it does.
When Revelation describes this majestic future for us, it describes how this New Jerusalem will be adorned as a bride for her husband (talk about embracing trans-identity!). Indeed, throughout much of the Bible, although written by many different authors across hundreds of years, the people of God are often described as a bride. This is why when Revelation describes the opposite of someone’s bride, the “whore of Babylon,” he interprets it to mean a church that sells itself for money, condemns others, and misuses the Bible, which he believed is “the beast” when misused. He goes on to use many other details in this story to support his interpretation, showing how interconnected many of the books of the Bible are and also asserting that the same metaphors used in scripture are found manifesting throughout the spiritual realm.
This is how Swedenborg explores the whole of Revelation, highlighting how most of the metaphors in this book are established metaphors from earlier works eventually included in what we know as the Bible. He says that this is why we see similar metaphors across cultures. Swedenborg further believed that the root of these metaphors was the symbolic nature of Spirit and the human mind, an insight (among others) that would later inspire the founder of analytical psychology, Carl Jung, and his exploration of archetypes, dreams, and the inner workings of the human mind.
Emanuel Swedenborg believed that Revelation tells the story of how we will eventually dispel our tendency to misuse religion, dismissing our Babylon and the red dragon to find the holy city descending among us. Ultimately, Revelation serves as a call to return to love and the openness and spiritual health that that entails. Reversing our fall out of Eden, it calls on us to let go of our centeredness on conceptual separating and analyzing, worrying and pondering, yearning and controlling. To walk with God, we only have to be, and yet our minds are used to feeling isolated, needy, limited, distracted, and judgmental, all of which keep us from realizing our natural state at one with Christ, Krishna, Jehovah, known by many names. The holy name of God is often thought unutterable, and as many scriptures tell us it is on this transcendent name, the transcendence of the Love that is God him/herself, that we must actively turn to in order to open our hearts and minds, save our earth, and return to the Garden.
Peace and love to you,
Rev. Cory