The Underworld Realm: Revelation and the Sea

You can breathe huge sigh of relief once you get to Revelation 21. Because not only are you almost done reading the whole Bible, but you’re also past all the bad stuff. The devil, the antichrist and false prophet have been taken care of. Judgement day is over. Sin and the corrupted world are wadded up and thrown away.

And Revelation 21 and 22 speak of eternity: the place we will spend the rest of our existence once this current world is done.

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.

Holllld up. The sea was no more? Like, the oceans and rivers are gone? Does that mean there will be no swimming, no visits to the beach, and no more Avatar sequels in the eternal state?

Now, before you freak out, let me just say up front: this is code language. This is what Revelation does often: it uses symbols to speak of a deeper reality. It’s not saying there’s no oceans or no dolphins or no Hawaii in the new heavens and new earth. It’s using biblical code words to speak of something else.

In fact, if you’ve looked into it, you’ve probably heard it explained this way: that the sea is a word that represents chaos, and so by saying there was no more sea, that’s actually the Bible saying that there was no more chaos.

And that’s technically not wrong…but there’s actually something much deeper going on here beneath the surface. And by the end of today’s episode, you’ll know all about it.

I find Revelation 21:1 to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

But to start, turn to Revelation 5, and let’s get weird.

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Check out my interview with Megan Medick on Uncommon Sense right here: