"He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (Rev. 21:7). God the Father says, "Fight and remember that you must win. And if you don't win, you'll lose everything." All or nothing. He who has stopped will not climb to the top of the ladder 302   Therefore, only the winner receives the reward.

This is how the Apostle reasons: "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all is yours; but you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). That is, the winner gets absolutely everything. If you are in battle with demons, you must defeat them. And you have already made a promise to fight demons at the moment of Baptism, when you swore allegiance to Christ as King and God.

"And I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (Rev. 21:7). Man will attain adoption, deification, the very grace that has been promised to us and for which we hope. People will become like God in all but one thing: essence. As St. Maximus the Confessor said, we will receive absolutely everything, we will receive all the Divine qualities, except for consubstantiality.

Because consubstantiality presupposes uncreatedness. But people will receive eternity, so they will become beginningless. Paradox. Idea? "But the fearful, and the unfaithful, and the filthy, and the murderers, and the fornicators, and the sorcerers, and the idolaters, and all the liars, shall have a portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. This is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). God clearly warns that people who are afraid or do not want to confess Christ because of false shame are destined for death.

For example, a Muslim whose conscience demands that he renounce the atrocities prescribed by Islam, but he does not refuse. If he is consistent and wants to find the truth, he must seek an encounter with God, he must seek God, and not be satisfied with the words "God is one." He must seek to meet Him. If such a person does not seek a personal meeting with God, then he will never find Him, because Islam does not allow him to meet him.

303   "And one of the seven angels came to me, who had seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, and said to me, 'Go, I will show you a woman, the bride of the Lamb.' And he lifted me up in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me a great city, holy Jerusalem, which came down from heaven from God" (Rev. 21:9-10).

One of the seven Angels who poured out terrible punishments on the world comes. Why exactly one of these seven comes? In order for John to understand: it is not about some evil will or desire to torment people, but about the justice of God's justice. And so the Angel says: "Come, I will show you the wife and the bride of the Lamb at the same time," that is, the Church of God, which is both the Woman and the Bride of Christ, the Lamb who died for our sins.

John, in order to see the new Jerusalem, ascends in the Holy Spirit to a great and high mountain. Something similar happened to the prophet Ezekiel, but he saw everything indistinctly, unclearly, because he lived in those times when mankind was not justified by the blood of Christ: "In the twenty-fifth year after our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the destruction of the city, on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He led me there.

In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it, on the south side, there were as it were city buildings; and brought me there. And behold, a man whose appearance was like the sight of shining brass, and a linen rope in his hand, and a reed of measurement, and he stood at the gate. And this man said to me, "Son of man! With three thine eyes, and listen with thine ears, and set thy heart upon all that I shall show thee, for this is why thou hast been brought hither, that I may shew thee. all that thou shalt see, thou shalt build up unto the house of Israel'" (Ezekiel 40:1-4).

And then he sees a kind of sacred Temple, an image of the Temple. Here John sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God, the dwelling place in which Cer dwells   kov. Now some say that the new world will be only material, others that it will only be spiritual. Moreover, the second opinion is more widespread, as a result of which people reach a certain symbolism of spirituality, the idea of the absolute destruction of the material world after the end of time.

It must be understood that such a statement contradicts the Holy Scriptures and our hope for the resurrection of the flesh. The resurrected body will live in the material world, and not otherwise. "And he showed me a great city, holy Jerusalem, which came down from heaven from God" (Rev. 21:10). This city was prepared by God, it descends from heaven, that is, it is still with God, above the cosmos, above the world of Angels. "He has the glory of God.

His luminary was like the most precious stone, as if it were a crystalline jasper stone" (Rev. 21:11). The first thing that is said about this city is that it has the glory of God, that is, it will shine with the glory of God. The glory of God is the light of triumph and power. The New Jerusalem is filled with radiance, filled with light without shadows. After all, the light of God is a light without shadows, a very special light that seems to envelop everything.

There is a parallel to this description in the prophet Isaiah: "Arise, shine, [Jerusalem], for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen over you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and darkness the nations; but the Lord shall shine upon thee, and His glory shall be manifested upon thee. And the nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the radiance that riseth upon thee. Lift up your eyes and look around: they are all gathering, coming to you; thy sons come from afar, and carry thy daughters in their arms.160

Then you will see, and you will rejoice, and your heart will tremble, and your heart will be enlarged, because the riches of the sea will turn to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you. A multitude of camels will cover you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; they will all come from Sheba, and bring gold and frankincense, and proclaim glory 305   Gentlemen. All the sheep of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee; The rams of Nebaioth shall serve thee: they shall ascend upon my altar with a good sacrifice, and I will glorify the house of my glory.