Chapter 14: Behold, I Make All Things New (Revelation 21:1–5; 21:22–27; 22:1–5)

In the ancient world, a city closed its gates at night. Enemies prowled in the dark. Walls kept them out. But the New Jerusalem has no night. And its gates never close. Why?

That detail stopped me cold the first time I noticed it. I had read the end of Revelation many times, swept along by the beauty. But I had never asked the simple question: Why describe open gates, and "the nations" walking in through them, if no one ever comes?¹

This chapter is about the final picture in the Bible. After the fire, after the judgment, after the lake and the throne, John sees a city. And the city's gates are open. The nations walk by its light. The kings of the earth bring their glory into it. And on either side of a crystal river stands a tree whose leaves are "for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2).

Here is what makes this picture so striking. Throughout Revelation, "the nations" (Greek ta ethnē, "the peoples, the Gentile nations") and "the kings of the earth" are the enemies. They rage against Christ. They follow the beast. They are thrown into the lake of fire. Yet here, in the final vision, these same groups enter the city, bring their glory, and are healed. The same book that shows the fire also shows the open gates.²

This chapter belongs to Part One of this book, where we let the hope texts speak in their own right. We are not yet answering the hard texts of Revelation. (The lake of fire, the "smoke of their torment," and the second death are owned by Chapter 26.) Here we ask a simpler question: What does the New Jerusalem, with its open gates and its healing leaves, tell us about the end of the story?

"I am making all things new." Not some things. All things. And the gates of the city through which this renewal comes are open.

B. The Text in Context

To feel the full force of these verses, you need to see what comes before and after them in John's vision.

Just before this passage, John has shown the final judgment. The dead stand before the great white throne. The books are opened. Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. Anyone whose name is not written in the book of life is thrown in after them (20:11–15). Revelation 21:8 names who goes there: "the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars." The judgment is real. No one reading Revelation can miss it.³

But then the camera lifts. John sees a new heaven and a new earth. The sea is gone. The holy city descends. And the voice from the throne says, "Behold, I am making all things new" (21:5).

In 21:9 through 21:21, John describes the city in lavish detail. Its walls are jasper. Its foundations are precious stones. Its gates are pearls. The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles (21:12–14). The city represents the people of God in both their Old and New Testament forms.⁴

Notice the key words. "The nations" (Greek ta ethnē) walk by the city's light. "The kings of the earth" bring their glory in. The gates are never shut. The tree of life bears leaves "for the healing" (Greek therapeia, "cure, service of healing") "of the nations."⁵ And a few verses later, the Spirit and the bride cry out: "Come. . . . Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (22:17).

The text draws from Isaiah 60, where the prophet sees the nations streaming to Zion: "Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession" (Isaiah 60:11, ESV).⁶ John takes that image and plants it in the consummation. The old hope of the prophets reaches its goal.

C. The Heart of the Case

1. The Open Gates and the Nations Coming In

The first thing to notice is the gates. In the ancient world, open gates meant one thing: people were welcome to enter. Closed gates meant one thing: enemies were outside, and the city was on guard. John says plainly that the gates of the New Jerusalem "will never be shut" (21:25).⁷

Now, the wall of the city does serve a purpose. As Mathias Rissi has argued, it marks the line between inside and outside: between those in the city (the redeemed) and those outside (in the lake of fire, 21:8).⁸ The wall is not for defense; the wicked are in no position to attack. It is a boundary marker.

But then John tells us that the nations and the kings of the earth walk into the city through these open gates. And here is the detail that changes everything: these are not neutral terms. Throughout the entire book of Revelation, "the nations" and "the kings of the earth" refer to the enemies of God and His people. They are the groups who followed the beast, who committed fornication with Babylon, who made war on Christ (17:2; 18:3, 9; 19:19).⁹

Robin Parry makes this case with great care. In Revelation 5:9 and 7:9, the saints are not called "the nations." They are redeemed "from every tribe and language and people and nation." The church is drawn out from the nations. The nations themselves, as a category, remain the apostate, rebellious peoples throughout the book. The kings of the earth are even more clearly marked: they fornicate with Babylon, hide from God's wrath, and join the beast's army.¹⁰

I find this argument very strong. John did not need to say "the kings of the earth." Isaiah 60 says "kings." John changed the phrase to "kings of the earth," his own loaded label for the beast's allies. He wanted us to know exactly who was walking in.¹¹

2. The Healing of the Nations

The second detail is the tree of life. It stands on either side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month. And its leaves are "for the healing of the nations" (22:2).

Stop and think about that. Who needs healing in the finished city of God? If the nations are already saved, if the consummation is already complete, why does John describe a tree that heals? The word is therapeia. It is the root of our word "therapy." It means a medical cure, a restoring treatment.¹²

John added "the nations" to his source text here. Ezekiel 47:12 describes the same tree, but it does not say "the nations." John inserted them. This is his own emphasis. The very peoples who rebelled and were judged now receive healing from the tree of life in the city of God.¹³

R. Zachary Manis notes the connection between the tree of life and the presence of Christ. The tree of life ties the end of the Bible back to its beginning. Humanity was once banished from the Garden of Eden, kept away from the tree lest they "eat, and live forever" in their fallen state (Genesis 3:22). Now, in the consummation, the tree stands open. And the leaves that come from it heal.¹⁴ Manis points out the striking parallel with Jesus' own words: "I am the bread of life. . . . This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:48, 51). The fruit of the tree and the bread of life are the same reality: the presence of Christ that gives life.¹⁵

Jerry Walls, who is not himself a universalist, finds the image suggestive of continued growth and healing. He notes that the tree's leaves, combined with the image of the Lamb guiding the redeemed "to springs of the water of life" (Revelation 7:17), point to a picture of sanctification that continues into the new creation. Walls reads this as compatible with a purgatorial process: characters being perfected so they can truly be at home in God's presence.¹⁶ I go further than Walls does. But I share his reading of the image. Something is still happening in the new creation. Healing is still at work.

3. Those Outside, the Open Call, and the Way In

The third detail is the contrast between inside and outside, and the invitation that bridges them.

Revelation 22:14–15 draws the line sharply: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."¹⁷

There is an "inside" and an "outside." The outside is not a pleasant place. (The lake of fire and its meaning belong to Chapter 26; I will not re-argue it here.) But notice what comes next. Verse 17: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."

To whom is this invitation spoken? The bride, in Revelation's own language, is the glorified church: the New Jerusalem itself (19:7; 21:2). The Spirit is God's own Spirit. And the invitation is "Come." Take the water of life as a gift.¹⁸

Parry asks the question I find hard to escape: Who is there left to invite? If everyone inside the city is already saved, the invitation is not for them. If everyone outside the city is permanently excluded, the invitation has no audience. But if the gates are open, and the bride is calling, and the water of life is free, then someone outside the city is being invited in.¹⁹

I think the simplest reading of the text is the strongest one. John paints a picture of a city with open gates, a tree that heals, and a voice that calls, "Come." The picture points toward a consummation that is still drawing people in.

Notice, too, the condition for entry. It is not "those who never sinned" or "those who believed before they died." It is "those who wash their robes" (22:14). To wash one's robes is to be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb (7:14). Repentance and faith in Christ are the way in. The universalist simply points out that the washing can happen for those outside the city, too.²⁰

Talbott presses this logic with force. If there are only two places in John's final geography (the city and the lake of fire), and if entry to the city requires washing one's robes, then the washing must take place in the lake. As Talbott puts it, "where else could those outside the city wash their robes except in the lake of fire?" This becomes, he argues, "one more instance of the Pauline doctrine, so clearly expressed in the eleventh chapter of Romans, that God is merciful even in his severity."²¹

4. The Whole Canon: Isaiah 60 and the Restoration

The fourth thing to notice is how deeply John's vision draws from the Old Testament. This is not a free-standing image. It is the climax of a story that runs through the prophets.

Isaiah 60 is the primary source. There, the prophet sees the nations streaming to a restored Zion. "The wealth of the nations shall come to you" (60:5). "Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut" (60:11). "The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you" (60:14). The enemies become worshipers. The oppressors become pilgrims.²²

But Isaiah's plotline is larger than one chapter. Parry traces it through the whole book. First, the nations rebel and are judged (Isaiah 13–14; 24–26; 34). Then Israel is restored. Then the nations flow to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel (60:1–16; 2:1–4; 66:18–23). The order matters: judgment comes first, then restoration. The destruction is real. But it is not the end of the story.²³

Parry argues that John follows the same plot. He uses Isaiah's "condemnation of the nations" texts in Revelation 14 and 18–19. He uses Isaiah's "salvation of the nations" texts in Revelation 21–22. The order is the same. The judgment is severe. And then the nations come in.²⁴

This connects to the restoration we traced in Chapter 13. Peter's promise that Christ will remain in heaven "until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke" (Acts 3:21) finds its visual form here. The restoration of all things is not a bare concept. It has a picture. And the picture is a city with open gates and a tree that heals.

The Old Testament pattern we explored in Chapter 16, the prophets' rhythm of "tear then heal," reaches its final expression in Revelation 21–22. Isaiah 19:22 says it plainly about Egypt: "The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing." The same God who judges also heals. And in the New Jerusalem, the healing is on display.²⁵

5. The Constructive Move: An Open Consummation

I want to be careful here. Revelation is apocalyptic literature. Its images are symbolic. The city is not a literal cube of gold and gems. The tree of life is not a literal piece of timber with medicinal bark. The open gates are not literal wooden doors on literal hinges. We read Revelation for what its symbols mean, not for a floor plan of the age to come.²⁶

But symbols mean something. And the meaning of these symbols, read together, points in one clear direction: the consummation is still drawing the nations in.

Consider what John has given us. He has shown the nations and the kings of the earth judged and thrown into the lake of fire (19:19–21; 20:15). Then he has shown these same nations and kings walking into the city of God, bringing their glory, being healed. He has described gates that never close. He has described leaves for healing. He has put the invitation "Come" on the lips of the Spirit and the bride in the last lines of the Bible. And he has said that the condition for entry is not innocence but cleansing: "those who wash their robes" (22:14).²⁷

This does not look like a city with a "No Entry" sign. It looks like a city whose whole architecture is designed to welcome people in.

The church itself, in this picture, is called the "firstfruits" (Greek aparchē) of God and the Lamb (14:4). In the Bible, the firstfruits are the first sheaf of the harvest, offered to God as a promise that the rest of the harvest is on the way. If the redeemed community is the firstfruits, then the nations are the rest of the harvest, still to come in.²⁸

Parry puts it this way: the church is a guarantee that the full pilgrimage of the nations will follow. The present-age community of believers, drawn from every tribe and tongue, is a foretaste of the day when the nations themselves, once enemies, come in as worshipers. The first installment proves the full harvest is on the way.²⁹

I hold this reading with the humility the genre requires. Apocalyptic texts are not blueprints. They are visions. And visions work by symbol, not by timetable. But I believe the symbols here lean strongly toward an open consummation, a city still drawing the world in, a God who is genuinely making all things new.

D. Engagement with Specific Scholars

Parry's reading of Revelation is, in my judgment, one of the most important pieces of the entire universalist case. He traces the references to "the nations" and "the kings of the earth" through every chapter of Revelation and shows that they consistently refer to the enemies of God. Then he shows these same enemies entering the New Jerusalem. The argument depends not on one verse but on the internal logic of the whole book.³⁰

Thomas Talbott strengthens the case from a different angle. He focuses on the lake of fire itself and argues that it represents purgatorial suffering in the presence of God. Talbott notes that the lake of fire is God's holy presence (as 2 Thessalonians 1:9, properly translated, suggests), and that the open gates of the New Jerusalem show the fire doing its work: the nations are purified and enter. Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, and this is "the death of death," the destruction of everything that separates us from God.³¹

R. Zachary Manis, who develops the divine-presence model of hell without committing to universalism, finds the Revelation 22 imagery deeply supportive of his framework. The river of the water of life and the river of fire both flow from the throne. On his reading, they are the same reality: God's presence, experienced as life by the reconciled and as fire by the rebellious. The tree of life, rooted in both rivers, offers its leaves for healing. The fruit of the tree is the bread of life, the flesh of Christ. To be healed is to come into communion with Him.³²

George Sidney Hurd presses the case with several sharp observations. In The Triumph of Mercy, he devotes an entire chapter to the open gates, titled "Her Gates are Always Open." He notes that those sentenced in the judgment will receive "their part" in the lake of fire (21:8). The Greek word is meros, meaning "portion" or "share." This implies a measured sentence, not an endless one. A measured punishment has a limit. Hurd connects this to Jesus' language of "few stripes" and "many stripes" (Luke 12:47–48) and "you will not get out until you have paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:26). All of these qualifying phrases rule out an unending sentence.³³

Hurd also makes a key point about the book of life. He asks: if there were no possibility of leaving the lake of fire and having one's name written in the book of life later, why would the book of life be mentioned at all with reference to entering the gates of the New Jerusalem (21:27)? The mention of the book of life after the Great White Throne Judgment implies that names can still be added.³⁴

In A Defense of Biblical Universalism, Hurd answers De Young directly on this point. He shows that the invitation of Revelation 22:17 is set in a post-judgment context. The Church does not become the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, until the wedding feast at Christ's Second Coming. The New Jerusalem does not descend upon the new earth until after the Millennium and the Great White Throne. Yet the Bride and the Spirit are the ones issuing the invitation. These are new-earth conditions, and the invitation is still going out to those outside.³⁵

Hunter Coates, in Grace Abounds, adds a different angle. He notes that the nations were said to be cast into the lake of fire (21:8; 21:27), "but now they are allowed into the city." He stresses that the Greek is emphatic about the gates: they will never be shut. The language and theme parallel Isaiah 60, where the gates were left open to allow the nations to enter. Coates draws a pointed conclusion about the tree of life: since the nations are mentioned as those needing healing, and the previous chapter established that the nations are in the lake of fire, the text about healing "does not make sense unless one expresses that reconciliation is possible for the nations."³⁶

Gerry Beauchemin, in Hope Beyond Hell, brings out a detail others often miss. He walks through the final geography of the text: the gates never close, there is a world of sinners outside, there are servants serving God and priests reigning with Christ, and there are nations needing healing. He asks the natural question: what will Christ's servants and priests be doing? They will rule justly, proclaim the good news, and intercede as priests. And the invitation of 22:17 applies to the very sinners mentioned in the same context. "So long as a Savior is needed, He saves!" Beauchemin writes. "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).³⁷

Andrew Hronich presses the point about "all things new." If God is truly making all things new, not merely some things, then the vision of the New Jerusalem depicts a renewal that reaches the whole of creation. As Hronich puts it, quarantining the majority of creation is not the same as renewing it. Either God makes all things new, or He does not.³⁸

On the other side, the strongest opposition comes from G. K. Beale, the premier Revelation commentator, and from James De Young. I will take up their readings in the next section. Here I simply note that even Beale acknowledges the tension. He writes that the point of the image is that "the Gentiles will never be separated from open, eternal access to God's presence and that nothing evil can threaten such access." Parry responds that this is an unlikely reading: the city already represents the totality of the redeemed. The arrival of the nations makes much better sense as the repentance of the previously unredeemed.³⁹

Michael McClymond, in The Devil's Redemption, levels a broader charge. He argues that Parry "misses the representative universalism of the book of Revelation," noting that Revelation never says God saves "every nation" but rather saves people "from every nation" (Revelation 5:9; 7:9). On McClymond's reading, this distinction is decisive: Revelation teaches that a redeemed remnant is drawn out of every people, not that the peoples themselves are collectively saved.⁵¹ McClymond further criticizes what he calls Parry's "post-damnation salvation" for requiring a series of ancillary hypotheses to maintain, and compares the overall approach to the epicycles of Ptolemaic astronomy: each problem passage generates a new sub-hypothesis to preserve the universal conclusion. I take the force of this objection. But I think McClymond's own reading has a difficulty he does not address: if John intended "the nations" and "the kings of the earth" to mean "the redeemed from every nation," why did he use the very terms he had consistently reserved for the enemies throughout the book? Parry's reading explains John's word choice. McClymond's has to override it. (For the fuller engagement with McClymond's critique of Parry on the Revelation condemnation texts, see Chapter 26.)⁵²

E. Counter-Objections

The strongest challenges to this reading come from scholars who argue that the open gates and the arriving nations do not point to any post-judgment salvation. Let me state the three main objections fairly, then answer each.

Objection 1: "The nations" and "kings of the earth" are simply the redeemed from every nation.

De Young, in his treatment of the apostles' teaching on judgment, argues that the nations and kings who enter the New Jerusalem are the elect, the redeemed gathered from among every people. He writes plainly: "Finally, the future state of the new heavens and new earth still has the existence of the wicked outside the holy city" (p. 88). Elsewhere he adds: "The text never says that anyone from the lake of fire ever gets out in order to enter the city" (p. 60). On De Young's reading, the open gates do not signify ongoing entry from the lake of fire. They signify the security of a city where no enemy threatens.⁴⁰

De Young presses a further point from Revelation 22:11 and 22:15. He reads 22:11 ("Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy") as evidence that from this point forward, no one changes. It is, in his words, "a powerful testimony to eternal, unchanging destinies" that "directly opposes the claims of universal reconciliation." He adds that the present tense in 22:15, which describes the wicked continuing to pursue evil even in the lake of fire, shows that none of them seeks to repent.⁵³ I want to state this argument at its full strength because it is genuinely weighty. But I think it reads too much finality into what is, in context, a prophetic warning about the seriousness of the present moment, not a metaphysical decree about the future. The same literary unit that says "let the evildoer still do evil" also says, two verses later, "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come'" (22:17). These sit in tension only if 22:11 is a doctrine of unchanging destiny. If it is instead a call to urgency, the tension dissolves.

James Beilby, who is not a universalist, carefully evaluates this reading. He notes that the open-gates-as-security interpretation has real force. In the ancient Near East, gates that remained open signaled that no threat existed. But Beilby also grants that Parry's reading is coherent and that the question turns on what "the nations" means in Revelation's own vocabulary.⁴²

I think Parry's answer is the stronger one. In Revelation, "the nations" is never a term for the redeemed. In 5:9 and 7:9, the saints are redeemed from the nations; they are not called "the nations." The nations are the group from which the redeemed are drawn. For John to suddenly use "the nations" to mean "the saved" in chapter 21, without any signal of a change in meaning, would be confusing at best.⁴³ And the phrase "kings of the earth" clinches the case. John changed Isaiah's "kings" to "kings of the earth," his own label for the beast's allies (17:2, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:19). He wanted the reader to know who was walking in.

Hurd answers De Young's claim that "the text never says that anyone from the lake of fire ever gets out" by noting that while this is not directly stated, it is clearly implied. The word "their part" (Greek meros, "portion") in 21:8 implies a measured sentence. The language of "few stripes" and "many stripes" and "until you have paid the last penny" all point the same direction. And if the condemned outside the gates were eternally condemned, Hurd asks, why would they be called to wash their robes so as to be able to enter?⁴¹

This is Beale's strongest point. He argues that the condemnation texts in Revelation show the punishment as not temporary (14:10–11; 20:10), and so the arrival of the nations in 21:24–27 cannot refer to salvation from the lake of fire.⁴⁴

Parry answers by asking a fair question: Why should the condemnation texts be the fixed point and the hope texts be read to fit them? Why not the reverse? Why not take the open gates and the healing of the nations as the starting point and then re-read the condemnation texts in their light? Neither approach is obviously correct until the exegesis is done. (That re-reading of the condemnation texts is the work of Chapter 26.)⁴⁵

I agree with Parry here. The traditional reading assumes that the "eternal" punishment texts settle the question, and then reads the hope texts to fit. This book argues for the opposite order: let the hope texts speak first, and then ask whether the hard texts truly foreclose what they say. The open gates do not prove universal salvation by themselves. But they are a genuine piece of the picture. And that picture leans toward hope.

Beilby states this reading clearly. He argues that a city whose gates are open is a city at peace: no enemies to fear, no desire to leave. The open gates are a symbol of perfect safety, not an ongoing immigration policy.⁴⁷

I grant this is a possible reading. Gates can symbolize security. But two things push against it. First, the source text in Isaiah 60:11 gives the reason for the open gates: "that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations." In Isaiah, the gates are open so that people can come in. John draws from that text. He keeps the open gates and he keeps the nations coming in. The link between open gates and incoming traffic is already in the source.⁴⁸

Second, the very next verse (21:26) says, "The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it." Something is being brought in. The gates are open because traffic is flowing.

I do not claim certainty here. The text is apocalyptic. Its images carry more than one layer of meaning. But I believe the weight of the evidence favors Parry's reading: the gates are open because the nations are coming in. And they are coming in through repentance and faith in the Lamb.

F. Conclusion and the Boundary

After the fire, after the throne, after every tear has been named and every rebel has been judged, John sees gates that never close. He sees nations walking in. He sees a tree whose leaves heal. He hears the Spirit and the bride calling, "Come."

I do not base my hope on this passage alone. The case for the restoration of all things rests on the full witness of Scripture, the texts we have walked through in Part One of this book and the cumulative weight of the whole (see Chapter 30). But this passage is one of the most striking single images in the Bible. It is the visual form of the hope. And it comes at the end, where the story resolves.⁴⁹

Let me be clear about what this chapter does and does not claim. It does not claim that Revelation 21–22 proves universal salvation beyond all dispute. The genre is apocalyptic. The symbols are rich and layered. Honest readers can weigh them differently. I have said where I come down. I believe the open gates and the healing of the nations point toward an open consummation, a city still drawing the world in. But I hold that reading with the humility the genre demands.

What I do claim is this: the final vision of the Bible is not a vision of permanent exclusion. It is a vision of a God who makes "all things" new. And the gates of His city are open.

The God who built this city is the God whose character we traced in Chapter 2: a God who desires all to be saved, who sent His Son as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (Chapter 11), and who has bound Himself by His own purpose to bring all things under the headship of Christ (Chapter 12). This is the same God. And the city He builds has open gates.

I think of Hannah again, the faithful woman we met in Chapter 1. She lost her brother. He died outside the faith. She wants to know if the larger hope is real. I think the open gates of the New Jerusalem are part of the answer. The gates are open. The tree heals. The invitation still goes out.

Notes

↑ 1. The question is sharpened by the observation that in John's symbolic geography, there are only two locations: inside the city (salvation) and outside the city (the lake of fire, 21:8). If no traffic flows inward, the open gates are a curious architectural choice.

↑ 2. For a thorough analysis of the terms “the nations” (ta ethnē) and “the kings of the earth” through Revelation, see Robin Parry [Gregory MacDonald], The Evangelical Universalist, 3rd ed. (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019), ch. 5, pp. 119–28. Parry shows that these terms are consistently used of the enemies of God and the church.

↑ 3. The final judgment at the great white throne (Rev 20:11–15) is treated in detail in Chapter 26. Here I simply note its place in the narrative sequence that precedes the New Jerusalem vision.

↑ 4. The twelve gates named for the twelve tribes (21:12) and the twelve foundations named for the twelve apostles (21:14) represent the whole people of God across both testaments. See G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 1065–72.

↑ 5. The Greek therapeia (from which we get “therapy”) means “healing, cure, medical treatment.” See BDAG, s.v. therapeia. John’s use of this word in the context of the consummation implies an ongoing work of healing among the nations.

↑ 6. The parallels between Revelation 21–22 and Isaiah 60 are extensive. See J. Fekkes, Isaiah and Prophetic Traditions in the Book of Revelation (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994), for a detailed study of John’s use of Isaianic material.

↑ 7. In the ancient Near East, the closing of a city’s gates at night was a basic defensive measure. Open gates, especially at all times, signaled either absolute security or an ongoing welcome. See Mathias Rissi, The Future of the World: An Exegetical Study of Revelation 19:11–22:15 (London: SCM, 1972), 71–74.

↑ 8. Rissi, Future of the World, 71. Rissi argues that the wall is “a sign of separation” between the redeemed inside and those outside in the lake of fire. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 122, follows this reading.

↑ 9. The sordid career of “the kings of the earth” in Revelation is documented by Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 123–24, and by Vernard Eller, The Most Revealing Book in the Bible: Making Sense out of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), who traces them through fornication with Babylon (17:2; 18:3, 9), hiding from God’s wrath (6:15), and war against Christ (19:19).

↑ 10. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 119–20, 123–24. Parry notes that Rev 5:9 and 7:9 speak of saints redeemed “from” (ek) every nation, not called “the nations.”

↑ 11. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 124. Rissi suggests the change was made in light of Psalm 89:27 (LXX). See Rissi, Future of the World, 73.

↑ 12. BDAG, s.v. therapeia. The word appears in Luke 9:11 (“healed those in need of healing”) and in the LXX. It carries the connotation of medical care and restoration to health.

↑ 13. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 127. Compare Ezekiel 47:12, which describes trees along the river whose leaves are “for healing” but does not mention “the nations.” John’s addition is deliberate.

↑ 14. R. Zachary Manis, Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God: An Essay on the Problem of Hell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), appendix, pp. 389–90. Manis connects the tree of life in Revelation 22 to the tree in Genesis 2–3 and to the bread-of-life discourse in John 6.

↑ 15. Manis, Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God, 390. The connection between the tree of life, the bread of life, and the flesh of Christ draws the image firmly into a Christological frame: healing is communion with Christ.

↑ 16. Jerry L. Walls, Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), ch. 5. Walls cites R. J. Vander Laan’s argument that the tree-of-life imagery in Revelation suggests ongoing sanctification in the new creation. Walls is not a universalist; he defends purgatorial transformation as compatible with Protestant theology.

↑ 17. Rev 22:15 lists those “outside” the city. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 122, notes that “to be outside the city walls is to be in the lake of fire (21:8).”

↑ 18. The bride metaphor in Revelation appears at 19:7; 21:2, 9–10. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 127, notes that in this context the invitation comes from the glorified church-prophetic to those outside the city.

↑ 19. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 127. The three invitations in 22:17 (“Come”) are, on Parry’s reading, addressed to those outside the city, since those inside have no need of the invitation.

↑ 20. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 125. What 21:27 and 22:14 demonstrate is that entry from outside the city requires repentance and faith in the saving work of Christ: “The nations and kings can only exit from the lake of fire through repentance and faith.”

↑ 21. Thomas Talbott, The Inescapable Love of God, 2nd ed. (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2014), 186–87. Talbott argues that the lake of fire is God’s holy presence, experienced as torment by the rebellious, and that the open gates show the fire completing its purgatorial work.

↑ 22. Isaiah 60 is the primary Old Testament source for the New Jerusalem vision. On its influence on Revelation 21–22, see Fekkes, Isaiah and Prophetic Traditions, and Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 131–32.

↑ 23. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 131–32. Parry traces the Isaiah plotline from destruction (chs. 13–14; 24–26; 34) through the restoration of Jerusalem (35; 40; 65:17ff.) to the pilgrimage of the nations (60; 2:1–4; 66:18–23).

↑ 24. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 130–32. Parry provides a chart showing the parallel plotline in Exodus, Isaiah, and Revelation: enemy oppresses → divine judgment → God’s people saved → nations come to worship.

↑ 25. The Old Testament “tear then heal” pattern is developed in Chapter 16. Its fullest expression is Isaiah 19:22: “The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.”

↑ 26. On the genre of Revelation as apocalyptic literature, see Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 1–22. Bauckham stresses that Revelation communicates through symbolic vision, not propositional blueprint.

↑ 27. The convergence of these details (open gates + nations coming in + healing tree + open invitation + robe-washing as the condition) is what gives the universalist reading its cumulative force. No single detail proves the point; together they paint a picture that leans strongly toward hope.

↑ 28. On the firstfruits metaphor in Revelation 14:4, see Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 126. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20, where Paul calls Christ’s resurrection the “firstfruits,” guaranteeing the resurrection of all. Here the church is the firstfruits, guaranteeing the nations’ entry. Cf. James 1:18.

↑ 29. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 126. “The church is made up of those who (to some extent) experience the blessings of the new age in the present. The conversion of the gentiles is a taste of the fullness to come in the new age, when we will see the pilgrimage of all the nations.”

↑ 30. Parry’s treatment of Revelation in The Evangelical Universalist, ch. 5, is arguably the single most important universalist reading of the apocalyptic texts. It tracks the terms “the nations,” “the kings of the earth,” and the pilgrimage-of-nations motif through the entire book.

↑ 31. Talbott, Inescapable Love of God, 186–87. Talbott reads the casting of Death and Hades into the lake of fire (20:14) in light of 1 Corinthians 15:26 (“The last enemy to be destroyed is death”): the lake consumes death itself, including the spiritual death that separates us from God.

↑ 32. Manis, Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God, 388–90. Manis juxtaposes Daniel 7:9–10 (a river of fire flowing from the throne) with Revelation 22:1–2 (a river of the water of life flowing from the throne) and argues that on the divine-presence model these are the same reality: God’s unveiled presence, experienced differently by the reconciled and the rebellious.

↑ 33. George Sidney Hurd, The Triumph of Mercy: The Reconciliation of All through Jesus Christ (2014), ch. 10, “Her Gates are Always Open.” Hurd writes: “In the first place, we see in verse 8 of chapter 21 that those sentenced in the judgment will receive ‘their part’ in the lake of fire. Since they are not found written in the book of life they will be judged and sentenced, each one according to his works. This in itself implies a measured sentence that has an end.” He connects this to Jesus’ language in Matt 5:26 and Luke 12:47–48.

↑ 34. Hurd, Triumph of Mercy, ch. 10. Hurd asks: “If there were no possibility of leaving the lake of fire and having one’s name subsequently written in the book of life, why would the book of life be mentioned with reference to entering the gates of the New Jerusalem?” (citing Rev 21:27). He also notes that Psalm 87 may refer to a future time when the nations will enter the gates of Zion, where “springs of living water” flow (Ps 87:7), and their names will be recorded as having been “spiritually reborn there” (Ps 87:5–6).

↑ 35. George Sidney Hurd, A Defense of Biblical Universalism: A Biblical Response to James B. De Young’s “Exposing Universalism” (2019), ch. 1. Hurd writes: “None of the details of this invitation by the bride in Revelation 22 would have had any application to the old pre-White Throne Judgment earth. Prior to the Second Coming, the Church was not yet the Bride — the Wife of the Lamb, but here it is the Bride who says ‘come.’” The post-judgment setting places the invitation firmly within the new-earth context.

↑ 36. Hunter Coates, Grace Abounds: A Holistic Case for Universal Salvation (2024), ch. 9. Coates writes: “Since the nations are mentioned here and the last chapter (along with earlier verses) established that the nations are in the lake of fire, this verse does not make sense unless one expresses that reconciliation is possible for the nations.” He also notes: “a universalist should have no problem accepting that only one cleansed in fire — either in this life or the lake of fire — can be admitted into the city and added to the Book of Life.”

↑ 37. Gerry Beauchemin, Hope Beyond Hell: The Righteous Purpose of God’s Judgment, rev. ed. (2010), “Is this Universalism?” Beauchemin recaps the final geography: “The gates never close, yet there is a world of sinners outside. There are servants serving God and priests reigning. There are nations needing healing. What does it all mean?” He notes Rev 22:17 and concludes, “Is it not right to think that this invitation applies to the very sinners mentioned in the same context (verses 15–17)?”

↑ 38. Andrew Hronich, Once Loved Always Loved: The Logic of Apokatastasis (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2023). Hronich presses the point: “Either God makes all things new, or He doesn’t. To say ‘all things’ but really mean some things is to obscure all manner of theological understanding.”

↑ 39. Beale, Book of Revelation, 1099, quoted in Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 126. Parry responds that the multi-ethnic composition of the city is already clear before the pilgrimage text (the 144,000 = the great multitude from every nation = the bride = the city). The arrival of “the nations” at this point makes better sense as new entrants.

↑ 40. James B. De Young, Exposing Universalism: Its Source, Its History, Its Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock / Resource Publications, 2018). De Young writes: “Finally, the future state of the new heavens and new earth still has the existence of the wicked outside the holy city” (p. 88). Elsewhere: “The text never says that anyone from the lake of fire ever gets out in order to enter the city” (p. 60). He also argues that “the lake of fire continues to exist (21:8) after God makes all things new (21:5). It continues on forever” (p. 59). These page references are verified via Hurd, A Defense of Biblical Universalism (2019), chs. 1, 8, which responds to De Young on each point.

↑ 41. Hurd, A Defense of Biblical Universalism, ch. 1. In response to De Young’s claim that the text never says anyone gets out, Hurd writes: “While it is true that it is not directly stated, it is clearly implied by such phrases as ‘their part’ or ‘portion’ (Rev 21:8 Gr. meros); not getting out ‘until’ (Matt 5:26, 18:30) and Jesus’ words . . . ‘tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you’ (Matt 21:31), as well as His reference to ‘few stripes’ and ‘many stripes.’”

↑ 42. James Beilby, Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021), pp. 292–95. Beilby presents both the universalist and the non-universalist readings of the open gates fairly, granting that both are coherent interpretations of the metaphor.

↑ 43. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 124. “For John to change the referent now without warning or explanation would only lead to confusion.”

↑ 44. Beale, Book of Revelation, 1097–98. Beale takes the condemnation texts (14:10–11; 20:10) as the fixed point and reads 21:24–26 to fit them. Parry questions this hermeneutical priority; see Evangelical Universalist, 125.

↑ 45. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 125. “Prior to considering the results of such attempts one cannot say that either approach is obviously the correct one.” The re-reading of the condemnation texts is attempted in Chapter 26.

↑ 46. Parry, Evangelical Universalist, 125, and appendix 3 (“The Lamb’s Book of Life”), pp. 257–59. Parry argues that the book of life is not a predestinarian register with fixed contents but a book in which names can be added (when the nations repent and wash their robes) as well as, potentially, removed (3:5).

↑ 47. Beilby, Postmortem Opportunity, 293–94. Beilby argues that “a city whose doors are left open all the time is a city where the inhabitants are unafraid and perfectly content.”

↑ 48. Isaiah 60:11 states the purpose of the open gates: “that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.” The gates are open so that people may come in. John’s allusion carries the same logic.

↑ 49. The structural placement of the New Jerusalem vision at the end of the Bible is itself significant. The story that began with a garden and a tree of life (Genesis 2–3) ends with a city, a tree of life, and a river. The trajectory runs from a locked garden (Gen 3:24, with the cherubim and the flaming sword) to an open city. See Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 126–43.

↑ 50. Revelation 22:17 (ESV). The threefold “Come” is the last invitation in Scripture.

↑ 51. Michael J. McClymond, The Devil’s Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), V 2, pp. 963–64. McClymond writes that Parry “misses the representative universalism of the book of Revelation, where we never read that God saves ‘every nation’ but saves people ‘from every nation’” (citing Rev 7:9; cf. 5:9). He argues: “Not all nations, but some persons from all nations, will finally receive salvation.” This is, for McClymond, a decisive distinction between the redeemed community (drawn from the nations) and the nations as a group.

↑ 52. McClymond, Devil’s Redemption, V 2, p. 964. McClymond compares universalist exegesis of Revelation to Ptolemaic astronomy: “The exegesis of The Evangelical Universalist preserves universalism by adding ancillary hypotheses to the reading of the texts. . . . The earth-centered system of Ptolemy was able to achieve the same result as Copernican astronomy and ‘save the appearances,’ but only by adding innumerable epicycles.” He finds Parry’s handling of the devil’s damnation and of “memorial smoke” (Rev 14:11) particularly strained. The reply is twofold: (a) every reading of Revelation requires interpretive choices, since the genre is apocalyptic symbol; and (b) the question is which reading accounts best for the whole of John’s vision, including the open gates and the healing of the nations, not just the condemnation texts. The fuller response belongs to Chapter 26.

↑ 53. De Young, Exposing Universalism, ch. 13. De Young writes that Rev 22:11 “is a powerful testimony to eternal, unchanging destinies” and that it “directly opposes the claims of universal reconciliation, including the idea that the ‘open gates’ allow for all to change their destiny.” He adds that the present tense in v. 15 describes the wicked’s “continuing pursuit of evil even in the lake of fire” and argues: “In the everlasting state they continue to sin.” The counter-argument draws on two observations: (1) 22:11 is a prophetic summons to urgency addressed to the readers of the vision, and (2) the present-tense description of v. 15 may reflect the nature of apocalyptic vision (describing what John sees), not a doctrinal assertion about the metaphysical permanence of sin. De Young also notes that the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments in Revelation show the wicked responding to judgment not with repentance but with deeper hardening (9:20–21; 16:9, 11, 21), and asks whether this pattern continues in the lake of fire. The universalist answer (given more fully in Chapter 26) is that the pre-consummation judgments are within history, where hearts are still in rebellion; the lake of fire, read as the unveiled divine presence (Chapter 17), is of a different order.