Introduction

Any study of the people of God in Revelation must include consideration of the final visions or risk serious distortion of John's message. Our primary focus has been the role of the people of God in the central chapters of the book (chs. 6–14), but the thematic threads of those chapters consistently lead towards the climax in chs. 21–2. Therefore we must conclude with a brief examination of the New Jerusalem visions. This is not an in-depth study of either these texts or the secondary literature, but rather a reflection on how the final visions relate to the themes we have traced. We shall treat three themes or, rather, clusters of themes, namely the vindication of the martyrs, the victory of the saints, and the marriage of the Lamb. Each will be treated in two ways. First, in a forward direction, we shall summarize how these themes anticipate, and in some cases require, the New Jerusalem visions for their completion. Secondly, with a backward view, we shall highlight ways in which the New Jerusalem visions fulfil or exceed the expectations which have been created, and supplement ideas about the people of God which might not have appeared incomplete in themselves. Finally, we shall consider how John makes these concepts immediate to his audience in the conclusion of the book.

Discourse analysis makes it clear that John gives us two distinct vision accounts of the New Jerusalem.