Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely Revelation 22:15
15 For [de] without [exo] are dogs, [kuon] and [kai] sorcerers, [pharmakos] and [kai] whoremongers, [pornos] and [kai] murderers, [phoneus] and [kai] idolaters, [eidololatres] and [kai] whosoever [pas] loveth [phileo] and [kai] maketh [poieo] a lie. [pseudos] KJV-Interlinear
15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. NASB
In the previous verse, those who have believed in Christ, the washed, are the only ones who are allowed into heaven. They have eternal life through their faith in Christ, and that eternal life gains them access to the eternal city, the New Jerusalem, which we have just finished studying.
In the Old Testament, life was divided up into two basic categories. There was the clean, the acceptable, the kosher, the real thing, and then there was the unacceptable, the objectionable, the abomination, and the unclean.
The clean or good things stood as teaching symbols of that which God accepts. The unclean or bad things stood as symbols teaching the things which God does not accept. All of these are from real world applications, parables if you will, which are intended to teach principles of the spiritual life.
Now we have one more contrast, and it is between those who are allowed into the city, verses those who are kept outside of the city.
The city is heaven, outside of the city is the Lake of Fire. And no, this is merely an illustration. When you get to heaven, you will not look out of your window and see the Lake of Fire. Heaven is the new universe. A universe is a very big place. Just look up into the night sky sometime. The Lake of Fire, is separate and apart from heaven. The Lake of Fire is unseen and from our perspective, will be a forgotten place.
Again, in the Old Testament, the garbage and trash and even the dead, were thrown, or buried, or burned outside of the city. They were not included inside the city.
And so the concept is extended here, distinguishing between those who have put on washed clothing, and those who have not. Your washed clothing is the act of your faith in Jesus Christ. Those who refuse to wash, which means simply to refuse to believe in Christ, those then are the unbelievers of human history.
The dogs, the sorcerers, the immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, the liars, are all terms here, which refer to unbelievers in history. People who prefer to pursue a pattern of life apart from faith in Christ.
Everyone who has ever been born alive has committed sins at some point in their life. Some sins are looked upon as being worse than others. Murder for example is viewed as being worse than telling a little white lie.
But we all know that all of the sins of the human race were judged at the Cross. Jesus Christ went to the Cross and paid the price for sin, which was death. And therefore, sin is no longer an issue in the human life.
However, forgiveness was not concluded at the Cross. There is a very big difference between the judgment of sin and the forgiveness of sin. Thus enter the requirement of faith in Christ, which gains forgiveness for the believer at the moment of salvation, and then after salvation, confession is the function of forgiveness during the believer's life. We studied that is great detail in 1, 2, and 3 John.
Unbelievers never believe in Christ, and thus are never forgiven. Unbelievers have only their good deeds to stand on, that which is recorded in the Book of Works. The works of the unbeliever do not match nor exceed the work of Christ, and therefore they are forever condemned to the Lake of Fire. They are unable to pay the high price for entry into heaven, based on their own effort.
Back in ancient times, dogs were undomesticated and despised scavengers that milled about garbage dumps and such. They were viewed as disgusting animals.
Sorcerers are those who love and pursue the occult, including various narcotics, the philosophies and things of life, which are false.
The immoral person, or whoremonger, is one who rejects the moral standards of a normal society. This includes homosexuals, or more commonly known as male prostitution, of whom this is a specific reference, and is a general category of those who destroy society through their attempt at bringing degenerate and unacceptable practices into the norm of society.
The murderers are those who take, through violence, permanently from others, including life itself.
Idolaters are simply those who worship or believe, or pursue, any category of false belief in life.
Liars, is a reference to anyone who rejects the truth. If truth is not in your life, then your life in its entirety, is a lie.
Where is the wisdom of the unbeliever? All one has to do in order to get into heaven, is to think or believe six simple words, 'Father I believe in Jesus Christ.' How much effort does that take? Probably a second or two just to ponder the thought. Moreover, given that the average lifespan is nearing eighty years of age, then out of those eighty years, which is a whole lot of seconds, then just a couple of seconds out of ones life, is not too much to ask.
Lets see, 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. That adds up to 86,400 seconds in just one day. Then there are 365 days in one year, so that adds up to 31,536,000 seconds in one year. And in eighty years there are 20 leap years, so we have to add an extra day for every four years, or twenty extra days for an average lifespan. Hummm! Need the calculator for this one. Ok, I come up with 2,524,608,000 seconds (that is 2.5 billion seconds) in the average life of eighty years.
If you calculate a different number don't bother writing me, the exactness of this number is not important. Asking only two seconds out of ones life is not unreasonable. Everyone can certainly afford the time to believe in Christ.
Likewise, I'll add one more thought to this. If you spend a couple of minutes each evening reading your Bible, or Bible study, then is that too much to ask of you?
Most people want things from God, but in a 24 hour day, or in a 1,440 minute day, is a couple of minutes, even five or ten minutes, too much to ask for ones Bible study?
If you are not willing to give God a few minutes in your day, then why should you expect anything from God? Just thought I would place that thought in your little head.
So, the unbelievers refusal to believe in Christ gains them a first class ticket to the Lake of Fire and eternal horror, pain and suffering. Is that smart?
God calls them dogs, homosexuals, the waste of society. What do we do with waste? We throw it out with the garbage.
Faith in Christ gains you a magnificent mansion in heaven. Unbelief in Christ sends you to the garbage dump.
Who in their right mind would want to live in a garbage dump, when a mansion of gold is offered to them for the price of a mere thought?
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