Key passage
Revelation 21:1-8
The new heaven and new earth, the second death, and the tree of life inside the city.
The text
1I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. 2I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.” 5He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” 6He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
1He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no night, and they need no lamp light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
14Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
The immediate context
John sees the new heaven and the new earth and the holy city coming down. Death, mourning, crying and pain are gone, the one who conquers inherits, and a list of the cowardly, the faithless and the immoral is assigned a portion in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. In the following chapter the tree of life stands inside the city.
Where it sits in the canon
The tree of life returns from Genesis 2 and 3, where access to it was barred so that fallen humanity would not live for ever. Here it stands inside the city, and those said to be outside the gates are described in terms that match the list in Revelation 21:8.
Why it matters
The case has to answer two questions here: whether the passing away of death and pain is universal or local, and whether the people listed outside the city are still alive after Revelation 20.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment read the lists in Revelation 21:8 and 22:15 as describing the lost in their final condition, outside the city while the redeemed are within, which presupposes that they continue to exist. On this reading the promise that death and mourning are no more is made to the redeemed inside the city, which is what the text says, and is not a claim about every corner of the new creation.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists reply that both lists describe people as they now are and recapitulate the fate announced in Revelation 20:15 rather than reporting a surviving population. The source document argues that the same Greek verb describes the first heaven and earth passing away and the old order of death and pain passing away, so neither is merely relocated, and that those outside have no access to the tree of life and therefore do not live for ever.
Where the readings agree
- The tree of life stands inside the city and the unrighteous have no access to it.
- The second death is the portion of those named in Revelation 21:8.
- Death, mourning, crying and pain are said to have passed away.
- The new creation is where righteousness dwells.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether the lists outside the city describe people who remain alive in the new creation, or recapitulate the fate of the ungodly as they are described now.
Notes on the wording
- The verb used of the old order passing away in Revelation 21:4 is the same verb used of the first heaven and the first earth in Revelation 21:1.
Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.
Editorial notes
- The source document treats access to the tree of life as the means by which bodily life is sustained, in Eden and in the city alike.
- The case reads the exclusion lists as recapitulation rather than as a chronological report, and presents that as its reading rather than as a settled conclusion.
- The author asks how the redeemed could be without mourning if their loved ones were consciously suffering, and offers it as a consideration rather than as evidence.
Where this passage appears in the case
- S03 Revelation 20: The Lake of Fire and the Second DeathWhere the clause about unending torment sits in the passage, what the lake of fire does to Death and Hades, and how much weight the placement can carry.
- S21 The Tree of Life and Conditional LifeWhat Genesis says the tree did, where it stands in Revelation, and which part of this argument is inference.
- S24 No More Death, Mourning, Crying, or PainThe verb in Revelation 21, what it is applied to, and how far the argument reaches.
- S28 Are the Wicked Still Present After Revelation 20?The recapitulation reading, the promise that righteousness dwells in the new creation, and the tree-of-life argument for anyone who reads it literally.
Related passages
- Revelation 20:10-15The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.
- 1 Corinthians 15:42-44The resurrection chapter, where imperishability and immortality are given rather than assumed.
- 2 Peter 3:7-13The present order kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
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