阅读经文 

在历史的尽头，经过长期艰苦的战斗，撒但被基督和祂的信徒打败了。（参启 12:10-11）耶稣完成了祂第一次降临时所开启的工作——恢复神美好的世界，让人类做真正的管家。

天与地合而为一，神的旨意完全行在地上，如同行在天上。（参太 6:10）我们获知一件奇怪的事：“海也不再有了。”在这里，神并不是要让世界缺失祂看为“好”的自然界的海洋，（参创 1:10）而是要除去海所代表的东西——混乱和悖逆。任何有可能损害神美好创造的事物都被消除了。然后，我们看到“生命水的河，明亮如水晶”，从神的宝座流出，将生命树的叶子送到世人面前，医治世人多年来由于罪恶、死亡、灾难和邪恶所受的创伤。（参约 7:38；结 47）末了，“认识耶和华荣耀的知识，要充满遍地，好像水充满海洋一般。”（哈 2:14）

这就是当一个人奉圣父、圣子和圣灵的名受洗时，我们所设想的世界最终的现实。洗礼预示着在基督里的重生，和整个受造世界的新生。

At the end of history, after battles long and hard, Satan is defeated by Christ and his followers . (see Revelation 12:10-11)And Jesus completes the work he began when he first came: the restoration of true human stewards and his good world.

Heaven and earth are united; God's will is fully done on earth as it was already done in heaven (see Matthew 6:10). And we are told something odd: "there was no longer any sea." Here God is not ridding the world of its "good" natural seas, (see Genesis 1:10) but, rather, what the sea represents: chaos and rebellion. Anything that threatens to harm God's good creation is done away with. Then we see "the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal," flowing from God's throne, delivering the leaves of the tree of life to the world for its healing after so many years of sin, death, destruction, and evil . (see John 7:38,Ezekiel 47)And at last the earth is "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" .(Habakkuk 2:14)

This is the final reality we envision when a person is baptized in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism anticipates renewal in Christ and the rebirth of the whole world to new life, flooded with grace.