[ZNPaaneah]

25And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there): 26and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it: 27and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

This is quite amazing. How does this gate prevent those who make a lie, or who are unclean or an abomination from entering? Balaam, the false prophet, is an example of one who makes a lie. He figures prominently in the church in Pergamum. Jezebel is an abomination, she figures prominently in the church in Thyatira. Ten of the twelve tribes were involved in making a lie about what happened to Joseph. Certainly, many of those who are in the New Jerusalem were unclean. That is the brilliance of this gate.

A sand grain is an offending, foreign particle that the mollusk covers in nacre. A pearl is not composed solely of the nacre, but also includes the foreign particle, but it has been dealt with. Likewise, being inoculated from a disease means that you have already been exposed to it, dealt with it, and now have immunity to it.

There are many who come through these gates of mercy that “made a lie”, that is not in dispute, the point is not that they never did this in the past, the point is that they do not “make” a lie in the present. The city is filled with the immunity to those that make a lie because there are those who have previously been exposed to this and they have repented of it. Likewise with an abomination. Perhaps in the past that was their case but not now in the future. This is one form of protection that you get when you give mercy. It is a fearful thing for a liar or cheat to realize there are those observing him that can see through the charade. This is why Matt 18 says it is necessary that occasions of stumbling come. We have to be exposed to these liars, abominations and unclean in order to be inoculated.

There is a second connection between this gate and Matthew 18 which is equally brilliant. Scam artists feed off of others greed. The reason others are willing to suspend their caution and disregard certain protections is that they think they are getting a special deal that might be “illegal”. This opens them to being defrauded. However, you cannot enter this city unless you have “humbled yourself as a small child”. Arrogance and pride open you up to being the victim of a scam. Why did those in the LRC accept WL? Surely the thought that they were the “elite” christians who alone were faithful to the pure word played a role. Slandering all other Christians was not a “red flag” but rather “speaking the truth”. The abusive practices were not abusive, they were simply the price one pays to be elite. Repenting of this pride is the requirement to receive mercy to enter through this gate.