Thoughts on Revelation
ASSURANCE
Thoughts on Revelation
ASSURANCE
Assuring God’s People
The terrible warning plagues of chapters 8 and 9 should have brought the followers of the Dragon to repentance but they did not. We would have thought the same about the earlier plagues on Egypt but for one reason or another, humans find grounds for not repenting. Impenitence and defiance at this level generates fear by its blind and savage “no surrender” character. Since the enemy is so bent on evil, the righteous need to be assured and that is what chapters 11 and 12 do.
In chapter 11 God’s people (the temple and city) are seen trodden under by the enemy but their center cannot be taken – the inner sanctuary remains untaken. God’s people (the two Witnesses) may wear sackcloth all the while they preach during the enemy’s “time” of power, but they cannot be stopped in their proclamation. And when it seems they have been stopped by being killed, they are dead for only three and a half days before being resurrected.
In chapter 12 the People of God (the glorious Woman and her seed) endure a wilderness experience, but they are protected and nourished while they are there. In chapter 12 the Dragon loses against the Woman, against the single Child and against God’s servant, Michael the archangel. The Dragon is presented as a three-time loser. All this assurance is needed in light of chapters 8 and 9 and in light of the two beasts about to be described.
The two beasts
No wonder the righteous need assuring, because chapter 13 shows them the true nature of the enemy opposing them. The sea-beast is Rome as the powerful brute kingdom and the earth-beast is Rome as the sly religious kingdom.
John mentions its seven heads in 13:1. In 17:9-10 we are told that these heads represent two things. They represent the hills on which the Harlot sits (coins and etchings shows Rome as built on seven hills) and they represent seven kings. The seven kings/emperors are: Augustus, Tiberias, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian and Titus. (Three are excluded from the list. The three excluded are three who ruled (more or less) during the period of civil war between the death of Nero and Vespasian’s coming to the throne. See Daniel 7:8, 20.)
But John mentions an “eighth” king in 17:11. His name is Domitian who was both the 11th emperor and “the eighth.” With the death of Nero the persecution of Christians ceased and with the accession of Domitian it was renewed. the accession of Domitian it was renewed.
John describes the beast in this way in 11:7, 13:3, 12 and 17:8. He says it has three phases. It was, it is not and it is about to come up out of the abyss to make war on the saints. It was a brute beast against God’s people in Nero but the head was slain and the beast “dies.” While John writes the book he says the beast “is not” (17:11). Note that he says the beast is not even though he says there is an emperor reigning (“one is” – 17:10). While John writes, there is a Roman emperor but he is not persecuting the Christians (the brute beast “is not” because it died in Nero) but the brute beast is about to resurrect. You will certainly have recognized that this is a parody of the career and experience of the true Lord who lived, died and is alive forever more.
“Five are fallen” (17:10) – Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. “One is” (17:10) – that is Vespasian. “One is not yet come but when he comes he must continue a little while” (17:10) – that is Titus who reigned for a little over two years. Then came Domitian. He began a persecution that became more and more severe and only ended in 311 A.D. with the Edict of Toleration under Galerius and Constantine. John takes Domitian as the fitting representative of all that Rome was and stood for.
The ten horns of the beast are the “client kings of Rome.” See any standard history of Rome. Revelation tells us that these are kings that gave their authority to the beast (13:1 and 17:12-18). In the purposes of God this is how Rome was destroyed. She disintegrated from within (see 17:12-18).
More assurance for the People of God
Chapter 13 brings a fearful message indeed, but chapters 14 and 15 lift the hearts of God’s people. John sees the 144,000 marked with God’s name rather than the name or number of the beast (see 13:16-18 – there is nothing here about credit card account numbers or modern governments tattooing ID numbers on anyone). The 144,000, faithful and victorious, are singing.
Four angels (14:6, 8, 9 and 17) proclaim good news about the imminent fall of Babylon (Rome). The headlines they announce are fulfilled one by one in the rest of the book. The evil City is going to fall (14:8 and chapter 18). The beast’s worshipers will be judged (14:9-12 and 20:11-15) and the righteous are to be gathered in like wheat to a barn (14:13-16, and compare chapters 21- 22).
Chapter 15 announces the arrival of the seven angels who have the final plagues, the full outpouring of God’s wrath (15:1; 7-8). These, you will remember, follow because the trumpets had failed to bring the beast and its allies to repentance.
The bowls of wrath are poured out
The bowls look like the trumpets, only they are more severe. Remember, we are to think of the plagues on Egypt and that will tell us what is happening here and how the plagues function. All these are pictures. We are not supposed to take them literally.
Bear in mind the Woman of chapter 17 is a great City. She is the City that rules the world in John’s day (17:18) and she is built on seven hills (17:9). She is the world’s leading commercial power (chapter 18) and not a Church. In chapter 18 she is burned with fire. Nero set fire to Rome and it survived, but God would set fire to it and it would not survive. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire and they did not do it, but the God of the Christians sets this fire – He did do it.
Celebration and then Armageddon
The celebration in 19:1-10 takes place even before the battle of Armageddon is fought. That speaks of assurance. The armies in the battle are named (in keeping with chapter 16) and an angel proclaims the result even before the war commences (19:17-18). The evil army is defeated, the two beasts are thrown into the lake of fire (19:19-20) and their followers are killed by Christ (19:21). Rome has perished. She is no more; she has been thrown into the lake of fire and can never again be a threat.
The vision of victory – the triumph described
In Revelation the Dragon works through Rome. At other times in the past he worked through others. In the future he will have to work through others because in Revelation he works through Rome and Rome perished. The defeat of the Dragon in Revelation is the defeat of the Dragon in his use of Rome. That defeat was not partial – it was utter, complete, and final. So it is described as a 1,000 year incarceration. The victory of God’s people over Rome is not partial or “something of” but a total and unlimited triumph, so it is described as a reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4-6 answers the question, “Yes, but what about those who were faithful unto death in the conflict with Rome?” John is given another vision (in addition to chapter 19 and 20:1-3). It is a picture that tells a truth. The picture is the apocalyptic way of saying that those who die in Christ and for righteousness are victorious. Those who die for Rome and unrighteousness are losers.
The resurrection image is not uncommon. See Ezekiel 37:1-14 for an extended illustration of this point. See also Colossians 2:12-3:3; Romans 6:1-7 and John 5:25-27 for the same thing.
In Revelation 20:4-6 see what John is seeing. First, with the war of chapter 19 as background, simply ask yourself what it is that John sees. There is a battlefield with thousands of dead scattered all over the place. As he watches many of them come to life and join others sitting on thrones and they reign with Christ 1,000 years. The rest of the dead that are scattered about the battlefield remain dead all the while the saints are reigning in triumph. Then they rise from the dead only to be judged and to die again in the lake of fire (20:5; 11-15). In the picture there are two resurrections. One is to life and triumph – that is the one he sees “first.” The one he sees next is “after” the 1,000 years because the first resurrection picture only pictures the followers of the Christ. That 1,000 year reign tells their story in imagery. The second resurrection to a second endless death is the story of the followers of the beast told in imagery. These visions are not a description of literal and actual events. Chaining a Dragon and throwing him into a hole and putting a lid on him for a period of time is not the description of literal events. 20:7-10 must occur after the thousand years. Why is that? Because the image of a 1,000 year imprisonment must be allowed its message. You cannot have him free and active during the 1,000 years because that would contradict the inner structure of the scenes. You cannot have the evil dead living during the 1,000 year reign of the saints because that is the image reserved to tell the story of the saints. So, as the visions unfold, Satan is pictured as freed for a little while, getting an army from the four corners of the earth but it is all to no avail.
This vision functions in this way. It assures the People of God that it makes no difference how, when or where Satan might show himself, he loses and they win. This is not a prediction of a still future war, it is God saying to His people, “It doesn’t matter when or where or how Satan appears – your future is secure and his final end is destruction!”
The triumphant and glorious church
When the smoke clears we find the New Jerusalem (the Church, the wife of Christ) not in rags or blood-spattered, but looking like a bride (21:2). That is the city that John sees in 21:9-10. It is not a literal city. It is the wife of the Lamb.
While John is dealing with eternal realities, he is not dealing with a period of time in eternity. You will notice that there are still nations to whom the City gives light (21:24). You will notice that the nations still need to gain health and that the City provides it (22:2). You will notice that nations still bring their riches to the City and you will notice that someone could lose his or her share to the Tree of Life (22:19). In eternity? No, John is certainly dealing with eternal truths and eternal realities, but he is describing the triumphant state of the church. By God’s redeeming and sustaining grace it has come through its trial with the brutal beast-kingdom Rome. This demonstrates what was already true – that the dominion belongs to the Lord and His Christ.
This is timeless truth. Every judgment rendered by God is a shadow and a “prophecy” of the final and complete judgment when evil will be totally obliterated. Rome (like Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and the rest) is a perfect illustration in the history of the world of the coming obliteration of all evil. But it is more than an illustration, it is meant to proclaim the certainty of a future glorious finale. But Revelation, like Nahum and other Old Testament books, relates to a definitive judgment in time past. And the glory of the triumphant church in Revelation relates to its victory over Rome. It speaks as surely now as it did then.
