Thoughts on Revelation
11:15-17
Thoughts on Revelation
11:15-17
Whatever they make of the blowing of the seventh trumpet, most commentators judge it to something that was future at the time John was writing the Book of Revelation. We are particularly interested in Revelation 11:15-17 which says this (NIV): “‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.’”
All the other versions agree with the sense given by the NIV in 11:17 that the Lord God Almighty took His great power and began to reign. The ingressive first aorist is in the indicative (ebasileusas) and follows God’s act of taking His power. Of that a perfect is used (‘eleiphes’), which in association with the finality of the reign of Jesus probably speaks of permanence; that is, God at this point once and for all took His power and began to reign.
This raises a series of questions only two of which we are interested in here: What does it mean that God “took His great power” and how does it come that He “began” to reign at this point?
Both phrases seem to suggest that God was without power or kingly sovereignty prior to the blowing of the 7th trumpet. That impression is only a surface one and it is incorrect. God has never been without power and His kingly rule is unbroken from eternity to eternity.
For our purposes here it does not matter whether one believes that the 7th trumpet is sounded at the end of human history or at 70 A.D. or any other date after the appearance of Jesus Christ. Our view is that it speaks of God’s judgment on the Roman Empire as it is represented by the emperor Domitian; but for now that is of no consequence. What are we to make of the claim that at the sound of the 7th trumpet God “took His great power” and “began to reign?”
Since the Bible everywhere insists that God reigns without limit over all there is and has always so reigned and will always so reign, how are we to understand the two phrases?
We are to take it that these are specific manifestations of that already existing power and royal sovereignty. The power God always had, simply by virtue of His being, God was exercised in a specific way. Whatever we make of the event(s) in view in the 7th trumpet it was not at that moment that God became Almighty or gained His almighty power. It was at that time that God expressed, showed or exhibited His almighty power.
Let us say we know beyond dispute what the 7th trumpet sounding meant. Let us call it X. The passage says that at X God took His great power and used it in a certain way to gain a certain object. object.
That act of God – His taking His almighty power – is further explained in the phrase “and began to reign.” The idea that God had not already been reigning prior to X makes no Biblical sense at all. It would certainly make sense if we were to say that God began to reign through a certain individual at X or that He began to exercise His dominion in a certain way, a way in which He had not been exercising it before or that He was publicly exhibiting His already existing reign. All those would make sense, but to say that God was not reigning prior to X makes no sense. Nothing can exist or continue to exist if God does not enable it to exist (Revelation 4:10-11), so how can He be without power or royal sovereignty at any point?
So what is the passage not saying? The passage is not saying that God was without controlling power or kingly sovereignty prior to the sounding of the 7th trumpet. Yes, but the passage does say He began to reign at the sound of the 7th trumpet. This is true, but we are faced with a choice between an actual beginning of the reign of God or a particular expression of the reign of God and there is no doubt in our thinking which we are to go for.
11:15 tells us that at this point “the kingdom of the world” has become the kingdom of the Lord (and of His Christ). The empire that expressed the world spirit at this time was Rome (Revelation 17:9, 18) in keeping with Daniel 2 and 7. He who established these kingdoms on the earth (Babylon – Rome) promised that He would come in judgment on that four-fold structure and smite it in its Rome phase (be sure to see Daniel 2:31-45 and 7:1-27).
God’s judgment on Rome was the public demonstration of God’s sovereignty and not its beginning. It was God who raised up Rome (compare Daniel 4:17 with 2:37 and 7:2 with the wind as divine stirring) and when He judged her He was expressing the same sovereign power that He showed when He raised her up. So when we are told that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord we are not to be fooled into thinking that it was not already under God’s sovereign power. He did then what psalmists of old asked Him to do over and over again when they asked deliverance from their enemies. They asked God to show His sovereign power over the nations. That is what happens in Revelation 11:15-17 in light of 6:9-11 and see 18:20 when the city of Rome is seen to be destroyed.
And as surely as we are not to think that God’s reign over Rome began with Revelation 11:15-17 we are not to think Jesus’ reign began at 11:15-17. Jesus had already been made Lord of All (Acts 2:36; Ephesians 1:19-22; 1 Peter 3:21-22; Philippians 2:9-11, and everywhere else) prior to the writing of the Book of Revelation. But who believed it at the beginning? Rome and the nation of Israel had conspired against the Lord and His Christ (see Psalm 2:1-9 and Acts 4:25- 28) but failed to keep Jesus off the throne of the universe under God. For their pains and in demonstration of their failure, God judged both Israel and Rome.
The 7th trumpet in Revelation 11, as you will notice, contains the 7 bowls (as the 7th seal contained the 7 trumpets) and the seven bowls are the full outpouring of the plagues of God on the Roman Empire (the images are taken from the plagues poured out on Egypt at which time God was vindicating His “son” – Israel, and confirming His reign over Egypt and the world). Rome that claimed to be the divine city and persecuted the city of God (the People of God) claimed universal dominion and in judging her God made a public proclamation that He had universal dominion and that He had invested it His Son, Jesus the Christ. 11:15-17 teaches us that what was already true was publicly demonstrated when God exercised His almighty power and made His sovereignty visible.
