Thoughts on Revelation
OVERVIEW
Thoughts on Revelation
OVERVIEW
This is a brief overview of how the Book of Revelation hangs together. There are some additional remarks in other lessons that offer some support for some of the presumptions that are made in what follows.
Revelation speaks eternal truths in a temporal setting. It is a letter written to seven churches that existed during the Roman Empire. These seven specific congregations represent what was and is true about all the churches that make up the body of Christ. They live in a world of corruption and oppression and they themselves are infected to more or less degree by the world in which they live.
But they have this: they belong to God and have been called to live to the glory of God and rehearse the truth about the God who has revealed Himself to the world in and as Jesus Christ, the Lord of a new creation and Lord of all.
In this book, the Christ who abides in the church (chapter 1) is seen in conflict with the Dragon who abides in the Roman Empire (chapter 13 and elsewhere). The specific historical events in which that conflict is focused are to come to pass shortly because the time for them is near (1:1, 3 and 22:6, 10, compared with Daniel 8:26). John chooses out (or rather, is given) a specific slice of history and that slice is invested with meaning and significance. What is that meaning and significance? John is told something like: “See in it and tell to the church, ‘Your enemy is ruthless and powerful and satanic but I am all-powerful and your enemy rises only to go to his doom.’”
Other events were going on in other distant parts of the world; events just as tumultuous in their social and political consequences as those going on in the Roman Empire. But it is the slice of history that John and his contemporaries are acquainted with that God chooses to declare eternal and assuring truth. God reigns!
The eternal and assuring truth is not told in prose (as it is, say, in Mark or 1 Samuel or Kings) but in images, pictures. Many of the images are borrowed from the Old Testament and, among other things, they serve to give visible and earthly events a spiritual and cosmic dimension.
In chapter 1 the living Christ reveals Himself to John as the faithful witness and ruler of the kings of the earth and as the redeemer and the one that lives in the church. He commissions John to record everything he has seen – even the initial vision and the commission to write.
He then turns to the seven churches in chapter 2-4 and addresses their needs (commendation and encouragement, rebuke and consolation, warning and assurance). He prepares them for the coming conflict. Throughout the book there is constant comfort and assurance offered precisely because the enemy is so powerful, cruel and frightening.
Chapters 4 and 5 lay down the truth that sets the tone for the whole book. This truth is meant to shape the response of the church in the totality of its life. It will remind the church who alone is worthy of worship and who governs all the powers that exist in the world. Chapter 4 shows that the throne that rules the world is not in Rome, Italy but in heaven, and chapter 5 shows that at the center of that throne is a Lamb that has been slain (by Rome, no less) but lives again.
There is a little book in chapter 5 (the immediate destiny of the saints) that is completely sealed (with seven seals) and which can be opened only by Jesus Christ for He alone is worthy. Seals conceal and protect from tampering. In chapter 6, six of the seals are torn off revealing the conquering Christ, God’s four sore judgments (war, famine, pestilence and wild animals – desolation), the appeal of the slaughtered righteous and the judgment coming against the oppressive world.
Chapter 7 gives the assurance that in this judgment the People of God (pictured as 144,000 Jews) are exempted from the judgment. (Not exempted from suffering but from judgment). These are sealed against the judgment. But does the sealing work? The last half of the chapter says it does and we see the 144,000 under a different image coming through the tribulation. They are now described in terms of a Jewish Tabernacle Feast celebration. The Feast of Tabernacles was the most joyous of all Jewish feasts. It was a celebration of God protecting and sustaining Israel through their awful wilderness journeys and it was a promise of future providence.
With the tearing off of the seventh seal we are introduced to the seven trumpets in chapter 8 and 9. In the Old Testament, trumpets called the nation to attention and were sounded as warnings. This was common throughout the ancient world. The trumpets are warning judgments and not the full outpouring of God’s wrath on the impenitent and oppressive world. As imaged the warning judgments are modeled on the Old Testament plagues on Egypt. Certain portions of the earth, waters and heavens are affected but we are told that the worshipers of evil are impenitent and do not give God glory.
Chapters 10-12 are more comfort since we are told that the enemy still resists God’s judgments. John’s commission is renewed and the church is picture in chapter 11 under the image of two witnesses. The Old Testament has numerous illustrations of two witnesses (Moses & Aaron, Elijah & Elisha, Zerubbabel & Joshua) and the church in chapter 11 do the wonders that they can do while holding forth the Word of God as they did. The picture of these witnesses reminds us that even during troubled times they are unstoppable and that even when it appears they are defeated they really are not. In chapter 12 the People of God are seen under two images: a glorious Woman (the corporate whole) and her children (the individual members). She is driven into the wilderness and there protected (as Israel and Elijah were).
These chapters of assurance and call to faithful commitment are needed, because the enemy is indeed power-filled, savage and satanic. Chapter 13 introduces us to two bestial images of the Roman Empire. The first is Rome as a military power (the sea beast) and instead of honoring God they choose to submit to and extend the authority of the Dragon, the Serpent and the Devil. The second (earth) beast is Rome as a perverted religious power that serves to bind all the nations to Rome in a way that goes beyond what mere force can accomplish. The religious structures of Rome are another way of expressing her power and that power is satanic. A third image of Rome is presented in chapters 17 and 18 where Rome is both a woman and a city. There it is, Rome as the world’s leading commercial power that is supported by the military might of the sea beast.
Chapters 4-12 and 14-19 have huge chunks of praise to God and these sections sandwich chapter 13 where the world worships the Roman beast. This is a central truth hammered home again and again: worship God and God alone.
In light of the frightening images that reflect the beasts and the world that worships the beast, chapters 14-15 speak comfort and courage again. And in a series of announcements (like newspaper headlines) they proclaim assurance to the People of God that Rome and all its allies are to be destroyed. These chapters preview what will happen in later chapters (like the battle of Armageddon, the destruction of the great city and the like).
As the seventh seal contained the seven trumpets, so the seventh trumpet contains the seven bowls of wrath. Taken in their entirety the seven bowls complete the outpouring of God’s wrath on the satanic kingdom and all that support it. The description of the battle of Armageddon (remember 1:1, 3 and 22:6, 10) is between those that come from the sunrise and cross water on dry ground and the two beast and the armies that support them. This is another way to describe the People of God against Rome. No one in Scripture crosses water on dry ground but the People of God. The outpouring of the seven bowls are briefly described and remind us of the plagues against Egypt when they were the power that oppressed God’s people and opposed God’s purposes in the world. Aspects of what the seven bowls cover are developed in chapters 18-20.
Chapter 17-18 speak of Rome as a great Prostitute that all the kings and merchants of the world commit fornication with. She is the city on seven hills that rules the world in John’s day and she is supported by her military might. Her commercial nature is demonstrated in the almost tedious description of her as the world’s warehouse. Like so many other nations, she destroys herself by inner division and she goes down in flames (chapter 18). This is Rome’s destruction as viewed by one set of images.
Just prior to the description of the battle of Armageddon, the Lamb and His people have a celebration under the image of marriage feast. In a marriage feast both parties fully identify with one another and rejoice in one another. All this is in chapter 19 where the battle is then fought between the satanic empowered beasts and their allies and the Christ and His white-horsed followers. In chapter 16 where the battle was previewed, it was between the beasts and their armies and those from the sunrise that crossed water on dry ground. Here it is between the beasts and their armies and Christ and His people. The battle ends with the utter destruction of the two beasts, the death of their allies and the imprisonment of the dragon.
Chapter 20 describes the defeat of the Dragon. It is described as a 1,000-year imprisonment. This 1,000-year relates only to his use of Rome and it describes his defeat in that venture as utter and complete.
John now sees a great battlefield with a host of dead people scattered over it. In the war against the beasts many had been faithful to Christ until death. John sees many of the dead on the battlefield come to life and take their places with others and reign with Christ. Not all on the battlefield come to life – only those who have died for Christ. The rest of the dead had been allies of Rome and they remain dead. John sees what he calls a “first” resurrection and that is a resurrection to life. He speaks of another resurrection that is not unto life but unto a second death.
The whole 1,000-year series of images refer to Rome and its allies and the Dragon that inspired the anti-God venture. The Dragon is bound a thousand years, the allies of the beasts lie dead for a thousand years and the righteous reign in triumph for a thousand years. Those all relate to the conflict with Rome and describe it from different angles. (Do those who die for Christ in the conflict lose? No. How are we told that? In an image, they resurrect and reign in triumph with Christ.)
Now assured that Rome loses, the question arises: “Can we always be assured of triumph?” That is answered (as it is in Ezekiel 38-39) with another image. Satan is given another chance, raises an army from the four corners of the earth, comes against God’s people and is utterly destroyed. The immediate future is secure (Rome is going down) and the entire future is secure (any enemy, however huge, will go down).
Now that we know that Rome and the world she shaped has been overcome, in chapters 21-22 we have a picture of a new world, a new heaven and earth. The People of God are described as a glorious and indestructible city (not a wreck) and a bride glorious dressed (not in tattered clothing). The Roman world of oppression and evil has been destroyed and a new world where God’s righteousness has been vindicated fills out the entire drama.
