Some interpretations assume the visions of Revelation are presented
in a strict chronological sequence as they unfold, but this becomes problematic
when events and patterns are repeated in different visions.
For example, the “Sixth Seal” culminates in the final day of wrath
when “every mountain is removed”; massive upheaval occurs in the
terrestrial and celestial segments of the creation (Revelation 6:12-17).
Yet the final day also arrives when the “Seventh Trumpet” sounds and this
world’s kingdoms become the kingdom of Christ (11:15-19).
Likewise, the “Seventh Vial” results in the proclamation, “It
is done.” Babylon falls while “every island and mountain is removed” (16:17-21).
The repetition of terms and imagery across multiple visions raises
the question: is Revelation describing multiple “final” judgments, “final”
battles and so on, or the same set of events presented from different
perspectives?
This does not mean Revelation is an allegory about “timeless
truths.” Its visions move forward to inevitable ends; final judgment, the
ultimate victory, and the New Creation. Likewise, the visions unveil events
progressively; later ones have literary links to previous visions but with
additional details.
For example, Revelation 1:4 declares God is “He
who Is and who Was and who is Coming.” The clause is repeated in 4:8,
11:17 and 16:5. However, in the last instance the third
clause, “He who is coming,” is dropped. The implication is that God has
arrived and is no longer “coming.”
Information is revealed in stages. Another example is Ezekiel’s
prophecy about “Gog and Magog,” which is used in three separate visions.
In the first case language from Ezekiel 38 is brief and allusive (16:12-16),
in the second it becomes more extensive and recognizable (19:17-21).
The invading force is identified as “all the kings of the earth
and their armies.” The third instance is the most explicit. “Gog and Magog”
are named; they represent the “nations of the earth” in a last-ditch
attempt to annihilate God’s “saints” (20:8-9).
Does Revelation present a strictly linear chronology from one
vision to the next, or does it present events in multiple ways? Put another
way, Revelation is more concerned with “how” things develop than “when.”
Christ’s absolute and final victory is a foregone conclusion, but how will it
unfold in the present age?
A repeated theme is the ascent of a malevolent figure to wreak
havoc, in each instance described with similar language.
The sounding of the “Fifth Trumpet” results in the “ascent
(anabainō) out of the Abyss” of a horde of locust-like beings that
torment men (Revelation 9:1-2). The Abyss is ruled by a destructive
creature named “Abaddon” and “Apollyon.”
In Revelation 11:7, a “beast” is seen “ascending (anabainon)
out of the Abyss to make war with the Two Witnesses; “to overcome and kill
them.” “Ascending” translates the Greek verb anabainō, a
participle in the present tense to signify continuing action. The language is
from Daniel 7:1-8 and 7:19-21 where he saw
four “beasts” ascend from the sea.
The picture from Daniel 7:1-8 is also used
in Revelation 13:1; John sees a single beast “ascending”
from the sea that is to “wage war” against the saints (13:7). A second
beast is seen ascending from the earth” (13:11; Daniel 7:17; [“These
great beasts are four kings that ascend out of the earth”]).
In Revelation 17:7-8, the beast is seen again, once
more “ascending out of the Abyss” (17:7-8). Finally, in 20:7-9 Satan
is “loosed” from the Abyss to deceive the nations and lead them to “ascend over
the breadth of the earth” against the saints.
The common theme is the ascent of a malevolent being (demons,
beast, false prophet, Satan) from a dark place (Abyss, sea, earth) to wage war
(against the Two Witnesses, the Rider on the White Horse, saints).
The downfall and “binding” of Satan is presented twice,
each time with the same terms and similar imagery.
In chapter 12 Satan is the great dragon, the old serpent, the
Devil and Satan, the one “who deceives the whole habitable earth” (12:9).
He is poised to devour a figure called “son” (Greek huios) but
finds himself thwarted when this “son,” the one who is “to shepherd all nations
with a rod of iron,” is caught up to God’s throne. This alludes to Psalm
2:9-10, a prophecy applied to Jesus elsewhere in Revelation (e.g., 19:15).
Believers who “overcome” in tribulation participate in
Christ’s rule over the nations (2:26), which was established when Jesus
“overcame” by his sacrificial death; “to him who overcomes I will grant
to sit with me in my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in
his throne” (Revelation 1:4-6; 3:21; 5:6-14).
As a result of Christ’s death, “Michael and his angels”
defeat “the dragon” who is “cast” (Greek ballō) out of
heaven onto the earth (12:7-9). From this point salvation, God’s kingdom
and Christ’s rule are declared; “because the accuser of our brethren is cast
down!” Therefore, saints “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, the
word of their testimony, and because they loved not their life unto death”
(12:10-11). ALL THIS IS BASED ON CHRIST’S PAST DEATH.
Note that Satan is described as the one “who deceives the whole
habitable earth” before he is cast to the earth. After his downfall he
turns his fury against the woman who gave birth to the “son” and the “remnant
of her seed, “they who have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (12:16-17).
In chapter 20, an “angel” lays hold of “the dragon, the old
serpent, the Devil and Satan “to cast (ballō) him into the Abyss” for a
thousand years. The Devil is not able “to deceive the nations” anymore
until this period is completed, after which he will be “loosed for a little
time” (20:1-3).
During the thousand years “judgment is given for” saints
who overcame, an allusion to Daniel 7:21-22 (“judgment was
given to the saints and the time came that they possessed the kingdom”).
Those who suffered for “the testimony of Jesus” reign with Jesus for the
thousand years as “priests of God and of Christ.”
Revelation’s prologue previously declared that Jesus by his blood
redeemed men to be “priests to his God” (1:6).
Likewise, all heaven proclaimed the Lamb worthy because “he redeemed unto
God by his blood men from every nation and made them a kingdom, priests to our
God, and they reign on the earth” (5:9-10).
At the end of the thousand years, Satan is “loosed from the
Abyss” so he can “go out to deceive the nations from the four corners”
of the globe and gather them to “ascend over the breadth of the earth to
encompass the saints.” All this is to no avail; “fire descends out of
heaven to devour them” as they assemble for the final assault (20:7-9).
When John saw a vision of the heavenly throne room he described
how “out of the throne proceeded flashes of lightning, voices, and thunders”
(4:5). This colorful picture repeats three more times in Revelation.
At the end of the Seven Seals and the start of the Seven Trumpets
an angel cast a censer filled with the fire upon the earth; there followed “thunders,
and voices, and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (8:5). Note
the addition of an “earthquake.”
When the Seventh Trumpet sounded John saw the temple of God in
heaven in which was “the ark of his covenant, and there followed flashes of
lightning, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake and great hail” (11:19).
Note the addition of “earthquake” and “great hail” to the
sequence.
At the end of the Seven Vials of Wrath John again saw “flashes
of lightning, voices, and thunders,” along with “a great earthquake, such
as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake” (16:18-21).
Once more men were plagued with hail, “a great hail out of heaven, every
stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the
plague of the hail, for it was exceeding great.”
The flashes of lightning, voices, and thunders occur four times
and are linked with God’s judgments upon rebellious humanity. The phenomena do
not just repeat and are not just for literary effect. Each time additional
elements are added, earthquakes and hail, and with each new judgment series
they intensify. There is both repetition and progress.
There are too many verbal and conceptual parallels between
Revelation’s different visions to be coincidental or simply for literary
effect. John expects the astute listener to detect such clues for insight on
each vision and how they all fit together (“they who hear” – 1:3).
For example, each of the three series of seven judgments (Seals,
Trumpets, Vials) end in the final judgment, though specific details vary each
time (6:12-21; 11:15-19; 16:17-21). Will there be three “final”
judgments or is Revelation looking at the same event from different aspects;
three final battles or one, etc.?
To read Revelation’s visions as if they are laid out in neat
linear sequence with events in strictly chronological order is to miss the
larger picture and the true significance of the book’s picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment