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STUDIES IN REVELATION.
PART ONE.
INTRODUCTION.
Every time I read through the Bible, Revelation becomes a grander and grander finale.
It is not the place in which to look for detailed guidance on living our ordinary everyday Christian lives. Rather it sets those ordinary Christian lives in their greater context.
Revelation re-asserts and confirms in vivid language the basic truths of the Faith.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
He died for our sins.
He rose from the dead.
He will return.
The Great Commission.
Conflict and opposition.
Judgment.
Heaven.
Revelation is like a picture gallery containing several broad canvasses. We are given them so that we may stand back and see the overall pictures. It will not help to scrutinise them close up with a magnifying glass. The canvasses are all on display in the gallery and we can walk round them, but the order in which they are arranged may not be strictly chronological. Each picture tells its own story and while there is a broad general progression through history, there is no precise time-scale. Some are side by side in time rather than one after another.
Revelation guards us from false hopes, of ease, comfort and prosperity on earth. Yet it is a book of immense encouragement; reassuring us that the final victory will be God’s.
Revelation shows us what history is about , what is really going on. It shows us where we fit into the great scheme of things. It shows us what the forces of evil are trying to achieve and how they will be defeated.
The Symbolism.
This was partly to get past the censors of the day - partly because it contains truths which need visionary language to express them.
The Bible should be taken at its face value. John’s Gospel, for example, is presented as a factual account; so we should take it literally. Revelation on the other hand is presented as symbolic vision; so we should not take it literally.
Figures.
This especially applies to figures, including periods of time. One thing a career in accountancy has taught me is that human beings become irrational when presented with figures. Company directors who think their job is about figures become incompetent and the same applies to theologians. We do not expect to see literal horsemen or locusts or a dragon. Why then expect figures to be literal? All figures in symbolic writing must be taken as symbolic unless proven literal.
Not a detailed future history.
Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has placed in His own authority,” Acts 1:7.
Attempts to produce charts of future history are disobedient to Christ’s command and God will never allow such a chart to be accurate. The only timetable He had given us is the simple statement in Matthew 24:14 “This Gospel - - - shall be preached in all the world - - - and then shall the end come.”
Biblical Truth and Theological Theory.
The basic truths of the faith can be found in the Bible over and over again. They are in Christ’s own teachings; in the Old Testament; in the Epistles and in Revelation. They do not depend on any one passage or on any one interpretation. God has reconfirmed them to us to make our assurance absolutely sure.
Theological theories, on the other hand, are normally based on just one or maybe two passages of scripture and on one interpretation of it. Frequently there is another possible interpretation.
The basic Biblical truths are worth living and dying for. They are what we hold sacred, what we believe and will not give up. They are not opinions which we hold but convictions which hold us.
Theological theories, however, are opinions which we may hold, but let us hold them lightly. When studying Revelation we shall come across many theological theories. They may be right, but if based on too few passages or able to be interpreted in other ways, we must not teach them as Biblical truth. (There is a third category of teaching - theological fantasies. These are theories which are not supported by any scripture at all.)
Date.
Bishop John Robinson’s “Redating the New Testament” gives very clear arguments that the whole New Testament was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and he dates Revelation at around AD 68 - probably the last New Testament book to be written. It came after Nero’s bloodbath in Rome which took place in the spring of AD 65 but it was before the wave of heavy persecution had spread to Asia Minor where were the seven churches to whom it is addressed.
John was about sixty when banished to Patmos (probably by Domitian acting briefly as regent long before he was emperor - and released after that regency ended). Tradition is that he returned to Ephesus and continued to lead the church there afterwards.
Chapter One.
John introduces himself in friendly terms “your brother and companion in tribulation” and sends greetings, but introduces his subject matter in quite different terms. This is majestic from the start.
Christ is the faithful witness, firstborn from the dead, ruler over kings - He loved us and made us clean from our sins at the cost of His own blood - He shall come with the clouds and every eye shall see Him - He is the beginning and the end.
John had known Jesus personally and the most striking thing about this chapter is the difference between his vision of Christ and his memory of Him. He remembered the carpenter, the friend, the travelling companion, the teacher. He remembered the man of compassion and good humour, who was good with children; who cooked their breakfast on a charcoal fire by the lake side.
This is the same man, identified by the same title “The Son of Man” which He had used when they were together. Now John sees Him in all His majestic splendour and he says, “I fell at His feet as dead.”
Christ’s glory is described in extravagant poetic language which we should not attempt even to visualise (let alone depict in art). Here is the symbolic style of writing used to the full.
Christ is seen walking among the seven lampstands. This is not the one seven-branched lampstand of the temple. That was enclosed inside the temple, these are open for all to see. Still Christ walks amidst the lights He has lit around the world. The seven has become a multitude. Each can if necessary stand alone. Many have been put out by persecution and pressure and corruption, yet millions more burn on and the number is still increasing.
Chapters Two and Three.
The letters are addressed to the seven churches, all a short voyage from Patmos in mainland Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The theory that these represent different ages in church history may be described as a theological fantasy. Rather it is a case of, “If the cap fits wear it” - that is to say, there are churches like each of those addressed, let us apply the messages to ourselves where we find it appropriate.
The churches appear in geographical order, nearest first, next, then along a line from left to right. You can read off the order from a map.
THE LETTERS ARE WRITTEN TO:-
Ephesus - and other churches who have lost their first love.
Smyrna - and other churches who are faithful under persecution
Pergamum - and other churches who, being located close to evil are under pressure, who suffer faithfully, but also compromise (financially?).
Thyatira - and other churches who have zeal and resist Satanic pressure but also compromise (sexually?).
Sardis - and other churches who are virtually dead (all but a few).
Philadelphia - and other churches who have great opportunities.
Laodicea - and other churches who are lukewarm
THE LETTERS COME FROM:-
Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands;
- is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again -
- has the sharp double-edged sword -
The Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze -
Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars -
- is holy and true, who holds the key of David -
The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
PROMISES TO OVERCOMERS.
I will give you the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God
You will not be hurt at all by the second death.
I will give you some of the hidden manna. I will also give you a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.
I will give you authority over the nations - - - - just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give you the morning star.
You will be dressed in white. I will never blot out your name from the book of life but will acknowledge your name before my Father and His angels.
I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God, the new Jerusalem, (Heb. 12:22 & Rev 21). Never again will you leave it. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which is coming down out of Heaven from my God; and I will write on you my new name.
I will give you the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Chapters Four and Five.
Now the scene shifts to Heaven. Read the magnificent visionary language and get the awesomeness of it but do not attempt to interpret it in detail.
The “living creatures” - the word for living is not Bios from which we get biology - plant and animal life. It is Zoe - life more abundant - Life!
The “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” turns out to be a Lamb. John had heard his namesake the baptist call Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and now presents Him glorified on Heaven’s throne. And it is He who can break the seals to reveal what history is about.
The opening of the first seal is the next climax.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN.
Chapters Six to Eight.
The first four seals are four horsemen, four characteristics of the age in which we live, four aspects of history. The red horse is war. The black horse is economic exploitation and the pressure of financial power. The pale horse is plague, famine and disaster - Fighting, Finance and Fear.
What then is the first, the white horse? It is not named but it is as great a force in history as the others. It rides alongside them.
It was the one John avoided naming because of the censors, but the readers would have had no doubts.
Each of the seven letters to the churches ends with a promise to “overcomers” and the word is the same as used here, “conquering and to conquer” - the theme is picked up from the first chapters. Here is the ultimate overcomer.
He wears a “crown” or wreath - stephanos - the reward given for faithful service. This is not the “diadem” of secular authority which is presented as being worn by the dragon and the beast until the end when at last Christ appears again on a white horse, this time “crowned with many crowns”(19:11-12) - diadems. The “stephanos” is only ever seen as a righteous reward (except in the case of the crown of thorns where it was used in mockery). This is the crown of life, of rejoicing, of righteousness, of glory -every mention in scripture is a good one. A stephanos is never worn by an evil figure though the word is used “something like crowns” (but not real crowns) in Rev. 9:7.
Clearly and undoubtedly, the White Horse represents the Gospel, The Church and its Mission, The Great Commission, or Christ seen as going out into the world carrying salvation. This is not military conquest but spiritual overcoming.
The bow (lip shaped) might be interpreted as the spoken word.
The four horses ride together. It is into the world torn apart by fighting, finance and fear, that the message of the Gospel comes and the four horses have been the history of the world since the age of The Great Commission began.
The first seal is the climax of the opening chapters and the initiation of the rest - it is the beginning of the phase of history we are looking at.
IT ALL STARTS WITH THE GREAT COMMISSION.
PART TWO.
THE SEVEN SEALS. Chapters Six to Eight.
See end of first study for the four horsemen.
There are seven seals with an interlude after the sixth and with thunder and lightening after the seventh. Later we see the same pattern, seven trumpets and seven bowls, in each case there is an interlude after the sixth and thunder and lightning at the end.
It is tempting to see them all as running together and ending together. The opposite temptation is to put them one after the other in sequence. But remember the illustration of the picture gallery with several broad canvasses. These are three of them and we may not place them too rigidly in a time context.
The trend, however, seems to be moving forward. The seven seals cover the whole age and reveal its main characteristics. The trumpets are the disasters which evil regimes bring down on themselves and the bowls are God’s last judgements on earth. But don’t attempt to button it all up too neatly.
This age then - the seals - The Gospel, War, Finance, Disaster, and moving on to the fifth seal, the age of martyrdoms. It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and there were plenty of martyrdoms going on at the time Revelation was written. Nero’s bloodbath was fresh in the church’s memory. More and more lives were to be expended as the gospel went round the world. The twentieth century has seen more than ever.
The picture is of the dead martyrs “under the alter” like the ashes of a burnt offering already made. Their prayers and the impact of those prayers on the earth are another feature of the age we live in.
The sixth seal tells where the age is heading for - judgment.
Then comes the digression or interlude, see later.
The seventh seal shows Heaven silent, waiting to receive and use the prayers of the saints. Mixed with incense they are sprinkled on the earth and the result is not peace and calm but upheaval. Prayer is a powerful and disturbing feature of the age we are in.
SUMMARY Into this tragically distressed age of war tyranny and disaster, heading for judgment, comes The Gospel, The Martyrs and The Prayers of Saints - disrupting but overcoming, not by force but by God’s Spirit.
THE INTERLUDE - CHAPTER SEVEN.
A VIEW OF EARTH FROM HEAVEN. Chapter 7:1-8
A flashback to Ezekiel’s vision of a writer with an ink horn marking out God’s own, the people who, “sighed and cried for the abominations” going on around them (Ezekiel 9). An angel goes into the world marking God’s people, this time 144,000 12,000 from each of 12 tribes.
Revelation was written at a time when most of the tribes had lost their identity and, having been mixed up were referred to as lost tribes. So the first point of the vision is identity, not necessarily as Jews but clearly defined and similar in nature to the old Jewish tribal identity.
Then the number. Years in accountancy have taught me that human beings become irrational as soon as they are faced with figures. Here is a number in a dream. Why take it literally when we do not expect to see four literal horses? The point of a number in a dream is the feeling it conveys.
144,000 is such an exact number; not so much a round number as a square one (actually 12 squared times 10 cubed) as satisfactorily complete a number as poetic imagery can devise.
So the view of Earth from Heaven sees, among all the confusion and disintegration, each and every one whom God knows to be His own. Every human heart that has turned to Him - every one who has sighed and cried for the abominations around - is marked out, defined, identified and the number is full and complete with none missing.
THE VIEW OF HEAVEN FROM EARTH. Chapter 7: 9-17.
Swivel round, look from the confusion of Earth into the place where we might expect to find order and what we do see is a great multitude that no one can number from every tribe.
This is not the whole population of Heaven. These are the ones who have suffered great tribulation in every language and tribe. This is the victory parade. There will be many in Heaven who have to stand on the sidelines because they opted for comfort on Earth. They have not missed Heaven, but since Heaven will have only one conflict in its history they have missed the only chance to share it. Eternity will never see another victory parade.
THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
“I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne.
- - - These are they which came out of the great tribulation.”
This passage in Revelation 7:9-17 is the only occasion in which the Bible uses the term “The Great Tribulation.” (Of course there are other references to tribulation and persecution but in no other scripture does it call it “The Great Tribulation.”)
What is says about it is that there will be in Heaven a countless multitude of people picked out for special honour because they have suffered in this tribulation. This multitude will come from every nation and people and language - a term which links the tribulation with The Great Commission.
Both The Commission and The Tribulation involve every nation and people and language. There is nothing to suggest that The Great Tribulation is limited to one occasion or period and it is certainly not limited in extent. If it were taken to mean one specific time of trouble the implication would be that those persecuted at other times would not share the same honour - which is absurd.
The Great Tribulation, then, is the total sum of the antagonism, opposition and persecution encountered on the way as the Gospel is proclaimed in every nation. It began with the stoning of Stephen, or even earlier with the flogging of Peter and John. It will last as long as The Great Commission lasts - until the end of the age.
This is the age of The Great Commission, resisted by The Great Tribulation in every nation and tribe and people and language as the Gospel moves forward and disciples are made.
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS
CHAPTERS 8:6 - 11.
Once again, for the trumpets as for the seals, we have six, then a digression, then the seventh. Again we see the pattern of acceleration towards the final climax, but the trumpets, heralding disasters befalling the earth, are concentrated much more upon the later stages. The pace is quickening.
Those in years gone by may have related the first two trumpets to volcanic and other disasters. Today we can see more clearly how human stupidity is wrecking the environment to bring about more and more catastrophes. It has been pointed out in the secular world that “Chernobyl” is Russian for “wormwood” and the Chernobyl disaster has by now passed into many languages to give its name to any disaster caused by a faulty atomic pile. Stars are atomic reactions and an atomic pile is a star fallen to earth which, if it goes wrong, can poison the rivers. The parallel with Rev. 8:10-11 is amazingly close.
The fourth trumpet could presage the kind of smoke-pall cover that blotted out sun moon and stars after the Gulf war. It might happen again worldwide.
Whether we take it that way or not, however, we can see a pattern of increasing ecological disaster. In the world today, international companies have so much power that they can put the environment at risk and no one can stop them. They take precautions against the risk, but for those precautions to continue to be applied (for generations) there is one essential - human integrity. With that factor missing, there will be no protection against the dangers already brought into existence for immediate profit now.
Excessive power is held, not only by companies but by new emerging states and pressure groups, so that its misuse can no longer be controlled because no one has the effective authority to control it.
So - the ascendancy of evil in the world produces, by normal cause and effect, disaster. One way or another it will happen.
THE LAST THREE TRUMPETS. Chapter 8:6 to Chapter 11.
So much for the first four trumpet blasts, but “Woe Woe Woe to the people on earth because of the last three.”
It seems that the last trumpet is again the final judgment and coincides with the last of the seven seals. This is where it is all leading, but whereas the seven seals accelerated over two thousand years, the trumpets are only beginning their main acceleration now.
The fifth and sixth trumpets are nightmares of spiritual disaster, possibly combined with physical disaster, and the likelihood is that they will be self-inflicted by mankind; the inevitable result of evil when grown to its almost final stages. The weeds are nearly ripe.
THE INTERLUDE. Chapter 10 to 11:14
As history rushes nearer to its tragic destiny, God introduces new methods, not to stop the rush or overturn human free choice which has caused it, but to reinforce the ever-present evidence of the continuing faithful people who belong to Him.
By now the wheat is as near ripeness as the weeds. The Great Commission is nearing fulfilment. The Gospel has reached almost every tribe and nation. People know what they are choosing. The nature of good and evil are clearer to see and the self-destructiveness of evil is more obvious than ever.
Just who the two witnesses are or will be is not relevant to us until they begin their work and when that happens we shall know. Whether the powers given them are literal or metaphorical does not matter to us at this stage. The point is that there will be powerful voices raised internationally against the worldwide evil regimes at the same time as the many local and seemingly powerless voices are raised by the “sheep who have been sent forth among wolves.”
The fact that all the force of organised international evil will not be able to silence them will be a great encouragement to the unspectacular local voices speaking for Christ in every town and village, quietly winning their neighbours as the great drama is being played out.
The first mention of the “Wild Beast” is in Rev 11:7 - we shall hear more of him, but events have reached his reign or at least the beginning of his activities.
THE DRAGON’S NIGHTMARE.
CHAPTER 12.
If the seven seals span the age from Christ’s first coming to His second, and the seven trumpets the later stages of it; this next Chapter spans the age from the first curse upon Satan and promise of a deliverer in Genesis 3:15 to the arrival of the “Wild Beast.”
It might be described as a dragon’s nightmare. It has that quality of repeated frustration often experienced in dreams but it also describes history from Satan’s point of view.
From the first promise of the coming “Seed of the Woman” who would crush the serpent’s head, the line by which that seed should come was under attack. To follow the attacks through the Old Testament from Cain to Haman, and into the New Testament to Herod, is a study of repeated frustration. Always the Royal Line escaped.
In the fullness of time, The Seed of the Woman, later revealed as the Seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, later as David’s descendent, finally came to birth in Bethlehem. The battle was joined and in life and in temptation the Son of God overcame the enemy until the night before His crucifixion He could say, “Now is the Prince of this World cast down.”
A sign in Heaven - a woman giving birth.
Attempts to identify the woman (the church - Israel - the virgin Mary) are fruitless. This is highly symbolic language - a woman clothed with the sun and wearing a crown (stephanos) of twelve stars.
What is most significant about a woman in labour? First life-giving creativity. Then vulnerability. A woman in labour is vulnerable, not because she is weak - she is expending as much physical and mental energy as a champion wrestler - but because everything is concentrated on bringing forth new life. God and God’s people become vulnerable for the same reason. God made Himself vulnerable at creation and in history and in the incarnation and at the cross. He now makes himself vulnerable in His Church.
Note that verse 2 uses the present continuous tense - “being with child she cries being in labour.”
She contrasts with the dragon’s power and destructiveness. Also her normality (nothing is more human than childbirth) contrasts with the dragon’s distortedness - seven heads and ten horns speak of unnatural ugly complexity. Evil has many forms throughout the world. The dragon wears crowns - diadems - signs of earthly authority.
Battle is not the Bible’s only symbolism for spiritual conflict. Wheat and weeds grow together, sheep are sent out among wolves; the good and the evil horsemen ride side by side.
Satan’s defeat.
It is not possible to turn Revelation 12 into a time schedule or say just when the battle in Heaven took place or will take place or is taking place in relation to the conflict on earth. The chapter describes Satan’s various defeats.
Satan failed to stop the Messiah from coming. God’s angels defeated Satan’s angels in the heavenly realms. Christ’s people defeated him on Earth.
Ignoring the timing, the point comes clear that despite all Satan’s apparent successes in producing evil on Earth, there is a history of defeat when it comes to stopping God’s work or destroying His people. Weeds there may be in plenty and growing to maturity, but the wheat is bearing good grain and ripening for harvest.
And without attempting to give any precise interpretation, it does appear that at some phase the enemy is trapped between two fronts, losing against angelic forces from Heaven, turning in fury on God’s people on Earth, only to be overcome by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and their willingness to suffer death.
On Earth it appears that evil forces are triumphant, the view from Heaven shows Satan’s forces desperate. The scene is set for the final act.
Overcoming Satan on earth. They overcame him with:-
The blood of the Lamb.
The word of their testimony.
And loved not their lives unto death.
The blood of the Lamb speaks of Christ’s death on the cross and that death presented in the heavenly Holy of Holies to deal with our sin. His blood takes away the grounds for Satan’s accusations against us, and so releases God to be on our side.
The word of testimony - the gospel spoken out loud brings defeat to Satan.
Death - some who speak the gospel out loud must pay the price for it on earth with their lives.
Note that Satan is called the “accuser of the brethren” do not co-operate with him by joining in the accusations.
Appendix to part two.
“A time and times and half a time” Rev. 12:14 (also Daniel 7:25 and 12:7)
I have lived through the fall of Nazism, Soviet Communism, Apartheid, Mau Mau, Taliban, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. Each of these regimes arose in their time. History, somehow, was tragically ready for them and their moment came. In their own season they were accepted.
Then they seemed to outlast several opportunities to remove them. They survived more times.
Finally, each was cut off, suddenly, in what seemed to be midstream. They did not live out a full life cycle and come to a natural end. They just fell.
In the phrase, “A time and times and half a time,” the word for “time” is not the word for a period but that for an opportune moment, an appropriate season, a critical opportunity. Furthermore the word “times” is simply plural and can mean any number of such seasons. “Half a time“ is “the dividing of a time” - not necessarily an exact half, but simply a cut-off, unfinished.
Evil regimes
find their own moment of opportunity to arise
survive many failed opportunities to remove them
are eventually truncated, cut off with their time unfinished
The suggestion that “A time and times and half a time” is merely another way of saying three and a half years is meaningless and does not fit the sense of the words.
On the other hand it is just possible that the period of three and a half years may have come to symbolise “A time and times and half a time” ie the survival of an evil regime. There are symbolic references to 42 months, 1260 days, 1290 days, 1335 days and I have no idea what any of them mean except the apparent general reference to evil regimes and their life spans.
PART TWO.
THE WILD BEAST.
Rev. Ch 13 (also 17:7-18 and 19:19-20 in context of whole passage Chs 13-19.)
Four interpretations:-
1 Obvious at the time - Nero or other Roman emperors.
2 Symbolic - the principles on which the devil operates through rulers.
3 Repetitive - Nero also Hitler and others throughout history.
4 Orthodox Evangelical - One future coming evil world ruler.
and these four are not mutually exclusive. Any two or three or all four could be true.
Observation of history indicates that 1, 2 and 3 are true anyway. Whether there is a coming world ruler is an open question. 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-12 appears to say there will be, Daniel 2: 31-45 appears to contradict this.
A variation of 1-3 combined is that what is being revealed is the Devil’s blueprint - the strategy of evil which may or may not be successfully achieved.
Probable Scenario Assuming all Four.
Start with the one absolute - that The Great Commission will be fulfilled and the Gospel reach every tribe and language.
Then look at 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-12. Might it be that God is holding back the forces of evil from launching the final assault - until The Great Commission is fulfilled.
Then the Devil must be allowed to play his last card, to launch his final thrust, to bring about his own downfall by his final attack. God will only allow this to happen once His own forces are in position - in every tribe and language and nation.
Wild Beast means Wild Beast - fierce, aggressive, naked evil backed by power. The idea of a suave deceiver is more suited to the second creature, or the False Prophet who appears as the Wild Beast’s main minister of propaganda.
The Wild Beast will be easy to recognise, not by obscure calculations and deductions but from a few blatantly obvious characteristics. He will be a ruler, he will speak great blasphemies against God, he will be worshipped internationally and he will persecute God’s people.
The False Prophet will find ways to give a respectable facade to the Wild Beast’s activities, devising politically correct terminology to make evil acceptable.
THE REIGN OF THE WILD BEAST.
But the propagandist's attempts to present the regime in a good light will keep falling down because in every tribe and language and ethnic group there will be some people who are in the way. They follow the original Messiah, not the new one, worship God not the Wild Beast, and they will die for their Lord.
So in every tribe and language and ethnic group, the new regime will have to kill some martyrs, thus spoiling its own image. As has happened over and over again, the executions will not keep up with the conversions. In Roman times there were friendly pagan neighbours who hid the Christians from persecutors. Some no doubt received Christ themselves afterwards. This, multiplied to a worldwide scale with all communities penetrated, could be the means by which the greatest persecution ever and the greatest revival ever take place at one and the same time.
And apart from the problems created by those awkward martyrs, the regime will also have to face the ecological disasters and the internal conflicts which evil regimes do bring upon themselves. It will not be a regime that has its act together, evil never can. Its self-destructiveness may be hidden for a while but emerges in the end.
The seven last plagues of Revelation 16 describe just some of the difficulties the Wild Beast’s regime fails to cope with.
THE MARK OF THE WILD BEAST. (AND 666).
Revelation 13:16-18 and 14:9-12.
Mark = KARAGMA = a permanent mark, a sculptured image.
similar but not the same word = KARAKTER an exact mark used in Hebrews 1:3 “the express image of His person.”
The Wild Beast stamps the dragon’s character on people - whether or not there is also a literal stamp marked on them.
Theories are many and varied. Bar codes, credit cards, identity cards, monomarks, computer numbers etc. The essence of the mark, however, is willing identification with the evil authority. When I received my Natwest Mastercard I did not have to worship the chairman of the company in order to get it. Even in Nero’s time the technology existed to put marks on people; so new technology does not bring the event any nearer.
666 - here theorisers have their heyday. Names are analysed to work out number equivalents - the calculators found 666 in the names of Henry Kissinger and Basil Brush. See 2 Chronicles 9:13 for a completely different interpretation - vast wealth.
Really all we can say is that we do not know what this number means. We should not pretend to. What we do know is that the devil wants to stamp his character and seal of ownership on people just as God stamps His character and seal of ownership on His people. But human wills are involved.
The last evil regime must run its course and demonstrate its character for all to know. In every tribe and language and ethnic group, people can compare the true nature of the Devil’s Messiah with God’s. They have seen God’s faithful people being martyred rather than renounce their Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is now fully polarised. The harvest is ripe, both wheat and weeds.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
Meanwhile Heaven’s forces have gathered (vs 1-5) and angels are sent out with last-chance messages.
One proclaims the Gospel (vs 6-7) - to every nation and tribe and language and people.
Another declares the fall of “Babylon” (vs 8 - to be described in detail later Chs 17-18).
Another warns of eternal punishment for those who worship the Wild Beast and receive his mark (vs 9 - 13).
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.
This is the most explicit statement in scripture concerning eternal punishment - indeed it is the only one where its everlasting nature is absolutely unambiguous - though a few others use the word “eternal.” It is therefore vitally important to look at the exact wording and one Bible translation contains what must be the most horrifying mistranslation ever. The true text says “those who worship the beast and his image AND receive his mark” (vs 9 repeated in vs 11). The mistranslation says “or” instead of “and” in vs 11 - but we have already seen that some people are forced to receive the mark. No one will be sent to hell for what they were forced to do. It is those who WORSHIP the beast and his image and as a consequence receive his mark willingly, who are warned of hell fire.
This is consistent with other passages which refer to eternal punishment directly or by clear implication - eg the “sons of the evil one” in the parable of the wheat and weeds. Scripture contains plenty of warnings of God’s anger and the inevitability of facing Him and His judgment. But nowhere is there any suggestion that people are punished eternally except for their own deliberate choice.
Ultimately everyone will choose between God and Satan. If anyone were in Hell other than by their own free will, there could never be any joy in Heaven. But those who irrevocably choose evil cannot, by doing so, veto the joy of others.
FORCES CLASH. Chapters 15-16.
Apparently this whole section follows on from the dragon’s being cast to earth (Ch 12). We are in the final stages of the whole conflict - with The Great Commission complete or almost complete; so that the dragon is allowed to launch its final attack in the person of the antichrist or Wild Beast. (Remember there are other interpretations.)
Assuming our interpretation to be right, the Wild Beast’s regime does not have things all its own way. First there are those troublesome Christians to be martyred. Then interfering angels. Then God’s plagues and a spot of bother at Armageddon. Also internal strife - The Wild Beast had used the “Babylon” regime to get to power but now is glad to be rid of it - at a cost. (See Chs 17-18 later, a flash back).
By the time the reign has run its course it stands discredited, futile, humiliated, more of a damp squib than a bonfire. Then as the smoke begins to clear, the faithful surviving disciples stand battered, grieving and exhausted but triumphant in every tribe and nation and language. Then and only then they hear a very loud trumpet and the shout of the archangel, Christ comes with the clouds and every eye sees Him. His people are caught up to meet Him in the air. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom or our God and of His Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever.
OTHER INTERPRETATIONS.
Remember there are other interpretations. Some very conscientious scholars put all these conflicts in the past or spread out over history. They could be right. There is a popular fantasy that God’s people will be whisked away into heaven before all the real business begins - cosy but unbiblical. There are those who spiritualise all the “characters” and treat the whole as symbolic of purely spiritual conflict, culminating in the triumph of the Gospel.
Before coming to any quick conclusion, it is worth remembering the immense amount of suffering, persecution and “man’s inhumanity to man” which have characterised history. They is plenty of room in the history books for most of the symbolism.
Present day history is not so close to finality as many make out. It will probably take two or three decades to finish The Great Commission. There is no present indication of a rising “Babylon” or “Wild Beast” or indeed any world ruler or internationally deified individual. Whatever our interpretation, the main thrust for us is JGOWTJ (Just Get On With The Job).
PART FOUR. Chapters 17 - 22.
“Babylon” and the Beast Chapters 17 - 18
Victory Chapter 19
The 1000 years and the Great White Throne. Chapter 20
Heaven Chapters 21 - 22
BABYLON AND THE BEAST.
“The great city that rules the kings of the earth” (17:18) at that time was Rome, which was built on seven hills (17:9). In 1 Peter 5:13 Babylon is used as a code word for Rome.
The reference to Rome is clear, but in a symbolic book could mean “that which Rome symbolises” rather than the city itself. It may be a coming regime or it may be a principle on which is based many regimes through history.
What is clear is that it is a civil power not a religious one (Protestant attempts to link it with the Roman Catholic church do not tally with scripture - except perhaps when that church was at its most corrupt in the middle ages).
Babylon is a capitalist power (Capitalism will not destroy itself as Karl Marx predicted - the devil has too great a vested interest in it to allow that). It uses sex to manipulate and control people. It trades in goods (especially luxury goods) slaves and human souls. It has massive wealth.
A Possible Meaning.
My personal private guess at what it means - no more than that - is a group of multinational companies, part of modern global capitalism, which could take control of both trade and the media; so dominating the world. Another possibility is some future Hollywood, dominating world culture.
The Beast.
Whereas capitalist powers are interested first in money, using sex and power to amass wealth, despotic regimes are interested in power and pride for their own sakes. So the “Beast” is seen as rising to power through the “Babylon” regime but then turning against it. Tyranny ultimately parts company from capitalism. Evil is self destructive.
Next comes a very obscure and complex identification of the Beast, Ch 17:8-13.
Some identify it with one of the Roman Emperors - out of seven but which one and which seven? Others have future interpretations. Some expect the Beast to have come back from the past (based on vs 8 and 11) or perhaps merely to claim to have come back from the past. Enigmatic rulers frequently leave behind a legend of their coming return - Nero, Hitler, King Arthur etc.
Whatever the detailed interpretation, the principle remains - corrupt society (Babylon) leads to the rule of a despot who later destroys the corrupt society which put him in place, then opposes Christ - and is defeated. Babylon falls and the Beast is destroyed.
Like other prophecies in Revelation we have the four alternatives or any combination of them - 1/ fulfilled then in ancient Rome - 2/ a principle governing the way history works - 3/ repeated fulfilment down the ages - 4/ a coming future fulfilment.
VICTORY. (The Return of the King.)
Chapter 19 tells of rejoicing in Heaven, the forthcoming marriage supper of the Lamb and Christ’s return - symbolically this time on a white horse - bringing about the final defeat of the Beast and the false prophet.
THE 1000 YEARS
Chapter 20 vs 1 - 6 is the only passage in scripture which speaks of Christ’s 1000 year reign on earth (although Isaiah 11, Romans 8:19-21 and other passages are frequently regarded as awaiting their fulfilment in this reign).
Beware of “single passage doctrines” - all great doctrines are confirmed repeatedly in scripture. Nevertheless I personally go along with the orthodox evangelical interpretation which is that before Christ’s final kingdom in Heaven, He will have the chance to reign on earth and demonstrate that this world can be made to work, when ruled His way. There are however other interpretations which could equally well be right.
If we take the passage as near literally as possible in a symbolic writing, this final era of earth will be with Satan bound, Christ enthroned and some of God’s people resurrected to share in His rule. There is massive scope for speculation here, but none for dogmatism.
Apparently at the end Satan will be released again and gather a short-lived following before the final defeat. Why? I have no idea. Other interpretations of the millennium may perhaps have some suggestions. (E.g. the millennium may be interpreted as a kind of golden age on earth ushered in by worldwide acceptance of the gospel and ended by a rebellion. By this theory Christ’s physical return is delayed to the end of it.)
Satan is finally cast into the lake fo fire - which apparently is not the same as the “Abyss” or bottomless pit, nor is it the same as Hades. It is final.
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE.
The final judgement of the dead, small and great is based on two books - one recording their deeds, another the names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Then comes the strange statement that “Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.”
Theologians tend to ignore the apparent implication that finality is only at the Great White Throne. Until then - - what? We are told absolutely nothing about what lies between death and resurrection before final judgment. There are hints but no more.
HEAVEN.
This is our destination, our home country, our eternal dwelling - so we ought to read the brochure. Chapters 21 & 22 contain a symbolic picture - not of all Heaven but part of it - its capital city.
I remember once being shown by a tourist guide the house which he told us belonged to the two richest men in the world. Its roof alone cost over a million pounds in modern values. Why? Because the tiles were made of - wait for it - IMITATION jade. Poor impoverished earth can not even afford real jade for its richest whereas Heaven has walls of real diamond, gates of pearl and streets of gold.
But more significantly it has:
Massive Dimensions. The city alone, though not the whole of Heaven, has room for the all-time population of the world - and when Revelation was written the population of the world was much smaller.
Open Gates. In spite of the city’s size, there is room outside it as well as inside. The gates are always open. Closed gates speak of defence. Gates which can open and shut speak of control. Ever open gates speak of freedom and welcome. Outside them - regions to explore perhaps, animal parks (not wildlife because animals will no longer be wild) mountains, stars - who knows?
Eternal Light. God and Christ are its light. Visions of Heaven seem to have one major characteristic - clear cool light, brilliant but bearable, light which can be felt all round one; light to bathe in.
The Glory of the Nations. The kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. Think of earth’s best pageantry - different from every nation - brought together to honour the King of Kings.
Nothing that Defiles. People who absolutely refuse to repent would defile it. So would we unless He cleans us right through. The truth about purgatory is here - not punishment or long years of waiting, just a once-and-for-all cleansing, finishing the job begun on earth. It will be salutary, but wonderful to be clean.
The Tree of Life. All that the human race missed by choosing the wrong tree, is here restored in full. God meant us to have it from the start. Salvation includes an occasional taste of it for believers now, but then for everyone in all its fulness.
Why does it have leaves for the healing of the nations after pain and sickness are finished?
Why does it bear a different fruit each month when months are no more?
His People. A vast multitude that no one can number, redeemed and made clean, are now corporately His Bride, and individually the servants who will serve Him and see His Face, who will reign as kings for timeless ages. He is their King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER.