Tag: Revelation commentary

Revelation 6

Revelation 6

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

In Revelation 6, the apostle John shows us the first six divine seal-judgments in rapid succession. He handles them in barely a few sentences each. While these first six judgments are terrible, the Lord seems to save his powder for the seventh and final act of vengeance—an event which runs from Revelation 8-18. Remember, Revelation 6-18 is not about the antichrist’s persecution—it’s about Jesus pouring out divine wrath upon the antichrist’s kingdom before he returns in Revelation 19.

It’s impossible to know how long these judgments last. But, (a) if we suppose Jesus essentially ends the great tribulation by way of these judgments upon the kingdom of evil, and (b) we take the sinister half the great tribulation to be ≈ 3.5 years (42 months), then (c) it’s likely these judgments occur at the very end of this 3.5-year period (for videos and articles about Daniel 9:24-27, see here). Perhaps they will take a few short months. The horror-stricken, “how could this even be happening?” reactions of unbelievers when Babylon falls, in Revelation 18, suggest a very short period of intense, violent, overwhelming divine judgment ending with the antichrist’s defeat.

Sinister horsemen are the agents of the first four judgments. Each rider is astride a horse of a different color, and so of course bible teachers speculate about what these colors mean. John doesn’t say. But, the rider’s actions seem to naturally correspond to the color of their horses, so little speculation is necessary. It’s certainly not worth an argument. The judgments the riders bring seem to be successive, like a series of disasters striking one after the other in short order.

Are the horses literal? Probably not. Interpreting symbolism is more of a feel than a rote equation to follow. These are ecstatic visions John has while “in the Spirit.” They convey true things under color of powerful and vivid imagery. We should take them as normally and straightforwardly as possible, while making allowance for the drama of the prophetic imagery. We should only resort to symbolism when it seems clear that pushing literalism would be absurd, and when evidence suggests that God is using dramatic license to push a point closely related to the imagery.

  • I’m not aware of anyone who believes the antichrist will truly have seven heads (Rev 13:1), or that in heaven Jesus literally morphs into a slaughtered lamb, complete with seven eyes and a human hand (Rev 5:6).
  • We know this is imagery, in the same way we know when we sing “Here I Am To Worship” that the Lord does not literally “step down into darkness,” and does not literally open our eyes to let us see. These are metaphors.
  • When the antichrist emerges from the sea at the dragon’s call, with seven flailing heads (Rev 13:1), we know this simply means he is frightening, otherworldly, and forbidding, and the same fourth monster from Daniel 7. That’s the point—there are not truly seven heads!
  • In the same way, there will not literally be four horsemen who sally forth from the heavens. But this imagery gives color and shape to each judgment in a clear, concrete, and memorable way. That is their function.

John sees Jesus, the lamb slain for the sins of his people, crack open the first seal. A seraph (“one of the four living creatures”) then spoke with a voice like the sound of thunder and commanded: “Come!” (Rev 6:1). The first rider (seal/judgment 1) enters the stage. Because this is a vision, and not strict reality, the horseman appears as if out of nowhere. The NASB 2020 translation reads: “I looked, and behold, a white horse …” (Rev 6:2). This is quite correct, but the effect is bland. “Behold” is an interjection, almost an exclamation.[1] The sense is that John looks and suddenly—“Whoa! Oh, my goodness!!”—the horseman clomps onto the stage without warning.

This rider has a white horse, a bow, and a crown, “and he went out conquering and to conquer” (Rev 6:2). This rider gives off clear authority (“crown”) and military victor (“bow … conquer”) vibes. The white color of his horse suggests “purity” and “holiness.” Many good bible teachers believe this is Jesus. But, this is probably wrong.

  • Jesus is in heaven, cracking open the scroll. Why would he teleport here into his own vision, playing two different parts? While prophecy can stretch reality into some elastic shapes, this may be too much.
  • Remember that Jesus directs these divine judgments which comprise Revelation 6-18 against the antichrist and his kingdom of darkness. They are not a chronicle of the antichrist’s reign of terror—they are Christ’s judgment against the antichrist. So, this first rider is bad news which Jesus unleashes against the unbelieving world.
  • The only way this first rider can be Jesus is if he is sallying forth to conquer his foes—sort of a shock and awe first strike against the antichrist. But, Jesus doesn’t return until in Revelation 19, which is directly after all judgments are complete.

So, who is this first rider?

  • It seems to me that the antichrist’s reign cannot be a happy one, even for his followers. Later in this book, the apostle John tells us that during the great tribulation the antichrist’s creature compels obedience upon threat of death (Rev 13:15-17).
  • So, it’s logical to believe that untold millions will “go with the flow” due to fear and intimidation and thus pay homage to the antichrist and his empire of evil.
  • Therefore, I take the rider on the white horse to represent a military dictator (likely the antichrist himself) who commands obedience by threats of torture and murder as his rule (“conquest”) reaches a fever pitch towards the end of the great tribulation.
  • In that event, by way of this first rider Jesus allows the antichrist to ramp up his  vindictive and oppressive reign. Our rider doesn’t possess the crown by right—it’s given to him. The object would be to tell the unbelievers who continue to flock to this supremely evil man: “You don’t want Jesus as your savior? Well, this is the alternative. Is this what you want?”
  • This scenario makes even more sense if we place the murder of Jesus’ two witnesses in Jerusalem (Rev 11:1-13) as the “all right, that’s it!!” moment which triggers Jesus’ divine wrath.

A seraph summons a second horseman (seal/judgment 2), who gallops off “to take peace from the earth, and that people would kill one another, and a large sword was given to him” (Rev 6:3-4). This rider is atop a red horse. Again, he does not own the sword—it’s given to him by a divine loan. The horse’s significance is clear; red equals war and bloodshed.

Who will make war and who will die? Those who assume Revelation 6-18 is the dark tale of the antichrist’s reign of evil assume this is his doing. But, as we’ve seen, this is divine judgment against the antichrist. If we don’t keep that framework in mind, we misread the situation. So, in this case, we should imagine the antichrist’s fascist dictatorship spiraling deeper into a more hardline stance, turning on its own people—imprisoning, torturing, murdering its citizens.

Christians often see themselves as playing the victims in the antichrist’s schemes. Here, that isn’t necessarily the case—Jesus would hardly bring purposeful destruction against his own people. Instead, we likely have most unbelievers caught in the middle—not interested in Jesus and his gospel, yet facing death and torture if they don’t go “all in” with the antichrist’s program. The kingdom of darkness doesn’t appreciate fence straddlers. So, as Jesus allows the antichrist’s program to ramp into overdrive, there is no place to hide—peace is taken away and people kill one another as the wicked noose tightens.

At this point, the third horseman (seal/judgment 3) enters from stage right. He rides a black horse, holding aloft a pair of scales. A voice booms from the midst of the seraphim, and this can only be God speaking (cp. Rev 4:2-3, 5-6). He says: “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine” (Rev 6:6).

What does this mean?

  • A “denarius” is the equivalent of a day’s wage,[2] while the “quart of wheat” and (alternatively, and less expensively) the “three quarts of barley” are food measurements that would last a typical family one day. These are not precise measurements, but rough approximations.
  • The command to not damage the oil and the wine is equivalent to “don’t waste these precious staples of your diet! Guard them carefully!”
  • Some believe it refers to a disconnect in society; the poor barely survive while the rich lounge about drinking wine with vats of olive oil secure in the basement. But Jesus is not bringing a class judgment upon the kingdom of evil—it’s a worldwide sentence against unbelief in general.
  • So, it seems best to interpret God’s admonition to the unbelieving world to mean: “be careful with the olive oil and wine you have on hand!”

The idea, then, is that our third horseman heralds a season of economic disaster and subsistence living. Consider the disasters of the “managed economy” of Soviet Russia in the 1930s, and communist China’s so-called “Great Leap Forward” in the late 1950s. Both resulted in famine, a collapsed economy, and the deaths of tens of millions of citizens. These are the consequences of the antichrist’s kingdom—repression and terror and a crashed financial system. Through it all, the Lord implicitly asks the world: “Why don’t you come to me, instead? My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” In contrast, our rider’s black horse signifies despair, bleakness, and the darkness of long cold, hungry nights.

The fourth horseman (seal/judgment 4) now gallops to the fore at the seraph’s command. He rides an “ashen” (NASB 2020), or “pale” (ESV), or “pale green” (NLT), or “sickly pale” (NEB, REB) horse. The color is uncertain; the word means something with a green-ish yellow tinge.[3] Context must decide the color. Because this rider bears the name “Death” and carries the realm of the dead (“Hades”) along with him, it seems best to see the horse being a sickly green—like that of a rotting corpse.

“Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth” (Rev 6:8). The focus is less about warfare and more widespread death; a world turned upside down. This will be a remarkably unsettled and unstable time; sort of a breakdown of order and civil norms (such as they are). Famine, plague, wild animals, and warfare (“the sword”)—each will take their pound of flesh. The focus is on the mass death that will result.

The fifth seal (judgment 5) is not really a judgment at all, but a plea from martyred believers for divine vengeance. They have “been killed because of the word of God,” and because they have been witnesses for Jesus and his gospel (Rev 6:9). It’s likely that they died during the great tribulation, which the Lord is now ending with these judgments from on high. “And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?’” (Rev 6:10).

This plea is why Jesus is unleashing this hellish wrath upon the empire of evil. Crime demands punishment and, by the time Jesus breaks open the first seal, the antichrist’s fascist war against God had reached its zenith: “And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Mt 24:22).

The martyrs want justice. Vengeance. Divine retribution. Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray, “‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10)? Well, where is this kingdom and the righteous justice that comes with it? The first five seal judgments have thrown the world into chaos and surely rocked the antichrist’s kingdom, and now the martyrs are (in effect) pleading: “Finish him!”

John provides the Lord’s answer—the antichrist will be put down … but not quite yet:

And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they were to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also (Rev 6:11).

This suggests that more Christians will die at the antichrist’s hand even as Jesus strikes him with these judgments, and others to come. Like a wounded beast, the antichrist will lash out and strike whoever is convenient at hand—especially Christians, the people who represent to one true God he hates most of all.

Jesus now opens the sixth seal, which foregoes the horses in favor of shocking, terrifying phenomena—earthquake, a blackened sun, a moon turning blood red, stars falling from the heavens in large numbers (Rev 6:12-13). This is a supernatural, “next-level” scale of sudden and violent destruction—one that has no possible natural explanation: “The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (Rev 6:14).

What will unbelievers do when this happens? What will they think? Will they choose Jesus, even in the face of torture and death at the hands of the evil empire? They will not; they would rather die. The rulers, the elites, the military commanders, the wealthy, the strong—every slave and free person will hide in caves and beg for death rather than submit to Jesus and his grace: “and they said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” (Rev 6:16-17).

Jesus told us that unbelievers, in effect, judge themselves by their reaction to the gospel. “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19).

The saddest thing in the world is that, even at the height of antichrist’s evil kingdom, even when he compels obedience upon threat of murder, even after the Lord’s two witnesses have preached so faithfully and passionately for 3.5 years (Rev 11:1-13), even after such a series of crushing hammer blows of divine wrath that surely must strike fear into every person’s breast … people would rather die than turn to Jesus for rescue. They can turn, if they want—much later in this cycle of divine judgment an angel explicitly makes a salvation offer to the unbelieving world (Rev 14:6-7).

They just don’t want it. More, and worse, judgments are coming.

[1] It’s possible this “behold” is simply a literary device John is using after the fact to cue his readers to something important. But I take it to be John relating his own startled surprise at something unexpected—the horseman truly just enters the vision from left field with no warning, upon the seraph’s command.

[2]  John D. Barry et al., eds., s.v. “Denarius,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016).

[3] BDAG, s.v., χλωρός; GE, s.v.

Revelation 6-18 isn’t about the antichrist’s persecution

Revelation 6-18 isn’t about the antichrist’s persecution

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

As John watches, Jesus (the lamb who was slain, Rev 5:6-10) cracks open the first seal binding the scroll together (Rev 6:1). There are 19 judgments contained within the seven seals, which expand outward like a telescoping hiking pole (see the outline):

  • Seals 1-6 stand alone = judgments 1-6.
  • Seal 7 consists of seven individual judgments, signified by trumpet blasts = judgments 7-12.
  • The seventh trumpet blasts of seal 7 consist of seven individual judgments, shown as bowls of wrath which angels pour out upon the world = judgments 13-19.

But, before we dive into visions of sinister horsemen, we must first clear something up = Revelation 6-18 is not about the antichrist persecuting the world. It is about Jesus pouring out divine wrath upon the antichrist and his kingdom. If you don’t get this straight, you will never understand the book of Revelation. Many Christians are confused here.

  • Revelation 6-18 is not about the antichrist’s reign of terror against believers—the “great tribulation.” Many Christians think it is about that. But they’re wrong (on Revelation 13, see the outline).
  • It is Jesus who opens the seals and unleashes wrath upon the earth; divine wrath against the antichrist’s kingdom. Every judgment that happens—the seals, the trumpets, the bowls—is from Jesus. There is nothing from the antichrist. It is astounding that so many Christians wrongly believe Revelation 6-18 is about the terrors of the great tribulation.
  • The great tribulation largely occurs off camera in John’s vision. Instead, evidence suggests that the vision of Revelation 4-5 (the run-up to Jesus’ wrath unleashed), and those of Revelation 6-18 depict the very tail-end of the antichrist’s reign of terror, when Jesus makes good on his statement that: “if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Mt 24:22). The divine judgment against the antichrist in Revelation 6-18 is Jesus cutting this awful time short.
  • Instead, Revelation 6-18 is about the time at the end of this seven-year “great tribulation” when Jesus pours out the seven seals of judgment upon the kingdom of darkness.

Given the futuristic chronology of the book, the scenario that makes best sense of the evidence is that:

  1. Antichrist rises to power and makes a covenant with the people of Israel that lasts for seven years (Dan 9:27); then,
  2. In the midst (or middle) of these seven years he lets the mask slip and launches a series of religious persecutions against believers, including the people of ethnic Israel (Dan 9:27; cp. 2 Thess 2; Rev 11, 13); and finally,
  3. At what is likely the nadir of believer’s fortunes during this great tribulation (perhaps when the two witnesses are slain and then raptured to the heavens—Rev 11), Jesus puts an end to this persecution by venting divine wrath onto antichrist and his Babylon kingdom (Rev 6-18).

We know that Revelation 6-18 is about divine wrath (not antichrist’s terror) because Revelation 4-5 shows us the solemn run-up to this day of the Lord, which culminates with the slain Lamb being the only one worthy to break the seals and open the scroll which heralds the better tomorrow (Rev 5:2).

  • Because Jesus has overcome for his people, as our vicarious and righteous substitute, he alone may open the scroll and its seven seals (Rev 5:5).
  • As if to solemnize this awful but necessary time of divine wrath against evil, the angelic creatures sing: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Rev 5:9). 
  • Before Jesus can receive power, honor, glory, blessing, “and dominion forever and ever,” he must first destroy his evil counterpart and his wicked kingdom. What follows in Revelation 6-18 are the seven-sealed judgments of wrath against the antichrist and Babylon.

The horsemen, the brimstone, the incineration of one-third of the earth’s vegetation, the waters turning to blood, the mutant, demonic locust-like creatures—all the “bad stuff” we associate with Revelation is divine wrath against antichrist and his followers. The antichrist is doing none of this! Instead, Jesus is doing it to the antichrist and to his people.[1]

This suggests this “time of testing—the one about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev 3:10) is against unbelievers—against the antichrist and his followers.[2]Jesus is testing whether they will repent and choose Jesus or cling to darkness. Some translations use the word “trial” here, but this not the best because Jesus is not evaluating the faith of unbelievers. He is testing whether unbelievers will truly continue to reject him.

These series of judgment end with the Lord destroying Babylon, and the antichrist’s people wailing because Jesus has smashed their world (Rev 18:9-19).

  • “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her” (Rev 18:20).
  • When Lord vanquishes the kingdom of evil, John tells us: “I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns’” (Rev 19:6).
  • At that point, Jesus returns to establish his kingdom on earth (Rev 19:11-21).

So, the “time of testing” (Rev 6-18) is not the antichrist’s persecution of believers—it is Jesus’ wrath upon the kingdom of darkness. Yet, many Christians continue to believe that Revelation 6-18 depicts the antichrist’s reign of terror. This is false. Instead, it depicts Babylon (and Satan) being pummeled and destroyed by a series of 19 successive hammer blow judgments from on high.

Once we get this straight in our minds, we are ready to consider the six judgments of the first six seals that Jesus looses upon the empire of evil. We turn to this in our next article.

[1] Buist Fanning briefly states that the ones who hide from Jesus’ wrath in Revelation 6:16-17 are believers who die because of the divine judgments, but this makes no sense in context. He does not try to substantiate the claim—he just makes it in one sentence (Revelation, in ZECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 177). The truth is that these people are likely unbelievers who follow the antichrist.

[2] “There the faithful are sealed with a view to their preservation from the assaults of demons, but are not thereby secured against physical death … It will be observed that the demonic trial spoken of, while worldwide, was to affect only ‘those that dwell upon the earth,’ i.e. the non-Christians” (R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, vol. 1, in ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1920), 89).

Revelation 5

Revelation 5

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

John now looks up from the worship of the elders and the seraphim and fixes his eye upon the figure on the throne, who is the Father himself. In the Father’s right hand, he spies a “scroll written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals” (Rev 5:1). This “scroll” may indeed be a rolled-up scroll (compare Lk 4:16-20), or it may be a book like we’re familiar with today. The book or codex format didn’t become widespread until the 3rd century, so this is probably a traditional scroll. You get the impression that John can tell the writing is on both sides, perhaps like how you can immediately tell that a sheaf of paper is printed double-sided.

This scroll is the trigger for everything that happens in the rest of the book of Revelation. What is this writing? What does it mean? It’s clearly a document of great importance: “And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?’” (Rev 5:2).

Whatever the scroll reads, only someone worthy can take the momentous step of opening it. Doing so will bring divine judgment upon the kingdom of darkness and those who follow it—this is why the powerful angel cries out his question in a loud voice. It’s a solemn event. The angel knows the answer. He doesn’t have to ask, but he does anyway—not for theater but to formally ask and receive the solemn answer.

And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it (Rev 5:3-4).

At this point, does John know what the scroll means? What does it represent? He weeps in frustration. How will Jesus’ kingdom come? How shall his will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, if judgment does not first cleanse his creation? If nobody worthy can be found, is the whole thing over, right here and right now? You get the impression of deliberate drama, a heightened tension—John is interpreting the vision after the fact as he writes it down, armed with reflective insight from the entire revelation of this book.

One of the 24 elders steps forward, perhaps with a hand on John’s shoulder: “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Rev 5:5).

  • The “lion of Judah” statement refers to Jacob’s blessing of his son Judah at Genesis 49:9-10. The connection to our passage is that Jacob prophesied that his son, Judah, was a “lion’s cub” who would be fearsome and mighty. The scepter of royal authority, Jacob declared, would never depart from this “lion’s” hands “until Shiloh comes” (Gen 49:10).[1] Shiloh was the sacred site where the ark was kept during the period of the judges (Josh 18:1), and Jacob seemed to be prophetically identifying the place with God himself—the city of Shiloh personified YHWH’s rule. So, one day, this “lion from Judah” would rule until Shiloh (that is, YHWH) arrives. Evidentially, this “lion from the tribe of Judah” reference was shorthand for this event—and it is he who has conquered all enemies and may open the scroll!
  • The “root of David” reference is about the great descendant who will come from Jesse, King David’s father. Isaiah refers to “the root of Jesse” (Isa 11:1) which is the same thing (under different color) as “root of David”—it is Jesus, descended from David and, of course, also from Jesse (David’s father). It is this “root of David” who will one day rule the world in righteousness (Isa 11:1-5).
  • Too many Christians today will not recognize these references, because too many Christians don’t read their Old Testaments.[2]

Together, these two allusions act as flashing neon lights which read: “Messiah! Messiah!” for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. So, the kind elder says, there is no need to cry—because Jesus has won. The word the angel uses, which the NASB translates as “overcome,” means Jesus is victorious, he’s conquered, he’s prevailed against all obstacles.[3] And so, as a result,[4] he is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. Astonished, John looks up sharply at the throne once more and sees something new beside the seraphim— “a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Rev 5:6). Jesus is both the lion who conquers and the lamb who allows himself to be taken and slaughtered.[5] The vision is bizarre, but it’s a vision communicating truth in a deliberately startling way. Just as the figure of “Uncle Sam” represents the United States in broad strokes, so too this curious mutant lamb represents the slain, powerful, and all-seeing Jesus—the eternal Son of God. The number “seven” suggests completeness; seven horns imply strength, and seven eyes convey omniscience; an “all-seeing” power.

  • Jesus is the “lamb” who has been slain to take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:14).
  • In this way, Jesus has vanquished Satan and all his schemes and frees everyone who comes to him for rescue.
  • And yet, we cannot forget that the lamb was slain and yet stands there alive, beside the throne. The resurrection is strongly implied. Christians have a live savior, not a dead one.

This lamb moves immediately after John notices him, as if he’d been waiting for his cue. He strolls over, still bearing the marks of his own slaughter, and “took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne” (Rev 5:7). It’s as if he says, “I’ll take care of this. I’m the only one who can!”

Again, this is not a flippant thing. This scroll is extraordinarily important. When the lamb grabs hold of it, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8). They bow down in worship, each cradling a bowl containing the prayers of saints or holy ones (i.e., God’s people). In fact, these bowls are the prayers themselves (cp. Ps 141:2), vessels ready to be offered to God upon a figurative altar.[6] John doesn’t tell us what God’s people are asking for in their prayers, but soon enough it will be clear they are begging for justice and relief from prosecution.

The elders and the seraphim cry out in worshipful song—a “new song” (Rev 5:9), because the time has divine judgment has come at last, bringing a paradigm shift with it:

Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9).

In the previous chapter, the elders and the seraphim fall down before the Father on his throne (Rev 4:8-11). Now, they fall down before the lamb.[7]God is triune, which means within the one Being who is God, there eternally exists three divine Persons—Father, Son, and Spirit. Each Person is co-equal and co-eternal, and each divine Person receives worship—the Father in Revelation 4, and the lamb (i.e., the Son) here.

The KJV and NKJV translations render this as if the 24 elders have been purchased by God (“thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us …”), but no modern English version (except the NKJV) agrees with this reading[8]—it is believers whom God has ransom and “bought.”

Why, exactly, is Jesus the only one worthy to break the seals and open this scroll?

  • Because he was slaughtered. He died. The phrasing is in the passive voice, which means Jesus let himself be slaughtered. He saw it coming and let it happen. He didn’t resist. Jesus told his disciples in his final hours of freedom: “[T]he ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in regard to Me, but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me” (Jn 14:30-31). Satan has nothing on Jesus—no accusation to make, no legal charge into which he can sink his claws. Nevertheless, Jesus (in his human nature as our vicarious representative) obeyed his Father’s will and let it happen. This is why he told Judas: “What you are doing, do it quickly” (Jn 13:27).
  • As a consequence of his death,[9] Jesus bought or purchased people from God from everywhere on earth. This is a ransom motif (cp. Mk 10:45)—his blood (i.e., his vicarious death) is the means of payment[10] which “buys” people from spiritual slavery and legally pardons them in God’s eyes. This is why the apostle Paul told the believers in Corinth: “For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20).

Because nobody else can accomplish this, nobody else is worthy to unleash divine judgment on a world which rejects such amazing grace. It’s as if, when Jesus cracks open the seals, he is also saying: “I did everything necessary, and yet you still reject YHWH’s authority, and his offer of forgiveness and love!”

The elders and the seraphim continue: “You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev 5:10). This is language from the old covenant ceremony at Mt Sinai (Ex 19:1-6), re-purposed and re-packaged for the new (and better) covenant. These people whom Jesus purchased for God (that is, all who “repent and believe in the Gospel,” Mk 1:15) are a kingdom and a collection of priests for him.[11] We are a kingdom and we are priests right now, and so we will one day reign on the earth. Elsewhere, scripture suggests this will happen during Christ’s 1,000-year millennial reign.

John perhaps startled, now sees the angelic chorus join the crowd around the throne: “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing” (Rev 5:11-12). Jesus has not only died and thus purchased people from spiritual slavery—he is worthy to receive the kingdom and the divine worship he deserves!

As if in response, every living thing on, above, or under the earth (and everything in the sea) raises its voice and sings praise to the lamb as one: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever” (Rev 5:13).

The seraphim declare “Amen” in true independent Baptist fashion, while the elders fall down in worship. The ceremony is over, and the time has come for the lamb to open the seals and bring down judgment upon the kingdom of evil on earth.

[1] Hebrew: עַ֚ד כִּֽי־יָבֹ֣א שִׁילֹה. There is much discussion about what this phrase means. For our purposes, I’ll just say that it seems to refer to a place where the ark was kept during the time of the judges and, for some reason, the Holy Spirit (through Jacob) chose to use this place in Jacob’s blessing of Judah to personify YHWH’s personal presence. We know this is true, because the subject of this clause is Shiloh, which performs the action of the verb “until he comes.” A city cannot “arrive” anywhere, so it’s best to see “Shiloh” as standing for YHWH’s arrival.

[2] On this sad state of affairs, see Brent Strawn, The Old Testament is Dying.

[3] See BDAG, s.v., sense 1; GE, s.v., sense 1: “to conquer, prevail in a battle or in a contest.”

[4] The anarthrous infinitive (ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ τὰς ἑπτὰ σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ) expresses the result of the previous statement (ἰδοὺ ἐνίκησεν ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰούδα, ἡ ῥίζα Δαυίδ).

[5] Swete, Revelation, 78.

[6] Grammatically, the true antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably the bowls, not the incense. φιάλας χρυσᾶς γεμούσας θυμιαμάτων, αἵ εἰσιν αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων. The pronoun is a feminine plural, and the bowls are the same. But, the incense is a neuter. True, the relative pronoun is a nominative and so does not match the accusative case of the bowls. But, we can attribute this to (a) the accusative case of the bowls is because is an object of the participle, and (b) the pronoun is nominative because it introduces a relative clause.

[7] Schreiner, Revelation, 251-52.

[8] The KJV translation was completed in 1611 using a comparatively very small group of printed Greek manuscripts, and its translators did not have access to the wealth of data and manuscript evidence we now possess. This is why it (and its child, the NKJV) sometimes has different readings that, while odd, don’t change the meaning of bible doctrine in any meaningful way.

Nevertheless, Walvoord doggedly understands the text this way (Revelation, 118-19); perhaps because he wishes to see the 24 elders as the church because this would support a dispensational, pre-tribulational rapture.

[9] The conjunction in our phrase (ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ θεῷ ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους) is likely a conclusion, not a simple additive. It would read something like this: “… because you were slaughtered, and so you purchased [people] for God by your blood from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation.”

[10] The preposition + dative here indicates means (ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ θεῷ ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους).

[11] John records the elders and seraphim using the aorist tense-form throughout this song, which basically means John sees Jesus’ achievements as an undefined event happening in the past. The aorist has a perfective aspect, which means it’s often expressing past events as a whole. Anyone who presses the aorist tense-form too much here is missing the boat. The kingdom reference (and the rest of the aorist verbs in this song) is simply a constative aorist: “you made them a kingdom and priests for our God.” In other words, believers are a kingdom and priests right now. It is a present reality, and it has been one since Jesus’ ascension.

Revelation 4

Revelation 4

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

After the revelation of Jesus’ messages to the churches (Rev 1:9 – 3:22), the apostle John sees something else. A door is open in heaven, like an invitation. A voice booms out at him—the voice of Jesus. It was he who ordered John to copy down the messages to the churches (“the first voice which I heard,” cp. Rev 1:10-13), and it’s him again who says: “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things” (Rev 4:1). Some bible teachers argue passionately that Revelation’s events here (Rev 4-19) focusses on Israel, because the church is in heaven, because the pre-tribulation rapture must have happened sometime between the end of Revelation 3 and the start of Revelation 4.[1] This is a weak argument from silence (see the article “Does Revelation 3:10 Teach a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?”), and instead we will simply take the text as we find it.

Immediately after receiving this open-door invite, John tells us he was “in the Spirit,” which likely means he felt as if he’d entered a different spiritual plane—this is an ecstatic vision given by the Spirit, not just shown to him but experienced, too. He sees, as if beyond the beckoning door, a strange figure seated on a throne in heaven. In words reminiscent of Ezekiel’s so long ago (Ezek 1:26-28), John tells of a man glittering as a jewel, surrounded by a rainbow that glinted and sparkled in deep emerald hues (Rev 4:3).

24 creatures sit on 24 thrones arrayed round about this mysterious man (Rev 4:4). John calls them “elders,” a word which could mean older men, or religious leaders (i.e., pastors). Here, it seems to refer to angelic creatures of some stripe[2] (we’ll come back to them soon). They’re clad in white robes and wear golden crowns.

As is his way, the apostle John borrows old covenant language to describe the scene. Just as when the people of Israel did when they came to Mt. Sinai (Ex 19:16), John sees “flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder” coming out from the throne (Rev 4:5).

Seven lamps of fire, which are God’s seven Spirits, flicker and burn before the throne (Rev 4:5). These seem to be the heavenly reality which the temple’s golden lampstand foreshadowed (Ex 25:37). Much ink has been spilt on these “seven spirits of God,” which are likely the Holy Spirit. John’s visions include letters to seven churches, seven Spirits before the throne of God above, seven seals on the judgment scroll which Jesus slowly cracks open throughout this book, seven trumpet blast judgments within the seventh seal judgment, and seven bowl judgments nestled within the seventh trumpet judgment. Elsewhere, Daniel tells us of that 70 “sevens” will elapse before the Lord’s program for this present evil age is complete (Dan 9:24-27). In short, “seven” is a number that inevitably calls to mind “fullness” or “completeness.” If the seven lamps are the Holy Spirit, then because we will shortly meet the Lamb who was slain standing between the elders and the throne (in ch. 5), then we have the Trinity in God’s throne room.

Also, in this scene there are images so fantastic that John scarcely knows what to make of them. We get the strong impression that he tries his best to describe the indescribable. Imagine an average American in 1850 trying to describe to his family a vision of a mobile phone with the Amazon app! He wouldn’t have the words or concepts to imagine such a thing—the conceptual distance is far too great. Perhaps the best he could do would be to liken it to a portable telegraph without wires—but even that would be inaccurate. John seems to be doing something like that.

There is a glassy sea, like crystal, surrounding the shimmering, rainbow-emerald throne. Around the throne are four bizarre creatures bursting with eyes all around, sporting faces of (in turn) a lion, a calf, a man, and that of an eagle. They each have six wings (Rev 4:6-8).

  • These are remarkably similar to what Ezekiel saw when he beheld an image of God’s throne room (Ezek 1:4-21). The figures he described are not identical to John’s, but they are close. They’re so close that surely they saw the same thing.
  • It’s not worth our time to object that Ezekiel’s creatures had four wings and different faces. Both John and Ezekiel are describing the indescribable in the best language they knew. To return to our 19th century analogy: it doesn’t matter if one time-traveler from 1835 Kentucky describes a portable telegraph, while another tells of a glowing black brick with a burning silhouette of an apple on the back—they’re clearly seeing the same thing!
  • Isaiah saw and recorded almost exactly what John did and called these creatures “seraphim” (Isa 6:1-3).

The point is not what the seraphim are—they’re otherworldly creatures, accept it and move on! The point is what they and the 24 elders do and why they do it.

  • First, the four seraphim: “[A]nd day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come’ (Rev 4:8). This is precisely what Isaiah heard (and saw) during his own ecstatic temple vision (Isa 6:1-3). The seraphim praise God’s eternity—he always was, always is, and always will be. He has no beginning and no end.
  • Second, the 24 elders: As the seraphim sing their praise, the elders bow down to the figure on the throne, cast off their golden crowns, and declare: “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev 4:11).

This is very dramatic, and it’s meant to be that way. If this were a movie, there would be haunting music, ratcheting tension, and expectation of some “big moment.” Jesus, the lamb slain to rescue his people and to reclaim a ruined world, is about to unleash judgment upon the kingdom of darkness. This vision of praise and solemn majesty is the backdrop for this unfortunate but necessary event.

  • YHWH is eternal—this means he has the jurisdiction and authority to move against a terrorist insurgency.
  • YHWH is the creator of everything—this means he has the power and justification to put down Satan’s rebellion.

Our dramatic scene continues in the next chapter with a ceremony of sorts that ends with Jesus taking the scroll of judgment. It is this document which, when slowly cracked open, unleashes divine fury upon the antichrist and his kingdom of evil (Rev 6-18).

[1] John Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), 101-103.

[2] Walvoord suggests they represent the Body of Christ (Revelation, 106-107), but this is largely driven by his assumption that the church has been raptured away to heaven—an argument from silence.