Article 4

UNDERSTANDING REVELATION – 4

Revelation’s Divine Design

We continue from the previous article.  The contents of this article will clearly show that the book of Revelation consists of two sections – chapters 1-14 portray God’s activities, His footprints, during the entire Christian era; chapters 15-22 with God’s judgments resulting in the elimination of sin, rebellion, and death into a glorious eternal victory.  Already we have seen in the obvious parallels between the prologue and the epilogue that the contents of the entire book are for the Christian Church, testified by Jesus Himself (22:16).  We continue.

The next correspondences we discover as we compare Rev. 2-3 with Rev. 21-22.  Each of the seven letters in Rev. 2-3 contain specific promises to the Church Militant.  These promises find their ultimate fulfillment in the New Jerusalem of a restored New Earth described in chapters 21-22.  Let’s look!  The “tree of life” promised to the Ephesus church (2:7) we find planted on either side of the “river of life” in 22:2.  The promise of escaping “the second death” (2:11) to the Smyrna church is finally realized in 20:6, 14 and 21:4, 8.  The promise of  “a new name” to the church in Pergamos (2:17) will finally be found received in (22:4).  The corrupt church in Thyatira gets double promises (2:26-28) of “power over the nations” and “the Morning Star” – the first brings to mind Psalm 2:8-9, also Rev. 19:15; 21:24, 26; the second, the “Morning Star” of Christ Himself in 22:16.  The “white garments” and “Book of Life” promised to Sardis find their complements in Rev. 19:8 and 21:27, now the “Lambs Book of Life”!  The multiple promises (the promises are becoming more numerous and intense) to Philadelphia (3:12) become reality in 22:3-5.  The promise to Laodicea, perhaps the most faulty of them all, is perhaps the grandest (3:21).  The fulfillment again seen in 22:3-5.  Here is the “theology” – the Church Militant functions during the Christian Era (Rev. 1-14) and becomes ultimately the Church Triumphant eternally through Christ at the end (described in Rev. 15-22).  Please read and ponder Ephesians 3:1-11, especially v. 10.  As mentioned at the beginning of this article we see the noticeable progression of time between the two main divisions of Revelation.

There is a third major parallel in the book.  We find it in comparing the throne visions of Rev. 4-6 with Rev. 19-21.  Both sections reveal an open heaven where twenty-four elders and four living creatures praise and worship God seated on His throne (Rev. 4:all; 5:13-14 and 19:1, 4).  Both counterparts picture a Rider on a white horse 6:2; 19:11), the first explaining the beginning of the gospel mission; the second describing its completion!  The time dimension is again impressively portrayed by means of the souls of the martyrs in Rev. 6 and Rev. 19-20.  During the fifth seal (6:10) the martyrs cry out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”  Significantly, they are told to “rest a little while longer” (v. 11) until their numbers are completed—this indicates passage of time.  In Rev. 19:1-2 John hears a loud victory chorus: “Alleluia! . . . true and righteous are His (God’s) judgments, because He has judged the great harlot . . . and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”  Again, this is solid evidence of the continuous progression of salvation history between Rev. 4-6 and 19-20.  The justice requested in Rev. 6 becomes justice granted in Rev. 19.

There is a fourth parallel.  We detect it by comparing the remarkable sequences of the seven trumpets of Rev. 8-9 with those of the seven bowls (or last plagues) of Rev. 16.  Note the identical symbols used in the chart below:

            The Seven Trumpets                              The Seven Bowls                                   ___

1^st       Earth (8:7)                                                   Earth (16:2)

2^nd      Sea turns to blood (8:8-9)                     Sea turns to blood (16:3)

3^rd       Rivers and fountains (8:10-11)             Rivers and fountains (16:4)

4^th       Sun, moon, and stars (8:12)                 Sun (16:8-9)

5^th       Darkness – bottomless pit (9:1-2)      Darkness on throne of the beast (16:10)

6^th       River Euphrates (9:14)                            River Euphrates (16:12)

7^th       Loud voices in heaven,                           A loud voice from temple: It is done

            Christ reigns forever (11:15)                 (16:17)

Significantly, the plagues of chapter 16 are more intensive and extensive than those of 8-9 which affect only “a third” of the world.  Rev. 15:1, 7-8; 16:17 reveal that the bowl plagues of chapter 16 represent God’s final judgments on the last generation of a rebellious world.  The partial judgments of the trumpets are placed in the first or historical division while mercy still pleads; those of the bowls are restricted to the Last-Judgment division of judgments without mercy at the end of the world.  This, again, confirms the remarkable literary composition of the Apocalypse.

This leaves us pondering the central chapters of Revelation – 12, 13, and 14.  Rev. 12, in broad strokes gives us a sketch of the Christian Era.  Christ is born and ascends (12:1-5); the dragon then persecutes the woman (12:6, 14-16); and ends with the dragon making war on the remnant church at the end-time.  Then Rev. 13 reveals how the dragon makes war on the remnant developing the theme of the Antichrist and his false prophet threatening death.  Read the chapter carefully.  Finally, Rev. 14 discloses God’s ultimatum to a world united in rebellion against Him (14:6-12).  This final call for the restoration of true worship creates a faithful people of God before the final judgment arrives.  Thus, the theme of the church as the community of salvation in the last days not only stands at the beginning and end but also constitutes the core of this magnificent book!  (Much time will be spent on these three chapters in future articles of this blog.)

The “chiasm” (an inverted V) below shows the divine structure of Revelation.

A.  Prologue (1:1-8)

B. Promises to the overcomers (1:9-3:22)

     C. God’s work for humanities salvation (4:1-8:1)

           D. Trumpet calls to repentance (8:2-11:17)

                 E. Revelation’s last focus – “Who will you worship” (11:18-14:20)

           D’. God’s wrath unmixed with mercy (15:1-16:17)

      C’. God’s work for humanities salvation completed (17:1-20:15)

B’. Promises fulfilled to the overcomers (21:1-22:5)

A’. Epilogue (22:6-22:21)

The historic sections A. through D. move us down to humanity’s final decisions and destinies in central section E; the end-time sections D’. through A’. describe the final judgment activities of God to usher in His ultimate purpose of Paradise restored where the redeemed will worship before “the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  The end-time dimensions of all the other books of the Bible find their consummation in The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

~Rex Frost